Health Challenge Week 2

Well, thanks to APAT Cardiff and lack of access to a kitchen the healthy and regular eating took a bit of a back seat. Simply impossible to follow a paleo diet and eat 6-7 times a day being away from home. Especially difficult if I'm sat at a poker table for multiple hours a day as it was at the weekend.

Tom at Winning Health Solutions uses Charles Poliquin's BioSignature Modulation methods. BioSignature is all about correlating where someone stores their body fat with their hormonal profile. Fat caliper measurements from 12 sites around the body are taken and from the results I then get offered recommendations on nutrition, supplementation, and training. My results from the first two weeks of the challenge are below:

Note: As these are manual measurements there is clearly a margin of error, perhaps from sweat making it difficult to grab the fat, or Tom's technique altering slightly week to week (i.e. between week 2 and 3 he adjusted his method of taking the hamstring measurement). The main aim is for the sum of the 12 sites to be on a downward trend over the next three months.

As I store fat on my chest and abdomen I fit into the insulin and cortisol types (see hormonal profile link). As part of the weekly assessment Tom will give me a suitable task dietary wise to follow rather than bombard me with everything I could do. Last week was to eat 6-7 times a day, each meal to include 200g of animal meat. Failed miserably at that, couldn't get more than 5 - lack of organisation, money and laziness all to blame. As stated above, travelling for poker makes this aim near enough impossible, therefore this week's suggestion is to continue focusing on eating regularly where I can. If I go to a casino take some dark, thin-skinned fruit such as blueberries in with me if I can. If I order from a menu, choose the least-worst option (I do this already - steak and eggs is my favourite anyway!). In situations where neither of the above are possible, then he's asked me to consider BCAAs as a supplement in lieu of eating actual food. Before yesterday this would've been a no due to the expense, but I will probably give it a go - hope I can take some on the plane to Las Vegas!

Due to my hormonal type my body is 100% affected by what goes into it, so the responsibility is mine. I'm unlikely to see a significant decrease in weight during the first three months of training, but I'm looking forward to seeing a steady decline in body fat and a steady increase in lean mass.

Workout wise I am continuing to follow the Gironda protocol, eight sets of eight reps over six different exercises. Last week was 30 secs rest between sets, this week is 20 secs and next week will be 15 secs. Thoroughly unpleasant. Upper body was covered yesterday, with legs today. I'll book in an arms session Thursday or Friday, and for the first time I'll be able to attend a strongman session on Saturday to hit the optimum number of training sessions for the week. The workout tracker on BodySpace is still unavailable (apparently was only going to be down for 24 hours - that was 10 days ago) but I'll post a summary once it's back up and running.

Genting Las Vegas Challenge Play-offs & APAT Cardiff

The Genting Vegas Challenge league was completed as of Sunday 27th May, with me finishing in 5th after not playing any of the last five tournaments. Weirdly, some players around me who were guaranteed top 11 places with no chance of the outright win kept playing. Hardly +EV when there are no meaningful prizes to play for - hopefully such bizarre decision-making would manifest itself in poor satellite play. My recent poker track record has hardly been stellar, and with three play-offs available paying five packages (2 packages out of 10 players, 2 out of 37 and 1 out of 28) it would still be an uphill battle to bink a $7,500 prize.

Monday saw me tangle with the other players from 2nd-11th in the table, starting with 5,000 chips on a 10 minute iPoker structure. Got dealt a dreadful seat, to my left was a station, to his left was the most aggressive 3-bettor. Four nits to my right, with the crazy 49/40 player diametrically opposite where I couldn't really get at him. Needed to pick up the odd hand here and there given my reputation, so of course I spent the tournament largely card dead. So in essence I couldn't raise too light, and my 3-betting opportunities weren't looking too hot either.

I finished the first hour 8th of 10 holding 7% of the chips in play, hitting the chiplead briefly shortly after when I check-shoved the nut flush draw in a perfect spot. Doubt he did, but given the situation I think UTG could even pass AK or AA here.

