Americans 1 Russkies 0 – Well we’re back, the Russkie hackers have been defeated. In the time we have been away I have been tied up in my usual business problems, but my decision to wait until I take an early retirement and get a serious bankroll has taken some weight off my expectations. I am playing with some freedom. I got donked out at a final table recently, after 6 hours of graft, by a player with AT calling my all in raise with AK and hitting a ten, but it happens. That is the situation I want. I just don’t want the donk getting lucky. I am now in a position where I don’t have to make money at the game so things become easier to take. What really pleased me was the way I played and the way I got over the suckout. At the time I was angry but it only lasted a few seconds. The reactions of the other players were  “how can you possibly call with that?!” That he did is the reason I still play, and intend to keep myself match fit.

Bleeding obvious – The man in charge of a lot of the TV tournaments in the UK is “Mad” Marty Wilson. Sometimes, just as in live multi table tournaments, a player will call on him for the clock when someone is taking a long time to make a decision. A player once asked Marty how long he had to think. Marty replied, “obviously the rest of your life.”

Bring me another live one – In a slightly bizarre twist to the apocryphal “bring me a live one” tale comes the following true tale. I was playing with a guy called Ray who is sadly getting married and moving to Michigan, USA. While over there he sometimes plays in a dingy Flint casino. He was going to play one night but had to cancel, which is just as well, because in the middle of a game, this guy comes in and tries to hold up the casino, fires a couple of shots into the ceiling and is promptly shot dead by guards. Ray said knowing his luck, the shots would have rebounded and hit him. The poker players, being poker players, then continued to play with the body waiting to be collected. My sort of poker players.

Do you feel lucky punk? – Bad players love 50-50’s because 90 per cent of the time that’s the best situation they ever find with all their chips in the centre. Good players hate 50-50’s because 90 per cent of the time that’s the worst situation they ever find with all their chips in the centre.