It’s easy to watch poker when you have no financial interest in the outcome. It’s like football. When it’s your team playing, the final whistle can’t come quick enough and you just don’t care if it’s route one. Only the result matters.

There were 36 left in the Main Event overnight, all thinking about the £801,000 on offer for first place. I imagine they had also given a thought to the £500k for second and the £350k for third. It’s impossible not to. What if, what if? In fact, you think about it LESS when you are playing rather than watching. At the table you are just focussed on doing the right thing at the right time. Playing each hand. Effecting your strategy. Getting to the money, getting to the final. Only then do you start to think about the value of your equity and how to maximise it.

But on the rail, all I could think about was “eight hundred grand!!!!”. I tried not to but I couldn’t help it.

By the time I got to The Empire, they were down to three tables (27 players) and The Coach was up to nearly 600k. When he saw me he came over to tell me that he had AA v QQ allin before the flop. It had been on the TV table too! I was glad that I’d been 100ft underground at the time. Coach had been moved since then as the players redraw for seats whenever a table is broken when they are “in the money”. He was now the chip leader at the table with over 600k and seemed very comfortable. None of the “faces” was at his table but I recognised a few of the players. Chris Bjorin was on his left. Chris has been one of the most consistent winners in big tournaments and big cash games for many years. On his right was Jason Mercier, a young kid who had reportedly won millions playing online cash games aswell as the millions he had won in major poker tournaments; or as Pokernews.com described him: “one four-bet-shoving-snap-calling-lol-donkaments Internet whiz kid”. I thought that was Andy Ward.

The Coach was playing well and raising a lot pre-flop to win lots of blinds. As I went from table to table there were very few flops being dealt on any of them. Eventually they got down to 18 players and redrew again. As Coach went off for a bathroom break I counted his chips. 720,000. Average was 550k so he was in great shape. The only bad news was that the monster chip leader and super-aggressive player Jason Mercier was now sat on his left, which would make life more difficult.

As the players sat down again and the dealers shuffled, Coach was nowhere to be seen. I ran down to the bathroom to find him drying his hands in a fluster. It seemed that he had been caught out by the lack of loo paper. Fortunately the ESPN crew had heard his lack of appreciation for the Empire staff through the microphone he was still wearing because he was on the TV table again. Someone from the ESPN soundcrew had gone down to help him out! He only missed one hand.

The last two tables were incredibly tense. The big money was now in sight. Representatives of the online poker sites were trying to sell their logos to players that were not already signed up. The Coach and I had agreed not to discuss this with them unless he got to the Final when it would be worth a lot more money. Play was slow going and hard to watch as there were now big crowds gathered round the tables.

Whether it was the incident in the break or the fact that Jason Mercier was raising every pot, The Coach was now finding it harder going and his chip stack was dribbling down. Knock-outs were excruciatingly few and far between. Every time there was an all-in announced and the TV cameras crowded round as the dealer waited for them to give the ok to deal the rest of the hand, the all-in man seemed to survive. But they did come, Doyle Brunson, Teddy Sheringham, Tony Cousineau.

With 11 players left, Jason Mercier had well over 3 million chips, 30% of the total. This was making it almost impossible for Coach to get into a pot. At the break we had a chat and agreed that it would be better to be aggressive and try and double up before the Final rather than to creep in with low chips. Better to live one day as a lion than a lifetime as a lamb. Who did say that? A lamb probably.

Virtually the first hand after the break and it was suddenly all over. Coach’s AK couldn’t hit the flop against Praz Bansi’s 99. At least the chips went to a Brit I suppose. Keith was extremely gracious in defeat and seemed to take it well. But I know for certain that he was crying inside. Only the winner is happy after a poker tournament. Everyone else is left wondering “what if”. He tried to smile whilst the comely Kara Scott did the post match interview (she’s a pretty mean player too) and then went to get the money. It’s always tempting to ask for cash, but he got a boring old cheque whilst I lined up the beers.

There is nothing quite like the emotion of going deep in a poker tournament but not quite getting there. It is such a long journey and such an abrupt ending. After four twelve hour days, The chips go in, the cards are flipped over and the dealer deals the board. You are in a brief world of “outs” and probabilities. And then suddenly you are dead or alive. It’s like Schrodinger’s Cat.

Next stop Amsterdam.

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