Genting TVC Championship Play-off 60/120

Button (4895)
SB (5410.50)
BB Hero (4235)
UTG (5173)
UTG+1 (3820)
MP (3207)
MP (6260)
MP (6664.50)
CO-1 (4620)
CO (5715)

Preflop: Hero is in the BB with A J
UTG raises to 240, 5 folds, CO calls 240, Button calls 240, SB calls 180, Hero calls 120.

Flop (1200) 9 8 K
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets 900, 1 fold, Button calls 900, 1 fold, Hero raises to 3995, 2 folds

Hero wins 6995 with High card: Ace

By the end of the second hour I was back down to 5.7k, 5th of the remaining 5 players. Had 3-jammed a couple of times and shoved AK once, but with three players over 10k, my VPIP dipping to 7%, and me holding just 11% of the chips it was beginning to look desperate.

I needn't have worried.

In the league games I took the approach of open-shoving 10-15BBs, maybe slightly more. It hadn't really served me well, so going into the third hour I decided I was going to raise-call from smaller stacks than I usually would as my opponents weren't really adjusting correctly. It clearly flummoxed this guy:

Genting TVC Championship Play-off 200/400/50

Button (7151)
SB (12835)
BB (11550)
UTG (13779)
MP Hero (4885)

Preflop: Hero is in MP with A J
1 fold, Hero raises to 800, 1 fold, SB calls 600, 1 fold.

Flop (2250) K 6 2
SB checks, Hero bets 1200, SB calls 1200.

Turn (4650) K 6 2 5
SB checks, Hero checks.

River (4650) K 6 2 5 9
SB bets 3200, Hero fecking snap calls 2835 (all-in)

SB shows J  J , Hero shows A  J 

Hero wins 10320 with Flush: Ace high

This pot put me right back in the hunt, and from there on in I was the only player of the final 5 not to make any massive mistakes. The only time I was ever at risk was 4 handed, with blinds 250/500/50 UTG (4k) passed, the button (21k) min-raised - again, the SB (15k) flat called, and I moved in for 10.5k with TT from the BB. The button made a dreadful call with AJ and I held to take 40% of the chips in play. From there I was able to comfortably maintain my stack as the other chipleader was insistent on tangling with everyone (including me). I barely played another hand, took the blinds a couple of times but he knocked out the remaining short stacks in quick order. His strategy was somewhat questionable, but I'm not exactly complaining - my path after the double up was effectively risk free as a result.

So after investing over $1k in a league with no meaningful payouts aside from the packages, I've come up trumps and am now $7.5k richer. Las Vegas was already planned and booked, but this rolls me to play a variety of tournaments in the $100-600 bracket plus WSOP event #33 $1k NLHE.

2 Las Vegas leagues, 2 packages. Looking forward to next spring!

Finally, the APAT Welsh Amateur Championship was held in Cardiff over the weekend. Nothing to report from the £75 main event for either myself, Tony or Perry. Aside from my 3bet shove on the turn with an open-ender into the nuts. Oops. At least we were out early enough to watch the football and boxing - with Perry being out early enough to fit a film in too. You suck.

We all flicked in the £25 PLO side event on the Sunday. Perry took a nasty beat early, with Tony hanging on before an attempted steal gone wrong around the mid stages. I on the other hand had AAxx hold up 2 out of 3, and with a passive table I was able to steadily accumulate to reach the final table with an average stack. It was an absolute grind with no cards for a while (would've smashed up a Badugi tournament), but I was able to hang on long enough to pick up a couple of double ups. Once I finally reached a decent stack the playable hands kept coming, and although an erratic Italian Gianluca caused me a few problems heads up I fell on the right side of a couple of coolers and got the job done for £295. Not much, but prior to the Genting bink last night it was the biggest score of the year so far!

