Poker & Health

This might not turn out to be the typical blog that you'd expect in the Team PokerStrategy.com category, but it is something worth reading. Health is overlooked by many poker players. Players might consider a lot of different ways such as Hold'em Manager, PokerTracker, discussing hands on the forum or watching videos in order to improve their win rate. Though almost never is physical and mental fitness mentioned in the same breath, but it really ought to be. Being physically and mentally fit does improve your results as well as your overall quality of life - which is ultimately why you play poker professionally in the first place right? Financial freedom-> better quality of life.

Typically I used to play cash games online for short sessions of 2 to 3 hours each a few times a day. The reason for this is to keep your focus at a maximum. Whenever you play longer your focus tends to drift away and you'll start making costly errors. When you play tournaments you do not have the luxury to quit whenever you feel your focus slipping. The WSOP tournaments typically start at noon and go on until 1 in the morning. A lot of players are really done when it's 10pm and are just waiting for the day to end, because they get tired. This means they miss out on 2 levels of play that are getting at a critical stage and probably even played under their maximum capacity before that as well. It needs no further arguing that this is far from optimal for your results. So you need to increase your focus time span. I will argue that any serious poker player who has high goals for himself should maintain a perfect health in order to achieve those. If you don't, then you are not doing it right.

What I have noticed over the last 2 weeks is that I can keep on playing much longer than less fit people without a problem. Being healthy improves your focus, happiness(tilt resistance), mood balance (ultimate tilt resistance), endurance, you'll never be sick(no down time!), energy levels(ready to play all day), productivity and it even makes you brighter. Sounds good? Thought so too. So how to get there? Well let me first tell you the way NOT to do it. One and a half year ago in April I started my first attempt of getting fit. However, it was for the wrong reason. All I wanted is to look better and didn't care about all the other things.  What happened was some intensive training for 3 months with little result and gave up when I left home for 2 months in Vegas where I indulged in pancakes and other delicious foods Vegas has to offer. After December I noticed that I actually gained 9kg instead of losing any. 

My 2010 resolution was being healthier for the purpose of being healthy, live longer and better. I started following the primal blueprint or paleo diet which gets its' name from the theory it's based upon. It suggests that Humans have evolved for tens of thousands of years and for 99% of that time have eaten like a 'caveman'. Only in the last few hundred years our diet has drastically changed and not for the best. Therefore our digestive system and metabolism are not fully adapted to the recent changes in our evolution. Do you honestly think refined sugar, genetically enhanced and poor fed grown chicken improved our health? The result of the paleo diet I follow is that I sleep only 7.5 hours a day instead of 9 to feel completely rested. I have lost 15kg in 5.5 months and I'm stronger( e.g. no longer 10 push ups, but 100), faster and can play 24 hours in a row if I have to whereas before I'd be done after 4-5 hours. I've never made more profit at poker before. I'm playing 60 hours per week and do not feel fatigued. And in general I can truly say I feel happier.

This diet works for me. Probably because I believe in it, it makes sense to me and it's easy to do. There are probably other diets out there that work for others so I will not be preaching the way I got there as the only way. As long as you try to improve your health for the right reasons and are convinced it's the right thing to do, you too will feel an improvement in your life. You too will increase your win rate, your amount of hands played and in general you'll be more productive than before. So maybe you can change the notorious reputation of laziness from poker players ;)

If you are interested in the diet you can check out the following links:

Definite Guide The Primal Blueprint

Primal Eating Plan

Crossfit Training

 If you'd like to know more just leave a comment;)