I worked right up until the dinner break of the final day which was an honour and a thrill to be part of the WSOP right up until its final moments. The final day was a little anti-climactic, especially after Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. We were all sad to see Tiffany fall short of a final table berth, but obviously the big dogs were relieved that the stresses of the whole saga were finally over. PN released a press statement to get their feelings out in the open, to the raised eyebrows of many, so I’m sure it’s not the last we’ve heard of this situation.That night, Tim and I headed over to South Point to donk around in a low limit cash game. It was good fun as we were playing 80% of pots and splashing around. I raised every time I was on the button, much to the amusement of Tim who was always two seats to my left in the big blind. Tim fluked a $100 bonus when he hit a one-outer to make a straight-flush to put him back in the black, while I was pretty much square. Then a hand came up where I held 78o on the button and after some overly aggressive betting I found myself with the nut straight on the turn. The action was frantic as a third spade fell on the river. Tim donked out into me and I exclaimed “If you’ve got the flush I’m leaving!” and made a crying call. Tim showed a junky suited connector for the running flush against my nuts on the turn. Joke. Luckbox. Things then got pretty ugly as I couldn’t connect with any flops to cash in on my crazy, aggro image. One guy at the end of the table kept hitting all of his draws, and on one occasion made a running straight on the river, bet out into me and turned over his cards before I’d even acted. I’d flopped two pair and been run down. Standard. At least his stupidity saved me another crying call.Finally it was 4am and we were ready to call it a night. I said to Tim “I’m going to get aces this time” and I look down at two black kings from under-the-gun. I raised, Tim re-raises, I 4-bet and he calls. The flop is K-Q-T. I have top set, and the action is capped once again. “You don’t really have A-J do you?” I say and I feel sick when a jack hits the turn. I check and Tim quickly checks behind. A brick hits the river and again we both check. I flip over top set expecting to be good, and Tim shows a horrendous J-9. The guy caps it preflop and flops the second nut straight. Unbelievable! I grab my chips and walk out the door in disgust. Live poker is so rigged.That night I pick up some sort of bug as I’m feeling pretty average the next day. We head over to Garry’s where all of the PokerNews guys are hanging out for the day, with two tables of poker going as well as some action on the Nintendo Wii. Plenty of beers, laughs and fun were had by all. I played in the HORSE game and was in front early but then ran like a retard once again. I had to fold sets three times in Omaha. I flopped a full house with 33XX on a 3TT and Anthony check-raises me twice with T3XX. Eventually when I found myself re-re-straddling, I realised I needed a break.Later that night we went to karaoke. Highlights were Aussie boys doing “Land Down Under”, Leon’s “Hey Mickey”, Melissa’s “It’s Raining Men” and Zeke’s “Safety Dance”. Garry and Shane win the boy band award for their “Bye Bye Bye”. By this stage my fever had set in and I was struggling to get through the evening, and not just because of the bad singing. Once I got home I found myself shaking cold in bed, which was a little bizarre in the Vegas heat.The next day I drugged myself up and went for a quick trip up to the strip to do some shopping with Tom and Craig. We said hi/bye to Amanda and I got to see ten minutes of my first ever live WPT event at the Bellagio. Tom then picked up a new Mac laptop before we headed back home. We were going to catch up with the others at a poolside BBQ, but I started to crash again. I wanted to say goodbye to everyone, but I also wanted to try and get myself better for the 20+ hour flight back home the next morning. In the end I just wasn’t up to going out and rested up. My final night in Vegas was an early one!It was a memorable 7 weeks or so, full of hard work and long hours, but plenty of fun, excitement and laughs in between. The PokerNews guys are a fantastic group of people which made the whole experience so much more enjoyable. I’m sure we’ll catch up again on the circuit….somewhere!

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