Feel like I've finally got what I've deserved - haven't had that feeling for a while. Really believe that I've turned a corner and I can now go to Las Vegas with optimism. How much is down to a couple of slight strategy adjustments, and how much to an improved lifestyle - who knows? However it's given me added motivation to cope with the Gironda protocols in the days and weeks to come!

Lady Luck Anal

I've just discovered the statistics area of Blogger - apparently the search term 'Lady Luck Anal' has resulted in five views, more than any other search phrase. This blog is also popular in both Russia and Iran. Hmmmmm.

Not sure if I really want to go back through my post history to work out where I've been mentioning these words in the same sentence, though I suspect the words 'rape' and 'me' probably feature in this sentence also. No doubt posted immediately after a period of immense poker frustration.

And just poker frustration, no other type of 'frustration' thank you very much, before any of my smart-ass friends think about making some clever comments.

So basically, now I've blogged about this again - I'll get a load more page views. Cunning plan eh?

Ping Pong, Ponyo, and Crabbing

Crabbing - A sexual act in which the 'crabber' has a penis in each hand and is simultaneously tugging them off and popping them into his/her mouth. Crabbing can also include a third penis performing penetrative sex, usually an act associated with a female 'crabber' rather then male.

"I love having two cocks at once, crabbing is my favourite hobby".


Courtesy of the Urban Dictionary.

Well, I've been crabbing all day. The other sort. A punishing legs session using the gironda protocol (8 sets of 8 reps, 30 seconds rest between each set) on Tuesday thanks to Tom. Six different exercises, and now my hamstrings are so tight I can't straighten my legs. Can only 'walk' sideways. I look disabled (no further comments please), or like a new-born deer depending on the level of pain. Have had to sack off the arms session due today, but feeling a little better now so I'll get it in tomorrow afternoon.

Hopefully I'll be able to put some results up on BodySpace. However the site is having a few issues at the moment and the Workout Tracker has disappeared. It's also saying my last visit to the site was in 1970. I've gained 0.1kg during the first week of the challenge, but lost fat - I'll confirm how much when I eventually get the data.

Poker has been going a little better though which is most welcome prior to Vegas. I spent the weekend in London with The Hendon Mob forum team for the International Poker Club's team event. Having final tabled the last event in January on the way to the team taking down the team prize (£30 entries split 50-50 between individuals and teams) our captain was bullish about retaining the title. It's a good evening out and about the craic rather than the competition. Special mention goes to a large Cameroonian guy (Ping Pong, aka Sam) who's the life and soul of the club. He'll also get it in pre with 75o. Without fail.

Our team of ten had become eight a couple of days prior to the event; I promptly recruited a late substitute Vincent from my Southampton poker society days. A good choice as he Asian-nitted his way to 5th place out of 108 runners. With an additional final tabler (Doudeau aka Ian) and a 13th place (Sprengers) we succeeded in retaining the title and bragging rights for another few months -and the £160 pretty much covered my weekend away. My own tournament ended with around 70 left; I'd picked up some hands early but AA wasn't good enough vs 9d2d on a AdTh8d7d board.

With the Genting Las Vegas play-offs looming I took the opportunity to flick in the £50 freezeout at the local Grosvenor. Whilst I bubbled the tournament on the FT after losing a race, the 20 minute wait before during which I sat down with £90 at £1/£1 was rather profitable. Seven or eight hands played, getting it in three times against the same guy for £40 a time, winning the lot (AQ v AJ; Jh8h vs 'two pair' on QhJd7h flop, turn Ah; and AA vs 99) and I could sod off with a £127.50 profit.

£382.50 hourly rate. Sustainable much?

Films watched: Ponyo - A Studio Ghibli film (anime). Not the sort of film I'd expect to like, but the Studio Ghibli films are incredible (a handful are in the IMDB top 250); feature big name voice actors (Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett) on the English versions; and are rather dark given they're aimed at children. It's not nearly the best Ghibli I've seen but enjoyable nonetheless.

