Poker season dawns in London. The £10000 World Series of Poker Europe starts on Saturday followed by the £20000 High Roller at the Metropole and the £5000 London EPT on 2 October. Money cash money. Where does it all come from?

Last night I watched a classic documentary The Million Dollar Deal about the 1998 World Series of Poker (WSoP). One notices how small the field was then (just 350 runners compared with 10000 these days) and how much smaller the money (the $1m WSoP prize was unparalleled elsewhere) except I hadn't appreciated quite how much the game itself has changed.

There is a scene where Irishman Mike Magee complains that Bobby Hoff has raised 40 hands out of 60 "but I haven't found hands of sufficient quality to call him with".

Today that simply wouldn't be a problem. Reraising with no hand or half a hand is absolutely standard. The upcoming London tournaments will be filled with players "shoving light". In this documentary it is like though it never occurs to Magee – a great and innovative player by no means a fool – that he didn't need a real hand.

That is why the game is considered so much harder to defeat than it used to be since everyone plays so aggressively. This is correct tournament strategy: if someone is bullying you must fight back with or without ammunition. Nevertheless nothing in poker is black and white. The majority of the London fields will knock themselves out by overplaying not by being as well passive and they could serene study a thing or two from Magee.

For Richer For Poorer: A Love Affair With Poker by Victoria Coren is out now published by Canongate

Victoriacoren.com