I lowered my sunglasses to take a look at the guy in seat 2. He was quite young, a student; well-dressed, usually a good sign of money behind. From what I’d seen of him, he seemed clever, but you can never read too much into that – clever people can be just as bad at poker, as stupid people.

I was facing a raise – a big one. Blinds were 8000 – 16000, and I had a stack of 410K; he covered me. One of my friends had called his raise all-in for about 45K; I was in the big blind and it was 54K more for me to call. Before I looked down at my cards, I considered the situation – two more people had to bust before the money, but I wanted to win. I thought about what I might do with each set of hands that I might look down at – folding most of them, probably, but what I might do if I had a good but vulnerable hand like ace-five suited or pocket eights.

I tried to imagine what he might have here. He’d shown down one fairly good bluff, but had value-bet in the same way – not giving off any tells as far as I could see. An experienced live player, apparently. There wasn’t really any information I could work with – I could only guess at what he had.

I looked down at my cards, and involuntarily twitched as I looked down at pocket jacks, black. This was a fairly clear all-in. But was it? Would it be better to see a flop, then all-in any flop without a queen, king or an ace? That was certainly an attractive line, but a dangerous one. I briefly thought about the possibility of folding, and laughed.

I thought about it a bit more, but couldn’t come up with a ‘right’ way to play it. This happens quite often, I find, especially live – decisions are quite difficult to make and you end up dithering for a while, but not really making any progress, and end up making your decision randomly.

Perhaps I ought to see where I stood by talking to him. I removed my earphones and asked him to count out his stack, even though I already knew how much he had. No tells. I asked him straight out ‘what would you raise with in this spot?’ His reply: ‘A variety of hands – really, are you expecting me to tell you what I have?’

This wasn’t gonna work. I weighed up my options again, but came to the conclusion that the decision was far too close either way. If I win the pot, I’d be a massive chiplead – 6-1 on the next biggest guy, and this was the final table for gods’ sake. If I lost, shame and disappointment, and more importantly, no payout. I’d simplify things - ‘all-in’, I said.

He called immediately, and turned over a hand I didn’t expect – two black aces. I groaned, heavily, but there were still two jacks left in the deck to help me. That was, until my friend turned his hand over – ace-jack!

This wasn’t good. I had this hot feeling at the back of my neck when I know I’ve screwed up, and things are going badly. I couldn’t look at my friends. I buried my face in my hands. I’m gonna need a miracle, and knowing my luck it won’t hit.

But things can turn round. The dealer burnt, then laid out the flop – BANG first card out, the jack of diamonds. Sweet. The other four cards helped no-one – I scooped a massive pot.

I went on to win the tournament. I was so happy! I’d been playing well, but as they say, to win tournaments you need to get lucky from time to time. Looking back on it at the time, I’d probably made the right decision given the information I had.

The funny thing was, we were playing for £5 each. All this showboating was inspired by watching the world series and other big tournaments on tv. The pot was £75, and I won £45 out of it for first. We were just students trying to pass the time on a boring Thursday night. I took it so seriously – it was as if this was the final table of Monte Carlo and it was Phil Ivey versus Carlos Mortenson.

This was, in fact, the third time I’d ever played poker, and I’m damn glad I hit that one-outer. If I hadn’t had that beginners luck, I dont think I would have had any interest in this silly game, and I certainly wouldn’t be making a living off it now.

- Wazz