Where there's a Will

The 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event - the world's biggest and best poker tournament - played down to the final 9 early last week, and the big talking point was an English chap by the name of William Kassouf.

Will is a former lawyer, and his stock-in-trade was convincing others he had them bang to rights. Now he has transferred those skills to the poker table, and he has built quite a reputation as the king of trash talk, famously upsetting, amongst others, Vanessa Selbst. Vanessa is good - very good, one of the biggest winners in poker - but she cracked under the verbal onslaught Will delivered.

Fast forward to Day 5 of the 2016 WSOP and Will was at it again, reducing one hapless opponent to tears, forcing her to fold pocket queens face up, only to be shown 9-high by Will. He incurred a one orbit penalty for pushing the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable, but knowing Will, I doubt that cost him a moment's sleep.

As the tournament progressed to the day they would play down to 9 players - each of whom would be guaranteed a minimum of a million dollars - Will was positively rampant, running his stack up to ever greater heights.

Suddenly, the Brits were alert - it's been a while since one of our lads made the November Nine - but Will was in with a real shot at it, and almost the entire UK poker population were willing on Will.

It was not to be though, after two super coolers. First, he flopped a set of aces - hands don't get much better than that - but on an all diamond board, his opponent's jack of diamonds was enough to take down a monster pot.

Undaunted, he kept his foot flat to the floor, kept pressing and seemed a certainty to make the final 9 - in fact he could have folded every hand for the rest of the day and cruised into the final - but Will does not play that way. And soon he paid the price, in one of those grotesque spots in poker which simply cannot be avoided - he ran his pocket kings into pocket aces. There is no way off coups like that, and we have all been there. It's all about context though, and we can't begin to imagine what it must have felt like to be busted at that time, in that way, in the world's biggest poker tournament.

Did it bother Will? Not that you'd notice. Interviewed straight afterwards, he was all smiles, and, just as he does at the poker table, was animatedly talking 13 to the dozen with an ear to ear smile.

Course, it helps if you have just picked up a third of a million dollars, which was triple his previous highest cash, achieved at the 2009 Irish Poker Open. Incidentally, that was the event in which poker's current first lady, Kara Scott, finished 2nd for over €300,000. And what does the ebullient Kara Scott do these days? In a nice twist, she is one of the anchors on the ESPN coverage of the WSOP, so she will be commentating on Will's antics. Quite ironic that on this occasion, Kara will do the talking, and Will will do the walking.

Where now for Will? Well he has shown he has game, and he might just go on to the very top of poker. Whatever he does, though, he won't do it quietly, and he'll always be someone players love or hate.

Marmite Will Kassouf. You either love him or hate him.