"..and the Number 1 Pick in 2009 NPF Draft is..."

.. not me, obviously.

Having seen a team roster of what seems like 50 local players posted up last week, i see it as quite an achievement to go unnoticed when the team selections were being made.. although to be fair, i don't consider myself to be anywhere near as good as the players who have been selected, so i will wish them all good luck in their future endeavours.

The upswing is gathering pace now, with no final tables since the £2k at the Grosvenor, crashing out early was becoming old, fast. Sunday @ Circus for the £20 + £20 seemed like it would be more of the same. My first buy-in being distributed around the table nicely within an hour and my second buy-in down to 1400 by the break. Somehow within 20 mins of the restart though i'm up to 20k (limping with QQ to flop top set helps alot, trust me.. try it). I go on to earn my ticket to the final table by extracting the most value i've ever seen from pocket 5s at the expense of the table calling station, who called two hefty bets on a draw (middle pin!).

Not once being over average chips until 14 remained i was quite surprised i'd made it this far, especially with the table draw, which SamJ will testify was possibly the worst in Circus history.

Having almost doubled up to 40k in that hand the bubble soon bursts, and the bore fest that is final table poker begins. Raise, pass... Raise, pass... Raise, push, pass... wake me up if i nod off please.

I crash out 7th for £70 when my push with 88 is called by A9 off (he has a full boat on the river, talk about overkill). I left thinking i could have done alot better if i can just win a race when it counts, but i can't complain at what was fast becoming a rare cash.

Wondering if this was the start of a good run i register for the NPF $30 deepstack on WillHill which had a great turn out, despite WilliamHill's claims we wouldn't get the runners. The topic of conversation? The team selections, which eventually turned into a bit of a slagging match (not that that's owt new like).

Having hoped for an early night after Circus the night before, i was tiring fast as this game went on, misclicks here, timeouts there, and somewhat further proved by checking a straight flush on the river which i simply did not see until it was too late, "wake up man!".

All went quite well though, you don't see one final table for weeks and then two come along at once. Manage to be chip leader in this for quite a while and go to the final table with a 4k advantage over 2nd place sat with nearly 30k but ultimately bust in 3rd place for $200.

FullTilit deserving the victory, having been almost out earlier, but it was to be a tough task to get past Mullet, who not only plays at high a level, but also manages to suckout at every opportunity when he gets them in behind. Well played lads (who won?)

So two final tables in 2 days.. things are on the up. The team invites are flooding in now (well, all two of them) and i have a tough decision to make with offers on the table from the much respected Looseman and another from an, as yet, unnamed team. Thinking cap firmly on...