The way it goes

It’s the law of poker tournaments: as players leave, stacks grow. You can’t have one without the other.

We’ve lost both George Baldwin (“he had a higher pair than I did”) and Daniel Nelson. However, the karmic pendulum has swung towards Ken Johnson, another PokerStars qualifier from Utah, who has around 33,500 and is going well.

Ken Johnson: from Utah and PokerStars

James Dempsey, from England, is also around the 33,000 mark. James recently attempted to break a poker marathon world record, sitting down and playing heads-up poker non-stop for 69 hours straight at London’s Gutshot club. He fell seven hours short, but make a stack of money for charity and is likely to slip back into the well-moulded marathon-attempting seat again soon.

Carlos Mortenson, left, and James Dempsey

Perhaps he might ask today’s neighbour along for an hour or two. It’s Carlos Mortenson, 2001 World Series of Poker champion.