The electron distribution resulting from the breakdown of gas during irradiation by ultra-short high intensity laser pulses is considered using the quasi-static tunnel approximation. A general expression for arbitrary elliptic polarization is derived together with a number of approximations. The role of the pulse shape in modifying the distribution by determining the actual field and its variation during the ionization of a particular stage is considered in some detail. The ionization process is found to be sequential in most practical situations. Relaxation of the distribution in both anisotropy and energy due to collisions is investigated. The application of Monte Carlo methods for simulating these problems is described. A brief discussion of the consequences of the work for x-ray laser design is given.