It's weird. A few hours before the tournament started It still didn't feel like I was about to enter the most expensive tournament of my career. Normally I get that eerie feeling that something is about to happen, the calm before the storm. But there, nothing,

Realisation came when I heard that Patrick Antonius, Brandon Schaefer, and Lars Bonding would all be sitting at my table! I'd like to think I can hold my own against anyone, but if I prefer to have a table full of random fishes specially when the first prize is 1 Million Pounds!

The game started without Antonius and for a while everything went fine, I found some spots at the table and later won my first big pot calling in position a raise from Brandon Scheafer. Holding:

There was four-way action and the flop came:

Flop (1200)

Brandon bet to 800, a player folded and I decided that top pair, a flush draw, and a gutshot was good enough to build a big pot and made it 2,500 to go, the last caller folded and after a bit of thought, Brandon called. My thoughts at this point was probably a medium ace, or a flush draw, even though I was holding to clubs already so it's mathematically less likely.

Either way the turn disappointed me by being a total blank

Turn (6,700)

He quickly checks to me, so now its decision time, if I bet now I have a big chance to make him fold, but also I might still be ahead or I might win a much bigger pot if I check and hit. The pot is rather large so if I end up making him fold everything but a good ace or better I set myself up to lose a large portion of my chip stack.

I decide to keep to a small ball plan which has worked a lot for me in big slow structure tournaments, and check behind.

River (3,700) Blank

He checks again. A strong player checking twice, he either has given up the pot with a missed draw, or is planning to check call with a good ace hoping I am the one with a missed draw. Either way he is not calling often unless he has me beat, so I check behind. He shows me Qc8c for a missed draw. I make a mental note of how loose he is playing today and rake the pot.

Things got even better for me and worst for Brandon when I picked up AA and he was dealt KK! Skill game right? We went all in on a J99 flop and my hand held, eliminating the American pro and leaving me with 36,000 chips, a nice increase from the original 20,000.

As expected though with a lot of strong players at the table and as Antonius finally arrived and sat two to my left, a lot of hands were tough to play. People always looked for weakness and tried to take small to medium pots away from each other, and I was basically not hitting any flop for a while. I had a nice moment though

Blinds 100-200
Hand:

Lars Bonding, with now a slightly above average stack, raised into 4 players. He was opening a lot lately and made it 700. On his left a calling station... called (!) and I called. The SB folded and Antonius (with 16k) made a large suspicious raise to 3000 from the big blind. As Lars and the other player folded to me, I thought my hand was way ahead of this range, I first thought of shoving, but then decided I was happy to see a flop and let him put more money in the post first so I called.

Flop was

Antonius bet out 4,000. I took a few seconds to rewind the hand an make sure I was about to go all in with ace high, and I pushed my chips in. He folded immediately saying I had AK.

Lars Bonding did a couple of exceptional plays including when he called TWO bets (turn and river) with just Ace high. On a board showing 886QX his AT was enough to win against bluffer's JT. Hat off to you Lars! Unluckily for him he was not hitting anything and ended up busting with top pair Q and a gutshot against an opponent with KK, all in on the turn.

So the last person I had to worry about was Patrick Antonius, and let me tell you his reputation is 100% justified, he was a real poison never giving up his blinds and reading people very well. After the hand earlier, he doubled up and became a force to reckon with again, literally stopping me from stealing in late positions.

One example of him putting pressure on me was this hand:

Blinds 200/400-50

With a stack of 25k I raised to 1300 with AK UTG+1 and Antonius that then covered me called. All folded

Flop (3600) QQ6 rainbow
I bet 2300, he called

Turn (6000) Blank
I checked, he bet 4k, and I folded.

This hand might seem reasonable when you read it but I kick myself for playing it so bad. On the flop I have to decide If I want to avoid playing him in position with nothing, in which case I check fold quietly, or if I want to make a stand because he is not giving up any pots and just playing too aggressive, in which case the best move here is to bet the flop, and check raise all in on the turn. He simply does not bet out a medium hand on the turn, and statistically almost never has the queen. I don't think he can have a big pair either. By just betting the flop and not continuing I just gave him 2.3k. That's bad!

Eventually I came up with an "Anti-Antonius" plan which was probably at best "doubtful". It wasn't on tilt or anything like that I was just looking for a way to adapt to his constant "stickiness". I decided to raise my next button with any two if it got folded to me, expecting him to 3bet, and to raise over the top to about a third of my stack (and appear committed). I did just that with 94s but alas he moved all in... Guess he was one step ahead there too.

My stack got to a dangerous 14k but fortunately after that I had nothing to lose and finally put the gear up. Some guy check-minraised me on a flop where I had just a gutshot, and I called. Turn was a blank and he checked. I sensed great witness and bet 1.3rd of the pot, which was a lot of chips to both of us. After a long agony he folded. Phew.

One bluff later I was back to 29k and bagged my chips for day 2. A great result considering I was never really comfortable at the table and card dead except for my aces. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Tomorrow I play with the likes of sensation brit Roland de Wolfe, and internet stars Adam Junglen and Shaun Deeb, the last two with big stacks and on my left. I can't wait to tangle with them.

Strangely enough I feel much more confident now, I've been through purgatory on day 1 and I survived, time for heaven I hope!