I said, 'congratulations you've made an excellent choice - a no-brainer - but a new tour is just the stuff of science fiction it could never actually happen.'

How wrong I was.

The UK and Ireland Poker Tour has just finished its second season with the final event in London. It's been a huge success from the very beginning and amazing fun to be part of. It's been successful in terms of numbers and money and coverage - but far more importantly to me it's been a success in terms of how much fun everyone has had that's been involved.

The second season grew a lot - partly to the presence of Channel 4's TV cameras and partly to the good word of mouth and awareness after the first year. I haven't individually counted all of the players at events around the world but I'm pretty sure it's the most successful national/regional tour in the world....at least someone told me that was true so I'm going with it!

Putting together the TV shows has been really fun. From a personal point of view being able to make good shows that have quality poker and are knock about fun (no idea what that actually is - I think it's what they used to have on Cheggars Plays pop - google it if you're 25 and need to see the legend in his prime).

Of course none of it would be the same if it hadn't been for my co-talking lady Liv Boeree. Working with Liv has been one of the most positive uplifting educational experiences I've ever had and I couldn't have wished for a better personal or professional experience. (and yes she is sitting next to me watching me type this blog....true story).

It's been great to see the TV shows have done so well in the ratings too I think people really enjoy watching local players play. The show has allowed us to make some 'stars' of players who aren't the usual household names. Thankfully they're all extremely grateful and have given me a cut of their prize money haul ....or at least I presume they have they always laugh when I ask them if they've made the transfer so that seems very positive.

I'd say I hope that season 3 could be even bigger and better and more fun...but that's just the stuff of science fiction...

For a long time Dublin Season 2 had a lot of déjà vu. Last year's winner, and making a bid for nicest guy in poker Max Silver went super deep and looked like he would do the impossible and defend his title. Eventually he finished fourth but it was a great run and it was a fourth to deserving now two-time UKIPT champ Joeri Zandvliet at a stacked final table.

The event was sandwiched by a bunch of work connected to the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. I'm now in a secret undisclosed location (okay it's Edinburgh) recording the Radio WCOOP shows, web shows and final table highlight shows. I'm also recording a WCOOP musical for the West End....okay that last one might not be true but it feels like it should be as that's a ton of WCOOP media! The only downside of doing all the related work is I can't play any of the events...every time I see a PLO event come up a little piece of me dies inside!

On top of all the poker work I've just started work on a new script for Comedy Central - that'll take up a lot of my time in October/November and should be fun to write.

Not too much else to report...all work and no play makes jack a dull boy apparently ...I'll work on that one ...watch this space.

I first came to the Edinburgh festival nearly 20 years ago. I can confirm Edinburgh is still 400 miles too far North. It has an ongoing seduction technique where you arrive in August, it's mild with the odd sunny day and it's overall awesomeness makes me crave to live in it. This is of course a blatant hustle; like the girl or boy who is on their best behaviour for the first three dates but who will clearly boil your rabbit, cut the crotch out of your trousers and take you to a deep dark place of spiritual despair within two months. By which I mean it gets really cold and dark from about November onwards. The thing is you still love it because it's just so damn good looking.

The festival has become huge and big business and, well, huge. There are over 1000 comedy acts alone and the population of the town doubles during the month. You have to feel a little sorry for the locals; their best month of weather of the year and they're descended upon by 300,000 backpackers; half on unicycles the other half with rubbish puppets.

For the last two years, part of my time at the festival has been hosting the Edinburgh UKIPT. Both times the tournament has been fantastically well supported and has been the biggest in Scotland. It's the one poker tournament with endless instant bust out remedies on your doorstep. Just wander into town, watch a couple of top-notch stand ups back to back and you'll feel miles better. Alternatively you can wander up to the nearest busking bagpipe player (there are several) and scream at them: "That is not even an instrument, it's just a ruddy noise!"

I still have a few editions of the chat show to do. It's all a bit busy but I'm hoping to fit in seeing some shows on days off. The fact is nothing really beats Edinburgh on a sunny evening drinking Pimms and watching some angry dude confront a unicycle-riding bagpiper. You should really be here next year; I wouldn't miss it.

