Query update problem

1

HI
could someone please have a look at my php code please

i will explain what i want the code to do

 	$query = sprintf("SELECT * FROM thegame  ",    
				 mysql_real_escape_string($start));
 $result = mysql_query($query);
 
// Check result
// This shows the actual query sent to MySQL, and the error. Useful for debugging.
if (!$result) {
    $message  = 'Invalid query: ' . mysql_error() . "
";
    $message .= 'Whole query: ' . $query;
    die($message);
}

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
 $start= $row['start'];
	
}
// Perform Query
$result = mysql_query($query);
$returnVars = array();
$returnVars['start'] = "$start";

$returnString = http_build_query($returnVars);


 if ($start == 0) {
$num = $_POST['num'];
$num = 0;
$res = mysql_query('SELECT num FROM randnumber WHERE called = 1 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1');
if(1 === mysql_num_rows($res)){  
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res); 
mysql_query(sprintf('UPDATE randnumber SET called = 0 WHERE num = %d LIMIT 1',

$row['num']));  
$num = $row['num'];
} 
mysql_query("UPDATE thegame SET start= 1 ");
   if (@mysql_query($sql1)) {



		 }

					
$sql = mysql_query("INSERT INTO tempnum (num,called) 
     VALUES('$num',1)")  
     or die (mysql_error());
          exit(); 
 }

	if ($start == 1) {
	$res = mysql_query('SELECT num FROM tempnum WHERE called = 1 LIMIT 1');
if(1 === mysql_num_rows($res)){  
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res); 
mysql_query(sprintf('UPDATE tempnum SET called = 0',
$row['num']));  
$num = $row['num'];


} 			
 printf('num=%d', $num);


         exit(); 
	
	 }

the problem is with this bit of code

 mysql_query("UPDATE thegame SET start= 1 ");
   if (@mysql_query($sql1)) {

if i put this bit of code at the bottom of the main code above my code doesent work like it should.

 mysql_query("UPDATE thegame SET start= 0 ");
   if (@mysql_query($sql1)) {

but if i go into my database and open thegame table and manually change the 1 to 0 it works great but as soon as i put my update query in my code it doesn’t work, it is updating the table ok, so it is updating, its just my game wont work unless i keep updating the database manually.

could someone help me here been on this a long time. i will post more info if required.

thankyou,