So, I left part one midway through day 6 where I was about to move to the feature table. I went there with about 4.3m chips and I cruised to about 5m chips just winning small pots and not doing anything crazy. I then had a mad couple of levels towards the end of the day. I check raised bluff the South African guy with K9 on 558 and then bet a J turn and he made an insane shove with just 86. I then called an Eric Lindgren under the gun raise with [Qc][9c] on the button. In hindsight this was far too loose as Eric is more on the tighter side, plus he was one of the shortest stacks so he most likely has a strong hand here. Ben Lamb completes from the big blind, and the flop came T85 with two diamonds, one club. Eric made a continuation bet, and I decided to peel one off and see how the hand developed, as I had a gutshot, overcard, and a backdoor flush draw. Unfortunately, Lamb made the call too.

The turn came the [6c] and Eric bombed the turn. I have three options here

The river came a 9 and Lamb decided to bet 1m into about a 3.5m pot. Lindgren snap folded, and I decided that Lamb was polarised to a 7 or a busted flush draw. I don't believe he would bet 2 pair in this spot, as there is a 4 card straight vs two players, so it's quite hard to get called by a worse hand. I ended up tanking for about seven minutes as I wanted to really make sure of my decision. My first instinct was to call, but using logic and Ben's body language for me, this was an easy fold really, and he ended up having 67 for a rivered straight.

So I lost two big pots, was down to 2.2m at 25k/50k, and on a rapid decline from my peak of 5m. I then picked up AK, raised, and was called by Brian Yoon. The flop came K97 with a flush draw. I bet and he called. I was already hoping for a complete blank, as my image was bad and I was hoping to get three streets of value from a worse hand. The turn came off perfect which was a 3. I barrelled again. He tanked for a while and called. The river came an 8, and at first I was a bit worried about that card. After a quick think, though, I ruled out JT and a lot of suited connectors from his range, as we were both around the 40-50 bb mark, and I didn't think he would be speculating with a marginal hand. Also, I think if he had a big draw and even JT he would maybe have raised the flop or turn. So I decided to go for a big bet to get maximum value. I bet 800k into 1.2m. He tanked for ages and made the call with AQ high, which wasn't great play from him, but my stack went to 3.7m which is what I ended the day on.

Day 7, I was off to a dream start. I doubled up in the first orbit with AK vs Matt Giannetti's AJ to get to over 7m chips. I then knocked out a short stack with AJ v AQ to go over 8m. I folded AK on AA9J8 board to Andrey Pateychuk and have been reliably informed he had a full house. His bet on the river seemed so strong to me even though my hand was under represented. Over 8m and cruising making big, correct folds I felt in the zone. I was moved to the secondary feature table midway through the day. I felt so comfortable, the table was much more pleasant than the main feature table. There seemed like a few weak spots as well although Ben Lamb, Devo and Anton Makievski were playing well. I didn't really play many big pots and just chipped up to well over 9m and found myself in the last four tables. I had a major hiccup though when I decided to 3 bet the new player at the table, Kenny Shih, with K9o and I barrelled off on QQ763 into his flopped quads, QQ. That was a severe blow to my stack and confidence. I feel the play was fine, but maybe I didn't need to do that as I didn't know too much about him. My plan was to just put maximum pressure on the amateurs, as I felt they would want to make November nine over making a big call down.

I made a mini-recovery from 4m back to more than 5m when I think I made a big mistake. Sam Barnhart opened under the gun off a 27bb stack. It was folded to me in the big blind, and I had AKo. Most people would say this is an automatic hand to get all in. However, Sam was a very tight player, and I would be almost able to play perfectly against him post flop if I just called. I decided to three-bet. He then shoved all in, and obviously I made the call getting a great price, but I wasn't happy about it. He had JJ and won the race which left me crippled as it was near the end of the level. the man in 28th place got eliminated and there was a redraw for the last 27. I would've much preferred to stay seven-handed, as I would be able to get back into the tournament more easily with my 12 BB stack. Unfortunately, I ended up shoving JTo into AA and I was eliminated in 26th place.