* Congrats to Fintan Gavin, who won UKIPT Edinburgh for a cool £61,500.

One of them was me, but this time I didn't survive day 1. The first few levels involved my patented running into hands every time I make a move magic that has come to be the signature play of my recent tournaments. Maybe I should stop making moves?! Too easy; you'd think right!

I managed to go on a run after a while playing pretty decently then played a big pot where we got in about 120bbs on a K-Q-8 flop me holding K-Q and him A-K. So far so good, but it didn't end well and I was Greensteined out of the tourney with an Ace on the river. It was really disappointing because getting a big stack in these tournaments is so much fun but the hand was pretty standard and I don't think my villain did anything wrong.

An early exit meant I had some time to enjoy Brighton. Enjoyed it a bit too much Saturday night, and three too many post-dinner Amaretto's saw me in a shouting match with four female friends, each of whom claimed they wouldn't sleep with Brad Pitt if they were single and he knocked on their Brighton hotel room door. I mean shouting at them was not the answer but seriously....it's Brad Pitt....they wouldn't even have to talk to him or watch him mug his way through an acting part or anything.

The UKIPT tour goes on to Edinburgh next in just a few weeks and the TV cameras are returning. I can't wait - not only because the event will be great but I'll be coupling it with some post event comedy festival fun; hope you have the time to do likewise! I'll miss playing the main event, though can't wait for the next time I get to do it.

As the event isn't part of our TV coverage I finally got to play a UKIPT after a couple of years chomping at the bit covering them. You can watch my video diary of playing the event here if you prefer me in visual format (god help you).

The tour's first visit to Newcastle went down a storm with a 554 runner field - pretty huge for a regional even with no tv coverage. I've played in Newcastle before so knew I was in for a fun time - there's a lot of banter at the tables and the players have a ton of gamble in them.

Day 1 started as badly as possible with me managing to shed half my stack in the first two levels. This is actually quite hard to do - you have to reallllyyyy try to donk them off to get this low! I'm exaggerating - it is No Limit Holdem and anything can happen. However I'd forgotten a couple of key things, first you can't win the tournament you can only lose it in the first two levels (there's nothing in the middle to win so tight tends to be right). And second, in general, players don't come to big live events to fold; especially if they've called a couple of streets. I contemplated this in depth after an early failed triple barrel bluff...if only I'd contemplated it before.

Every player dreads one of those tournaments where you can't win a pot, your stack dwindles and you blow out without any 'bang for your buck'. They happen to everyone and this looked like being one. Then it all changed in a hand as I found KK, 3 bet and got called on all 3 streets including the river all in by a non-believer. How could he not believe - it's not like a triple barrel bluff or anything...see it was all part of the master plan.

After doubling up the rest of day 1 went pretty well. The odd decent sized pot and chipping up well once the ante came in. The only real decision I faced all day was when I picked up KK for the second time. I 3 bet again and the same player called me in position. The flop came a pretty perfect looking 10,6,6 rainbow. I bet and he called - good news! The turn was 2, a complete blank, I bet again hoping for a call and he quickly shoved all in; a big over bet to the pot. What just happened?! Was it possible he went crazy and just wanted to put a move on me after he lost the last hand?

The thing is when someone goes crazy on the turn in a live game - especially early in the tournament - you are often 'boned beyond belief'. Of course a good player will make this kind of play as a semi bluff or for thin value or whatever but a 'casual' player in a big live event...much more rare. I talked to him a little bit and he made things easier by chatting back in a totally relaxed way. In the end it was an easy lay down and pretty standard. He showed me 6,7 for trips to make me feel better about it.

I finished day 1 with 53k which was a decent amount above average and all you can ask from a day 1....bag em and tag em.

It's always fun to see the huge number of early bust outs on day 1 - not fun for the people involved, clearly, but fun because so many people cling on to make day 2. If you play one of these try not to do that; making the second day is totally meaningless in a 4 day event and you shouldn't miss opportunities to get the money in in a good spot even if it happens to be the last hand of a day. They don't pay you for coming back!!

