<insert Nick’s useless apology for not updating blog here>

Happy Holidays one and all.

It’s that limbo time in between Christmas and New Year that’s always about a day longer than you think. They need a name for this bit – earlier today I had no clue whether to wish someone happy Christmas or happy New Year or what… I settled for ‘see you soon’. Given that it was the lady at the supermarket fish counter I’m not sure I nailed it.

Hope you’ve had a great Christmas. Mine was really nice but they are all starting to blend into one. I think you get to a certain age and you need to have kids involved for that special Christmas magic. Next year I’m hiring some for a week to magic it up a notch.

I’m writing this in a bit of a hurry trying to get everything done before popping off on my travels. Lucky boy that I am I’m working the PCA in the Bahamas (they made me) so I’m leaving early to stop off in the states for a few days. I’m spending New Year’s eve in New York which should be a great experience then I’m squeezing in a few days in Vegas before going down south.

It’s pathetic really – I happen to be on the same continent so I have to visit Vegas. 15 years since I first sampled it’s neon infested delights I still can’t shake the need to go and play.

Word on the grape vine is that things are not good in Vegas as the credit crunch bites. It’ll be interesting to experience how things are there – it seems inevitable it’ll really suffer in the down times but we’ll see.

One thing’s for certain I’ll be playing in some really tight poker games. It’s that ‘beginning of the year’ phenomena. Every poker player’s slate is wiped clean as 2008s misfortunes or misplays are forgotten and everyone starts the year trying to play well – which in most people’s minds is playing tight. It’s like everyone’s at the start of a session. We’ll see if I can winkle out a profit and pay for the trip – I’ll keep you updated….. okay I shouldn’t promise that. I’ll update you in retrospect in a month or so!

One final note my site for poker stuff – ontherail.co.uk – will be up and running in 2 or 3 weeks. We’ve been working hard on it and it should be a fun place to visit for you poker nuts! The only downside is that I’ll have to update my blog at least weekly… any bets on how long that’ll last?!

Happy New Year to you all – hope 2009 brings you everything you could wish for

So almost a month has gone by and tragically I don’t have too much to write.

I’m sure I’ve been doing a lot of stuff I just haven’t felt very … you know..’bloggy’ about it.

The worst thing about writing one of these things is that feeling you get when someone asks you what you’ve been up to and you reply…’um….ah…um…well there’s work…’. That’s what I’m doing staring at my white screen as it slowly fills with the nonsense you’re currently enduring.

It’s nothing to do with me but Obama got elected President. I was at an Election party in a bar in London surrounded by nervous Americans with very few Republicans in attendance. It was a good experience with the excitement mounting as it became clear that any nervousness some of us may have had (having lived through some election night debacles) that the opinion polls were wrong. Suffice to say there was cheering, champagne and on a night of history I managed to make a piece of my own by being escorted from a bar by a bouncer for the first time! I don’t want to go into the unfortunate details but we had a slight disagreement – I felt the bar should remain open for celebrating indefinitely , he clearly felt slightly differently!

The interesting thing about the Obama election campaign was how desperate many people were for him to win and how little they thought about what he would do. I wrote this sentiment in a piece on the eve of the election for the website englandforobama.com. It’s only now people are realising the ridiculous nature of some of the expectations of an Obama presidency and the mess he’ll inherit. At least America may become a little less into wars and a bit more engaged in the world and that’ll be an improvement for everyone!

I’m spending a couple of weeks trying to progress some writing and performing projects of my own that have been kicking around for far too long. One of the pitfalls of being freelance is that you’re always chasing the paying jobs but they can lead you down a road far away from your actual objectives. It’s tough to make time for the things that don’t pay the rent but may do one day.

I saw a couple of minutes of a stand up comic doing a not completely original but still funny ‘bit’ about how all anyone does in November is say ‘I can’t believe it’s November’. Sadly true and I’m sad to report I’m no different. I hate how the year careers to an end. I’m not one of the bah humbug brigade I love Christmas and the holiday season but it’s frustrating how everyone uses the fact that either December is round the corner or we’re in the first two weeks of it to down tools and/or delay doing anything until January…. at which point most people are so depressed they’d rather be under the duvet with a bottle of scotch than cracking on with stuff.

Speaking of cracking on with stuff I really should be….which means I’m almost certainly going to post this then flip tv channels for an hour. Happy November!

