Poker and fitness

Author: Simon Dexter

Gone are the days of fat men sitting around smoky tables slugging glasses of whiskey – poker appears to be a healthy man’s game these days.Although it is one of the most sedentary of all sports (even in darts there is a little walking to be done), that does not mean you don’t have to be of a certain physical standard to improve your game.

Extra fitness leads to a better level of concentration and especially for online poker tournaments this is an important extra edge all players need.

Three quick tips for healthier poker:

1) Get yourself one of those strange looking balls to sit on. Your posture is instantly improved and vital muscles are improved just by the way you sit.
2) Buy yourself some hand exercisers or some small weights. Any form of extra movement will add to your physical health – no matter how small.
3) Stop smoking!

To aid my own fitness, I tracked down the following training regime to be followed dependant on the strength of your starting hand when you lost an all-in.

10-8 or lower - I’m running three times around the block for this all-in call. What was I thinking? I deserve some physical pain.

J-10 - Not too clever either and it’s round the block twice for me. A low court card is not too bad in head-to-head, but perhaps I should have waited a little longer – despite my short stack.

Low pairs - 66, 55, 44, 33, 22 - This is my Achilles heel. I love pocket anythings! However 20 press-ups minimum for this call.

Medium pairs - 99, 88, 77 - I’ve been a little unlucky but that does not stop me getting down and doing 20 sit-ups.

Anything higher – 10 press-ups but only to keep me honest. You are going to lose some games despite having good cards. That’s the way it goes but there’s no harm in doing a bit of activity straight after the rush of head-to-head, as you will still have some adrenalin pumping around to ease the pain.

For any serious poker player, the importance of a healthy lifestyle can not be stressed enough.

There is plenty advice out there on the internet giving you tips on poker exercise and diet. Ok, maybe not poker diet and exercise but if poker is part of your life, you need to be healthy when playing it.

As a general rule of thumb, 30 minutes of exercise three times a week should see you improving your game and your life expectancy. Lesson over, I’m off for a donner (German style – they’re much healthier.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 7:31 am and is filed under General Poker.

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