Day 2 was a bit ...well...forgettable really. I played well the first 3 hours or so. I didn't play a hand to showdown yet moved up to just under 80k; a good sign you're doing something right. I was picking steal spots well and feeling like my game was coming back after months and months away from playing live. Of course I couldn't have been more wrong!

No limit is such a vicious game and because we all play it it's easy to forget just how demanding it can be. However good or bad you are your chip swings will be huge and that can be tough to take. It's a game where you can be cruising in a tournament then play 2 big hands, do nothing wrong and be watching from the sidelines.

Nothing that dramatic happened to me however I did have a couple of horror levels that took me from being comfortably above average to being short stacked and exiting quickly afterwards about 25 spots off the money. I wasn't completely happy with how I played. I was a little too loose once my stack got below 40bbs and I also paid off a couple of players on the river when folding was probably right. One on a A,3,5,6,K board when he shoved into me on the river. I had a one pair hand and it was a single bet pot so I just couldn't figure out what hand of his made sense. He either had nothing or the whole world - I called and he showed me top set of Aces ...or the whole world!! I can make a case for my call but we were closing in on the money and it was just one of those live spots where I was getting bluffed very rarely.

Anyway that was my tournament. Nice to have a bit of a run in my first tour event but nothing too remarkable really. I played some decent stuff but also was aware of being 'rusty' - if you don't play poker often as I'm not able to do right now due to restrictions on my time it's impossible to be at your best when you do play.

As expected the event was a lot of fun, the structure is great and I had a blast. Hope to see every single last one of you in Brighton where I might just ante up for another spin.

Most days I was broadcasting including a lot of live stuff like this.

Live TV (I know this was a web show- but there's less and less difference) is like being on a roller coaster. As they count down to it 'being live' it's like that bit when the roller coaster chugs up the hill to the first drop and it stops being exciting and that bit of your brain that looks after your survival screams at you 'what are we doing here!!!!'
Then you go 'live' and it's the best thing in the world - exciting, organic, fun; it's one of my favourite things to do 'work or not'

The NBA playoffs have just finished and I can get back to some kind of normal sleep pattern. I have rotating obsessions in life and this is my latest. I've always loved American sport but am late to basketball. It's been a great playoffs and a fitting end to the narrative of the season which was the league's best player Lebron James moving to Miami to create a 'super team'.

They lost in the finals last night pleasing a lot of 'neutrals' and making this premature pre-season victory party (having won nothing) even more hilariously lame than it was at the time.

The finals were a victory for teamwork over individual talent - that said Dirk Nowitzki was outstanding... not only his level of execution but his grace under pressure. He is officially my favourite German (the list now runs 1. Dirk 2. Steffi Graf 3. Boris Becker pre restaurant toilet conception 4. Mr Mercedes and Mr Benz).

It's UKIPT Newcastle. Sadly we're not filming it but the cool thing is that means I can play the event; first time I'll be able to play a UKIPT - should be a lot of fun. I'm going to do a video diary while there so check it out.

If you'd like to follow me please do I'm @nickwealthall.

In the meantime I've been trying to handle UKIPT withdrawal syndrome. There was no tour event in April, which is very distressing. However Cork is just a couple of weeks away so the shaking should stop soon.

I'm writing this from Edinburgh, one of my favourite towns on the planet, where I'm recording a live poker magazine show following the SCOOP with the very funny Joe Stapleton. If you want to watch our nightly 'who can put each other off better with funny stuff and not follow the actual script'-athon, do it here.

I'm filling my free time with NBA playoff goodness. It's one of the better sporting series I've seen - surprises, quality play, real drama, it's got it all. Also there's a villain; it's really hard to watch the Miami Heat without wanting them to lose! Anyway I've had a rare sports bet on Oklahoma to come out of the west and to win it all. They have a shot and were a huge price with English bookies.... You've got to have an interest, right!

Hope to see many of you in Cork.

