POKER: My gambling addiction

You may remember from a previous post that I fell head over heels in love with playing poker - the game of Texas Holdem to be precise. Originally, I wrote a feature about online poker that allowed me to get lots of free money to play with (God I love my job). Also, Victor Chandler invited me to a couple of journalist poker tournaments - I came second in one and was only a busted flush away from winning a £5,000 seat in a proper tournament.

Since then I've been a founder member of the London Meetup Poker Group, which meets in a pub once a month for a game. However, since we started getting 40 people turning up to play and it was getting a bit obvious that cash was illegally changing hands (we're only supposed to play for chips as there's no gambling license) the pub told us to stop coming. We've found a private venue that gets around the problem, but that's my favourite monthly activity on hold until it gets sorted out.

The saviour for me has been the Friday Night Poker Club. This collection of London poker players advertises a number of home games, although you have to sign up quick as the eight or nine seats go really quickly. And the results of the tournaments get posted on Dave Potts' 7-2 Offsuit site. Right now I'm fifth out of 56 people on the leaderboard. My next goal is to build on my success in single-table tournaments and move onto the multi-table events like the ones you see on TV. I'll let you know how that goes.

STOP PRESS: Looks like I may get on TV sooner than I thought. Barney Boatman of The Hendon Mob is filming a series where he visits your poker home game and plays against you. As one of the original players and fifth placed on the leaderboard I'm going to be at that table. Can't wait!

DVD: Collateral

Cruise control

Being a couple of blagging journos, my wife and I are currently testing out the new postal DVD rental services. In English, this means a new DVD turns up at our door every time we send back one we've already viewed.

The biggest laugh came recently when I got an email from the missus to say that Collateral had just popped through the letterbox. "We are now the proud temporary owners of Collateral. The label is a perfect illustration of the fickleness of showbiz. 'Film: Collateral; Starring: Jamie Foxx.' Er, isn't some bloke called Tom Cruise supposed to be in it too?"

This was a little bit scary, as that morning I'd been discussing Collateral with some of my fellow employees. The belief seems to be that Cruise has complete control over his images - right down to the poster and DVD cover. That's why his face covers the entire DVD box and Jamie Foxx isn't anywhere to be seen. So my response was "We're just laughing about Tom Cruise. His face is all over the cover of the DVD, maybe they feel he doesn't deserve to be mentioned inside."

Within minutes I got a reply: "Could this be the final proof that Cruise has jumped the shark? When do you think he jumped? Penelope Cruz? Getting Hollywood braces on his teeth?"

I didn't think Cruise had jumped the shark yet. But as I said to Jane, you'll know it's all going Pete Tong when Top Gun 2 comes out:
Plot: Goose is back from the dead, resurrected by evil Russian scientists bent on destroying America. Only Maverick can stop him, but first he has to put the team of Iceman, Merlin and Slider back together. There's just one problem, can he convince uber-Liberal Tim Robbins to reprise his role in such a war-mongering film?

Quick as a flash Jane came up with a title for this new abomination:
"Top Gun 2: Fahrenheit F1-11. Maybe Tim's influence will change everything. This could be the post-Michael Moore sequel where the pilots rise up in mutiny against the
evil dictator Bush."

If only.

PS. On a serious note, having watched the movie I can't understand how Jamie Foxx was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor when he's in every scene! He's the lead and Cruise is supporting him.

Buy Collateral on DVD at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com