There’s nothing better than a regular game of poker with friends or colleagues. You get to know other people’s games, while yours improves. And you get to play poker with people you’ve got time for, and you can have a laugh with. So why is it that home games occasionally go bad?

I am, of course, talking from personal experience here because, in November 2006, the PokerPlayer office game was officially banned for a month while we learned how to behave ourselves. The ban was revoked after 14 days, but it got me thinking. How did our jovial £5 buy-in post-work games untangle to the point of fear and loathing and implied physical violence?