I'm trying to make history. I've always put history above money.

I've been an idiot at the poker table for a long time.

When my reading ability is sharp, I can dodge bullets, baby! I have no problem folding super-strong hands and that saves me a ton of chips.

Poker is about understanding human behavior and managing emotions - yours and the other guy's. That's huge in poker, and it's huge in business.

Players talk about pot odds all the time, especially when they try to justify a call that they made. Whenever I hear this line of reasoning, though, I can't help but wonder if they properly thought through the consequences of their call.

In 1987, I wrote a goal sheet. I didn't want to waste my life. I'd dropped out of college, and there was a lot of pressure from my parents. I decided, 'If you're going to do this, you're going to become the best in the world at this.'

Playing fast and aggressive poker can help manufacture chips out of thin air and is one element of the game that separates the great players from the merely very good. But beware; it can be risky.

One or two great lay downs per tournament will give you a few extra lives while a few well-timed bluffs will give you a ton of extra chips.

I've met some of the most famous celebrities in the world but Michael Phelps was the first person I've ever met with whom I was totally star-struck.

There are two ways that lack of sleep affects my play: I'll play too many hands and I'll lose the ability to effectively read my opponents.

Poker is really about reading people. What happens when you bluff? What does it look like when the other guy bluffs? Does he look right, does he look left? Under what circumstances does he fold or call?

Here's a news flash: I hate to lose! Just watch any televised poker broadcast and you can see that's the case.

I guess I'm the happiest when I'm picking up my kids from school. The most important things on my list are my wife and kids and my health. Happiness is having a family you love.

Mental and physical preparation is critical in tournament poker events like the WSOP.

Keeping my emotions in check translates to me playing a lot better.

By folding often, I give other players the false impression that I'm a weak player - a player who can be easily bluffed. Trust me; I'm not a weak player.

Some players like to add a little more spice to their no-limit Hold 'em game. They add a live blind, also known as a straddle, where the player to the left of the big blind voluntarily puts up twice the big blind before looking at his hole cards. The player in the straddle then has the option to raise it up when the action returns to him.

I used to have a routine where I would eat a meal during the World Series of Poker. I would play, they would call it a day and I would go work out. I would always order poached salmon with mushrooms and I would dip the salmon into a side of ranch dressing.

Look, for some players, pot odds should guide your decision making.

If you play professionally, you can expect to go broke at some point.

Shoving with K-Q is a tactic that does work well for Internet players and weak players. In the old days, though, grizzled pros would have eaten up those guys by utilizing the traditional, more conservative style of poker that emphasizes play on the flop.

The flop bet is a useful tactic for both old-school and new-school players because it can be effective if you are strong, weak, or somewhere in between. Betting out weak on a bluff can allow you to pick up an uncontested pot while betting out strong gives you the opportunity to control the size of the pot.

What gets lost is that half of poker is reading people. When you're reading well and you're making counterintuitive plays, a strictly math player will get scared and start making fewer moves, and then the person is even easier to read.

I'm so much better off when I trust my instincts. But they're not perfect.

Every poker player has ups and downs because luck is also involved. When a great poker player smashes, he's making the right moves and making the right reads and he's getting lucky.

If you are too into the fans and adoration and the world thinking you are the greatest, then you do not perform well.

The more records you put up, the longer they talk about you.

For five or six years, I didn't play in some of the good games leading up to the World Series of Poker, because with so many below-average players there, I reasoned it messed up my game.

It wasn't a popular thing to be a professional poker player in the '80s.

I'm pretty tall, and I'm always dressed in black.

What you see on a lot of televised poker is highlight-reel poker. That's why I used to like 'Poker After Dark' so much. It used to catch us playing almost every single hand... It is more of a grind than people think.

I wanted to become good at golf because I saw a lot of really successful people being good at it - and I planned on being successful.

I tend not to read the papers or listen to what the pundits say about me.

Scoring is probably something I need to work on.

Winning the league is obviously something you dream of as a kid.

I'd like to see myself as captain, but it's a long-term goal.

I only really set short-term goals because I don't want to put too much pressure on myself.

The FA Cup is a great competition and one we want to win.

There have been some terrific player's names being bandied around that I am being compared to and that is great. I am just able, touch wood, to take it in my stride. That's how I am. I am not embarrassed or pressurised by it. It is just great and I want to do as well as they did.

I want to become the best I can be and be at my best for a good number of years.

My understanding of the game has improved. The technical side has improved. All round I have improved in leaps and bounds at United. I learn something every day in training here and I am just loving it.

Zlatan has been fantastic. He's one of the best characters I've played with.

I'd like to think that centre-half is my best position.

There's different aspects of the game you have got to pick up along the way. I think I am picking it up fairly quickly and I'm learning all the time and I can only get better.

England is nice. I always said that if I was playing games for United consistently and playing well I'd have a chance of getting back in.

I will do anything I can to improve myself.

It always helps to play every game at the back with the same players. You get a good understanding of each other and how one of you works, and what positions to take up.

It's always nice to play in the position you feel most comfortable in.

Those 12 o'clock kick-offs can be good if you win as then you've got the rest of the day to celebrate and enjoy it. On the other hand, if you lose, it's not a nice feeling. You spend the rest of the day mithering about the game and going over it in your mind for the next eight hours.

I've said all along from day one centre-back is the position I feel most comfortable in but if I'm asked to play right-back or midfield I'll go and do a job there.