The week has really gone by fast, and it is now time to go home.
A quick story about yesterday that i forgot to mention.
When i got back to the hotel i was pretty hungry and had plans for a room service frenzy and some online poker.
To my big surprise this luxury spa hotel dident have room service after 10 or something like that, and there was no food what so ever to buy at the hotel.
On my way back i saw a KFC nearby so i walked over ovet to get some of that, although it wasent really junk food i was in the mood for.
It turns out they had closed 15 min ago.
Ohh well, right next to my hotel there was another hotel called the holliday in, so i went over there so see if i could get lucky.
Since i wasent a guest there i couldent use the cafe that were open, but they had a small bar with a few crappy pre made sandwiches, choclate bars, nuts and softdrinks so i got a little of each.
Headed back and that was it.
Im just really surprised that i couldent get ANYTHING at my own hotel. 

I woke up around 10.30 just in time to get some breakfast.
A few of the  swansea lads were there, and more soon arrived.
Antonis father Frank Romanello ended up finishing 2nd in the tournament by the way.
After breakfast we all hit the spa and relaxed for an hour.
We then just hang out at the startbucks cafe in the hotel untill my cap came 13.30 and then my journey home started.
I could have driven a unicycle all the way back if i had to, i was really looking forward to seeing the family again.
The trip back was ok and i landed in Denmark 23.30
I had to go all the way back to Gatwick airport, because that was where i had already booked ticked.
It was amazing when my son woke me up the next day, i have never gotten so many hugs before and it was just great.
It has been an amazing trip and i really feel that i have learned so much and meet so many great people and made many new good friends.
The trip was way better than i had expected.
It has really made me realize how much i love poker, and i just want to play poker again now as much as possible now and cut down on the time i spend on affiliate marketing.

After a nightmare of a night feeling terrible and being awake half the night freezing, sweating and my body hurting a was feeling a little bit better saturday but not 100%.
I wanted to go to Walsall and play the onewaypoker tournament, and had already arranged for a hotel, and bought a train ticket.
I meet with Bruce Martin for breakfast before i left, to say goodbye and went and bought a little bit more clothes.
I hadent send anything to get washed so i was running low on shirts etc.
I then checked out from the hotel and took a cab to the train station.
I had ordered a first class ticket and it was pretty good and there was internet connection, so i could get a little updating done.
I arrived i Wassall and it was a very small town, not what i had expected at all.
I mean it was just dead.
Walked around for like 15 minutes trying to get a cab, but dident see any.
So i got a hold on Antoni, and he ordered one from the casino.
The cab finally came, and i got to the casino where Antoni and hes friends was watching football.
There was also a heads up machine, so while watching soccer (which is of absolutely no interest to me) i beat the guys 5 times in a row.
We unloaded the onewaypoker wan and then went to the hotel to check in and grab a quick shower before heading back to the casino.
The onewaypoker tournament was a £20k guaranteed with a £150 buyin and Antonis brothers Roberto and xxx and Antonis father Frank was also playing.
Although i wasent feeling 100% it was a good day and there were also a lot of the swansea lads there and there were around 160 players in the tournament.
I busted after a few hours, and after walking around for an hour waiting for a cash game i decided to head back to the hotel instead.

My throat has been starting to hurt the last few days, and i wasent feeling so good today.
A shower and breakfast usually helps, and i found a nice cafe to have breakfast at.
Then i headed to the vic to see how the tournament was going.
The match is over just as i arrive, and it turns out that Victor V busted Thor Drexel in the very first hand.
The got all in preflop and Thor Was holding AA against Victors 1010 but Victor hit a full house.
What a brutal beat for Thor Dexter who is also danish.

world heads up poker championship 2009world heads up poker championship

I wasent feeling better at all, so i headed back to the hotel right away to relax, and just play some online poker.
For every hour that went by i felt worse.
I had looked forward to playing a £50 rebuy tournament at the sportsman, but an hour before it started i knew that it wasent gonna happen, i was just feeling terrible.
So i stayed at the hotel, and hoped to get better so i could go to walsall for a onewaypoker tournament saturday.

