I’m in Las Vegas waiting for The Magician. He’s running about an hour behind schedule and after hustling through the door of the Rio casino he apologises for having kept me waiting and acknowledges that his schedule of promotional duties has gotten all jammed up. He edgily fiddles with a pair of sunglasses and shows the stressful side of being a professional poker player who isn’t playing poker.

He appears truly discombobulated, but his tardiness is somewhat understandable: Esfandiari just got knocked out of a big tournament and he’s obviously pretty bummed. He endured a couple of bad beats and then busted out after his pocket Nines got outdrawn by K-8.