I had a great time this year in the main event and am very happy with my play overall. I think I showed the right amount of patience and aggression to really make an impact on the main event. Next year I might re-think my schedule as I found seven weeks to be a long hard slog this year. I loved the Main Event and can't wait to play it again next year.

For now I will be playing as many EPTs and UKIPTs as I can, plus continue to grind PLO online. Also, there is WCOOP coming up so I will have to look at which events I would like to play, I might even head over to Las Vegas for the EPIC poker league event in September.

Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed reading about my WSOP adventure.

Follow JP on Twitter @JPKellyStars

by JP Kelly

If I was to list my attributes, planning and time keeping would definitely not make my list. So I thought it would be great idea to turn up for the UKIPT Dublin the morning beforehand.

I played the WCOOP events the night before with no success and then had a horrible night's sleep. Waking up at 9am is also not a strong point of mine so I stumbled about and got to the airport where I was lumped with a £40 charge just to print a boarding pass by Ryanair. I may have written this elsewhere but, I dropped my laptop on a plate at EPT Vilamoura so I then went into Dixons and bought a brand new Apple MacBook Pro.

Armed with this beast of a laptop I made it to check in where I was stung with another £40 charge of having to check one of my bags in. I gave my opinion on Ryanair but life's too short and I really couldn't be bothered to make a meal out of the situation so I stumped up the cash and vowed never to travel with them ever again!

I caught up with some much needed sleep on the plane and then had a very interesting conversation with the girl I was sat next to who was moving to Ireland all the way from Australia. She was so full of enthusiasm that it transferred to me so I arrived at the Burlington Hotel in a very good mood and bumped into some familiar faces and made it down just in time for the start.

I really didn't do anything too special for the first few hours as Irish players love to bluff and get involved far too much so it's a good strategy to just sit and be patient against them. Proving the point I saw at least four players go out on a bluff which is very rare in a big tournament. The Irish though are very impulsive and will not let the chips go uncontested even if the story they are trying to tell doesn't make any sense at all, which after a few drinks can be true for real life! I had some good banter with the other players and decided to have a couple of drinks which I sometimes do towards the end of the day.

I had steadily risen my 15k starting stack up to 20k. At the 200/400 level I open raised on the button to 1,000 with 22 and was then 3 bet to 2700 by an aggressive older player who had told me he played 6 max cash games online. He had about 11k left so I thought there was a good chance if I shoved he would fold, if I'm called he can still have AK, AQ in his range but also I guess he would call with 99+ which I'm obviously doing badly against. He'd three-bet me the most on the table and had let him get away with it so I really like my push here with 22. Unfortunately he called rather quickly, but I was happy to see AQs. I was even happier to see the flop come down 244 and even though the turn was an A I faded the 4 outs to give my stack a much needed boost.

The next hand I played was very interesting. An extremely loose Irish player who had about 34k raised to 1,200 in mid-position and I was on the button with a pair of tens. I had a similar stack, probably slightly more around 40k. Most people would have three-bet this hand for sure and tried to get all the money in pre-flop. I saw dangers with this play as this player really loved two picture cards and also any pair.

If I'm gonna play an above-average chip pot at this stage I need to know almost 100% that I have the best of it and I feel just getting it all in on a flip here is not good poker, as I would figure to be one of the best players in the tournament, so 40k at the time was well above average. What I'm saying is TT isn't as strong here as you think it might be. Three-betting also puts you in an awkward situation when he inevitably calls and then it comes something like Q83 with 2 of a suit. There is no way you can play this confidently.

Now, if the player had say been an aggressive guy and him and I had been battling all day back and forth bluffing each other etc, then, three-betting is almost mandatory as you want to give him a chance to do something crazy and you can then shove if he four-bets or something like that. These situations are crucial in a tournament and how you handle them determines how far you will go and how successful you can be.

Anyway, I went off on a bit of a tangent there.

I elected to just call with the tens and see a flop, which unfortunately dragged in the bb, which is one of the negatives of just calling. The flop came down 752 with a flush draw. The big blind checked and the Irish guy fired out about 3k.

I just called, as, like before, I'm pretty sure I have the best hand, but my hand is not strong enough to go to war just yet, as he can have overpairs, overs and flush draw and maybe even a set.