I'm going to dedicate my spring and summer to finding ways not to be in these dismally cloudy isles for next winter. It's been a slog! I'm hoping I won't need to resort to a huge one off bank job pre-escaping to Rio, but who knows? Watch this space.

There's a royal wedding on. Astonishingly it seems people still care about that sort of thing. Don't hate me royalist, but I'm a life long republican. As such, I find it absolutely impossible to relate to anything to do with the royal family and their shenanigans.

However I'm excited to report I've found a way to get through the royal wedding if you're in my camp. You can bet on it! Actual wagers on things that happen during the blessed day. You can bet on the colour of the Queens hat (yellow is favourite), how long the train will be, the colour of the dress (black is only 100/1 -- I mean seriously I know bookmakers have to make a living but you're saying 1% of the time the Queen-to-be will turn up in front of the eyes of the world in a black wedding dress...). Anyway, the 'finding money on the street' bet of the year is that Kate will say 'obey' in the vows, as in "honour and obey." I can't see anyone in line to the throne doing anything as progressive as changing the vows - especially "45 year old trapped in 25 year olds body" Kate. I think the true odds of her saying it are about 4 or 5 to 1 on, actual odds 8/11 on. Get on board!

Saw a top film the other day - "Source Code" - a complete surprise in how well done it was. Except it goes on 90 seconds too long. They almost had the best ending of the year then they wimp out. Go see it. You'll see what I mean.

There's no UKIPT event in April. I miss it. They're on Channel 4 every Tuesday though. Hope you're enjoying them.

I'm binary. I'm bi-winning (by the way the Charlie Sheen melt down is the best news story of the last 10 years).

If I like something I can't just read the odd article about it or watch a TV show occasionally. I need to know everything about it, constantly be receiving news about it and basically distil whatever it is into liquid form and slam it into a major artery.

The latest thing is the NBA basketball from Amercia. I'm not the only one. The NBA is on the up and up with a "golden generation" of stars and teams coming together this year and for some years to come. I'm a Boston Celtics fan but not set in stone yet as I have soft spots for other great players and teams. Tragically I'm on the "I hate the Miami heat" bandwagon -- you've got to have heroes and villains haven't you. and they fit the bill. I think they should embrace it and play up to it but they don't seem capable of that. They seem a bit like spoiled kids who have been indulged all their lives and are suddenly disliked and can't adjust. Anyway, I'm spending a lot of time trying to understand why Lebron doesn't go to the rim more However, the other day I did learn the difference between pick and pop and a pick and roll so I'm all over it.

I'm writing this from UKIPT Manchester which is another sell out and another "cap buster." I swear this tour will eat itself. Despite both the last events being sold out, I think they could have been even bigger. They're going to have to start building bigger UK card rooms!

Now that the tour is in its second year and on Channel 4, I wouldn't be surprised to see the same situation at each event. This tour will take over the world--okay the UK and Ireland. I won't be resting until we have 10,000 players at the O2 arena with live coverage instead of the News at 10 on the tv.

I got lucky at the pokers in Nottingham. There was a charity poker tournament as we have at many of the UKIPT stops and I got super lucky to win it. Having said that I did start trying after a couple of hours and really the others shouldn't have bothered going through the motions of playing and just conceded defeat. The final table was full of banter and I used my superior skills to get dealt pocket aces four times. If I was a less grateful person I would ponder how that happens in a UKIPT charity event and not the WSOP main, but still.

Anyway I was able to make nice donations to the charity the tournament was run for, Help 4 Heroes, and to Barnardo's which is my fave charity through my sister who is running the marathon for them. It'll be her third marathon for charity -- she's a super star. Barnardo's is awesome in every way and brilliantly run (up to 95% of donations goes to children in difficulty).

Finally it's Oscar night tonight. The Oscars are odd. They are utterly awful. Boring, predictable, becoming more predictable every year with the winners predetermined by previous awards shows and absolutely no reflection on the merit of each film. And yet they are somehow captivating and I still pull for the films I want.

