Saturday, October 31, 2009…
10 of us flew from Gatwick yesterday. I thought we would be going first class, but the woman from Harrah’s cocked up the booking She said she had had the flu, but by the time I knew the ticket prices had gone up from 3.3k to 8k. We’ve still managed to get three first class seats though and some premium economy ones. Obviously, the Squad flew over, as well as a few others including Sam [Trickett], Jeff [Kimber] and Martins [Adeniya].
Overall, I’m taking over 70 people to Vegas. Harrah’s give you 70 seats in the theatre, and I’ve maxed that out. I decided to head over a week in advance because I really want to make sure I’m prepared and have no excuses. I need to make sure that I’m feeling good and not suffering from any jet lag.
Sunday, November 1, 2009…
Harrah’s put me in the Rio for the final, but because I’m out here a week early, I’ve decided to stay in the Wynn initially. I won’t be boozing while I’m here until after the final. I want to be both physically and mentally prepared, which means I’ll try to exercise every day, go down to the gym, play some tennis and play a few rounds of golf.
Now that I’m here it’s all beginning to sink in. The last few weeks I’ve really had time to think about the whole thing. I didn’t see the 2008 final, but I decided to watch it recently and it kind of made me realise that this is actually happening to me. I’m excited, but definitely a little bit nervous. I don’t feel pressure though and won’t have any issues in that sense, I don’t really have a problem with pressure or anything when it comes to playing.
Monday, November 2, 2009…
I’ve tried to do a bit of homework on the final table lately. I worked my way through some DVDs before I came, and I’m watching more here in Vegas. I spent a lot of time watching the ESPN coverage leading up to the final. It’s difficult sometimes though because the coverage is limited and they tend to edit a lot of stuff. For example, a two-minute hand could actually be cut down to just twenty seconds.
I also spoke a bit to Jon Kalmar who finalled a few years back. He was really helpful. I really wanted to get together with Peter Eastgate because he lives in London and could have been really useful, but I was just so busy that it didn’t quite happen. To be honest, I prefer to do any preparation just before the event as it stays fresh in my mind.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009…
Last night I played in the Poker After Dark TV tournament. It’s pretty simple really, Full Tilt asked me to play, and I said yes. I’ve watched it on TV plenty of times before, so I know what it’s all about, and now that I’ve played on TV in the UK and in front of the ESPN cameras a number of times, I don’t feel uncomfortable being under the spotlight. The first time I played a TV tournament in the UK I was a bit nervous, but you get used to it after a while and now I don’t have a problem with it.
I don’t think I’m allowed to say what happened in the show, but I can reveal that my heat included Esfandiari, Booth, Lindgren, Matusow and Williams. I’ve played with Esfandiari before, obviously, and also Matusow. Although I’ve played with many of the big names that frequent the show, it’s still a little surreal. In this heat they kind of just spoke amongst themselves.
I played really well in the end. Blinds start at 100 and 200 with a starting stack of 20,000, so it’s far from a crapshoot. These things are winner takes all, so the surviving player gets $120,000! Despite being in the November Nine, that figure still feels like a big amount. It’s massive.
I didn’t plan to play much poker so near to the final, but I couldn’t turn Poker After Dark down. Apart from that, the only poker I’ve played has been one STT at the Venetian, and I just played that for fun really. I’ve taken it pretty easy since I got here and am just about to go out and play some golf. In the next few days before the final I’ll be doing loads of interviews and other press stuff, so that’ll take up quite a bit of time. I’ll also be watching some more coverage and we have this big room available with sofas and a big screen where I can watch the ESPN filmings leading up to Saturday’s final.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009…
I spent most of yesterday relaxing with the guys and playing golf. I’m feeling quite good heading towards the final, which is only a few days away. I don’t like to think about the money too much, but it’s difficult not to, it’s such a massive amount that I’m playing for. The money’s huge, but the big jumps come in the top five. Ninth to sixth, the jumps aren’t that big and I’ll be disappointed to finish in one of those positions. Fourth for $2.5 million is where the jump really starts to make a real difference. The worst place for me to finish might be second, especially because of how close I came to winning a bracelet last year. Coming second would just hurt so much. For that reason, part of me would prefer to come fourth or third instead.
$8.5 million is a hell of a lot of money, it’s a ridiculous amount. If I do win, I won’t go crazy with it. I don’t 100 percent trust myself with that kind of money and I’ve also learned from seeing what happened to people like Jamie Gold. I don’t want to follow the same path. I’ve also always been someone who likes the idea of doing other stuff and branching out into other things. I’d probably buy some property and make some investments or something like that. I’ll also give some money to charity. Karl and Praz both have small pieces, and obviously Neil has a slice. Chaz and Sunny will definitely be looked after too.
Thursday, November 5, 2009…
I often get asked about what I know about the others players at the final table, and Antoine Saout is one guy that I think I have a good idea of. I played with him a lot at WSOPE and reckon I’ve got some good physical tells on him. He’s only been a pro for one year, so he’s not that experienced. He’s a solid player though, but tends to ship it in a lot. He doesn’t have a massive stack in the final, so I’m not too worried. For me personally, I need to be thinking about what to do when I have 50 big blinds if do manage to double through as the short stack.
I was gutted after WSOPE. It was disappointing to go in second in chips and still finish ninth. If I were ninth in chips and finished ninth, then it wouldn’t be so bad. There wasn’t much I could do; I think my fate was sealed already. On the exit hand I had A-Q versus A-J and of course Negreanu found K-K, obviously. Just nothing went right for me, but I didn’t play badly, it just wasn’t my day. In hindsight, just making the final was a massive achievement and I was happy to do what Ivan Demidov did last year by making both the WSOP and WSOPE finals. Hopefully I can go one better than he did on Saturday.
Friday, November 6, 2009…
Hi, everyone. I can confirm that getting here a week early was a good idea, not only because I got to play Poker After Dark, but also because I’ve got over the jet lag no problem and am fully prepared for tomorrow’s final. Neil [Channing] asked me if I was excited and had been having trouble getting to sleep, and, well, now’s the time I’m starting to get excited. I’ve moved to the Rio now and have been doing more press stuff as the final nears. Yesterday all the finalists did interviews, and we posed for a photo shoot at the top of the Voodoo Lounge. I also spoke to Phil Ivey for a bit, and we had a good chat.
I’ve been trying to relax as much as possible since arriving. I’ve played a bit of tennis and yesterday I went down to the golf course. Today was a bit more hectic as I went to the airport to meet more people that have come over to support me. There are going to be 70 overall: 60 in the standard theatre seats and 10 on the stage, including Neil who I’m sure will be showing off his patch/shirt whenever the cameras are on him. Right, well that’s about it, I’m going to try to find somewhere to host a big dinner tonight, and then it’ll be off to bed to get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who has offered support, and let’s hope I can bring home the title.
James Akenhead is a friend of Black Belt Poker and has a profile page on our social network.