Evangelical politicians in America have tried to crush poker in the US and British courts have found Derek Kelly of London’s Gutshot poker club guilty of allowing people to play the game they love. Anyone would think that poker is approaching some kind of judgement day crisis.

So how come the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas has just fielded the largest WPT field ever with a staggering 937 runners? It’s because poker players refuse to be told what to do by overbearing governments, and quite rightfully so, too.

With 300 more runners than last year, the $7,800 buy-in created a huge $7m prize pool, closely rivalling the amount that was up for grabs in the World Series Main Event won by Chris Moneymaker in 2003.

And with some of poker’s biggest names joining the hordes of internet qualifiers eager to follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner Steve Paul-Ambrose, this year’s tourney was always going to be hotly contested.