The goal in the semi final is to finish in the top 3 and what ever chips you get you take to the final. The winner of the heat also gets a bonus of some cash for winning the heat.
I stared off real slow and was careful not to make any mistakes and get through to the final. I managed to pick up a decent hand against El Blondie had 10-6 suited against his JJ flop was two Diamonds which gave me a flush draw with a K, Dave decided to slow play and just raised a little with his JJ before the flop. Flop was checked all around, turn came the J to give El Blondie 3 Jacks and me still the flush draw. I cam out and bet 15k into a 50k pot El Blonie callsthird player folds. The river comes good for me as I hit my flush, Icheck He bets I raise he calls and I am up to 180k in chips. This wasthe only hand of note for me as nothing much happened and I made thefinal with 161k which I was happy with. Once it was 3 handed they kindof let me win it and pick up the bonus money the final hand saw me wina huge pot with Q high, I actually check raised with it on the flopall inn and amazingly got a call with J hi. My Q held up for the win.
Shorty afterwards the final started and I had my yet again slow start.Soon I was down to under 100k and picked up 2-2 which I called with onthe button after the chip leader limped I was pretty sure that hewould call if I raised. SO there is chip leader me and the big blindin this pot, flop 2-5-Q all spades, I have my set but the board is notcool. Big blind checks chip leader bets I go all inn, the big blindcall with 5-Q for top two pair. Look cool as the chip leader folds aQ so I have 3 outs against me. Not my day as the river is a nasty 5giving him a higher full then me. Next tourney is the EPT London thisFriday.

I am in London for this event and the EPT on Friday. Many big names are here for the event like Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Tony Bloom, El Blodnie and many others.

The structure is great and amazing enough we get many more hands then in other events. There are two dealers at the table one gets the cards ready for the next deal, you get 15 seconds to act once its your turn.

In my heat the big name was Tony Bloom (UK) and the runner up to me in the European Poker Championships last month Sverre Sundbø (Norway). Early on Sverre took charge he can play, I would say that he will be a very good poker player. I had a really slow start and all trouble hands to get out of, I went down to about 80k started with 100, this is level 3 3000-6000 and I pick up AJ suited and raise Tony Bloom wakes up on the big blind and re-raises me another 17k I raised 12k. I think about it and call a time out( 2 time outs are allowed and this gives you another 30 seconds, I was the only player to use both time outs in this heat) So I think and make an unusual lay down, Tony Bloom shows me KK. So now I am down to 68k and in deep waters.

Nothing much happens I pick up a hand here and there and manage to steal a few pots in the mean time Sverre is up to about 250k absolutely dominating and playing great poker. John Duthie who runs the EPT is the first out on a bad river. Next goes the big danger to me Tony Bloom. Now 4 handed I am much more comfortable and I start to get on top of the table, as Sverre just eased up a little on his hyper aggressive game. So without any big pot I get up to around 120k and now I am in the game. Next to go is the other Norwegian who I knock out on I held A-8 vs A-10 got lucky the hand before I had the dominating hand and he got lucky and won it. But when my A-8 gave him a beat I was on 250k and in firm control. Sverre was next to go as I managed to beat his 9-9 with A-5 as the river wild produced an A.

So now I get it heads up vs a Taiwanese player who lives in the great USA. HE has 80k I have 520k he has been playing poker for 2 months. So we start the heads up and I pick up AQ vs his A5 but the 5 hits ont he turn and he doubles up next hand again I double him up AK vs 10-9 and now we are even on chips. Break comes and we go outside, he says he was playing an on-line satellite for this event and was trying to get 3rd place so that he would not have to come here, since he felt he had no hope 3rd place was paying 3.5k cash. So now I know I am in trouble, we go back and I start playing pretty decent mainly bluffing but I wore him down without a hand to 80k again and this time I pick up A-4 Spades vs his K-4 diamonds 3 spades ont he flop and I am inn to the next round.
Don not forget to register for the big TitanPoker freerol where I will play on October 1st, my nick there will be: RealTonyG with a massive bounty on my head. Just follow this link http://www.pokernews.com/freeroll-tournaments/ to register you will need to deposit $20 to play in it, no buy inn a max of 200 players will play and $5000 is up for grabs

WIth 35 left I am above average in chips, first place is $859,000 my nick at Stars is: wraptduck

live coverage on radio and : http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=1888.480

European poker is booming. I turned up at 3.30pm huge cuejust to get in to Casino De Barcelona. They were hoping for about 200 runners to the 4,000 Euro buy in first event of the 2nd season EPTevent. Well about 500 turned up to play, since the casino can onlyseat 280 tickets were bid up to 7,000 Euro to play, later as players panicked that they will miss out several seats traded at 8,000 Euro. The future of poker in Europe is huge Emus can make money by just buying a seat early and selling it. You have to take you hat off to Pokerstars they own the EPT (European Poker Tour) they are getting players to fly inn from USA and pay 7,000-8ooo Euros ($10,000USD) to play in this event. Lonond EPT this month is already nearly sold out, with several online sites running satellites.

I had a great start and built up to 18,000 in chips from my 10,000chip start with out even picking up a hand. Then I did got my aces A-Avs 4-4 was bad news as the 4 hit and I was a crippled poker player,ralied back to have a decent chip stack and went in with 6-6 vs A-5 ona flop of Q-2-3 the Ace popped out again and I was done. Playedreally well but poker is more then that you need to win some key handsto progress.
I am of to London monday and will play in the World Speed Open on TVthen the EPT. In the mean time I will play in the huge free rolls onNoble Poker & Titan Poker hope to see you sit next to me check out thedetails: http://www.pokernews.com/freeroll-tournaments/