I started playing poker when I was working for a trophy maker in Hull in the late 1960s. During lunch breaks, my colleagues and I played for a few pence and I found I was quick at calculating the odds. I was only 15 but in the same year, I joined a local casino club – I shouldn’t even have been allowed in. The club was legal, but it had the atmosphere of an old illegal gambling joint. From there, I was invited to private games. People were happy to have me around, because I wasn’t a great player and I lost regularly.

Hull was a tough place to grow up; everybody was doing something dodgy. I became part of a safe-cracking gang, but I wasn’t doing it for the money, I was doing it because it was an adventure. When I was 20 I was arrested for robbing two off-licences and a tobacco shop, and I was jailed for nine months. Eight years later, I was arrested again, and got 18 months. It’s not something I’m proud of, and I haven’t done anything criminal since.

I never decided to become a professional poker player – I slipped into it. First, I played cash games in Hull. When nobody wanted to play against me any more, I drove through the north of England looking for games. Some places were quite seedy, but I liked the buzz.