Lover of trading, tacos, 3D/AR/VR, cryptos, and most things Japanese

I’m sore, but in a good way. The way that lets you know you’ve been pushing your muscles beyond what they’re used to and causing growth – not too far a stretch given my recent activity levels. But soon will come the days when I miss the soreness, when pushing harder gets more difficult.

Tuesday I blasted chest medium hard, did some back work, and wrapped up with some twists. Yesterday morning my belt was a bit looser, always a good sign. I’ve noticed that, when I start doing twists and other ab work, my midsection tightens up rather quickly. Yesterday was shoulder day. I went to the gym more out of a sense of obligation than a desire to work out, and that’s exactly why I need a regular workout schedule: to force me to go when I don’t particularly feel like it. I now know that I have to go to the gym every weekday at lunch, so it’s becoming part of my routine. Today I’m looking forward to arm day – I always get some killer arm pumps when training them, and I dig seeing the vascularity start poppin’.

Yesterday I received the news that I didn’t get a position I had applied for, which is a bummer. I really thought I was a strong candidate, the job description read like my resume, and maybe I was overconfident about it. I didn’t even get to the second interview, which puzzles me a bit. The other position I’m interviewing for has been put on hold, so nothing much happening in the real job world.

I haven’t been playing much yet this week, been wrapped up in other things like hospital obligations, shopping for peers, training. But I will play later today now that I have some time I can dedicate to sitting down and playing seriously.

Today I received permission from the hospital to join the gym at Pueblo Community College. I’ve been wanting to get back in the gym for some time, to develop and stick to a consistent training routine, but it’s been a challenge with my other hospital obligations. I like to train first thing in the mornings, before doing anything else, but I have groups on Wednesday and Friday mornings that I may not be able to get out of to train.

At first I was thinking I’d just train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, but that was before I remembered I have group Friday mornings. Rather than rely on the staff to give me permission to get out of group, I’m modifying my training plan so I can do it consistently. I’m going to start lifting Monday through Friday at lunchtime. This has several benefits.

First, it will allow me to get up and go to the “office” (Starbucks) to attend to any pressing needs like finding a job, answering emails, etc. And it will allow me time to eat breakfast before training. One of the reasons I like to train first thing in the morning is that I’m doing it in a fasted state, which accelerates fat loss. However, by eating breakfast I’m fueling the body for more intense workouts later.

The focus of my training will be to add muscle. In the past I’ve focused more on fat loss, but since summer is now over and I won’t realistically be able to do many more bike rides outside in the mornings, I’m adapting my focus to something I haven’t done in a long time – adding muscle.

When I was younger, I was an avid amateur bodybuilder. I used to live in Venice Beach, California, and trained at the same gym as my then-idol Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’ve even met him a few times. So, going back to the basics, what makes me feel great, I’m focused on hitting the iron for mass’ sake. I want to get big again – but leaner this time. I used to have pretty impressive size: 17.5″ arms, 48″ chest, 36″ thighs, 18″ calves. My friends called me “The Nimitz” because my back was so big you could land jets on it. I miss those days. 🙂

Now, given that I’m a lot older and my body’s metabolism has changed since those days, I have to adjust my expectations a bit. It will take time to get back into form. Gone are the days of being able to blast the bod hard one day, fully recover overnight, and hit it hard again the next day. So I’m going back to what has worked for me in the past: I’m going to train one body part a day and add cardio after lifting. So Mondays I’ll lift chest, Tuesdays will be back day, Wednesdays will be shoulders, Thursdays I’ll lift arms, and Fridays will be leg day so I can have the weekend to recover. Lifting one body part a day has the advantage of not taking too much time, so I can add 30 minutes of cardio after I lift and still get out of the gym in about an hour. For cardio, I’m going to do intervals on the elliptical.