Genting Las Vegas Challenge Week 9

It's getting ridiculous now. Monday saw me hit the chiplead for the umpteenth time in a row with 12 of the 28 players left, holding 32k to 2nd's 19k. Cue getting it in pre in a 22k pot against my main rival with KK vs his AK. For the second time in three tournaments he binks an Ace at a critical spot. I bust in 7th after button QQ into BB's KK, AK<44, 99<44 and finally shoving my SB with T2o for 14BBs into my rivals 88.

Yet again it all goes tits up during the latter stages, the league leader ended up finishing 3rd, and is all but assured of winning the league. I binked one guy on Sunday 3bet jamming KT on the button into his CO AQ - he complained I only ever get it in behind and I'm so lucky. If I was 'lucky' I'd have the whole fucking league sown up by now. So tilting.

Had a decision to make, continue on with the league (at $62 minimum per tournament) to try and win it which would require a 2000-odd point swing in my favour (realistically I'd need two top 3 finishes at the bare minimum and for s0s0lidx to slip up) or save $120+ and accept the three play-offs to shoot for one of the five remaining packages. I've decided upon the latter, and my fate will be decided Monday 29th May-Wednesday 31st May. As it is I've likely made the correct decision, as s0s0lidx has sown up the league with a 2nd place on Monday night. Even had I continued and won a tournament last week I would've be too far behind, so congratulations to him.

First tournament is a STT for 2nd-11th in the league, playing for two packages, with 2nd-40th going for two more the following day, and then anybody who's played 16 tournaments gunning for the last (currently 21 runners, maximum of 32 can meet this requirement).

APAT Cardiff to come this weekend, so I'm looking forward to a few days of poker and run good!

Health Challenge Week 1

The first week of workouts for the Health Challenge is now complete (bar a strongman session on Saturday, however I think my weekend schedule will cause me to miss it). A few aches here and there, but after a fortnight of nothing it's to be expected. Back has given me a bit of grief for a couple of days but it's nothing I can't work through at the moment.

I've completed the first BioSignature test with Tom to gather base stats for body fat %, lean mass, along with some better quality before photos, however I am currently waiting for Tom to email these to me. The day 1 photo submitted to Sorel is now up at my BodySpace profile. Ergh. I'll put the better ones up as soon as possible!

Tom has given me the task to focus on a 'Meat and Nuts' breakfast. I can't stand nuts, so I'm able to use blueberries as a substitute - which is awesome as I love them. The only other specific nutrition target I have is to take 6-7 tsp of fish oil today with meals. I've not been tasked with following any dieting guidelines, however I will continue to follow paleo principles in respect of other meals. A weekend away in London this weekend should prove suitably challenging to eat well. I'll allow myself one cheat meal over the weekend as it's likely I'll need some casino grub at some point!

Quick summary of the week's workouts (click to expand):

Tom varies my workouts quite a bit, though he is planning to look at a defined program to track any strength improvements a little better. I'd provide some stats from Bodyspace but the website appears rather buggy :(

Nutrition:

Monday - Steak and eggs, made some more bolognese as per previous post (added some yellow peppers this time). Met water intake goal (6 pints), coconut oil goal (2 tsp prior to workout) and protein shake immediately after workout.

Tuesday - Eggs for breakfast. Finished the bolognese. Garlic and Herb chicken breast. Met water, coconut oil and fish oil (6 tsp per day) goals. Protein shake after workout

Wednesday - Steak and eggs, handful of blueberries for breakfast. Rack of BBQ pork ribs. Met water and fish oil goals.

Thursday (so far) - Sirloin steak for breakfast, handful of blueberries.

(Yes, I severely lack cooking inspiration.)

Films Watched: Sharpe's Mission. Technically not a film, but it is feature length. Sean Bean is an absolute legend (and doesn't die).

