I am out not my day today, nothing much happened that was bad one key hand was my A-Q for me vs K-7 for Erik123
I lost that one and was crippled to a very low stack which I put in a raise with on the button I held K-Q suited vs Q-Q
no luck for me as I had a flush draw on the turn. I had so much fun here so much energy I loved this place and wish I can do better next time. Next is a very short trip to Russia to play a big cash game and then I am off to Las Vegas.
One highlight in Monte Carlo was on my second night here when I go invited to a private yacht to play a cash game. That was fun and I take a lot of great things out of this trip. Played some great poker with the very best poker players in he world.

Day 2 is over and I had one of my best poker days of my life. It is agreat feeling to play decent and most important get lucky at the mostimportant part of the tournament.
The key hand was when I picked up 9-7 of diamonds in a very big 3 waypot. This is a hand just before I knocked out Mike (The Mouth), so Iam running good and pick up this 9-7 suited and raise a little I getreraised by Jani last years winner of this event and one guy fromSweeded call the big raise, now I have to call another 25k since thereis 75k already in there. I call the flop comes 2-6-7 with one diamondI know I am no good but I feel that I have outs here and can make aplay at this so Jani the raiser pre flop checks and the Sweedish guywho is a very good player bets 50k into a 100k pot he holds K-K I veryquickly push it all inn. Jani drops his A-Q and now the Sweedish guyoriginally from Turkey starts to consider what to do? He is a verygood player and makes the correct play & calls. There is 500k in thepot now and this is huge, a blank hits on the turn and then the magic9 on the river. I did scream and talk a lot I just lose control atsome points. I just love this game so much and when I win I do losecontrol.
After this key hand that i had to get through I was cruising I did geta very good player to lay down AA on a flop of 2-8-J I did have J-Jhe made a great lay down. With 12 left I have a small chip lead overPhil Ivey and we have the same table on day 3. I hope to enjoy myselfduring day 3 and play some good poker, luck will be a crucial part onthis day and I will make sure that I take a shot at my luck.

Official Seating & Chip Counts before the start of day 3
Table 1

1 Haralabos Voulgaris
195,000

2 Chris Ferguson 186,000

3 Richard Herbert 408,000

4 Tony G 1,066,000

5 Erik Sagstrom 399,000

6 Phil Ivey 1,062,000

Table 2

1 Kenna James 318,000

2 Paul Jackson 270,000

3 Bengt Sonnert 320,000

4 Sargon Ruya 274,000

5 Jean-Jacques Ghebali 466,000

6 Marc Goodwin 631,000

I arrived in Monaco one day before the main event to and took ahelicopter from Nice to get to Monte Carlo. This is a wonderful placewith great views and and beautiful landscape.
We had a welcoming party and the draw for the seats and the big namesare in town to get a piece of the $3 million guaranteed prize money.Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Jeses Ferguson and many other huge names arehere. It look like th toughest field I have ever seen.
Day one started and I picked up a table that was much easier then mostand was able to cruise along for most of the day by picking up smallpots on a consistent basis. One interesting pot came up just before mytable broke, I picked up 6-7 harts on the big blind and it was raisedto 1200 we were playing 200-400 So it was a must call in mysituation. Flop came down A-5-4 with 5-4 of harts giving me a straightflush draw, this looked very exciting and I could push this hand rightthere and take it 95% of the time, but on the flop I just called theturn brought another hart and I bet 5,000 he raised me another 10k andI had this feeling that he has the bare K of harts, So now I don’t havethat much value to re-raise since I am blocking his out with my up anddown straight flush draw. So I just call his raise we have another 30k+behind to play with on the river, the river come a blank and I checkit like here you go just bet and take it. He goes all inn and I veryquickly call he does show me the bare K of Harts. I get to go over 100kin chips we started on 50k.
The table brakes and I get moved to Phil Ivey’s and Mike the Mouth’stable so we very quickly get the TV table. Phil just dominated heknocked me out of this event last year and he very quickly doubled medown again this year. He is just so good, the best player in the worldin my book. But I take a few nice pots of the Mouth and survive theday on 102,400 this is above average and I am looking forward to day2.

I flew into Japan, and I spent the whole week there, and played in three tournaments, which were the most successful tournaments they ever had. Having said that, they only had a capacity of 50 players for each….only five tables. The poker room was only a total of 65 square meters big!

Space in Japan is extremely expensive, and very difficult to get. Every centimeter in Japan is calculated, and reserved for various things….they don’t waste anything. And, since they cannot rake poker games….games can only be for fun. Obviously, poker is a struggle to be an offline game at the moment in Japan. But, people really do love poker, there, and I think there is a big future for poker there. The three PokerNews Japan tournaments I played in were really enjoyable, and I look forward to going back.