The Worst Winner

Twitter was my favourite social media platform but I am convinced that Elon Musk is deliberately attempting to ruin it as part of a bet or prank. Like the 'Brewsters Millions' gambit of having to lose it all to win even more or 'Trading Places' bet amongst a couple of old rich guys just toying with the fates of others. Please excuse the ancient movie references, just look it up kids. Twitter has brought me so much over the years, information, laughs, surprises, piles of poker prizes, and at times a sense of community but it's become tainted and I want better. While the verification system on Twitter has been well and truly destroyed, I suppose for the most part Twitter is much the same as it was before, you just have the constant threat of dumb changes being implemented under the guise of fighting bots before the changes are quietly undone, things like the limiting of tweets you can see, not being able to look at tweets unless you login and such. But with talk of fu...

I visited the self proclaimed "Home of UK Poker" for the first time this week. If you are unfamiliar, Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) is a poker venue in Nottingham created by Rob Yong, it's like a casino but the focus is on poker and not your typical casino games.  Situated in the midst of an industrial estate, Dusk Till Dawn elevates itself from the other grey boxes with a four grand red doric columns framing the entrance. Inside, there's a small entrance lobby and sign in desk, before you move into the cardroom itself. As you enter the main space, there's a bar area to the right, cash desk to the left and in front of you tiered levels of tables creating an amphitheatre centred around the feature table, but more on that later. Having embraced the hermit lifestyle COVID foisted upon us, I have played just one live game of poker since 2019, so sitting down in such a busy venue was fairly overwhelming. We were tightly packed in, and I was seated right in the middle of almost ...

One line is fine, right? Goosebumps and chills in just one leg were unusual first symptoms but that is how it started. The headache and sinus pain soon followed and I knew my fate: COVID. My wife had tested positive a few days earlier and been pretty much bid ridden since, and now it was my turn. We still had a few tests left over from back when COVID testing was a thing, although it doesn't appear to be a thing anymore, the government advice on the matter is now simply "stay at home if you're sick" which seems like reasonable advice for any illness.  I called in sick to work the next day. The chills were no longer restricted to the one leg, full on flu symptoms now, all over. My levels of wellness/sickness varied throughout the day, wrapped in a blanket, if I didn't move and the drugs had taken affect, then I was kind of ok. And a bit bored. What to do?  Poker.  Short stack ninja all the way I fired up the laptop and perused the schedule. I have struggled in rece...