Okay so I really need to update this and I’m feeling uninspired …let’s see if anything good pops out together shall we!

So I survived the wall to wall poker work in September/early October. As ever it was fun to do but there was so much of it I was going boss eyed. When you’re starting to get bored of yourself and your stock phrases you know you’re in trouble (and yes I know it’s amazing it doesn’t happen to me more often). By the end I could just about tell the suits apart.

The last piece of work I did was a cash game where Eric Liu pounded the table into submission. After watching him in this and in his deep run at the London EPT you couldn’t help but be really impressed – it’s fun to see a new star emerge and he seems to like it in Europe so I reckon he’ll be around for a while.

After that I escaped London and went on a search for some late sun. Me and my girl ended up in Florida sitting on sun loungers for a week. I haven’t done too many sunny do nothing holidays but I some how found a way to cope! It was a great time (it’s all about the company) and I learnt something crucial I was not previously aware of… Pina Coladas are brilliant. They are highly contextual though as my subsequent attempt to order one in the Cat & Canary went a bit badly.

It was fun being in America a few days before the big election. As I write this it looks like America may see sense for once and elect the guy that won’t try and invade other countries for being slightly different. Being in Florida a big swing state was interesting as there were ads and campaign material all over the shop. What’s really interesting is just how much more Obama material there was to McCain stuff. Anecdotally I’d say there were 4 to 1 more Obama ads on tv. Now as a supporter this it’s great he has so much more cash but it’s hard to see it as anything other than a bit anti-democratic. Apparently when they wrote the constitution they were of the view that money=democracy. In other words the better candidate you are and the better your arguments the more money you’ll attract. I’m not so sure but it’s interesting how different it is to here.

The Virgin poker inspired omaha challenge (seemless sponsor plug) continues though work and travel have meant I haven’t played enough hands recently. I’m pretty sure I’m a winning player at .5/1 but I want to play 15/20k hands more at that level as I still have some big leaks. The general plan is to be at 1/2 by the end of the year – I’ll keep you updated.

Winter beckons I guess. I think the clocks go back this weekend which is always a little depressing (by a little I mean ‘let’s all retreat under the duvet with a bottle of scotch for 5 months this is ruddy horrendous’).  I keep flirting with the idea of living overseas – let’s face it I’ve flirted with it for years but I never quite give it the full on frenchie. (sorry just made myself laugh by saying frenchie…ahhh to be 14 again)

I better stop now this is getting silly – see you soon

I’m very bad at updating my blog. I think we’ve established that.

But then I’m also very bad at going to the gym enough, calling my mum and doing my tax return… Not that all these things are painful just that they involve some amount of effort on my part!

Things have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks with close to wall to wall poker work – the normal stuff for poker player, sky and on the rail, lots of wccoop broadcasting work and the first ept of the year from Barcelona.

Doing EPT live properly for the first time was great fun. It’s a pretty enormous operation these days – a live broadcast in six venues from a venue not usually used for a tv show.

I love live broadcasting. Most of the work I’ve done has been in football or poker but to be honest the subject matter isn’t as exciting to me as performing live. It’s the same doing things for a live audience – nothing else gives you quite the same buzz or is quite as much fun as doing stuff live. Maybe it’s the possibility of falling flat on your face and seeing if you can recover again; whatever it is the best.

The poker bandwagon continues to roll over the next couple of weeks without much let up. The WSOPE is happening now with my friend Neil Channing scoring 4^th in the first event. Neil’s having an unreal run at the moment and is the definition of ‘hot’ (in the poker sense)(not that he’s not easy on the eye)(this is getting worse)(just stop writing things in brackets that’s the key) – he’s also the definition of ‘very good at poker’.

I’m looking forward to getting down there this week and seeing if they’ve solved some of the problems from last year which … to be polite…wasn’t great.

Some of you reading this will be going to the Virgin festival on the 27^th and it’ll be great to see you there. I’m going to try really really hard to play the tournament seriously. I’ve developed a real problem with live tournaments – playing 10 handed live is so slow compared to my normal online games it’s hard to adjust. Typically if I don’t do well in the first few pots I play I start losing concentration and the need to mess about takes over… being surrounded by good friends and booze isn’t going to help! If you get on my table it could be bad news or it could be some serious free chips. Anyways it should be a fun day

After that the London EPT happens … help me I’ve fallen into a poker events hole …see you in November….

