I have been interested in religion for many years. In my time, I've read the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, the Satanic Bible, and other books on theology and philosophy (holy and otherwise). Somehow though, despite a deep fascination with religion, I am agnostic. I don't worship a supernatural deity or play any part in religion, and I never really have.

I'd like to describe myself as an atheist. The world today is full of examples of religion, twisted and perverted to suit an individual's greed or ulterior motives. In America, fundamentalist Christians have a profound effect on policy, foreign and domestic. War is waged on countries that don't agree with the USA's (Christian) moral code. Creationism is taught in schools alongside science. In some areas, a woman cannot even choose to have an abortion, and doctors who perform abortion services are threatened and assaulted. In fact, the effect that religion has on modern society, particularly when it is taken to it's inevitable extremes, is truly worrying.

However, to call myself an atheist would be dishonest. The truth is that I was brought up in a Christian country, and I was educated by Christians. My grandparents are Christians, my country is governed by Christians, and while I was at school I took a class called 'Scripture', in which we studied the Christian bible. The effect that all of this childhood indoctrination had on me is unmistakable, and although I find the idea that God exists highly improbable, and I find only artistic, not spiritual, inspiration from the pages of the holy books, the notion that there just might be a God out there somewhere is indelibly branded on my mind.

What does this have to do with poker? Well, recently I was wondering whether religious belief can affect your poker game, either positively or negatively. To become a truly great poker player (as I aspire to do), you need to be able to detach yourself from the swings that are inevitable in the game, and be truly unbiased in assessing your own play. You need to accept responsibility for your mistakes, and be able to analyse your game impartially.

A lot of players can't do that. They can't deal with the swings, so they forever underachieve. Or they refuse to accept that they are to blame for their losses, and look for something or somebody to blame instead.

This culture of blame is encouraged by religion. If you crash your car head on into a pedestrian and they die, it's not your fault. God had a plan, which unfortunately meant that the victim had to pass on. But it doesn't matter - they're in heaven now, a better place.

Religion encourages people not to take responsibility for their own actions - whether good or bad. Some people believe that God pervades all, and that no action takes place without God's will. If they commit an act of outstanding charity, it was because God made them do it. If they catch a miracle card on the river, it was because 'God wished it'.

Never mind for a minute that if God did exist, he probably wouldn't be helping out players of a game in which the greedy objective is to inflict financial damage on your opponents. But why shouldn't you take pride in your achievements, while accepting and learning from your failures? It will make you a better player.

Knowledge of probability is also an essential weapon in a top poker player's arsenal. It's 220-1 against being dealt pocket aces preflop in Hold'em. If you have fifteen outs on the flop, you're a favourite to hit one of them by the river. If you play enough hands, you will inevitably be dealt a royal flush in five cards twice in a row (granted, it could take a lot of hands).

This is hard enough to grasp as it is. The vast majority of new players to the game think they are getting astoundingly unlucky when they take two bad beats in a row, or lose with pocket aces. That's because they don't understand the underlying mathematics, which often explain that a) what happened wasn'

Well, it's official. I'm leaving Edinburgh in a few weeks.

I've been working for PokerStars for a year and a half now. I started off in support as a Poker Specialist, dealing with players' queries and handling reports of potential collusion. After about a year, I took on additional responsibilities in game security, joining the bot-hunting team and working on our prohibited programs policy. Last week, I was promoted to Poker Room Analyst, which is a position involving half poker room management and half game security. The upside? The money and benefits are amazing, and I'll be working in a challenging new role alongside some of the best people in the industry. The downside? The job is at our head office in the Isle of Man.

I visited the island a couple of weeks ago, for an interview, to see the office, and to look around the island and get a feel for the place. Apart from the extraordinarily racist taxi drivers, it seems like a nice place. I stayed in a hotel in Douglas which looked out over the bay and the promenade, which was seething with motorbikes there for the Grand Prix. The whole place was rather quaint - it reminded me of old English seaside towns like Eastbourne and Weymouth. But Douglas is changing quickly, and it's going to be an exciting place to live in the next few years. The hotels on the seafront are gradually making way for luxury apartments. People are moving to the island to work in the gaming and financial industries (the island is also home to Microgaming and NETeller), and the towns are becoming more ethnically diverse. There's some resentment from locals who have lived on Mann for decades, but change is inevitable and it's often better to go with the flow than to fight it.

It's going to be a busy few weeks, but I can't help but reflect about my time in Edinburgh at every possible opportunity. What will I miss and what won't I?

Well, first of all, here's some things I won't miss:

Casual Racism: Scotland will be a much nicer place when people stop referring to corner shops as 'paki shops' and Chinese takeaways as 'chinkies'. Scotland is much less ethnically diverse than England and is way behind when it comes to educating it's population about racial issues.