To me Toy Story 3 and Inception were the best films of the year, closely followed by True Grit and The Social Network. It looks like being one of those years where a film will win and then people will look back and be baffled by how it beat the other quality films that year. I like King's Speech but it's disposable tea time entertainment due for Sunday 5pm screenings on the BBC for the rest of time. Oh, and for Nolan not to be nominated for best director at the expense of Aronofsky and his self-important Black Swan mess is a ruddy travesty.

It's a close run thing between August and January as to which month involves me doing the least.

I don't really trust people who 'hit the ground running' in the New Year - I put them in the same bracket as people that go literally running at 6am. It's ironic we do our 'New Year's resolutions' in January as it's the worst time to do new projects; the days are short, the weather is awful and we've just come out the holiday season.

Take it from me in future hibernate in January - do the minimum, eat comfort food and stay indoors a lot; the spring is where you want to be kicking butt.

In other news the Nottingham UKIPT is round the corner next week - I expect it will be huge; and I can't wait. Apparently For those who don't know we're on Channel 4 this year. Wooooooo is the correct noise to make at this point. Tuesday's at midnight - set your series link immediately. I'm ecstatic to be presenting a show on "4" (as the kids call it) but also thrilled for the coolest regional tour in poker history; should be lots of fun.

Finally part of my January hibernation has been buying the complete box set of the West Wing. It's brilliantly written (although every single character is super intelligent, witty and can guess what people are going to say before they've said it), fascinating, moving and amazing to watch. American TV has been killing our TV for years now.

Trying to decide whether Sopranos or West Wing is the pinnacle of man's efforts to entertain on TV...this could take most of February.

Okay Trading Places is about 20 years old, but me and my sisters still shout Merry New Year at each other so you're getting it, too.

Hope your festive period was one full of presents, fun, and copious food and drink that out weighed the inevitable family tension and 'what in God's name am I doing with my life' introspection that it can also bring.

I spent the holiday season conducting a one-man experiment to establish whether or not After Eight mints contain the requisite nutrients and minerals to sustain life. Almost 4 boxes done - solo - and I'm still here, so I'm going with yes and intend to make them my food of choice from now on. I'm sorry but those waifer thin minty bastards kick the arse of porridge and all the other 'breakfast' foods - hard.

For those that care, I'm having a quite January. I'm going to try not to travel too much and try not to take on too much new work stuff. Don't really go for this 'hit the new year ground running' mullarkey. As far as I'm concerned this is the hibernation point in the year where time is best spent inside with the football or poker or the Playstation. Optimism and productivity can wait for the spring, or any point where it isn't constantly drizzling, five degrees, and dark just after lunch.

Deeper into the blog now, and I feel the overwhelming pressure to reveal my goals and resolutions for 2011.

Or at least to have some

First up I'd like to resolve whether it's 'twenty - eleven' or 'two thousand and eleven'. This should take until mid- March I reckon. I'll look for some new goals after that.

My resolution is to give up smoking. In order to achieve this I will have to start smoking and maintain it for a long enough period of time for it to be an achievement giving up - so look for my celebratory I finally quit blog around July.

My prediction for 2011 is that it will be a bit 'meh' for the world.

Prove me wrong, twenty eleven, you magnificent new shiny fool.

I hope it's your best year yet.

I'm in 'just get things done then we can have holiday' mode - it's a magnificent tick box, standard slipping state which probably partly made this country (UK) great.

Season 2 of the UKIPT has already started we've had the first event in Galway. The presence of TV cameras made it all the more exciting; as did the presence of ludicrous amounts of snow in England and Ireland. A lot of players couldn't make it on time so we delayed the start and all spent the time having snowball fights, drinking hot chocolate (it was Guiness) and playing online. Environmental problems aside a lot of players still made it, more than last year and enough to give the event it's great atmosphere. We got some great stories too, nearly getting our first female winner and actually getting our first two time winner.

Next stop is Nottingham and time to dust of my Robin Hood tights. It's nice to be able to wear them with a non-arrestable excuse.