Bottom line is that I need to get into a regular, daily routine so I can stick to it. I do much better when my time is scheduled rather than wide open as it has been lately. This training plan will add a much needed element of structure to my day. And it will provide me a break from the long hours I’m spending in the office, invigorate the bod, and refresh the mind. All good stuff!

Normally I would post this on my fitness blog but I don’t have access to it at the moment. I’ve also decided to consolidate my online presences a bit, and add more depth to this site than just poker. 😉

#poker #recap #stats
I managed to play a good bit this weekend. In the 48 hours from Friday to Sunday nights, I played 1450 hands, not including a tournament. I took some time off from the tables to do other things, so it wasn’t all poker all weekend. On Saturday I won a satellite tournament into the WPT’s Alpha8 again, but I opted not to play the tourney because I wanted to spend some quality dads time Sunday. Sunday I went to church (I have an interview with them tonight for a Media Director-type position), do a UA, and watch the Broncos game with my son and my dad. It was a good day, despite the Broncos’ loss, and it was nice to hang out with the other Orr men. 🙂

Poker this weekend was about two things: putting in some serious time at the tables, and learning to multi-table. I spent most of Saturday playing, starting with about a seven hour stretch without a break. I noticed that, as I got tired/bored, my play slipped – unsurprisingly. This is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to getting back in the gym this week – get the bod back into shape so I can go longer without getting tired and losing focus. As my time went on without a break, I noticed I started letting emotion into my play more than I do when I’m fresh. I was more willing to gamble too. Part of this stemmed from my building up a decent chip stack and then wagering a larger portion than I normally would on more questionable plays. And sometimes I would make bad calls, knowing I was beat, but still paying off hands. But I recognized this tendency and was aware of it at the time I was doing it, but I kept playing because I wanted to push myself a bit more. All I really needed to do was take a break for a few minutes to refocus my energies. Oh, and I was eating Hot Tamales too and the sugar certainly didn’t help.

The new thing I started learning how to do this weekend was multi-tabling. This is where you play more than one game or table at a time. Some of the pros will have as many as twenty games going at once. Multi-tabling is a great way to see more hands and bypass all the time spent waiting when you’re not in a hand. It also is a more math-based way to play. Since you are playing more games simultaneously, you have less time to learn about your opponents’ tendencies and therefore have a tougher time picking off bluffs. The basic approach is to just wait for premium hands and play them aggressively, essentially playing a NIT/TAG style.

I still prefer to get reads on my opponents, so I only had two games going at once. This let me still get reads on my opponents’ betting patterns and not miss things like “Player X always raises pots, no matter what he has” and “Player Y only plays strong hands, proceed with caution.” I think that if I were to play more tables, my win rate would probably improve as not only would I be playing more hands, but I’d be playing only stronger hands. Since there would be more games going on, I’d have more to focus on and be less tempted to mess around with the more questionable holdings. I’m essentially even on the weekend, having run up my stack several times, but losing some big pots too. I had pocket Jacks (JJ) dealt to me on five occasions tonight, played them reasonably well, and lost every time. On the other hand I’ve had Aces (AA) maybe three times and they held up twice, winning me two big pots and losing me one. Like Doyle Brunson says, “everything can change while those cards are in the air.”

All in all, it was a good weekend of play. I’m even or up a little for my experimentation, which is a lot better than losing, and I’m learning a new facet of the game. I could bet a little better – I definitely lost some value by betting nut hands too strongly and scaring players off. When you have the nuts – the best hand possible – the last thing you want to do is get rid of betters. A few times I’ve gotten greedy, thinking they’d call a raise against me, only to have them fold. If I had just kept letting them bet into me and calling them down, and only raise them on the river, I could have made a bunch more.

Anyway, the stats for my sessions are below. I had a 12% win rate over 1450 hands, which seems to be pretty standard for me. I’m curious to know how these stats compare to the pros, if I’m still playing too many hands, what their win rates are, and where I’m missing value. Time to visit the forums!

Statistics for 1450 Hands