The time came to play the first day of the world heads up poker championship.
42 players had entered, so about 60% would get a bye, which means that you skip the first round and get a free win,
Unfortunately my name was called, so I had to play.
The tournament was delayed about 1,5 hour, and I really hate waiting for a tournament to start, just ask the other littlewoods poker qualifiers.
I was just walking around in circles.
The draw was finally made, and first match was against a French guy.

the world heads up poker championship

He was very well dressed, with a nice suit, watch, sun glasses etc. and my first impression was that he was some rich guy playing for fun.
This turned out to be spot on.
He had absolutely no aggression in him, and I controlled the match right away.
Once we started I was just totally in the zone, and after playing for a short time he was moving around in hes chair, taking he sun glasses of and on and quickly showed frustration.
It was proberly the easiest opponent I could have drawn.

After around 45 minutes something mindblowing happens, and I couldent belive it.
In a unraised pot I flop top 2 pair on a 5-9-10 board with only hearts.
I bet, he raises and I move all in.
He now goes in a thinking mode for a long time, and tells me he has the flush and askes me if I will show if he folds.
I just think hes trying to get a read and replies that I very rarely show, so he shouldn’t expect that I will show if he folds.
After a long time he shows that the has flopped a 10 high flush… AND MUCKS!!!
Im totally stunned and cant belive what just happened.
I askes if he wants to see my hand before I show it, he says yes and sees that he was way ahead.
Shortly after that we go on a break, and im talking with him and find out that it is hes first live event and hes not used to playing heads up.
The rest of the match is a walk in the park, and I just run him over.
After an hour of break or so, I got my second match.
Im meeting another French guy Called NICOLAS DERVAUX who is a unibet sponsored pro player, and I dident expect it to be easy.

We have a great match and he is a really good player.
He finished in the semi finals last year in this heads up event and also had a 6^th place in the Copenhagen EPT.
I lead from the start though, and my aggressive style from the beginning paid of.
Its always good with a 25% chip lead so you can recover incase you loose an all in.
After a few hours I get KK and he raises preflop, I reraise and he moves all in and shows A-K and I win the match.
ROBERT PRICE “The animal” also wins hes match, and we go to an Italian restaurant to have some dinner.

I loose a coinflip and end up paying the bill.
The animal goes home, and I head back to the poker room.
Im pretty exited after winning to matches and I hit the £1-2 pl Omaha table and start going crazy in white Russians, my favourite dring.
I buy in for £80 and 4 hours and 10+ white Russians later I cashout £680 I head back to the hotal to crash.

Wednesday we are not playing, but have a meeting with Bruce at 11 for some interview stuff.

(bruce Martin on the right and Dario Minieri on the left)
We find a little café and have some food and the film crew arrives.
Im pretty smashed after yesterday, and the interview is longer than expected.
We have to say all this funny stuff like “We are the littlewoods poker qualifiers” at the same time while pointing at the camera, and I just cant control myself and laugh my ass of all the time.
It was very funny, but I think it will be terrible to watch.
I then head back to the hotel to relax until we are going out for dinner.
I haven’t had much sleep since I arrived and im really tired.
I fall asleep but 20-30 min after the hotel phone rings to ask me if I want cleaning today.
“No I don’t want cleaning, that’s why I got the DO NOT DISTURB sign on, I just want to sleep”.
It turns out that if its on after 2, the call you to check if you are satisfied with your room.
Off course I cant sleep again.
I meet with Bruce and the guys around 6, and he takes us out to a local pub where they brew their own beer.
We have a few of those and meet with one of Bruces friend Philip who is the top manager of Cryptologic and he joins us for dinner.
We have a great time and the food at the restaurant is amazing.
After dinner Bruce and me hit the poker room and have some drinks and fun at a £1-1 nl table.
Im pretty busted and return to the hotel around 2.