It took me ages to get a Sky Plus box (other hard drive recording boxes devices are available) but now I have I love it to the point of a deep sexual longing. It means I've missed less episodes of good stuff like the Daily Show and American sport. The Apprentice gets my nomination as best show on telly ever. Just get some people that take themselves very
seriously, make them do stupid stuff, point the camera and let them make themselves look ridiculous. The few minutes of TV in the penultimate episode where 'the brand' was brutally fired and then Jo magnificently validated was as good as telly gets.

f I don't speak to you before, have a lovely festive season.

There's a scene in friends where Rachel meets a doctor whose a gynecologist and she is put off him because he expresses that what he sees all day at work he doesn't want to see in his free time. I think blog writing is like that for me - I write all time so it's more writing.

Anyway let's jump off the introspection band wagon.

We're between UKIPT seasons and I feel a bit naked without it. Season 1 ended in London and I won't do the commercial bit about how well it all went but, um, it really did go very well. I loved the whole season; UKIPT events have their own atmosphere and they really do kick other poker events' ass... royally... from above. Season 2 will be on us soon (first one in Galway, first week in December) and I have a sneaking suspicion it'll be bigger, better and sexier than season 1. Just you see if it's not.

Things are going great away from the tour, thanks for asking. It's weird when you're freelance and there's no structure or plan, but after a period of some frustration earlier in the year things are happening on lots of different writing and performing projects. I'll 'blog' about them when they're certain, but it's a fun exciting time. Which is nice.

In other news, here are things I like at the moment:

- The Apprentice. Christ it's good. I like to take a drink everytime someone says 'skill set', and am mullered by 9.35pm. Last week someone actually said to a person's face: "I look forward to dialoging with you later." Genius.
- The NFL. Loved it years ago and I'm right back into it this season. Helps that it's one of the most competitive seasons in years and that my childhood team the Raiders have their first decent outfit for ages.
- Red wine. Have started to frickin love the stuff. Think it's a sign of being old, but who cares? I know a tiny bit about it and want to keep it that way - I think knowing more about it would spoil it for me. Currently working with Malbecs. Tremendous!
- Sky + HD recorder (other satellite/cable and HD recorders are available).was very late
to this party but it really is the shizzle. Especially when you're into watching North American sport.

Not much else really - you'd think after a couple of months break I'd have more to say but to be honest, deep down I'm a very shallow person.

I guarantee the next time we speak the door handle won't be fixed because where as I can type, if I try to do anything DIY related ever not only will the initial problem not be fixed but 14 more will be created.

I spent 10 or so days in Edinburgh and re-discovered the student within me. Not sure how many reading this will have been to the Edinburgh Festival or to Edinburgh full stop, but if you haven't then do! I haven't been everywhere but of the towns/cities I've visited in the UK and Ireland it's by far my favourite - if we could move it a couple of hundred miles south I'd be there in a shot.

I was there for the latest leg of the UKIPT and then for some quality comedy festival time. The tournament went very well, especially considering it was a brand new event for Scotland - next year I think it'll be even bigger.

The festival was great except for deciding to torture my liver by drinking every night. I'm a complete lightweight and never really 'drank' when I was the age you're supposed to drink, so it was all a bit silly but a lot of fun.

The comedy was very mixed - there are a lot of comics around these days who clearly belong in rock bands (as in they just want to be famous) and don't actually have any material. But then there are also geniuses like Emo Phillips and the God that is Tim Vine. When Tim was told he'd won the best joke at the festival award he replied: "I'm so excited I'm going to Sooty's barbecue to have a Sweep stake." Genius, but only if you know the kids' TV show Sooty and Sweep.

I have 'a lot on' at the moment. Lots of big poker tournaments are coming to London this month and the WCOOP is happening online, so there's plenty of poker work. Also I'm working on some comedy projects and probably a couple of TV shows so it's all a bit full.

With all of that there isn't much time for poker at the moment and I've reached a plateau with Omaha so I'm taking a break until I have time to focus on it properly. I'll be playing a couple of live events in the next six weeks so I'll let you know how those go.

Think that's about it... hope summer isn't over for you and you can cling onto it for a few weeks to come!