Read It And Weep, CardPlayer

Back in the day, if I was tasked with some particularly odious nerd-type work (writing test plans I especially used to hate), I would become so bored that I would resort to reading live blogs of poker tournaments. I did have to be pretty bored, and usually 10 minutes of the antics of top pro Nordstrum Scortwig and internet qualifier Chip Wankoff would be enough to start me thinking "actually, yes, I could run a series of tests by introducing a generic UT subroutine, let's do that instead".

Now that the world is my lobster, I have found some better things to do, most of the time. Until Pokerstars took their eye off the ball by entrusting their EPT London blog to the brilliant Jo Haslam. Highlights so far include an early picture of Tooting Bec tube station (of course) ; the blasphemous statement that "We're only on level 2 with 50/100 blinds, so it's far too early to make any real fuss about chips" ; a description of the Vic as "this world of traditional English poker misery" and my favourite at this early stage "Many of these old guys will marvel that Frequent Player Points won players these seats, when their frequent play has only ever earned them a bad back and a failed marriage."

Stay tuned over the next three days, and Jo, please please please don't change a thing. We'll pass the hat round if you get sacked :-)