The Biggie – Part 3

Following my gargantuan tussle with one of European poker’s true scary greats, I embarked on a steal-fest, praying on the small stacks and picking off small un-contested pots along the way. I managed to run my good stack up to a big stack and no-one wanted to play with me as we were approaching the bubble. I think I pushed my luck a little too far in the end and lost a couple of good-sized pots and found myself doing a re-assessment and I decided to slow it down a little and hold out until the final as I was comfortably above average chips and there were a few low stacks around.

A few more players, including Action Jack, Ian McDonald, and John Shipley eventually busted out and we were down to that elusive place to be – the final table!

I racked up my chips and kept having to pinch myself. I was heading for the final table of my first ever big competition and I felt like I had a real shot at winning.

There was a bit of a delay in starting the final table as there was a TV table being set up with hole-card cameras and lights – very swish for Walsall! We also had to provide the organisers with a little information about us – what we had won, nicknames etc as we were to be introduced to the crowd (about 20 strong) as we came through the doors at the back of the card room (stars in their eyes style). It was all very exciting and I was itching to get going.

After all the pomp and ceremony and the really uninteresting introduction of a lad from Nottinghamshire with no pedigree who had qualified his way into the event, we finally got going. I had drawn seat 9, to my left was Dave ‘El Blondie’ Colclough and to my right was Stuart Fox and Henning Granstad – this was going to be tough!.. but I couldn’t wait.