Trash talking is part of the game. When it gets to the latter stages of a tournament and it’s a pressure situation, I feel I can use it to my advantage. I can get pretty mean to my opponents – there’s no question about that – and as a result they dislike me for it. But you can’t let it worry you, and I don’t let it worry me.

You have to remember that there is a lot of money at stake and a lot of pride and pressure. Intimidation is part of the game.

I don’t have too many close friends in poker. I keep [them] separate. If I get too close to people, I don’t feel I can intimidate them. I’m not looking to make friends and go for dinner – that’s not what it’s about for me.

There have been a few occasions where I might have gone over the line, but I don’t take anything back; you can’t do that. In the episode with Surinder [Tony’s explosive verbal lashing of Surinder Sunar during the Grand Prix de Paris in 2004] there was a lot of excitement, but we get on very well now.

Like I said, people want to see competition and you have to have pressure and intimidation. Nowadays, I am trying to tone it down. I don’t need to do it so much because my record is out there for everyone to see. Maybe it’s time to just enjoy it. It would be diffi cult to repeat what has already been done before.