Yesterday was Day 1a of the World Series of Poker Europe in London. I took it easy on Friday night, getting plenty of rest so I was at my best going into this massive 10,000 GBP event. My mate Joe Hachem is staying at same hotel as me so we went to the event together at the Empire Casino in Leicester Square which is a really nice venue.

As soon as I sat down, there were 4 tv cameras in my face and microphones hanging everywhere. ESPN are broadcasting the WSOPE (to 350 millions homes they say) and my table was one of the tv tables at the start of the tournament! That was pretty exciting. A hand I am sure will make the tv show was when I had King-Ten. I moved all in a board (5 cards) that has 2 tens and 3 hearts to keep it simple (plus I don’t remember exactly what, haha). So with my King-Ten I had trip Tens, pretty good hand. But the other guy had Ace-King of hearts, which gave him a flush and he FOLDED it, haha! If he had called he would have beaten me. Looking forward to seeing that hand on TV.

My stack slowing dwindled after that, not being able to get a hand. Well I raised one hand from the button with pocket Aces, and a limper to my right was the only one that called. The flop came J-J-2 and the guy checked. I bet again, and he folded Ace-King face up. He should have raised me pre-flop so I could have got some more out of him!

I lasted well past the dinner break, but my elimination hand was crazy! Arrrhgg! The hand was against Farzad Bonyadi (so PokerNews told me!) who is a pro (I didn’t know him). The board at the turn was K-K-8-A. Farzad put me all in (for less than the pot size) and I called with my K-7. He showed K-J – doh- but, it’s a split pot if the river is an Ace, Eight, Queen and I win if it’s a Seven. But, river came a Jack and he made a full house to knock me out.

Oh well – next tournament is the 888 Poker Open – am looking forward to that. Will be a few Aussies there including Jeff Fenech and Tony G I think.

I am heading to Scotland in a couple of days to play in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship pro-am event (golf, of course) and am really looking forward to that. It’s at St Andrews. My game hasn’t been terrible - I was able to hold off from getting a beating from poker/golf pro Patrik Antonius in South Africa a few weeks ago.

After the golf, it’s back to London for the launch of my new book, “Shane Warne’s Century” which is my thoughts of the top 100 cricketers in the world (that I have played with or against). See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article4828182.ece?openComment=true