The Bellagio Five Star Classic Main Event.

Its 2am in Vegas and I'm just about to go to bed after having a relaxing meal at Circo in the Bellagio. I played some really interesting hands today, not all well, but managed to keep it together in key situations rather than blowing up. I was a bit concerned when Phil Ivey was on the BB when I was on the button but luckily picked up AA on his BB, I decided to slowplay when he RR by min button raise and he fired every street and hung himself. After I knocked him out I had every reporter wanted to interview me about the hand but I didn't bother as any mug can win with AA on the button.

I changed tables 3 times and only really had 2 mishaps:

1. I slowplayed KK against the player who had bluffed me the day before when I had the AJ on a AJK board, only to let him catch up on the river for a 100k pot which took some momentum away.

2. I did a squeeze move v a UTG raise and a flat caller only to find the BB going all in with QQ. I had to call with my A7 due to "pot odds" (that old excuse for a bad calls) and did another 60k in that pot. Phil Helmuth said "is A7 a big hand in England" and that started off 2 hours of constant trash talk between us.

I asked Helmuth how much to come and "cut the ribbon" on Dusk Till Dawn's opening night,but after he told me he charges $50k, I told him we'd get Rob Varkoni instead as he was a bigger name in the UK. On Wednesday night, I had been for meal with Rob, the 2002 WSOP champ, what a real gent he is if not the most outgoing personality in the world!

I kept changing from loose maniac to ultra tight today, I think that was because I was so concerned with making day 3, and put the brakes on each time I felt myself playing too many hands and wasting chips. A total rock made a very strange call for his last 40k with 77 on a A93 flop when I pushed all-in with AQ, not sure what he thought he was beating?

Phil Helmuth was very unlucky today on my table. He lost 200k in 2 outers when he was slowplaying overpairs and each time called his opponent a Mother xxxxxx to their face, the Tournamant Director was called over, but Helmuth was given NO penalty, what a joke. He behaved disgracefully, and must have said "you mother xxxxxx" over 15 times to each player when they outdrew him. However, he just oozes class at the poker table, he and Eric Lingren are my 2 favourite players, they are fearles, and not scared to play flops with suited connectors and any 2 cards in position.

I had a very interesting hand with Helmuth..........I raised with KQ on his BB, he flatcalled (in fact he NEVER passed his BB once to me in the 3 hrs we played), flop KT9, he bets 8k, I min RR to 16k and he makes it 32k and I pass (he told me to be a man and stop betting like a pussy, charming). The thing is, these top players talk loose, but when they commit their chips, they are normally ahead, I am almost sure he had 99 to TT or QJ, and it was a hard laydown for me as I really wanted to bust him. I played a lot of pots with Helmuth and he won most of them, I knew he would pay me off if I hit the flop big but I kept missing and he just called by bluff bets down and milked me, sometimes with bottom or middle pair......class player.

I also had to laydown AdKd or a Kc3c6c to a tight player which made me feel sick, seems like a tournament of big laydowns, and I think the bad call I made in Dublin has affected my play over here. It would mean so much to me to get through tomorrow and into the money, I'm 56th in chips out of 205 people so in good shape. My table draw is fantastic, no big names and no one has me outchipped by more that 20k. Unless my table breaks early or I get a bad beat there is no excuse for not making the money, just got to hold it together and not do anything really stupid. Poker's not my profession but I want to do well tomorrow so badly.................

thanks for all the support on this thread,

Goodnight, Rob