Good poker players need both skill and luck. In his ongoing poker game with the markets, it looks as though the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is blessed with both.

Only two weeks ago, the meeting of the Fed’s open market committee that ended on Wednesday was shaping to be a vital one. Commodities and stocks were roaring forward on hopes that recovery had begun, while yields were rising fast. The bond market was betting that this would force the Fed to show its hand on Wednesday; how much was it prepared to spend to keep bond yields low, and what was its strategy to exit from its current extremely loose monetary policy.