Former cheesesteak addict

I hired a personal trainer today at my gym in Pittsburgh. Ive signed up for 6 sessions. While I know a lot of the basic exercises for each major muscle group, I feel that a personal trainer will help me get down excellent form, as well as set an exact regiment. Also, I know that he works at my gym 7 days a week, so he will always be there to peer pressure me (and for me to ask questions to) long after our sessions are up. +EV for sure.

My diet is 2500-3000 calories/day, ~300g carbs, 60g fat, and 200g protein. I'm closely monitoring everything I eat for a week or so in order to give myself a better perspective on what I need to be eating in order to keep up with those guidelines. This may not sound too difficult, but when you re strictly eating quality calories, it isn't easy and can be quite time-consuming. I actually find the whole nutrition aspect of fitness to be extremely interesting.

I promise not to turn this blog into a clone of Raptor's blog, but here's a log of what I ate today:

8:30 AM = 1.25 cup Kashi cereal, 1.25 cup skim milk; 1 hard-boiled egg, 0.5 cup blueberries
11:00 AM (pre-WO) = 1 container yogurt, 0.25 cup unsalted peanuts
12:30 PM (post-WO) = 1 scoop whey protein, 1 cup skim milk, 0.5 cup orange juice, 1 cup berries
2:00 PM = 1 can tuna, 2 slices whole wheat bread
6:30 PM = 1 cup turkey chili; 1 scoop whey protein, 1 cup skim milk
9:30 PM = Stir fry (6 oz chicken breast, 1 cup broccoli, 0.5 cup whole-grain rice, 1 tbsp olive oil, red onion)

PuddlePirate and I are going to make a diet+exercise bet. The idea was inspired by a similar bet made between Blitzkrieg and Btimm. Turning it into a competition should help keep me strongly motivated for a long period of time. The real hurdle comes in a couple weeks when my inflated enthusiasm for this naturally begins to lessen. However, I recognize now that this needs to become a long-term life change for me. My ultimate goal is to be the 70 year old grandfather who is completely "with it" mentally and physically. Too many Americans wake up one day, realize they're 40 years old, rely on caffeine to keep them going throughout the day, have a huge beer gut, and have already crept down the path towards heart disease.

I have a revelation that many poker players will understand easily: Life is a game! It is an incredibly complex game with an infinite number of parameters, but it is simply a game. Some people play it better than others. You need to understand how the system works and then devise the best way to benefit from it. This applies to everything: general social acceptance, career accomplishments, money, successfully raising a family, physical health, etc. Thinking about it like this makes me happy every day to wake up and figure how I can better myself to make most of this game.

Trips with poker players = ++EV

I recently returned from spending a week in Jamaica with John (PuddlePirate/urmyatm44 on Full Tilt) for spring break. The experience was great and I definitely have the traveling bug now. We stayed at a 4 star resort in Negril, the spring break capital of Jamaica. Our resort had virtually no college students at it, but it was gorgeous and featured unlimited food and alcohol. We actually had a fairly tame time and spent much of it doing outdoors stuff. Scuba diving, snorkeling, and jumping off a 50 foot into the ocean (subsequently resulting in a bruised tailbone for myself) to name some of the activities. I'll post pictures when John uploads them.

The biggest upside from the vacation was a renewed enthusiasm for poker. John's passion for the game is contagious. We discussed theory, the online poker economy, and even played an insane 2/4 deep session against each other one night. By the time I returned home, my enthusiasm for the game was the highest it had been in several months. I played 3400 hands in the first two days back home. The argument could easily be made that this in itself pays for the trip in full.

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I have come to terms with the state of HU poker. Games are extremely dried up on weekdays, but are still decent on weekends. It is now crucial for me to grind a lot on weekends, even if it means sacrificing some other things on Friday through Sunday. My general goal indefinitely is to play ~3K hands each weekend, and concentrate my other priorities during weekdays. This is the only way I can still realistically get 20K hands a month in without having to play the better regs, or learning 6 max or PLO. However, I will strongly consider adding the latter options to my repertoire after graduation.

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I have some bad habits with blogging. Topics will often pop into my head that I am enthusiastic to write about, but then I put it off. As the number of topics continues to build in my head, collectively they become convoluted. As a result, I wind up making entries that are simply bland updates about my life. All of my favorite blogs to read are updated at sporadic, inconsistent time intervals and about a wide variety of topics. I need to impulsively type up my thoughts on any interesting topic, even if it results in more frequent 1-2 paragraph entries. Too much planning is a problem!

Much respect to skinny yoga girls!

February was mediocre at best. HU economy has been extremely slow, and now my results rely largely on how much I can play (and how well) on weekends. Even so, I did not put in nearly enough hands. My confidence in my game has slowly been increasing again compared to a few weeks ago, so here's to a successful March.



I took power yoga for the first time last week. It takes place in a 90 degree room, resulting in the most intense 75 minute workout that I have ever experienced. You do not just drip sweat, you drizzle sweat for the entire session. I had to do some dumbed down versions of the yoga poses due to limited flexibility, and my endurance was completely giving out well before the end. The strength, flexibility and endurance that many of the women in the class had was extremely impressive. It's an awesome workout. I'm going to take some basic classes to get the fundamentals down well. Once I get back from spring break, my workout regiment will be compromised of yoga 2x a week and lifting 3x a week. Should be a great way to get in shape.

My 22nd birthday took place on Friday. My roommate and I decided to throw a house party to celebrate, especially since this is the first time my birthday has fallen on a weekend in several years. About 25-30 people attended and everything went really well. I have developed a close group of friends here at Pitt, and it's something I've had nothing like in my entire life before. I do not take college for granted and will definitely make the most of these last months we have together.

I am now leaning towards renting out my Pittsburgh apartment for another year. I'd use 2009-2010 as a transition period where I figure out where I want to live and what I want to do with my life. My rent is relatively cheap compared to the other options. This would allow me to do a ton of traveling and not feel like I'm throwing a lot of money away on housing costs. If I go this route, I would likely visit Spain/Italy, San Fran, LA, Austin TX, and possibly southeast Asia. As long as I have broadband internet, the world is my oyster!