At my very first live tournament I remember one old poker dog considering an all-in bet from another young beginner. He looked at the guy for a minute and then declared confidently: ‘You’ve been playing Ace-rag all night,’ and called. Sure enough the lad flipped over A-5 and busted out.

My awe at his powers of recall was matched by a numbing realisation that my memory, little better than a shopping list written on an Etch-a-Sketch, was probably not best suited to this game. And the noise, chip tricks and waitresses competing for my attention obviously weren’t going to help either.

So hoorah for online poker!