you cant stop the PROPHET

I came up with this idea throughout a two-week holiday that I took a while back. I'd just played cash at a week-long tournament series. Normally, I'd treat these things like a holiday - play for 12 hours, drink for a couple of hours with friends, and then return the next day for more of the same. However, everything was last-minute this time, and my hotel was a 15-minute drive from the casino. I couldn't drink. This was game-changing.

I became vaguely interested in health and fitness when my weight ballooned to 80kg. I'd been 60kg, healthy enough, for about four years, but all the alcohol I'd drunk and exercise I hadn't done shot me right up. I started going to the gym, drinking less, eating better, and dropped to 70kg. But that's where my momentum died. I weighed in at 69.4kg this morning, which is still not great given I'm in my twenties. I shouldn't be wasting my theoretical prime like this.

What I noticed at this tournament series is that everyone was living like ****. Everyone was drinking during/after playing, diets were awful because all casino food is fried, and everyone was overslept because of late-nighters. I consider poker a sport in some ways, and none of these people were particularly athletic.

Whilst I was on holiday this month, the Olympics were on. I always find it inspiring to watch competitive sports - people performing at the highest level is infectious. The emotion and thrill of the competition look incredibly exciting, similar to deep runs in tournaments, but with more of the body involved. Then I had an idea - what if I treated poker like these athletes treat their disciplines?

I've done a lot of research into routines for mind sport and physical sportsmen. Turns out there is a lot of pseudoscience online concerning sports and coaching. Lots of people want to sell you 1-on-1 packages, "life coach" deals and online things. It was a pain to cut through all the chaff and get some key bullet points.

Being in shape doesn't replace the edge of skill. You don't suddenly get better at poker for the sake of being jacked or super fast - but I think that living super-healthily can enable you to think "on the spot" more effectively and have better memory recall, emotional regulation and mental tenacity. I hope it can serve as the "cherry on top" of the skill edge that I'm continuing to build as I practice.

I have been thinking about what my goals are. My life goal is to win everything, but this is a bit far-fetched and doesn't help with short-term motivation, so I've planned out objectives for this stage in my poker career:

I live in the sticks, so getting live experience isn't really possible unless I travel for some bigger regional/national series. But in my country, they're not that great anymore. I also don't mind just playing online, because then I get to 100% focus on the plans that I've made.

I also have a nutrition plan that I've worked out. It's quite flexible, but focuses a 2200kcal limit daily, 150g protein intake for recovery/buildup, lots of fruit/veg for nutrients. Five days a week strength training in afternoons, 4 days a week running short/long distance to improve time in both disciplines

My daily posts aren't going to be too detailed because I have quite busy days planned, but I'll make sure I provide the topline (weight, hands played, results, etc). Happy to answer questions about my methodology such that other people can try this out.

I'm also considering starting a coaching operation in my free time, geared at live poker players in the US up to 5/10. I don't have the record to prove my ability above this stake yet.

One doesn't just jump into the life of an athlete though - the body will surely burn out and the mind become deflated. I intend to spend the final four months of the year building up to a level I would consider "athletic", to ensure that I stay attached to the program that I have designed.

It's 10pm presently, I begin the experiment tomorrow. Tuesday's exercise is a short distance run (thankfully) in the mornings, and a Pull session in the afternoon. I will update the thread on how it goes, as I begin what could be a few years of work.

Enjoy yourselves,
bb/100