Premier League footballers are linking high-stakes poker losses to poor performances on the pitch according to new research handed to the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Birmingham

I look around the poker table and peer deep inside their hearts.

They are all in trouble.

I know what they do for a living. I can tell by the reaction to their losses that they are playing with scared money. But most of all, I know it because I can feel it. I am it.