No nine, no nine...

Headaches, deadlines and text messages I'd rather not deal with.

The British Poker Open seems to be going well, apart from the lack of live bodies to put in the front row seats. But walking into a cinema and seeing live poker on the screen is a treat for most poker fans, a free buffet and beer is a dead cert.

So, to the press lunch at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

Players and press, along with clever people who wangled a free pass and a chance to fill the last tournament seat labeled "Journalist". Some players /media folk desperately want this chance for exposure, but for the weary, the thought of being hooked up to heart monitors, microphones and then being plugged into the mainframe is no idea of joy. That includes me. I was among them as I stood around a table for a one-handed satellite. No time for a media event they said, get to the point fast.

T7 off-suit. Harmless enough. Until a straight draw formed making a nine on the river a sure fire way of sending me to another public humiliation. It didn't come, and I live to fight another day.

That was day two over with. Devilfish, Carlo Citrone, Dave Colclough, Marcel Luske and Marc Goodwin all span the wheel. Tomorrow it's Gus Hansen, Noah Boeken and the riptide of Full Tilt poker washing ashore. But only if they can make it to the studio for 9am. No fear. They'll start without me.