Good Eating Habits and the Big Swings in Poker

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 10th, 2011 at 7:23 am

Jonas Klausen

I’m Jonas Klausen from Team Titan. Has it been a good start to 2011? I have absolutely no complaints. As you know, the new year started with my victory in Boss Media’s Sunday Tour and last Sunday I continued my winning streak with a 3-way deal in a $150,000 GTD which earned me a nice amount of cash. I am very satisfied with my game these days. I choose the right spots and as compared to 2010, I am reaching the end game when I play. It is nice and refreshing – life as a poker player is ALWAYS more fun when you earn a little $.

Lately I have been working very hard and very seriously on my poker game. I have been seeking some cash game coaching in an attempt to get a more steady income but this has forced me to use a program called Holdem Manager. I have always believed that this program was on the border of cheating but since poker sites accept it you don’t have much choice if you want to play cash game. I am using the program for cash games but I also started using it for tournaments and I am sorry to break it to you but playing with this program is cheating. It gives you a way to big edge when you play 10-12 tours at a time which I do every Sunday. So I am sorry to say that my achievements in 2011 are not only due to great game play. As long as poker sites allow it I don’t see how we can avoid it unfortunately. I have always played without this program and I am pretty sure that if poker sites were to ban this program I would have a big advantage against the players who have been using it for a long time. Unfortunately this is part of the game and you just have to deal with it.

Good Eating Habits, Good Poker

And now for something completely different. In my last blog post I wrote about physical activity. I just came back from a nice cross fit work out and I have reached a point now where I can’t live without it. This is what starts my day. This week I want to write about diet and nutrition. For the past half a year I have been following the Paleo Diet. I am convinced that as a poker player you have to be in balance with yourself and for me to be that, I need to be satisfied with what I see in the mirror every morning, noon and evening. When you play tournaments it is all about having the biggest advantage possible and nutrition, work out and feeling good about yourself are all important elements. Paleo helps me concentrate for longer periods, which means that at the end of a long day of 10-12 hours I am still able to put pressure on the other players. I think that a regular work out and a healthy diet should be the daily preparation before tournaments for all players.

The Paleo Diet focuses on cutting out all unnecessary calories and bad eating habits from your diet. Pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and dairy products are all banned. All products coming from the food industry should not be part of your diet. Organic is good and healthy for the body. So basically my diet consists of lots of meat and vegetables, healthy fats like olive oil, and nuts. Besides that I also try to get rid of bad habits like candy, fast food and things which contain a lot of sugar. But I also believe that you shouldn’t be too fanatic about your eating habits because it can cause some other problems. I would say that I am following this diet 80% of the time and leaving myself 20% where I can “sin”. This means that I can go out for breakfast with my colleagues, visit friends and family and eat whatever they serve. It is not possible to control your diet all the time so remember to give yourself some room for other things.

The Big Swings in Poker

I would also like to address a topic which one of my readers has pointed out. How do I handle the big swings in poker? As a poker player it is important to be realistic. You cannot expect to win every time you take a seat at a poker table. Poker is a game of skill but unfortunately also a lot about luck. You have to accept that before you start playing poker. There will always be ups and downs. Even the best players in the world experience periods or days with great losses. People deal with this situation differently and there is not one right way to handle it. Many of the things I do in my everyday life such as exercise and eating healthy can help you minimize the down periods which is part of this game. If you start implementing some of the things I am writing about then you will definitely feel an improvement in your psychological state of mind after you loose a poker game. As I mentioned before, if you are realistic about how the world around you works then it will be much easier for you to handle the tough periods.