In one of my earlier blogs I made a blithe comment about the credit crunch and some badly expressed views about capitalism. Actually I was trying to talk about how the media reports things but anyway since I wrote it things have really slightly fallen apart.

I know some of you don’t want to read about politics so please skip the next couple of paragraphs if that’s you. But two things have struck me recently.

The first is that it’s been a tough decade to be a left of centre person who never believed the market was the answer to everything because it exists for it’s own sake and not for everyone’s benefit. I take no pleasure at all in what’s happened but it’s ironic to see the most right wing administration in the history of the states taking huge companies into state ownership (that’s a tenant of communism in action?!!). Hopefully a better system where markets can operate but on terms that protect and benefit the greater population will emerge…I can hope…

The second is that when things do go wrong, when the individuals paid huge salaries finally fall into the greed trap it’s the taxpayer that picks up the bill. All the bailouts and ‘injections of capital’ come from our money and will eventually have to be paid for whether labour or the tories are in power. This means either spending on stuff we need will reduce or taxes will go up. A friend of mine made the killer point on this… if these financial institutions are so important that they ‘can’t be allowed to fail’ when things go wrong then some of their profits should kick back to us during the good times. Call it a bankruptcy protection tax to be paid after a financial company reaches the size where it can’t be allowed to fail. Again I guess it won’t happen but it seems ridiculous that the system works on a free pass for some. After all try leveraging your house to 27 times it’s value (as many of these firms did with their assets) then popping down to Westminster for a bit of cash when it all goes wrong – not overly likely I’m afraid…

…And breath….

Quick Nick recover the blog…say something funny about something you did recently…..

Nope I’m out – just as well this has gone on long enough. See you all soon, if not in the flesh at one of the many London based poker events then I promise to update this again much sooner

What is up…. and so forth…

Just a quick update with some work news I’m reasonably excited about.

A couple of new projects that have been in the works are kicking off quite soon. 

First of all over on pokerstars.tv I’ll be hosting a highlights show for the final tables of the big wccoop events. It should be a pretty neat show – it’s cards up so you can see the moves players are making at the end of these big events. Hopefully I’ll be commentating on someone reading this if one of you guys makes a final table.

I’ve also just agreed to host some of the EPT live coverage this season. I’ll be at all of the main venues where there is a live broadcast sharing hosting duties with regular man James Hartigan.
I’ve always really liked EPT live and loved doing a stint on it in Monte Carlo last year so this is really exciting for me. It’s great fun and as no one knows any of the whole cards and it’s live it’s real old school poker programming.
Not only that it’s interactive so you’ll all be able to message in – hopefully be hearing from you at the first event in Barcelona the weekend after next.

I’ll write a fuller entry in a bit but wanted to keep you informed of what was going on - hope you’re catching some cards

August is a strange time for me when it comes round seemingly almost always on a yearly basis. Basically to sum up … nothing happens.

The two main industries I work in all but shut down. Poker suffers its post WSOP hang over and in comedy everyone goes to Edinburgh for the festival and then they all go on holiday. So things right now are quiet, bitty and a bit meh…. I suspect this blog will accurately reflect that. 

That doesn’t mean my life isn’t crazy wild and exciting… oh no. (it does)

So what can I tell you about…Well the Omaha challenge has started briskly. I’ve managed to play 20k hands at .5/1 which is a good start and more hands than I’m usually able to play in a month. I’m a marginal winner so far – which I’m disappointed by as I feel more competent than most of the players in the game. I almost certainly need to get off my own back on this as I’ve only been playing the game properly for a few weeks – but you’ve gotta have standards.

Learning something is interesting. We do it less as we get older but it’s such a great feeling when you improve at something. You also go through peaks and troughs – times when you feel like you don’t get it at all and are completely lost or even that you’ve gone backwards and then those heavenly times when something just clicks and you move up a level.
It feels good to be learning something but it also feels good to have some of my passion for poker back  

Right time to vent…. if one more “journalist” says either ‘credit crunch’ or ‘team gb’ in my presence I will beat them to death with rusty shovel.

