F♥♠k me to goddamn tears.’

Not my words, but those of an internet poker player at the end of his tether. We’ve all been there, spitting venom when some mug hits his two-outer on the river to relieve us of our hard-earned chips. It’s part and parcel of the game, and indeed anger management is arguably as crucial a skill as bankroll management. Everybody hurts. However, everybody doesn’t choose to air their pain via a series of self-recorded videos, commentating over the action as it happens, replete with industrial language and, on occasion, guttural noises of despair. Remarkably, there is a player who chose that course – therapy you might call it – and the videos, almost exclusively captured on PartyPoker, started to appear a couple of years ago, spreading round the internet like a virus, and providing an often hilarious insight into one man’s private hell.

Rapidly gaining a cult following, the man behind the madness was revealed to be Tony Sandstrom, a 60-year-old aerospace engineer from San Diego, and the genius behind such phrases as ‘There we go, the first set since the Spanish American war,’ and ‘I can hardly wait to see how I get beat this time,’ all delivered in his distinctive gruff tones.