With 2,023 entrants and a prizepool of nearly $2.7 million - with the winner collecting $413,000 - the WPTDeepStacks main event at The Star Sydney broke multiple records for the World Poker Tour.
The Sporting News senior editor Kieran Francis - an online poker struggler - was entered into the $1,500 buy-in Main Event to see if he could match it with some of the world's best poker players.
With little-to-none live poker experience, I would need to finish in the top 253 players to ensure I got my buy-in back and win some prizemoney.
Entering in on Day 1C of the tournament, I wasn't able to sit down until 179 players had been knocked out on that day because an unprecedented 700 competitors registered on that day - meaning there was way more players than seats available.
After a three-hour wait, I sat down at the nine-handed table, and with big blind up to 600 chips already, I had only 50 big blinds in my starting stack of 30,000.
Early luck was needed for me to establish my chip stack and that came after 10 hands in the form of pocket 9's from the small blind position.
After flatting a raise from under-the-gun in the small blind, and with another caller on the button, I hit a set of 9's on the Q high flop that also had two clubs.
After a standard continuation bet from under-the-gun and a flat call from the button, I blasted in a three-times pot-size raise, with the original raiser calling and button folding.
The turn was another club, bringing in the flush draw, meaning the set of 9's would now be behind to a flush if the original raiser was holding two clubs.
I - forced to act first from the small blind - jammed his stack in the middle, hoping to be called by the opponent holding a top pair Q, or possibly having one club and a flush draw.
The opponent called, flipping over KQ with no clubs, meaning I more than doubled up his stack to over 60,000.
At the conclusion of the hand, the player on the button revealed he folded J7 of clubs, meaning he had a flush draw on the flop and it would make a flush on the turn.
But he had to fold after the three-times raise made by me on the flop, because he would be drawing almost dead if I had raised with a higher flush draw.
Buoyed by that early stroke of luck and good play, I dug in and managed to maintain my stack for the next 90 minutes.
Where it all went wrong
But I hurt myself considerably by making a huge mistake with poker's best hand - pocket aces.
First to act preflop, I decided to limp with AA in hope that an opponent on the aggressive table would raise - particularly one of the smaller stacks that would then likely call a jam in response.
But instead the unusual action of a tight player limping from the first position set alarm bells off to the three best players at the table, who decided to all limp behind, meaning pocket aces went four-way to a flop.
The flop was Q77 with two hearts, meaning I was basically dead to any of the opponents holding a 7 in their hand.
After placing a small continuation bet, one player called and two folded, with the opponent's range consisting of Qx, 7x, some small pocket pairs and heart flush draws.
The turn saw a Q roll off, meaning the board was now Q77Q, with two hearts, meaning if the opponent had a Q, he was now ahead as well.
I put in a weak check, knowing I was likely beat, and the opponent made a smart check behind.
The river was an inconsequential brick, with me checking and hoping to get to show down against a small pocket pair or a missed draw.
But the opponent put in a three-quarter pot bet on the river, and after tanking, I talked myself into calling by putting my opponent on a missed draw bluff.
However, it was always a fold and the poorly played hand - particularly with the preflop limp action - cost me half my stack and brought him back down to 30,000 chips.
I took this setback in my stride and dug in, determined to not make any more mistakes again - especially preventable ones like with the pocket aces.
With the blinds raising every 40 minutes, I collected a couple of small pots and manage to keep my stack around 15-30 big blinds deep for a long period of time.
As the big blind hit 2,000 and after eight hours of play, I was sitting with a little over 25,000 chips and needed to last another 40 minutes to make it through Day 2.
My tournament comes to an end
However, the situation meant I needed to shove my chips in the middle to win a hand, otherwise my stack would eventually be eaten by the blinds.
After the other short stack jammed his stack in the middle preflop, I also pushed all in with his pocket fives, hoping to see the opponent have a hand that wasn't a higher pocket pair.
And sure enough the villain had KJ offsuit, meaning I was a slight favourite to win before the flop, turn and river were dealt.
But the first card that appeared on the flop was a K, meaning I needed one of the two fives left in the deck to survive.
And it didn't come, meaning I was eliminated, agonisingly short of making it through to Day 2, where only 50 more players needed to be knocked out before the prizemoney started to be awarded.
In the end, casual Australian poker player Mark Fester ended up winning the Main Event and the $400,000 first prize.
I had a crack, and showed it is possible for someone with limited poker experience to survive in the tournament - but in the end, the error with the pocket aces proved crucial.