Let’s all be clear the credit crunch is something that happened between the big banks when their mindless greed eventually resulted in making such ludicrously bad lending decisions that they ran out of money to lend each other to cover up their incredibly bad greedy decisions. The beauty of capitalism is that it’s we the public that suffer the greater relative effect because of the knock on to the economy. Sorry I’m not really a fan of capitalism… that said I’m too lazy to change it so we all have to make the best of it….
None of this means that ‘credit crunch’ is responsible for the whole economic downturn, or the price of petrol rising, it is also not responsible for the bad weather we’re having being unlucky in love or the bruhahah in south ossetia so if people in the media could stop saying the words credit crunch in every tossing report that would be lovely.

Second up is it me (it probably is) or is the term ‘team gb’ somehow really odious. I think its great that the nations sportsmen are bucking a generation of underachievement to rock the house at the Olympics. Let’s rejoice in our victories rather than pondering over various defeats and near misses. However it is not necessary to brand the nations athletes as ‘team gb’ – its not necessary to brand them at all. In the words of Bill Hicks, not my words in case it applies to you I have plausible deniability, ‘if you work in advertising or marketing kill yourself’.

Having said that ITV news did cheer me up the other night. My old flat mate and I always used to call it ‘the news for kids’ and I love it when they fulfil the ultra low standards they set themselves. Last night the first words out the anchors mouth were ‘team gb continues the great haul of china’… genius

Okay enough ranting – let’s end on something positive and life enhancing. The final tally on my sister and I’s marathon fund raising is in. We had a target of £5000 which I always thought was stupidly high. However we somehow managed to make £6,400!!! It’s a great feeling to have accomplished such a big figure but more importantly knowing that several young children who have had really horrendous, unfortunate starts to life will have their time improved by our efforts.

I know several of you that contributed read this blog and there are too many to thank individually so just to say a huge thanks to you all – you’ve helped us do a really good thing and your money will be really well spent.

Of course none of that is remotely worth me having to run anywhere….but you live and learn.

Right can’t help feeling the title may have encumbered this blog with a level of expectation that can’t be fulfilled.

So a little background before I tell you about the quest which I’m really excited about.

As I said in an earlier blog I was really worried about my poker playing. I’d reached a point where I wasn’t really improving, wasn’t playing my best often enough and – far more importantly – wasn’t really enjoying it.

On my trip to vegas I’d hoped to reach some kind of decision either that I’d take a break for an extended time or that I’d find some inspiration to kick on because I was starting to resent the time I spent playing.

Fortunately the latter happened in Vegas – is there nothing it can’t do?

First of all I had a great trip with lots of old and new poker friends and that plus kara’s ME run gave me a lot of enthusiasm back. More importantly I was convinced to take a new direction with my game and usher in the age of Omaha. I need to give credit where its due it was Brian Townsend’s idea and its been backed up since by everyone I’ve talked to. Not only is it a more interesting, challenging game than Holdem but – far more importantly – there’s a lot more money to be made playing it because people play it far worse.

I’ve played Omaha before, read the odd book… basically dabbled – but never tried to study it or play well. As soon as Brian suggested I specialise in it felt like the right thing to do as I guess I’ve always had a fascination with the game. So it’s a valid question as to why I haven’t done this before. I think there’s such a big comfort zone with Holdem (the game I grew up on etc) that moving out of that needs a big reason. And also jumping into Omaha isn’t necessarily that easy as there’s so much less information on the game.

I do have bits and pieces of knowledge picked up along the way however I’m trying to completely dismiss those and learn the game from the ground up. Already I think people have some pretty big misconceptions about it …which is nice I guess!

Now being the deal making genius I am (?!) I’ve managed to use this new ..ahem…”quest” to solve another life problem – getting into the bloody main event. The great people at Virgin poker have agreed to sponsor me for it next year – but there’s a condition. They’re paying half my buy in; I have to win the other half playing Omaha…. that’s the quest part you’ve heard so much about!! Obviously given my 15 year struggle to play in the thing without actually paying (!) I’m delighted by this – it also give me a concrete target (which I plan on exceeding) which I need to keep me focussed; so a big thanks to Virgin.

I’ve no idea how interested you guys will be but I’ll give you regular updates on my progress. I’ve started with $4k and was playing .25/.50 put have moved up to $.50/.1 (.25/50 euro) as there doesn’t seem much difference in the games.

So far Omaha rocks – just a lot more interesting than Holdem – although I haven’t got to the stage where I’m counting outs without using my fingers!!

Wish me luck….

So what’s it all about this life business?

You’ve probably asked yourself a couple of times along the way – well relax because I’m pretty confident that by the end of this post all you’re questions will have been answered.