Sporting Jealousy: Many Scottish people complain about the bias shown by the media towards English teams, and complain of arrogance from English supporters. But the media isn't biased. Just 10% of British TV viewers are Scottish - and TV is all about ratings. For example, if you had a choice whether to broadcast the Scotland game or the England game, but you knew that 90% of your viewers wanted to watch England - what would you broadcast? And where would you target the majority of your news coverage?

There's no reason for Scottish fans to necessarily support England, but actively rooting for the opposing team (which is very common) is just immature.

Unrequited Love: In third year of university I met a wonderful woman, who was kind, thoughtful, caring (and fucking hot) and through plain idiocy and egotism I let her get away. Ever since the thought that she is nearby has haunted me, and I don't think I've ever really got over her. Perhaps moving away will help bring closure.

Neds: In Isle of Man, Neds / Chavs / Townies / Scoundrels / Scallywags / Hoodies / 'Intimidating Youths' just don't exist. Or at least, I didn't see a single one while I was there.
What will I miss?

The View: In Edinburgh, you can look out of your window and see a castle, a mountain, and one of the city's twenty-odd Starbucks, all without turning your head. It's a truly beautiful city.

The Accent: A mild Scottish accent is one of the greatest accents in the world. It can make an average woman stunningly attractive, and a typical man ten times more suave. Look what it did for Sean Connery.

Things to Do: Edinburgh, being the capital, has something for everyone. Whether you want to go to an upmarket restaurant or get absolutely wasted in

I just got back from another trip to Las Vegas. Earlier in the year I'd been lucky enough to win my way into a World Series of Poker preliminary event, and I had been planning on playing anyway. To make things even better, Inside Poker asked me to cover the preliminary stages of the WSOP for their website, and contributed money to my expenses. Essentially, the hotel and flights were covered by the magazine, and I'd already won $5000 towards preliminary events. It was going to be a good trip.

I went with an old friend and PokerStars colleague - we met in London and caught the same flight to Vegas. I managed to lose points at Chinese Poker when we played for practice, but win as soon as we started playing for money. Immigration at Las Vegas was much less painful than at Los Angeles, and we were through the airport and out into the blistering 42 degree heat relatively quickly.

We stayed at Harrahs, which is right across the road from where we stayed last time, at the Mirage. It's a bit of a step down, but it was cheap and right in the middle of the strip. Plus, Harrahs ran a free shuttle to the Rio, which would be handy for my frequent trips there.

I had planned to play much bigger this time, but as before decided to start off small due to jetlag. One of the first games we played set the tone for the entire trip. I bought into a $2/$5 No Limit game at the Venetian for $1000, and on the first hand won a small when I flopped a set. On the flop I led into the field for $50, the preflop raiser raised to $200, everyone folded and I set him in for less than $200 more, thinking that he'd be sure to call if he held anything, feeling he was pot committed. However he actually folded his pocket aces face up - so I wondered whether I'd just played it badly or whether I'd given something away through my actions.

Thankfully, the table wasn't entirely populated with overpair folders, but I never quite caught a break. In the first big hand, I was all-in for about $600 against a very loose-aggressive player, holding the 6♦ 7♦ on a 6♠ 8♦ 10♦ board, against his pocket jacks. I missed every out and mucked my hand quietly.

About an hour later, I somehow managed to get all-in for over $1000 on a flop of 10♣ 9♣ 8♦, holding the 10♠ 8♠. My opponent called so quickly that I thought I was losing, but when he triumphantly tabled his A♦ A♥, I had a brief moment of hope. Brief, because the turn and river came K♦ K♥, giving him a bigger two pair and the win. He jumped out of his chair, screamed 'Yes', and then inexplicably claimed 'I thought he might have had a set'. Nice call then, mate.

That wasn't the stupidest thing I heard though. During another session at the Venetian, I managed to get all-in preflop against the least fun player at the table, holding aces against his kings. A king on the turn sealed my fate and as I went to the restroom to calm myself, the old guy said 'I knew he had aces.'. Apparently he had called because he felt kings were running hot (he had caught the case king when all-in with trips against a girl's full house earlier in the night). Losing when all-in preflop with aces isn't fun, but doing it against a mardy old man is even worse.

My friend Stuart wasn't so lucky either. He ran a set into a bigger set on more than one occasion. At the Wynn, a big hand came up in his $1/$3 game. A very masculine-looking woman with a huge nose and extremely long fingers had raised preflop, he flopped a set and she instacalled his all-in bet, her tentacle-like hands exposing an overpair of kings. The turn and river were both kings giving her quads. She apologised with all the sincerity of a drunk politician and left the table before he could win it back.

One of the things I'd been asked to do while in Las Vegas was following the WSOP progress of David Williams, a young professional poker player most famous for his second place finish to Greg Raymer in the 2004 main event. I was to interview him a cou