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!