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

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 #flow I’ve been reading a lot about the psychological state of flow lately. According to Wikipedia, “Flow, also know as Zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does.” My dad has recently given me two books that talk about it at some length.

The first book, that I’m about halfway through, is “Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change The World”. It talks a lot about how games allow us to get into and maintain a state of flow for long periods of time.

The second book that I just finished is “DRiVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”. This one talks about how we need purpose, autonomy and to strive for mastery for optimum performance, particularly at work. It also talks a lot about intrinsic vs. external motivation.

We all feel best when we’re experiencing flow, when we’re in “The Zone.” It’s the perfect blend between facing a challenge and having the skills to be up to that challenge. Poker does that for me. It allows me to find that flow, to be fully in the moment, to face and hopefully surmount the challenges of playing tough opponents. Without the tough opponents, where I’m constantly trying to figure out if they have the best hand or are just bluffing, poker becomes pretty routine – just wait for good hands and play them. But, when facing a creative opponent, all sorts of other factors come into play. What cards does he/she have? What cards do they think I have? Are they good enough to be thinking about what I have? Are they good enough to be thinking about what I’m thinking about, and how can I best level them?

There are infinite levels in poker, if the players are good. The first level is, “What cards do I have?” The second level is, “What cards do I think my opponent has?” The third level is, “What cards to I think my opponent thinks I have?” And so on and so on. This is what makes the game so challenging: figuring out what level your opponent is operating on and then going one level above them. It can backfire though, and you will often here players lamenting, “I ended up leveling myself” when they’ve taken it too far.

During last night’s session, there were two other good players at the ring game I was playing. (Ring games are full tables of nine players.) Six of them were fair players, not totally ramming and jamming with any two cards, but the two players that I had previously noted were solid are what made the game really interesting. This meant that there were fewer huge pots to be won, the three of us pretty much controlled pot sizes so they didn’t get too bloated and we didn’t risk much on any given hand. We generally avoided playing against each other most of the session, each knowing the other was a good player and capable of making plays. These are the types of opponents I seek out when I want to play for realz.

Unfortunately for me, I was tired and didn’t stay more than a couple hours because of it. That’s another important skill to have – knowing your limits and staying within them. I had found a table I wanted to keep playing at, but my mental state just wouldn’t allow me to keep playing. I could have pushed on, caffeinated up, and kept going, but I knew my game would ultimately suffer if I did, so I quit. I was up 40k and tired, so I left. Perhaps the real challenge would have been if I was stuck 40k, but I’ve left games before when I’ve started losing, so I don’t think it would have taken much for me to do so again. All in all it was a good session and I just wish I could have played longer. But there’s always another time to play, another session, another game.

I also experience flow when I’m getting a good workout on at the gym. I’m totally focused on the exercise, the challenge of lifting the weights just one more time. The feeling of fatigue and the great pumps I get. I’ve realized that I need to spend time exercising every day to feel right. I put in a team request for permission to join a local gym so that I can make working out a priority in my life again, and should find out Monday whether it’s been approved. I expect it will be, and am looking forward to getting back in there. The bet I have with Greg about whether he can get to 191 before I get to 195 is still on, and he’s been busting his butt and making steady progress. I definitely need to step up my game in that department. I did get a few good walks in this week, so I’m not feeling like a total lump of ooze, but getting back in the gym will really help me take it to the next level.

What are your thoughts on flow? Where do you find it most in your daily life? What do you do to achieve it? I’d love to hear your comments, leave ’em below. 🙂

It’s been a challenging week. I’ve had to deal with the disappointing court news and I also began my climb up the new chip stack mountain at FullTiltPoker.NET.

After spending some time at the Limit tables, I decided to do something I’ve generally been against: spending real money for virtual items. The madness of the low stakes tables was removing all the fun and challenge of playing, so I spent ten dollars and bought 1.5 million play chips so I could play in better games. This gave me a big enough bankroll to comfortably play 100/200 No Limit stakes, where the max buy in for the table is 20k. Stepping up in stakes meant stepping up my game, as I quickly learned when I started losing – I started out overplaying some idiot range hands and was down about 80k after a few sessions. Time for a break and some studying.

I started out by watching all of Daniel Negraneau’s Poker Academy videos.
This is a great series of lessons from one of the world’s top players. It had been a while since I’d read a poker book or watched lessons, and my game needed help. Sometimes just a basic refresher is good. After the Poker Academy lessons, I started looking for more specific training on the math and probabilities involved in hands and I found an excellent teacher in James “SplitSuit” Sweeney’s Poker Bank series. SplitSuit delves deep into the math and other topics like, “Should I fear the flush?”, “Can I fold getting sick pot odds?”, “Value betting postflop” and the like.

After spending several hours studying the vids I returned to playing the 100/200 tables with much better results. I tightened up my range, listened to my instincts better, and put in hours at the tables grinding away. I didn’t go for big wins, generally opting to avoid getting involved in big pots, and did my best to take and maintain the lead (control) when I got involved in a pot. I stopped playing a lot of OOP (Out Of Position) hands and opened up my range when I had position. Over the course of the week I worked my way up from 1.42m to 1.68m chips, making back all that I lost initially and turning a net profit of about 160k. Not bad for a week’s worth of work. 🙂