Genting Las Vegas Challenge Week 8

Week 8 of the Genting Vegas Challenge has ended poorly for me. There are three tournaments per week, with the best finish counting. I banked a 4th on Thursday, and although this is better than the previous fortnight, both my main rivals took down a tournament. Most annoyingly the current league leader spiked his A8 four-handed v my QJ on a Q5432 board after check-raise bluffing the flop. Had his range heavily weighted towards bluffs so called turn and tank called river. Just annoying he got there - especially as he was only in the tournament as a result of AK spiking KK. That gave him the momentum to go on and win for a big points swing in his favour. So frustrating as for the last three weeks I can't buy a result.

Made the final table Sunday night also (which made it 3 out of 3 final tables - not amazing considering there were only 21-23 runners) but finished 7th after jamming 14BBs with KcJc into KK. If it's not beats it's coolers at the moment, and mainly the latter to be fair - seem to be finding dominating hands with monotonous regularity and failing to spike when I really need it.

The one thing in my favour is that this league is mirroring the PKR league two years ago, where I took down the first tournament, fell away a little in the mid stages, and came back to win at the last moment from a near impossible position. I hope history repeats itself otherwise it's off to the play-offs for me. My financial situation could do with the $7,500.

Current Standings: (I'm NotWearingPants - this is also my Genting screen name)

1	s0s0lidx	9125
2	NotWearingPants	7850
3	MensaGavin	7550
4	g1dski	6900
5	gottodobetter	6375
6	ripple22	5975
7	DouglasPenman	5050
8	TheAceFather	5025
9	ThaMonopoliza	4705
10	Yian3000k	4575
11	MrsCub11	4225

2000-1500-1250-1000-800-650-500-350-250-200-150 points available for the top 10 in each tournament.

Finally, OMFG @ Man City today. Crazy stuff. Didn't really want either side to win, and would've picked the red side of Manchester if I'd had to pick one, but at least watching the match and updating Perry via Facebook was exciting.

Health Challenge:

Really craving unhealthy food. Every advert was for Magnum Infinity, Domino's or some other delicious carby/sugary food. Trying to drink to take my mind off it, and simply hoping it's withdrawal symptoms from the preceding fortnight. I'm sure Monday's gym session will take my mind off things.

I'll be getting all the body measurements completed tomorrow and getting a 'before' photo up after the clamour from various perverts to see this. Having seen some other participants in the challenge use Bodyspace I have decided to create a profile there to track my stats and workouts, although this blog will still remain as my primary updating point.

My Bodyspace profile can be found here. Getting used to the site and it still requires some additional information, but please feel free to add/comment.

Nutrition:

Saturday - Seasoned chicken breast and cabbage twice, bolognese from beef/pork mix mince, onions, tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms and some green veg (this was fricking amazing, see pic) 2tsp of coconut oil in the morning. 5 pints of water.


Sunday - Leftovers from Saturday. Steak and eggs in the evening. 4 pints of water.


Films Watched: Tomorrow Never Dies (underrated Bond movie, although the main villain is rather weak I would love to see the new films return to a classic Aryan type henchman a la Stamper). Police Academy, Police Academy 2 (Faultless taste and the pinnacle of Steve Guttenberg's acting career I'm sure you'll agree. RIP Hightower).

F**king hate the prowler

Feel like crap. A fortnight of scoffing carb-laden food followed by jumping straight back into a gym and diet routine. I've been warned before that what you've eaten in the previous 48 hours affects how you feel during a gym workout.

But I wanted a 6 pack of cherry bakewell tarts before embarking on this challenge. They were freaking amazing.

Played the SCOOP #15-L FLO8 alongside a few hyper-turbo sats to SCOOP #16-L NLHE Turbo Double Chance. Made 461/2972 in the O8 after AAJ2 was outdrawn by KK88. Never got much going so surprised to make it that deep. Turned a profit on the sats, then forgot to unreg from the subsequent turbo crapshoot. Got through half the field before losing JJ v AQ v 66. Terrible tournament, could've taken the second bullet, but didn't fancy spinning up 7BBs.

