I was quite deep into the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em rebuy tournament when I received a text from Marty Smyth. I’d spent $8,000 and there were 24 players left competing for a first prize of $130,000. I now had a slightly below average stack.

I’ve bet the lot on women’s curling. These things happen to me, and it’s not the first time with women’s curling, either. It must be four years ago, of course it was four years ago because it was the Swiss. I was home for almost all of the Winter Olympics, home in Denmark and there was a weird confluence of events that made Denmark the center of the women’s curling world. One of the anomalies of Danish television is that you get most of the Danish channels, some Swedish channels, some Norwegian channels, some German channels, some English channels, and then Eurosport. And it just happened to be that between those countries, five of the ten nations taking part in the women’s curling at the 2006 winter Olympics were covered. So when the women’s curling preliminary rounds were on, I had it going on five different channels at once. And I watched every match. And bet, of course. I was heavy on the Swiss that year, who produced a big upset to finish in second. But I probably still did my money.

I’d hear the term ‘stop the rot’ a lot when I used to watch football on the TV. In particular as an Aston Villa fan. Whenever they went on a bad run, it seemed to be the automatic phrase for both players and manager alike to spout during an interview. But it’s amazing how just grabbing one point – or dare I say an actual victory – can turn things around. It must be a confidence thing, a matter of morale, or a mere reminder that you’re not as crap as you once thought.

In the interests of this column I have been playing Rush Poker at Full Tilt. Or, as I think it should be called, Quick Fold Poker, because that’s what you do most of the time, isn’t it? Unlike most other poker junkies I have to say I am ambivalent about Quick Fold Poker. On the one hand, yes, it’s great, you get a billion hands per hour so, yeah, fantastic, you’re never out of action. But then again, what’s so great about constantly being in action? I mean, is this what online poker is coming to? It’s only good if the gap between poker decisions is 0.00001 of a nano-second?

I’m idly betting the darts in running on ITV4 while counting the minutes until my flight to Las Vegas. Six days and counting. Five days tomorrow morning. Six days until I touch down in Vegas, six and three hours until myself and the sun goddess head downtown to find Mad Marty and Katherine who will be somewhere between Binion’s poker room and the Golden Nugget bar, named Kelly’s Bar after the bartender who always gives Mad Marty and all the Irish guys free drinks if you just keep his tips coming regular.