I've spent much of today following the progress of Victoria Coren Mitchell, not only a fine writer and presenter of TV's brainiest game show, but one of our best poker players. She's currently playing the EPT Sanremo tournament.

I find poker fascinating to watch. There is an element of luck of course, but it's far more a game of judgement. Hers has been impeccable today. She started off as the short stack (poker parlance for having the least chips) and played with aggression at exactly the right times, steadily accumulating. It's true that she had a run of good luck in recent hands, and she's now in a 2:1 chip lead with only one other player remaining...