SkyPoker have brought something new into the world of poker.  It's interactive TV - and despite the critics, it's working and it's making them money.  It's also bringing a lot of people into poker - and that can only be a good thing. 

The main show on SkyPoker is The Open, a multi-table tournament that's on most nights and people can play along at home whilst 'experts' in the studio comment on hands and studio guests also take part in the tournament.  I appeared on the show last year, and it was good fun.  The Open itself is a bit of a 'luckfest' - the blinds go up so quickly that you need a lot of luck to do well, and it's a format that suits the looser players (whereas my play is a lot tighter and favours a slower blind structure).

Anyway, SkyPoker have introduced different shows, with differing success.  One that has been introduced recently is Stacked Up.

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We haven't had a top 5 for ages - so here's my top 5 mathematical symbols (number 4 is divide - I couldn't find the exact symbol so I had to improvise):

1.  +
2.  x
3.  -
4.  '/.
5.  =

The beauty of mathematics means - that in addition to getting a range of my favourite symbols in this list - if I run through the list in order using the functions and the order of numbers - I get the answer: 1.

Doesn't come any more elegant than that. So this has to be the top ranking order of symbols! Doesn't it?

No reason to post this, other than it's brilliant.

I cycled to work this week. I figured it would help me keep fit, save money, be kind to the environment, nice to animals and so aid restful sleep.

After a quick shower I got changed from cycling gear into more suitable office attire. What I hadn't counted on was a female member of the fashion police pulling me over in the office to point out I was "Wearing my belt the wrong way round!" I checked it wasn't back to front. It was fine. Yet my colleague insisted I was wearing it the "girl's way".

The "girl's way"?  Ok I know that some ladies shirts have buttons on the left, and zips are on the other side of coats, but I had no idea that all my life I'd been wearing a belt the "girls way"!

In fact, I refuse to accept that there is a "girls way" for belts (there's nothing on wikipedia about it - nuff said). And then my colleague found some old navy regulations online (she had to dig deep to find them though…)

"Belt:

• The brass on the belt will be shinned and mark free
• The belt will be fitted so that the buckle and the brass fitting on the other end of the belt will perfectly line up when worn
• Female midshipmen wear the belt in such a manner that the belts tip points to the midshipman's right; male midshipmen wear the belt so that the belts tip points to the midshipman's left
• The end without the belt tip will be in line with the shirt edge and trouser fly edge to make a straight gig-line" 

Whatever! So how do you wear yours?  With the end pointing to the left or right, (and who told you to do it that way?) - or are you like me in that you've never really thought about it until now?

APAT are running another 'National' event in August, this time with the added twist of a Team Challenge element to it as well as the individual prizes (included the added value of a GUKPT seat & package for the winner, worth a few grand in itself).

For a bit of fun, BlueSQ who are the sponsors of APAT this season (it was PokerStars last season when I was lucky enough to win the English APAT event and a seat to the EPT in Copenhagen), have put a book on the individual players and the teams competing.

For some strange reason, I'm currently one of the second favourites at 66/1 - which isn't particularly good value.  There is some good value on some other players though, some who are sitting at 125/1.  An each-way bet is for anyone reaching the final table and pays 1/8 of the odds.

The odds are here.

I'm captain of the blondepoker team.  We're currently 3rd favourites and this might be a good bet, depending on how seriously we take the poker rather than enjoying ourselves in Blackpool! 

A good few years ago, (18 to be precise) I gave up playing cricket to spend more time on other sports. But for the past couple of years Anna has been trying to get me to take up the bat again.

Her reason is mainly that she likes the idea of coming along - sitting on the veranda of a pavilion, eating sandwiches, sipping wine, and reading.  In other words: coming along, but not to watch the cricket - more to get some peace and quiet and keep an occasional eye out for me.

This got me thinking… I suspect that in the same way most parks have benches on which parents sit to keep an eye on their children at play - so cricket pitches have pavilions. The polite applause, when a cricketer deftly sweeps the ball for four - equates to the "well done dear" when a young child swings from the climbing frame and shouts "Mummy look at me!"

I struggled to keep this "play-pen" view of cricket out of my head last night when I participated in my first game for 18 years. It wasn't easy - I was rubbish and the other boys threw the ball harder, hit it further and made nasty jokes about my shoes and bowling action. I wished Anna was there to give me some support - especially as I scraped my knee which could have done with a magic kiss to make the nastiness go away!