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Last night I was in the big smoke at a business meeting and as it finished around 9.30 I gave Mr Murphy a call to buy me into the €20+€5 re-buy and top me up if I was late. As it happened I manage to get to the Fitzwilliam at 9.58pm in time for the last two hands of the re-buy period.

First hand I was UTG and had muck so folded while two players took each other on with AJ & A6, the best hand held up and the all in player had to re-buy. Next hand I am on the big blind (50/100) and look down at AJ, 6 limpers - ALL IN I announce. Foldy, foldy, foldy, and I have 1600, add the top-up and I have 4100 at the break going into 10 more minutes of 50/100 before doubling to 100/200. It amused me greatly that the aforementioned Mr Murphy had used all his re-buys and yet had slightly less chips than me! I am sure it was a bad beat but he did not last long after the break.

I, however benefitted from I kind 'non-believer' chap who called me pre-flop and on every street with Ace high whilst I was value betting my pocket nines until I was all in. I had messed about in a couple of pots so this got me up to 7300. Shortly afterwards my table was broken and I moved to table 2. Pretty soon I find KK in the big blind and there is a raise to 3000 from early position. I move all my chips to the centre and he calls with pocket jacks, no bad beats and I double through. Easy this poker lark.

Three hands later I get dealt JJ and UTG limps. I put out a test the water raise, more to see what other players with larger stacks had. Everyone folded and UTG moved all in for 6300, only 2300 more than my raise, an easy call and A5 was no good for him. 66 holds up against another shortstack who dared raise my next blind and I now have 26,000 with blinds 500/1000 and 4 tables left.

Hands dry up and I limp/blind off 4000 before one of the key hands of the night happens. I am in mid position with pocket fours and UTG limps. The button makes it 4000 and both the big blind and UTG call. 'Value', says I and call also. Th big blind bets 10,000 on a flop of 4 6 9 with two hearts. I re-raise and he calls the 8300 extra (funnily enough we had exactly the same amount of chips), he flips over 56 and I nicely increase my stack to 53k.

Steady Eddie saw me play few pots and get to the final table with 62k and just about the chip lead. Then it went horribly wrong...

First I raise to 7000 (blinds 1500/3000) and have to fold to an all in for 36k. Then a few hands later I raise to 7000 again and this time the shortest stack moves in for 21k. Getting 2:1 I call and he flips up QQ, bye bye more chips. Eventually with 6 players left I move all in from the small blind for 18k when the button limps. Mumbling something under his breath he calls with 33 and lo and behold a lovely painted knave falls on the flop to get me back in it.

Re-vitalised I raise my way up to 80k without a showdown and we are down to 4, I am covered only by a lady whose name I am not completely sure of but I will call her L because it begins with that. I lose half my chips to her as she began a rampage, I flopped a flush with 67s but she turned a boat. I called her bets all the way and was lucky (or stupid) to only lose half my chips. The next hand she busted a player with a better two pair and the following hand she flopped TPTK to outkick the next one into 3rd.

So we are heads up, I have 45k, she has over 250k. A deal was politely refused and rightly so. L was a very tight player and although I tried not to show it, I was very confident even though I was outchipped by more than 5:1. Blinds were still 3000/6000 as they were frozen at 2000/4000 for ages. It was also nearly 4am. Anyway after gaining the chip lead and then losing it gain I managed to secure the win and pocket a lovely €1450.

So far this year my stats for live tournies are played 25 won-4 other cashes-4 bubbles-1. This only makes for $3,000 profit but I have paid into 3 tournaments totalling $4,000 that I really should not have considering my bankroll! Add that to the 2 wins and a couple of other final tables last year and I feel I am not doing too bad for a 16 month rookie!