I am through to the final tomorrow in a fairly uneventful day of poker. Tony Bloom, who is a super European player was the early chip leader, and I took a bit of chips from him on a bluff, and he didn’t seem the same from then on. I was chirping, but nothing too bad, and got him to lay down the better hand. Tony eventually called an all in with K7, and Liam Flood had A5. Tony got his King on the flop, but an Ace came on the turn, and Tony was out. This left myself, and Liam with about 500,000 of the 600,000 chips in play. One American Internet qualifier is left with us also.

I was struggling early at about 70,000, and I was able to pick up a few hands and after I took a pot off of Tony I was the chip leader, and never looked back. I took a pot when I went all in after the young American made a move from the button. He laid it down, and then I was up to something like 240,000.

At one point after picking up Aces in the big blind I had almost 500,000 of the 600,000 chips in play, but then lost three pots where I was ahead in the hand, and came back down to earth. Liam is the chip leader with 269,000, I have 264,000, and the American has the rest, 60,000 or so.

They play the other semifinal heat tomorrow morning, and then we play the finals tomorrow night. First prize is $ 400,000, and this has been a nice warm up for Bellagio. I will try to write again tomorrow, but if not I will be in Las Vegas late Sunday.

I played my heat today and was in great form and won it. I had so much fun today and things went very well all day. The whole show lasted 4 hours and was filmed I think it will be available soon in the US as well and it will be shown on 16th of April in Europe.

Ben Roberts was in my heat today, and I took care of him. (In fact, I knocked out every player in our heat today.) These tables were six handed, like the WPT. My next match is the semi- finals on Saturday, followed by the final Sunday. The key hand of the day was one between myself and Ben Roberts. I limped in on the button with 77. Ben picks up AQ and raises. I go all in, and he calls. I had 2-1 chip lead on him before this hand. Ben got no help, and he was out. I respect Ben’s game a lot and was glad to see him go early on. It was pretty much a cruise from then on. On the last hand heads up I get raised by K-10 and look down, and find K-Q. I go all in, and he calls for all his chips. I guess I need to get used to those kinds of calls. The way I play everyone has got to call me. The river was a 10, but also made me a straight, and it was all over.