Before my trip to Vegas I think (and we can only see these things in the rear view mirror) I’d become stale in a lot of different ways. I think I needed a shakabuku ‘a swift spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever’ and I think I got it.

Actually I think the last 3 weeks has just reminded me of a couple of things I sometimes forget but really shouldn’t by now.

Here’s the thing.

The juice of life is experiences.

Only when we’re having new, surprising, rich, fun experiences are we really living – the rest of the time is hanging around.

It’s the old cliché – if you’re not growing you’re dying. And it’s really hard to grow if you’re doing the same things everyday or don’t have passion in what you’re doing

One of the interesting things is that people continually make the mistake of pursuing and spending their money on things and possessions when they should be spending it on new experiences (I’m borrowing this idea from ‘Happiness’ by Richard Layard – though I think he was observing not inventing; I think it’s bang on basically)

Of course one of the main reasons for this is that possessions give you only a fleeting moment of pleasure where as experiences are forever and you can relive them again and again

The last 3 or 4 weeks have been full of experiences I didn’t expect; couldn’t have expected. Almost every day brought something new and exciting; with some times that I think I’ll remember for ever. And it’s made me so happy and grateful for getting to live through it.

I was going to write that if only life could always be like that … but then I’d be shattered – I think those days interspersed with a couple sitting on a big bean bag staring into space.

Sometimes you don’t realise what a great time a period of your life was until you look back on it in the future; this wasn’t like that. I enjoyed it, relished it and tried to make the most of it every day.

The thing that made it particularly special I was lucky enough to have on this trip were some of my favourite people in the world (some long standing – some newly promoted to that status) around. Of course sharing the experiences I’m banging on about is what elevates them to pure pleasure

I need to make clear that I’m as guilty as anyone of not following these ideas. I often waste too much time, or I’m not open enough to new experiences or I don’t spend enough time with people I love. It’s just that in the last month I was lucky enough to get it right and it reminded me what really makes me happy.

So to recap

Great experiences you can always treasure with people you think are great – that’s what it’s all about; everything else is just window dressing.

And at the end your experiences, in the from of your memories, are all you’ll have. All money will decide is how expensive you’re sheets are and how big the room is.

There we are – it’s pretty straightforward actually.

I would get cracking with some more ‘experiences’ but apparently my body needs about 18 hours of sleep right now and then when I wake up I get to have the ‘experience’ of answering 3 weeks of emails and bills and meeting work deadlines.

But I’ll make sure the next bit of really living isn’t too far away…..

Hey everyone.

Apologies for the huge delay since my last blog. I expected to blog regularly from Vegas but it wasn’t to be. In the words of me talking to my old economics teacher when she used to ask for my essays…. ‘um…I haven’t done it. I have no excues.’
I’m going to give you an extra long update to make for it. Sadly it’s going to be  what did I do on my holidays type deal but there you go….

As I write this I’m totally beaten up. When you get up in the morning and you’re not sure which hangover of the last four your recovering from you know its time to slow down. Vegas does this to me like nowhere else. At home I don’t go out very much and only very rarely in a big way – here it happens for several nights in a room until meltdown which was today! I have 6 days left before going back to England and they’ll definitely be a much more chilled out affair.
It’s been a ridiculous trip. I’ve been coming to Vegas for many years and I’ve never had a trip like it here or anywhere else. I don’t know why but almost every day has had surprises, memorable events and great times – there have been some downs too – but it’s never been predictable. I’ve always thought ‘living’ is the ups and downs that we go through not the day to day grind and this trip has been nothing else.

The first week was a pure holiday and it was a joy. It’s many many years since I came to vegas for a holiday without playing poker or working. This year I needed a break and brought my brother in law out. One of the great pleasures in life is showing some one Vegas for the first time – it never fails to blow them away. Thanks to Kara’s vip connections we had a great party night in Tao. Nightclubs and their pomposity fascinate me – which is why my sitcom is set in one. I love how people pay thousands to stand one side of a rope compared to the other. I also love playing my ‘spot hot girls who can’t dance at all’ game – try it next time you’re out it rocks. We had a blast and thanks to some friends made while busting some shapes I’m now welcome in Detroit any time….. I mean I have no actual contact details but I think if I rock up in Detroit I’ll be golden…

Between my ‘holiday’ and the series main event build up getting going I played some poker. I actually played a few tournaments to change things up – I’m struggling with live cash these days as it’s so slow and keeping discipline is hard. During series time the Venetian and Ceasars run deep stack events which are really fantastic. Professionally run, lots of chips and a chance at a big prize for an affordable buy in. great for players and defnintely the way poker is going as players get more sophisticated. I think I played decently – ran up my stack most times I played (the competeition wasn’t great with a deep stack) but missed out on a big score. I went deep in a Caesar’s event but somehow managed to get KK cracked by 33 which was pretty tedious.

