We're back from Dubai - exhausted but exhilarated by a very successful week, marked on our first birthday (29 April) by official acceptance of poker as a 'mind sport' by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA).

IMSA's annual meeting was held during the annual Congress of SportAccord (formerly GAISF, the General Association of International Sports Federations). After a subsequent meeting with SportAccord president Hein Verbruggen, IMSA President José Damiani and representatives of our fellow mind sports - chess, bridge, draughts and Go - IFP was officially invited to send six national teams to participate in the first SportAccord World Mind Games, to be staged in China late next year.

This was announced at SportAccord's closing Congress - a truly historic moment, to me, in the history of the 'mind sport' that brings us all together.

The following year, 2012, will then see poker take part in the World Mind Sports Games, due to be held in the UK just after the London Olympics. In the meantime, IFP will work to achieve membership of SportAccord at its next annual meeting in London.

So there's still plenty to do - but that's not too bad for Year One !