Anyway, first session of upper body work. Working with the other trainers Owen, an MMA fighter; and Rich, who's currently training for strongman events.

8 sets of 8 reps each, 3010, 30 seconds rest

Lever Seated High Row - 60kg
Dumbbell Press - 6kg
Low Pulley Row To Neck - 27kg
Dumbbell Fly - 5kg
Standing Low Pulley Face Pull - 20kg

A relatively gentle session to ease back into it, all good, grabbed my bag and went to leave.

Too slow. I shouldn't be polite and hang around to say goodbye. Rich comes out of the office and asks how much I enjoy the prowler. FML, there's no right answer here.

"On a scale of 0-10, somewhere between 0 and 2". And that's being generous.

Cue the Friday Finisher. 6x20m prowler sprints, alternating between high bars and low bars, with 30 secs rest after each 40m. I now feel sick and light headed.

"Now do you enjoy the prowler?" quips Rich. Fucker.

I required a lie down in the changing rooms, eventually left 15 minutes later.

Still hate it.

Nutrition:

Steak and eggs twice today (I'm currently lacking in meaty options). 5-6 pints of water. 2tsp coconut oil and 1 fish oil capsule prior to workout. Protein shake immediately after.

The Challenge

I have given myself the New Years Resolution pretty much every year to do something about my fitness. This year has actually seen some progress. I've been a member of many a gym in the past, but like so many others I've never felt entirely comfortable at many commercial gyms and the 'sign you up, then not give a shit' approach they seem to use. I'm a naturally suspicious person, and I like to think I have a fairly logical approach to life and what I encounter. Personal trainers in commercial gyms would look at me blankly when I would enquire as to the finer details of how to use a particular piece of equipment, as I result I would have no trust or faith in that they truly knew what they were doing. Enter Tom at Winning Health Solutions in Shirley, Southampton. A proper strongman gym - you won't find any CV there. By chance I received an email offer via LivingSocial for two personal training sessions, took this up, and I've been seriously impressed. Tom is able to speak in length about nutrition, hormones, biomechanics in addition to the strength and conditioning coaching - I 100% trust the information I get.

This challenge has involved me sending a body photo along with the day's newspaper to Sorel. My choice was the Daily Telegraph, featuring a large picture of the Queen on the front page. Therefore Sorel is in receipt of a picture of me in my boxers, holding a picture of Her Maj. Lucky boy. Quintessentially English, perhaps not - certainly the weirdest email I've ever sent online, even allowing for internet dating.

And no, I'm not posting it here. Sod right off. I'll post a heavily cropped version on Monday!

Anyway, Sorel's initial feedback is that it looks like I used to be in shape, and once the weight is gone I have the potential to look 'not just poker player epic, but EPIC' - thanks dude!

My Fitness Background:

Believe it or not, I used to be an FA qualified football coach, coaching children four times a week during university summer holidays back in 2004. I was a half decent player (not that anyone who's seen me play recently would believe this) and was a svelte 11st 10 (74.5kg). It was an absolutely awesome gig, I can totally understand why teachers do the job they do for the moment you know you've had an impact on a kid.

Unfortunately towards the end of that summer I damaged my left ankle ligaments quite badly, from which I've never fully recovered. Aside from a few weeks of coaching the following year I haven't coached since, and I still feel the effects of this injury. I discovered poker at the same time and since then I've lead a rather sedentary lifestyle with jobs in offices.

I've flirted with gyms, and one weekend job when I was 16/17 involved serious heavy lifting, but I wouldn't say on the whole that I've had a strong fitness background in my youth. I have the type of body that puts both muscle and fat on very quickly, which is good if you're the active sort.

Plan of action:

I'll be working with Tom at Winning Health Solutions, training 3 times a week on upper body, legs and arms. I also have the option of attending 2 modified strongman sessions per week - if anyone has seen Worlds Strongest Man you'll know what this will entail. For those that don't, it's stuff like rope pulls, flipping tractor tyres and dragging weighted sleds as well as regular movements such as deadlifts.

