As Close As I’ll Get to James Bond

It only takes a few minutes of any James Bond film for me to feel an instant love. I might be a very happily married man, but there is a very large part of my heart which will forever belong to the secret agent.

Casino Royal is the epitome of James Bond films and there are two scenes which make the heart fonder; every single time I watch it.

The opening action sequence makes me want to get back in the gym and head to the gymnastic classes. The perfect mix of athletic ability, adrenaline spiking and sheer guts makes me watch the crane chase time and time again. It’s the perfect James Bond moment. The athletic skill and then the simple solution at the end. James is suave and masculine.

Then we get to the heart of Bond. The scene from the very first Bond book. He’s sat in a Casino in Monte Carlo, playing high-stakes poker against a world-renown terrorist. One or two dirty tricks later and the terrorist seems to have the upper hand. But he hasn’t fully considered his opponent. James Bond is not just any normal human being, he is a British Secret Service agent and one of their best.

I can’t watch Casino Royal and not want to emulate him in every way. I know my limits and I’m not going to be climbing any high-rise cranes any time soon. I get scared looking down from the top of the car park, let alone if I was barely stood on a piece of metal.

What I can do is get online and play poker.

I can sit in my living room, wearing just the clothes from the night before and log into any table I want. I can choose my display picture and become the suave hero I’ve seen so many times on the big screen. All it takes is a couple of clicks and I can be away in my imaginary James Bond world.

I’ve done it so many times that I’ve actually got good at poker, I can head over to the NetBet Casino, be logged in and having played and won a couple of hands before the kettle has even boiled and the coffee is made.

The table game is where I feel most at home. Sitting on a table with five to seven other players, all vying to become the large pot and dominate the game. We battle for hours to eliminate each other and take the table, but this isn’t what makes it fun.

The fun comes from the chat and the banter which flies around among us. You love to watch someone bluff and being called, you love to watch someone bluff and not get called, but win the largest pot of the night and you really love it when you win the biggest hand of the night and you really, really love when you feel like James Bond and you win.

There’s nothing in the world which can match that feeling.