News is filtering through that Sean Jethi has been eliminated.  Never afraid to mix it up at his table Sean had a rollercoaster day with his chip stack flutuating more than the New York stock exchange. Hard luck Sean, I’m sure we’ll see you back at major tournament very soon.

Keith will update you with the details shortly from London…

That leaves our blogger Anthony Donohoe as the last remaining Craic Commando.  I’d wish you luck Anthony but we all know your game is based on skill!

Come on Ireland!! (That chant can apply to Big Cass Tony Cascarino who is also playing today!)

Since my last post not much has changed. Anthony hasn’t seen any action but has been giving poker advice to pro Ben Roberts who is now sitting to the right of him.

Sean on the other hand is back up to 13k after making an amazing call on a king high board with a pair of pocket fives. He has his table rattled I tell ya. Daniel Negreanu along with his 50 million onlookers is sitting on 20k-23k.

In other news from the Craic Commandos - Andrew, Francis and Rory all decided to tear up the cash games like the way Ireland triumphed against France in the rugby. Hold on Ireland didn’t win in fact they got slaughtered and the same goes for the lads.

I am now charging £5 for every bad beat story and I could be a rich man before the end of the night.

I nip out to the shop for two minutes and the action goes wild!

When I came back I couldn’t see Anthony at his table and I was sure he was gone - but then he showed up to tell me of all the drama i had missed.

He lost a huge pot with Jacks and was crippled down to 3k.  A couple of hands later however he got involved in a multiway pot with KQ.  A King on the flop kept him in the hand and when the Q hit on the turn he pushed all-in.  He got a caller and is now back up to 12.5k!  What a rollercoaster - I should go to the shops more often!!

Sean has taken a little bit of a hit but is not in danger yet.  He is now on 9.5k.

The players are having dinner now and are eating their Main Course at their tables!  For crying out loud, with a buy-in of over £5k sterling you’d think the EPT would be able to stretch to a dining hall at least!!

Sean Jethi looks down at pair of German virgins and gets excited (well who wouldn’t!).  With the blinds at 100/200 he raises to 600.

*German Virgins is the name for 99 (”nein nein” - geddit?)

Some poor sucker calls and and the flop comes Q99!  (The Craic Commandos like the Quads!)

There is no better feeling in the poker world than having four of a kind and having another player bet in to you, and that is exactly what happend to Sean.

His opponent bets 1500.  Cool as you like Sean just calls.

The turn is an 8 and his opponent checks.  Hoping that he his opponent holds a Q Sean bets out 1,500 but after some thought he folds.  Sean is up to 13k and looking comfortable at his table.

Just before the end of Level 4 Anthony Donohoe is sitting with KJ in the small blind.  He raises to 600 and the big blind calls.

Flop comes Jxx and Anthony bets another 600. The BB calls.

Anthony bets 2k when a blank hits on the turn and the BB folds.

He is now sitting on 10.3k which is about average for his table.  The big stack at the table has about 17k.

Alan Smurfit is still in the running and while I can’t see Andy Black from where I’m standing I can certainly hear him so he is obviously still in the mix!

More later…

Francis McCormack has just been eliminated.  He found himself in as tough a spot as you can get and couldn’t get away from it.

With the blinds at 75/150 McCormack raises to 600 preflop and the bad guy calls.  The flop comes T8x and Francis loads up and fires 3k in to the pot. Baddie pushes all-in over the top.  Francis had only 4k left and was compelled to call despite a bad feeling that he was behind.  He was right, the bad guy turned over KK and with blanks on the turn and river Francis was out.

Like our other brave warriors Rory Curtis and Andrew Dwyer, the may be gone, but they are not forgotten.  The blood still runs strong in Sean Jethi, 11k, and Anthony Donohoe, 9k, and they will fight for their slain brothers til the bitter end!

Player wil be on break in 30 mins and i will update again then…

The first hand of a major tournament. You look down at pocket Kings. What do you do?

Well, if you are Anthony Donohue you flop quads and take nearly 1,000 chips off your opponent.  Keith Hawkins was the donator and will know not to mess with this Craic Commando again!

The other two commandos, Francis McCormack and Sean Jethi, have only played a few hands so far and have yet to make four of a kind, but I’m sure they are just biding their time.

Other notable Irish faces in the crowd are Andy Black and Alan Smurfit, fresh from his bracelet win at the WSOP.

I’ll keep you posted on all these and more as the action unfolds…

Last night saw the end of Rory Curtis, his AJ on a J high flop was good enough for an allin however his opponent turned over pocket kings. Liam Flood was still standing tall last night with 26k while Marty Smyth is still hanging in there with 11k.

Today we have 3 commandos in action - Anthony Donohoe, Francis McCormack and Sean Jethi. All three have played in major tournaments before and i quote from Anthony “I’m running sh*t hot at the moment”, so our chances of a craic commando winning are looking good! 

Stay tuned for there progress throughout the day…

Tournament day has finally arrived. 179 players started yesterday with 70 finishing the day. Today will probably have the same turnout. My tournament preparation consists of 1 hour of yoga, a jog around hyde park & a bowl of museli, ahem, i dont think so. Instead, a full english breakfast, a quick swim in the hotel & a read of the daily newspaper.

Play get’s underway at 1pm. I am really looking forward to locking horns with some of the best players in europe if not the world. I watched alot of the action yesterday & i have to say, I fancy my chances of going deep in this tournament, unless i get a bad beat or start playing like a donkey (hehaw hehaw). There are alot of scandinavian players as usual at this event, so that means that there will be alot of action pre-flop, just the way i like it.

For all the players out there who would like a chance at playing in these wonderful tournaments, go to paddypowerpoker.com & start playing the online sat’s they have for these events, it’s the best place to qualify for tournaments all around the world, i should know this more than anyone, as i have won 5 sat’s to tournaments this year so far, from the caribbean to vegas, amsterdam to london. So, get onto paddypowerpoker & start qualifing for as little as $5 upwards.

Im off to the vic casino now, to get my seat number & get ready to do battle. I will have updates & how my play went for the first few levels at the dinner break later.