The big blind got out of the way and then the turn came a three. The Irish guy checked, and now I feel like against tricky opponents the decision is close between betting and checking back. Here I feel it is a compulsory bet. We need to protect against ace-high hands that have just picked up a straight draw and will invariably have ten outs against us.

So, I bet 6,500, and after about ten seconds he check-raised all in for an additional 25k. This is a pretty gross situation, as I could be drawing very close to dead here.

However, I made my mind up that he was a bad player and, like I said before, Irish players hardly ever give up on a pot. Also he could be doing this with just a 7, 88, 99, flush draw, 44. I thought if he had a big over-pair like KK he would just bomb the turn and try and get me to fold, as he would be too scared to give a free card.

So, I decided to call and played most likely the biggest pot of the tournament to that point. He sheepishly turned over AQo. I faded it and moved to 70k with a little more than 20 minutes left of play.

I do find players' comments amusing sometimes. When I called, the all-in player turned to me and said, "You got a piece of that"?

Well, I have just stuck in 30k at 200-400, I probably got something!

It was like on Day 2, there was a raise from Kev Allen, and the short stack moved in
for 15 big blinds. I had jacks in the big blind, so I overcalled. Kev folded, I turned my
hand over. Then the small blind went "arghhhhhhhh" and turned over KQs.

I said to him "I'm not gonna turn over KJ, mate. You should be delighted to see that when my range of hands is probably TT, JJ, QQ, KK, AA, AQ, AK."

Made me chuckle until he spiked the Q!

So, I just sat there and plodded to the end of the day right?

WRONG!

On the second to last hand of day, I raised AKs and got three-bet by the button. So, I four-bet to 9k, and he just called. The flop came down 23Q, and I led really tiny for 6k, which he then raised to 16k with 24k behind.

I really thought he had 99 or TT and, there is no way he can call if I shove. I have represented AA perfectly here, so I shoved. He tanked for about two minutes, and ended up folding what he said was 99. This is kind of similar to the TT hand from earlier. He put himself in an awkward situation by three-betting that hand in the first place and then completely misplaying it once I've four-bet. It is such a hard hand to play well there, he is better off just folding and moving onto the next day with a good stack. Or if he really thinks I'm at it, just shove the lot in pre-flop. To lose 25k in that pot with the best hand is a disaster in my opinion.

So I ended the day with just over 100k, which put me in 3rd position overall.

Day 2 came and I played ridiculously tight. My table had loads of short stacks and it was hard to get into good situations. Grinding a multi-day tournament involves lots of gear changes. I can't always be hammering every pot. Likewise, I can't always wait for good hands.

I found myself up to 130k somehow after seemingly losing every showdown (see JJ v KQ) AQ v A7. I won with KK v Kev Allen when he called me down with AJ on J24Q4 and river had brought the flush. I then gave them back in a dumb game of chicken on a QQ43 board when I bet 15,200 on the turn after multiple raises on the flop went in, and it became apparent that he did in fact have at least a Q. He gave me the pilea nd I sheepishly folded my jack-high.

This hand, some might say its one of the best hands/call they've ever seen. Others will think I'm a complete donkey! Anyway, I open to 4,800 at 1k-2k. An Irish player had just sat down who had me covered and was moaning after five minutes about not getting a hand. These guys are almost always poor players with patience issues. How can you moan about not getting a hand deep into Day 2 when you've seen about four hands?

My hand was A8o and he flat called me after checking my stack. My immediate read was two connected cards in some way that he wanted to play. Flop was K45 with a flush draw. I led for 6k which he raised it up to 16k total. I thought about re-raising again but I really felt like I had the best hand. He is representing just a K basically. If he had a set he would at least think about it a bit more.

Remember, a lot of these situations you have to get down or up to the level of the player you are playing. My read on his thought process, and this is honestly what I thought at the time and not in hindsight: 1) I got an alright hand 2) He's young he probably doesn't have anything 3) I wanna play this one (call) 4) I'll raise that bet, don't think he has anything.

