England is a seductive little minx! As much as I've enjoyed the obvious benefits of living in California (hello, actual sunshine), whenever I come back to the UK for a visit I find it incredibly hard to leave. I lived here for over a decade before relocating to the USA and it does still feel like 'home'. I had a nice time in Paris at the WPT event earlier this month but it was a bit of a relief to finally arrive down in Brighton. Travelling, new experiences and sightseeing are great fun but sometimes you just really want to sit down on a familiar sofa, put your feet up and feel like you're at home. Pulling into Brighton Train Station always feels just like that for me.

I'm staying with a very dear old friend of mine while I'm here. He's an incredible musician/composer and waking up to the sound of him playing something gorgeous on the piano, I'm not going to lie; it's pretty awesome. He has this low, rumbling, gravelly voice and is a a great big tough Northern bloke with a massive heart. He's pretty much the perfect person for me to spend some time with right now and we've been mates for years. As soon as I pulled into the train station, I jumped into a taxi and was straight down to the centre of town to surprise a friend at her birthday drinks. She's like a little sister to me and the look on her face when she saw me walk through the door just absolutely made my year. Every hug and kiss and hello from each of my friends here just made me feel like I'd walked right back into a space that they'd left open just for me. As 'welcome home's go, you can't get better than that.

They've all been trying to convince me to move back to Brighton. It's damned tempting. I like the value system here. Nobody ever asks you what you do for a living, what kind of car you drive or tries to measure you by how much money you've got in your pocket. As long as you have enough to get your round of drinks in at the pub, you could be a rich man or a poor man and nobody really cares. Good stories are a much more valuable currency. I find it a great counterbalance to the sometimes fabulous excesses of the world of poker.

I don't think I'm ready to move back here just yet as I'm not quite finished with my work in the USA and also, my family in Canada would like me to at least stay on the same continent as them! I absolutely adore my friends in California and I'm looking forward to catching up with them when I go back there in a couple of weeks but for the meantime, it's been a real relief to settle back into life in Brighton; to clear the fog from my head following a pretty tumultuous summer and to refocus on the things that are actually important to me.