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"Start as you mean to continue", that's how the old proverb goes anyway. Unfortunately, I've never been a person for this whole clean living malarkey, but only getting two hours sleep the night before the Celtic Poker Tour grand final was a bit extreme, even by my standards. I actually had intended to be well rested, but as it turned out Friday night had different plans for me. Nevertheless, I found myself at The Park Hotel in Clonmel at 2:45pm on Saturday - 15 minutes before kick-off.

There's a lot of give and take when it comes to chat box abuse in online poker.

You have to dole it out in spades because most people, whether they admit it or not, are susceptible to tilt when they or their play are abused by an opponent who has just won a pot off them. It is therefore, a +ev play to harangue everybody at all times. And you have to take it because, well, all of your opponents use the same idiotic logic that you do.

When you look at the European poker "circuit", there's almost a two-tier feel to it - Premiership and Championship. If you're prepared to front up £5,000 to play a poker tournament, or better still, if you can find someone else to front it for you, it's Leicester Square, Budapest, Amsterdam and maybe even a trip to the Bellagio in between. Well for some.

"Tough times make tough people" preached Benny Binion.
 
Never has this statement been more apt than in today's economic climate. Boffins using terms like 'credit crunch' and 'economic turmoil' make me sick. You see, poker players are unaffected by a "recession".

Maybe they watch too much poker on ESPN but those Ennis boys and girls are going mad for their prop bets lately. Not satisfied with the thrill of taking part in a poker tournament they look to enrich the experience by adding a proposition bet. Only two weeks ago a player turned up to the Ennis 100 game dressed as Napoleon...on a Sunday. Is nothing sacred anymore?

I don't consider myself to be a man with a violent disposition. Apart from having a generally sunny demeanour, I am too short and way too unfit to look for fights; an ungenerous but dispassionate onlooker might even label me as something of a coward.