That is as simple as it gets with some players. So, I am beating a ton of hands like QJ, QT, Q9, JT, J9, T9, T8, 89, 97. All this analysis meant that I called the additional 10k.

The turn brought the [Kc ]bringing two clubs and two hearts now. This was a great card for me. If I was winning before, then I am still winning, so I checked. He went to grab a stack of chips and then changed his mind and checked behind. The river was the [6c] completing the backdoor flush. Now, I am almost certain he would have fired another bet if he had picked up a club flush draw on the turn, so I can rule out a flush. He would also have bet a K I think as there were two flush draws on the board.

Remember this isn't some internet whizz kid. So, I checked the river and he bet chunk of chips hurriedly, which was about 27k. I couldn't think of a hand that he could possibly have. If say he had got tricky and checked a K back, he wouldn't bet 27k on river. I think he would have to bet a bit less to try to get me to call with worse. 44 and 55 were my only real concerns but my read on his body language was that he was extremely weak.

Now, I paused for a second because he could be bluffing with a better A high or like 22 or 33, but why on earth would he bet 22 or 33. Surely he'd just turn that over and hope he was good. All this analysis led me to call on the end, and he said "if you hit it you got it". So I waited.

I wanted him to muck his hand, just in case he somehow had one of these hands that beat me. But I was very happy with my call. Eventually after about 10 seconds the other players got irritated and made him turn his hand over, which was like a kick to the stomach when I saw A9o. He had me pipped and was going to scoop this pot after he played this absolutely horrendously. I flashed my A8 and went to the dinner break steaming. In hindsight, I really like my play in this hand but probably should have just shoved over the top of him on the flop if I was that convinced of my read. I never recovered and ended up shoving A3 into AJ.

Had a great weekend which involved going dog racing with the Brighton lads and Rob Sherwood. We had a few winners at the Derby which was brilliant followed by a couple of funny nights out. Great effort from Kev Allen who played great on my table and was unlucky at the final and deserved to finish much higher than 5th. Congrats to Max Silver for picking up the £72,000 first prize and the seat into EPT London.

I'm off to London now for the WSOPE. Going to play four events, I think, followed by EPT London, which I am really looking forward to.

by JP Kelly
I arrived in Edinburgh on the Thursday night having postponed my start day to 1B. I felt really bad with what must have been something like flu so I stopped multiple times on the way to the George hotel and picked up some medicine - and jelly babies. I played PLO online for a couple of hours and then managed to get a good night's sleep.

I turned up at the Corn Exchange ready to play although still rather ill. Walking around the room before hand I didn't recognise too many people but what I must comment on is the amount of young players that were there for UKIPT Edinburgh. When I first started playing I
was one of only a handful of players under the age of 26 that ever played the bigger tournaments, or any tournament come to think of it. Nowadays, I feel like more of the old guard having not played as many UK-based tournaments in recent times, as multiple teenagers and players in their early 20s with vast knowledge from the internet and a feeling of invincibility dominate their tables and really crank up the aggression in comparison to a few years ago.

Armed with my medicine and most likely superior knowledge of what it takes to navigate my way through a tournament field I sat back and let the young guns battle it out on my table whilst occasionally keeping them in line to let them know I was still around. So quietly I chipped up from the initial starting stack of 15k to 25k. I had been very active from the button but had shown down a good hand virtually every time. I then ran a huge bluff on a
very nice guy called Asif from Manchester with 74o I put him all in on the river of AK7Q6 and he made an almost instantaneous call with KQ to take me back to below starting stack. In hindsight I think I should have just let him have it and I tried too hard to win this pot which maybe he saw through.

As we were at the 200-400/50 level I decided it was time to start ruffling a few feathers and try to boost my stack back to a more healthy position as the next level of 300-600/75 is a relatively huge jump and I don't really want to be stuck on 12k. I raised more and more pots and players were getting out of my way, I kept finding myself in tricky situations debating whether to bet or check with 2nd and 3rd pair. These are the situations that
separate the good players from the best. I feel like I handled these situations OK overall but definitely nowhere near the level I would have liked to. Maybe I was being too much on the passive side worrying too much about letting myself get bluffed.