Since moving to the Rio and starting the build up to the main event things have ‘gone a little bit turbo’. I’ve been working during the days – podcasting for on the rail and ladbrokes, commentary for stars and some writing; then socializing in the evenings (there are scores of parties in WSOP week – it’s such a bind ;))…I’ve officially been burning the candle at both ends…. I won’t bore you with all the messy details but the Ladbrokes party on top of the rio was a lot of fun – as was the Cardrunners party involving some righteous beer pong action (which appears to have made it to the forum already – see poker chat) as Brian and I destroyed all comers (after we’d played the old ‘I’m from England I’ve never played it before hustle’)

The main event has been my nemesis as ever. It’s as if poker has been too good to me over the years and it gets its own back when I try and qualify for the thing (do I write this each year?). As usual this year I tried and failed – as usual when I play WSOP qualifying every idiot turns into a poker genius or pulls 9 aces preflop out the back….. do I sound bitter coz I am!!
Thankfully I can live vicariously through Kara. I’m sure you’ve all heard about her awesome day 1 and her 42 kagillion chips. It’s pretty great stuff and she’s put herself in position to make a run into the money. Obviuosly I’m really proud of her and hope she can keep it up. Actually I have 6 or 7 friends going into day 2 so it’s going to be pretty exciting even if I am standing on the rail holding the coats…

That’s a few of the highlights – there’s plenty of other stuff I’ve had to leave out – but all in all it’s been an amazing trip. Still another 6 days left here which will be more relaxed I hope as I prepare to re-enter normal society
Vegas is a dream and nightmare for me I’ve decided – it’s so seductive it removes me of all my real life ambition….

So it’s summer. I know the weather doesn’t tell you so but your local Cineplex (whatever that is will). It’s blockbuster season.

Let me put my cards on the table – I ruddy love a good blockbuster. Last summer I was sitting in the audience for Transfomers and the educated 10% of my brain was thinking this is ludicrous, childish drivel; sadly the other 90% was busy jumping up and down and giggling like an 8 year old as the big robots smashed each other apart….and they could like totally change into cars and everything

Sadly I’m stuck in a state of arrested development – but waddya gonna do…

With that in mind it’s with a heavy heart that I have to rant slightly about the state of most ‘blockbuster’s. Hollywood is busy eating itself with endless sequels and franchises (apparently they’re making 2 more terminator films…. 1 and 2 just awesome but enough now, stop please)

It’s fine when they’re good riotous fun (like Transformers) but not when they’re sad lifeless messes. Unfortunately Indiana Jones 4 (count them) falls into this category. I adore Indy films – especially the original – but this is a bad imitation. Frankly George Lucas needs to stop writing scripts – his endless need to explain everything, even things not connected with the script (what was with the KGB/FBI storyline that completely disappeared… or the conversation about the young guy fencing at school so he can have a sword fight later; christ we didn’t need a conversation in the first film about how Indy did whip classes at school)….

Anyway I want my blockbusters fun and spectacular – roll on the Dark Knight if it’s half as good as Batman Begins I’ll be happy…

My nomination of funniest moment in TV this year was during the final of Britain’s got talent. During the results show as they announced the top 3 of the ten finalists there were several pauses for tension complete with dramatic close ups of the finalists so you could be sure how much it meant to them. One of the acts was a young girl with a performing dog. Not once but twice (and I promise I’m not making this up) during the tension filled moments the director closed in on…. The dog. We were left in no doubt just how much that dog wanted to perform for Prince Charles….

That’s films and TV so you can tell how remarkable my life is at the moment…

Mainly I’m trying to get all my work and stuff done before Vegas

I leave in about 10 days and it should be a great trip. The annual mixture of work in the sun, poker and holiday beckons. I’ll also be doing some serious thinking about my next steps in work and life (and poker) as I’m at one of those crossroad things we hear so much about…. I’ll keep you posted.