Again I wake up around 7 and don’t get much sleep.
I shop for some new clothes, and then go to the vic to play the 3^rd heat.
Again it is delayed 1,5 hour and many players are very annoyed by this, and in general not very happy by the way the event has been organised.
I have cut a deal with Robert and STEVEN WILMOT so I got 10% on them.

My opponent is Victor V. Ilyukhin who turns a to be a very nice guy, but also an extremely tough opponent.

He changes gear a lot, and we have a long tough 3,5 hour battle.
The last hour or so, we are at the featured tv table, and Victor ends up winning.
The match could have gone both ways, and it dosent really bother me much that im out, because I am 100% safisfied with the way I played.
Unfortunately both Steven and Robers also looses their match, so the hope of cashing a little is gone.
Steven heads home and Robert and I share a bottle of champagne because he has some drinking vouchers he wants to use before he leaves the day after, and then we head to the Italian restaurant for dinner.
We have an amazing meal again, and I win the coinflip today so Rob has to pay the £110 dinner.
Im pretty exhausted, so after dinner I just head back to the hotel and play online the rest of the evening.

Its been some great days here, and i have spent very little time at the hotel.
There are no heats today though, so time for an update.
Monday i was surpose to meet with bruce around one o´clock but he got delayed, so we arranged to meet for dinner at the casino instead.
So i went to The Vic to play some cash untill then.
I quickly got a seat at the 1-2 table and had a good session which ended with + £200.
At 5 i was getting hungry and hoped that Bruce and the guys would be there around 6.
But then it turned 6, and then 7, and then 8, and then 9… and nobody came.
I was a bit annoyed by this, and at this point, and very hungry so i cashed out and headed out to find a restaurant.
I asked at the table if the restaurant was any good, but got recommended not to eat there, so found a nice italien restaurant nearby instead.
Had a nice meal, and just when i came out Bruce called.
He had been caught up in another meeting, and when i finally meet him later i found out how busy he is all the time.
They were heading for dinner now, so i walked back to the casino to meet them.
So when i enter the casino restaurant there were only a few tables with people, and one tables with 3 people looked like it could be them.
So i went over and said hi and asked if he was bruce, and shaked hands and sat down.
So we talked a little and he asked if i was playing the tournament tomorrow!
Totally coufused i said, “well you should know, you are paying for it”.
“Ohh, im not bruce, that table over there is bruces tables!.
Turns out it was Roberto Romanello, a full tilt red pro and hes brother Antoni Romanello who i would get to know better later.
I guess he didnt hear what i said when i asked if he was bruce, and he just noded hes head.
Well we cracked up laughing, and i went over to Bruces table and joined them instead.
Robert “animal” was one of the qualifiers and another guy whos name i cant remember right now, who had qualified in a freeroll.
They were some nice guys and we had some drinks before going back to the hotel.
It turns out that Bruce knew the Romanello brothers and they were staying at the same hotel, so after talking with Mark Goodwin who is one of the littlewoods poker pros and some other fellas at the casino we went back to the hotel.
Me, Bruce, and the Romanello brothers then went to the the bar for a last drink and ended up talking for hours about poker, affiliating, and Antoni´s new poker site that had just been launched 4 months ago.
There were arranging a live tournament in Walsall to promote Antoni´s site the coming weekend, and invited me to come along.
It is starting saturday, and after thinking about it i have decided to go down there if im not in the final which is played saturday.
If i go down there i will stay untill monday instead of going home sunday.
I will have to buy a new plane ticket, but i might as well just have some fun while im over here.
We finally went to bed after 2 o´clock to be rested and ready for the heads up tournament, but it was a great eveing and everybody was very nice.

(heading out for dinner and will add update about tuesday later)

Leaving Denmark was terrible.
Knowing that i wasent gonna see my son for a week was just brutal, and harder than i had expected.