Last hand before the dinner break I was back to 20k which felt good after the mishap taking me down to 12k. I re-raised an early position short stack with A-K ready to take him on when Asif decided to 'cold 4 bet' from the blinds. There was no doubt in my mind what he had and I folded pretty quickly face up and he laughed showing me one ace - and later on he confirmed that he had both bullets.

After having a quick meal with Ash Mason and Jake Cody (11th) we came back ten minutes too late and eventually I found myself all-in with J-J v A-K. The K high flop wasn't too good but the sweet J on the river took me to my peak of the tournament. I then moved tables and after chatting away for a bit looked down at A-Q in the SB after a raise and a call. I 3 bet and then the original raisor 4 bet it to 11k total with 21k behind. He looked incredibly nervous and I had seen him talking to a couple of mutual friends who I knew were
good players. I find people tend to be over aggressive against me as they see me
wearing a Team PokerStars Pro badge and assume I'm bluffing all the time. I decided
to go with my instinct and put him all in which turned out to be a big mistake as he had K-K but luck was on my side as I rivered a club flush to take me to 65k which is what I finished the day on.

Still being relatively early and players having a few drinks at the bar we decided to go to a show called the Late Late Show. In Edinburgh they have 'Fringe Festival' which I believe is a week-long festival mainly for comedy. The city was buzzing all weekend and I really did enjoy it and what was even better was this show was taking place two minutes from the George hotel. So I went with Liv Boeree, Jake Cody, Simon Mitchell and a rather merry Ben Jenkins. The show was quite good and funny but I would have personally preferred more comedy sketches as the host Paul Zenon was very amusing and the music just didn't really do anything for me, but that is my own personal opinion.

After meeting with performance coach Steve Ward in the morning I then filmed a sit down interview with fellow Team Pros Vicky Coren, Julian Thew and Jude Ainsworth alongside the host Nick Wealthall. Back to the job at hand as I felt confident about going far in this tournament and felt like I was playing well and survived after some good fortune.

Unfortunately, I ran Kings into Aces and that was the end of that adventure. Debating between the Stars party and playing the £300 side event I decided it would be more fun
to play poker, have a few drinks (not too many though as still not feeling 100%) and maybe go afterwards to the party. I was sat with Neil Channing who is always entertaining and he wanted to crossbook with me which means if one person wins money then the other player has to payout the same on top. So if I came 6th for £1,000, Neil would have to give me £1,000 on top. I thought it would be fun and in hindsight should have done it but I was paranoid that I would lose the first time I ever did this so maybe I will do it next time.

I managed to amass a monster stack and the ran fairly bad towards the end of the day and ran set into set to get knocked out.

I really enjoyed Edinburgh, if I'm being honest it was way better than I imagined and I didn't even really see all that much of the place. I look forward to going back again and hope it is a leg of season 2 of the UKIPT.

Congratulations to Nick Abou Risk who won £50,000 and a £5,000 seat into EPT
London, well deserved from what I've heard.

Good luck everyone

by JP Kelly
The WCOOP is an exciting time in the online poker community as it is universally thought of as the most prestigious online festival. It is the most innovative, has the biggest prize pools and offers the best structures going allowing the players great value for money and the opportunity to win a life changing sum. And it all kicks off today!

However, to win one of these events, or even making a final table, takes great skill and also a high level of stamina as the tournaments can go on for a very long time. Last year I cashed a lot but found myself failing at the key stages of the events. This year I am going to try and do a number of things to give myself the best chance of winning a highly sought after WCOOP bracelet.

Firstly, I will try to do a fair amount of exercise before hand as this will help with the stamina
issue and hopefully keep the brain active when others are flagging. Together with this trying to maintain a correct sleeping pattern is essential, which means in the UK going to sleep very late and waking up very late.

In terms of actual poker playing I think I need to do some research on who the new faces are in the online tournament (MTT) scene as I have not played as many online tournaments (MTTs) in the past few months as maybe I should have, so to close the gap on these guys I need to be better prepared.

Have fun as it is a great time of year, personally I am most looking forward to the $2,100 6 max PLO event and the $5,200 main event. Good luck for the series.