On the nutrition side I will be following a paleo diet (Paleolithic, also known as caveman or Stone-Age diet). For the majority of human existence we have been hunter-gatherers, it is only in our recent history that we've become farmers. Like any diet, it has its supporters and detractors, but it's a diet I have a fair chance of keeping up - effectively meat and veg. Sugar is the major no-no, along with processed foods, grains etc. My family has a history of diabetes, so this diet will also fit in well with attempting to avoid it.

I'll be taking advice from Charles Poliquin in respect of nutrition and supplements. My water intake target is 6 pints per day. In respect of supplements I will be taking coconut oil twice daily, along with fibre and fish oil supplements.

Challenges:

As a result of my ankle injury I was left with an imbalance in my posture (rather than walking on the outside of the foot, one of my ankles as 'collapsed inwards' which sounds more dramatic than it is). This lead to crippling calf pain if I walked for any longer than 5-10 minutes. This problem has been sorted with specially moulded insoles from a podiatrist, however I now experience severe back pain if I stay on my feet. It may flare up within 30 minutes, or I could get through 9 holes of golf over 2 hours with no problems. Having lived a lazy life for the past 8 years it's likely to be a weakness rather than a more serious issue - working at the gym should help address this gradually.

The nutritional side will be the main challenge for me. Water can be taken as tea or coffee, however I like neither. Nuts are a part of the paleo diet, and I can't stand those either. Fortunately I like my meat and my greens, but I will be hamstrung slightly in my meal options. And I hate cooking, although on the rare occasions I've turned my hand to it it's turned out pretty well.

I'm also currently jobless, and looking to relocate to London if possible. I will be looking for temporary work shortly, but fitting in the training around a 9-5 job will be a change. Without this I have the time, but the financial implications of following a paleo diet (it's not cheap!) will make the life aspect of this a challenge either way.

Finally, I'm spending two weeks of this challenge in Las Vegas in June. Needless to say that the diet may slip slightly here! I also spend a number of weekends away for poker - casino food is hardly conducive to eating healthily.

If you've read this far, congratulations. Other blog posts won't be this long - I promise.

Current Music Addiction: Heather Fenoughty - Echoes Of The Past

Films Watched: None

Phoenix from the ashes

It's weird. I've had this blog for five years, had the link bookmarked on three different computers and made just one post in the last four years celebrating winning the PKR Road to Vegas league in 2010. Probably fair to say I've not had a great deal to shout about since. I've improved hugely as a poker player since - reading my old posts makes me realise how much I've learnt. Relatively speaking though, I've fallen behind my peers. In past years I shared tables with some of the best young UK poker talent in Southampton Grosvenor. They've moved on and up, the games have got tougher. I got a job and stagnated, and now I'm at a crossroads. I believe I'm a bloody good player and I take the belief with me to the table that I can adapt and give myself the best chance of beating anyone. Can I prove this? No.

But this blog is back, and I'm involved in the thick end of another Vegas WSOP league. Good omens, I hope. Especially given this blog would've been deleted had I not accessed it prior to 30th May, hence the post title. There is a reason of course; I'm hardly the individual to do something without reason.

This reason is Sorel Mizzi's Health Challenge he has issued to the poker community. The aim is to go through a 3 month fitness program, charting progress and body transformation, and blogging about my experience and the challenges I face. The incentive for doing so (aside from the obvious health implications) is that Sorel will fully analyse a poker hand every three weeks I participate. Progress will also be assessed by four judges (including Sorel), and the winner will be taken under his wing for a year. An additional incentive shall we say. Regardless of the outcome, I hope I see health benefits, plenty of blog posts and comments, and that I experience one of those poker epiphanies that takes you to the next plane in the poker player's existence.

Anyone reading this has probably read my plea on Facebook, APAT or Twitter - I would be really grateful for any following and encouragement you can offer.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step" - Lao Tzu