I was pretty depressed the hours before leaving, but once i got on the plane it got better though.
Once we aired i saw there was an empty row of seats next to me, so i hijacked that.
Ordered a small botttle of red wine and chips, threw up my feet and started on the Chris Ryan book i bought at the airport.
The wine was just perfect, and the book caught me right away, so before i knew it we were landing again.
A short flight, just under 2 hours.
I had no clue how far i was going once i reached London, and it was further than expected.
Had to take a train first, then some tubes and a cab because one of the tube stations were closed.
So that took almost 2 hours.
Those tubes are nasty by the way, steaming hot so i was sweating like a pig.
So once i finally got to the hotel and checked in i just had to get a cold beer before going to my room.
“why dident you just take one from the mini bar” you may think!
Well although its a nice big room, a minibar is not standard, but you can order one!!!
Alright, weird but whatever.
Of course i asked for one, what is a hotel room without a minibar!
I also ordered 5 days of internet connection.

Pictures of the room:

After a quick shower, i then headed straight to “The Vic” casino.
A short 10 min walk, and there was also a smaller casino on the way next to my hotel, but they dident have cash games, only tournaments.
I got in on £1-£1 table right away.
Minimus £40 and max £200 so i made a £100 buyin.
Very first hand i donked half my stack on a flush draw.
No worries though, because withïn the next hour i was sitting with £350
I sure stirred up some action, and could feel that i had a good control of the table.
I had a few drinks and there were some friendly guys at the table and there were some good conversations going, so i enjoyed it.
Around 2 i begane to get tired.
Because we changed to summer time, and i traveled to london it would normally be 4 now, and i usually crash around 2-3 0`clock at home.
I then get my pocked aces busted, and loose half my stack, and im thinking its time to stop.
Im hungry though, so i order a sandwich before i go.
Bad idea…
Just before im about to pick up my chips and go, i get pocket aces again.
I make a big preflop raise (like ive been doing most of the night), get a raise to £50 and then a player who has just sat down with around £100 goes all in.
I push my stack, and the reraiser instantly calls.
Now here is something i really dont like about playing at The Vic.
Im used to that the cards are shown once players are all in, so you can see whats going on and what you are up against, but here players dont show untill the river.
It turns out im up against A-K and KK, so a one outer one the turn was a sickening sight.
Big pot over £400 and im busted.
What a shame, it would have been nice winning a little the first day, but instead i lost £100.
I was very nice to play there though, and i look forward to more cash games this week.

Today i woke up at 8, which wasent the plan.
I dident expect to get up before Bruce would call me around 12.
Well, i couldent fall asleep again, so i got up and got some breakfast.
It was ok, but nothing special.
I then went back to the room but realized i needed to buy an adaptor, so i went down and bought one of those.
When i got back up i found out that the minibar hadent arrived (NO i dont drink before 12, i just wanted a cold soft drink  ), and i also dident have any login info for the internet, so i went back to the lobby.
Now this is a preeeety big hotel, and my room is proberly as far away for the elevator as possible, so i was a little grumpy after only 5 hours of sleep.
It turns out that the lobby guy forgot to give me my internet access yesterday, and there werent any minibars avalible at the moment…! WTF
Well, not much to do about that, so i order a 5 days internet access card.
5 days internet access dosent mean 5 days access though, but 30 hours of internet access…
Personally i would call it “30 hours of internet” if i was the seller, but hey what do i know!
So i head back to my room, with my “5 days of internet card”!
Get my backage unpacked, and get online.
Another slap in the face… of course the connection sucks. 
And boy do i hate a slow internet connection.
Well, not much to do about that eighter.
These are of course just minor bumbs, and im happy to be here.
Im expecting bruce to call any minut and then i dont know what the plan is, exept dinner and drinks tonight.
Oh yes and then i need to get my expenses refunded and get the sponsor clothes from littlewoods poker that i need to wear.