THIS TIME NEXT weekend I’ll be sitting at a Vegas casino table, up against eight other card players for the most prestigious title in all of poker and a first prize of over $8.7 million (€6.1m).

After some time off, I’ve started to think about the final table a bit more and prepare for it properly over the last couple of weeks.

I headed over to London for the European Poker Tour at the beginning of October and then on to the World Series of Poker Europe events in Cannes. At those kind of tournaments, you do get a lot of people asking about it, so it’s been in my head all of the time since then.

Over the last week or so, I’ve started to watch back over all of the ESPN footage from the earlier tables of the Main Event. In poker, you’re always thinking about the other players, what cards they might have and what they might do with them, so I find it really helps to have a look at them in action.

I only really know the three American lads [Matt Gianetti, Phil Collins and Ben Lamb] well, but by this stage, I’ve a fair idea of how the others play from watching them and listening to others talk about them.

I’ve been out in Vegas for the World Series for the last few years but, to be honest, they were all awful tournaments for me. I was sick one year and then I was hungover another year, so I really made an effort to make sure that I was fresh going in this time around.

Because the Main Event is the last tournament left, if you’re having a bad trip, you won’t be motivated at all. You’re just really negative before you even start and then you play negatively once you sit down.

But in the weeks before this time around, I was having a really good trip. I’d only played in three Hold’em events and I’d cashed [won prize money] in all three which is pretty good. That kind of form is really good for your confidence and, at these type of tournaments, confidence is key.

Good hand

People have been asking me how I expected to get on before the Main Event started this year. You have to remember that there were nearly 7,000 players in contention at the beginning and in any tournament with that size field, you don’t really expect to do well. If you get a cash, you can be happy enough but I’m not really sure if that’s what I expected at the start. I didn’t really think about it too much to be honest.

It was only when I landed a couple of big hands towards the end that I realised just how far I could go. I doubled through twice with kings when there was about 30 players left. When it got down to the final 22 players on the penultimate day, I finished second in chips. You start to think about it then alright — how could you not? — but it didn’t make me nervous or anything.

I’m flying out to Vegas today which will give me a couple of days to settle in and do a few last bits and pieces. I’ve been doing a lot of interviews and stuff this week so it’s been busier than usual and I haven’t quite got all of my prep done yet. I still have a few tapes left to watch, but I’ll have a few days on my own before my friends and family arrive out in the middle of the week so I’ll make time to sit down and finish them off.

I could come ninth, which happens, but I’d be pretty sick. You’re never happy at a tournament unless you actually win it. Before you start, you’re delighted just to get your money back, but once you get there, that mindset changes.

The money is a big deal for sure; it’s big money.

But the actual winning of the tournament is even bigger. If I got to heads-up [the final two], the difference in the prize money would be the last thing on my mind.

If I lost it then, I’d be gutted.

- As told to Niall Kelly

• Paddy Power Poker is offering nine lucky players a chance to travel out to Las Vegas to watch Eoghan O’Dea and the rest of the “November Nine” do battle in the final table of the World Series of Poker. For full details of how to enter, visit www.paddypowerpoker.com.