6-years old.  Incredible talent.

This weekend sees the start of Season 3 of the APAT National series, with the UK Amateur Poker Championships taking place at the Grosvenor Casino in Walsall.

I'll be playing in this, and hopefully I can have a decent run.  Obviously Season 1 started out well for me, and I did OK in a few of the other events - but without a cash.  Then in Season 2, I managed a few Day 2s including a 10th place finish in the Irish National in Dublin (one off the final table unfortunately). In most of these events, I think I've played pretty good poker.  But that's not always enough (in fact, it rarely ever is).  You need to get the luck at the right time to help you through.

Of course, I always want to do well when I play poker - but the APAT events are more than just poker tournaments. I've made quite a few good friends through APAT, and as social occasions they are great fun.  They often end with a silly 'sit-n-go' game orchestrated by Rich 'TightEnd' Prew (the CEO of blondepoker and one of the management team at APAT).  There are rules to these games, but no one is sure what they are…

This weekend is going to be full of poker.  There are a few of us going over to DTD on Friday evening, and then onto Walsall on the Saturday.  Should be a good weekend - and a nice cash would be the icing on the cake.

It's still gambling though isn't it…

On a different, but related subject, I often find myself trying to explain to non-poker players why poker is different to the house games such as roulette or blackjack.  Also it's difficult to explain the effects of variance and that you can play 'perfect' poker and still end up down after a session due to a bad run of luck.  Anyway, James Atkin (a young professional poker player from Lincoln) has written a very succinct and accurate post on his blog entitled Taking the Gamble Out of Poker, that sums up a lot of what I find myself repeating.

It's worth a read.

Well yes… 9-10 inches of snow and the whole of London grinds to a halt, but I'm not complaining. I attempted to get to work today but after 30 mins of sliding around my street I decided to call it a day and work from home. Here's a couple of pics that shows the state of play this morning at 8am - and it's still snowing!

Listening to the radio - it's clear our Canadian friends can't believe what the fuss is all about,  "…a few inches of snow and London grinds to a halt… are you yanking my spruce?" And I have to say I'm with them on that one!

 Fortunately, I have remote access to my files at work - and so I'm holed-up, with a big mug of steaming coffee, looking out at the winter wonderland that was once my back garden, and rewriting yet another strategic marketing plan to help combat the rigours of the current economic climate. (Those of us who recall A-Level English Lit might be thinking 'good use of pathetic fallacy' - but for those who aren't thinking that - I thought it worth highlighting ) 

Working from home on a day like today is much safer, productive and altogether more spohisticated! Bravo techies… now I can work in comfort while others have to struggle in… or so I thought. 

A text just recieved from another colleague, who does not have remote access, tells me that he can't get in, and as he can't access work files has resigned himself to building snowmen with his kids. Great… so now I'm working, while others are having fun… bravo techies . Think I may as well pack my bags and move to Canada… once the weather improves - yappari!

50,000 steps?  I've estimated that 50,000 is the number of steps it'll take me to run 26.2 miles.  On Sunday 26 April @ about 9am - I'll be lining up alongside another 30,000 or so fellow runners (including Paula Radcliffe) to run the London Marathon.  It won't be my first time.  I ran it in 2004, as it was something I'd always wanted to do.  I only started running in the August of 2003, and 8 months later I was running the famous distance. 

Unfortunately, I picked up an injury in training and this affected me on the day - making the run more difficult and making it impossible for me to complete it in my target time.  As I crossed the line I 'knew' I'd do it again.  Fast-forward to now, and I now have a little over 3 months to prepare myself for the race.  I've always done sport and been fairly fit - but I've never been a good long-distance runner.  Over the past few years, I've done less and less exercise, especially during the first 9 months of 2008, when I basically did nothing.  Poker isn't really conducive to a good fitness regime.  As someone who works the usual office hours and then spends evening playing poker or doing whatever, it's difficult to drag myself out of bed at 6 o'clock in the morning to go running in the pouring rain.

I've been trying to get a place in the London Marathon again ever since 2004.  In fact, I didn't get a place in the 2004 marathon via a ballot place - I had to get a Golden Bond place where I promise to raise a minimum amount for a charity who then give me a guaranteed place.  I ran for the British Heart Foundation in 2004.  Fortunately, the way the organisers run the ballot for London is that if you don't get a place 5 years in a row, you're guaranteed a place on the 6th attempt.  So the 2009 marathon would be my sixth attempt - and therefore I knew I'd get a place.

My plan was to start running in the summer, build up slowly and then be in good shape to start my training on the run-up (pun intended) to the marathon.  The training programme for the actual marathon is usually over a 16-week period, but you need to have a decent platform already - in other words, I really wanted to be doing at least 25 miles a week come the start of the year.  I haven't been doing 25 miles a week.  So I've missed my first target.  The thing with long-distance running is that you can't go from nothing (or very little) to putting in 15-20 miles runs.  It's all about putting in the miles, and it's something I need to focus on doing. 

If that doesn't interest you, this might.  I'm running for the NSPCC. 

You can sponsor me with an online donation here: 
http://www.justgiving.com/daniel-phillips

It'd be much appreciated.

This was posted on a forum, so I thought I'd share it.  Not much needed to be said really.

Try as we might, at this time of year it's impossible to prevent a celebrity chef from telling us how Christmas food should be prepared and enjoyed. And they all have a unique perspective. Gordon's going for that authentic feel, Nigella's going for sassy with a twist of opulence - Jamie's championing local produce - and Delia's doing Christmas on a shoe-string.

Having watched many a cookery show I fancied giving baking a try this year and opted to follow Delia's Christmas on a shoe-string approach. I decided to make some mince pies!

Ingredients: Flour, butter, pinch of salt, drop of milk, mince meat (fruity variety - won't make that mistake twice!)

Very simple and Unit cost I worked out at 7p each based on cost of quantity of ingredients above to bake 24.

However - having not baked since I was at school I had failed to take into account the cost of hardware I needed to purchase in order to make the mince pies. Hoping this would be the start of a new hobby I invested in the necessary:

• 1 hand blender
• 1 mixing bowl
• 1 rolling-pin
• 3 pastry cutters (different sizes)
• 1 pastry brush
• 1 spatula
• 1 cooling stand
• 1 apron

I calculate that my unit price per mince pie has now risen to: £2.07p (excluding energy required for baking, cleaning products and my time).

To put that into perspective - I could have bought 298 mince pies from Tesco for the same outlay. So much for a frugal Christmas!

Oh yes… and the other thing you never see on TV - cooking's a messy business!!