What can I say? I played some of the best poker of my life and felt I was the strongest player at my table, but today that wasn't enough. 

I arrived feeling very well mentally. I had a quick workout before the tournament that left me all pumped up, and I have been doing very well at cash games the last two week. The people at my table better watch out!

It was indeed a very soft table with a lot of limp calling and I won a few pots uncontested. My chip stack increased from 10k to 14k without showing a hand. My favorite one was the following:

Blinds: 50-100

I make it 300 to go on the cut off with 97o. Both blinds call.

 Flop (900): QQ2 rainbow

Both check, and I check as well knowing a check-raise is likely here, and I will take it on the turn if they have nothing anyway.

Turn (900): 4

Both check, I bet 600, sb raises to 1600.

It really felt like a move. With a stack of 8k more for him, and 12k more for me, I felt like putting him to the test, so I made it 3600 total.

A great player might suspect a move (The "Yeti Theorem" is that the 3rd raise is never the Q here) still this line looks rather scary. He will have to commit all of his chips if he calls, and for me it costs an extra 3k to win 3,100 ! So the bluff doesn't even have to work very often to be profitable.

He folded and my image was really good after that: let's not mess with the crazy aggressive french guy! lol.  There is method to madness though.

Alas the poker gods played a trick on me when this hand came up:

Blinds: 75/150

A very tight player open limped in mid position wih was unusual for him, I called with 77 hoping he was really strong and I could outflop him, and both blinds joined the party.

The flop (600): 9h9c7h

Both blinds checked and the tight player lead for 400. Knowing I would stack a 9 anyway I just called, hoping for a check raise from one of the blinds, or any action in general.

My wish was granted when the big blind (Fabrice Soulier, started with 8k) raised to 1200. The tight player folded and I called.

Turn (3400): 8h

Fabrice checks, I bet 2500, he calls

I'm now hoping the heart didn't kill my action, but since he calls his most likely hands are a good 9 or a flush. Fabrice checks calls with a wide range in general.

River (8400): 3h

Four hearts on the board, and Fabrice leads out for 2700 leaving him with 1700. I push, he calls and shows 99 for a higher full house.

Sick. Maybe I can just call the river, the thing is it makes no sense for him to not push the river, he's gotta know I am strong and he only has half a pot left so I'm calling no matter what. The small bet looked like he liked his hand but also would like to keep a little bit in case I have better than him.

Anyway back to 4.5k and blinds rising to 100-200 I had one ray of sunshine when 6 (!) people limped on my big blind. I looked at the irrelevant 95o and made it 1300 to go, knowing the first few limpers were not the traping kind and with average to mediocre hands would fear my likely move all in on the flop.

It almost worked... only the huge calling station in the small blind called. But the flop came 953 and he bet 2k into the 3k pot. I moved in for 1k more and he looked like he was folding. I know he just had overcards so I told the dealer to pull the bets in (so he could clearly see how much more it was to him), and give me that precious extra 1k. He then realized how much more it was so he called with... JTo. LOL Donkaments!

Alas my good fortune was to stop soon against a new small blind.

UTG limped (new player seems good. Maybe AK or AA, maybe not), MP limped, the SB completed and I checked my big blind with Td9d.

Flop (1800): Tc8dKd

Jackpot for me, I'm actually a coin flip against KJ or AA type of hands, and way ahead of a naked draw. A perfect hand for semi bluffing.

Small Blind lead for 2k, so I quickly shoved all my 10k in the pot, both other players folded and SB called with KTo... My monster hand was dominated and his top two pair held.

So all in all, good plays, 2 setups, beach time!

See you all in London.