The last few events of the WSOP 2008 were not so eventful as I have been unable to get to the money rounds on any events thus far. My play has been solid, but like in any tournament, you have to win coin flips and get lucky in certain scenarios with timing playing an important role on collecting chips to advance and cashing in.

Yesterdays 6 handed $2500 event delivered a whole other kind of milestone I have never encountered in over 20 years of poker; I was out on the first hand. There was a main event (10K) back in 2003 where I was out on the second hand that I played and was actually the first player out of the main event that year; which at the time was a fairly spectacular piece of disappointing news with a record speed of losing 10k, however yesterdays unplanned event tops even that on many levels.

I have been trying to mix things up and decided to be fashionably late (Phil Helmuth style) and arrived about 12:30; 30 minutes after play began. My late entrance plays a key role in this mishap and wonderment of the story, as I ran up to the 6 handed event while the cards were being delt to my empty seat. The rule at the WSOP is that your hand is dead if you are not seated to receive your cards prior to the last card being delt to the button position. Upon seeing the last card not yet delivered to the last position of the button, I raced over quickly to sit down with my back pack attached, sunglasses and jacket still on. The other important note is that you must show your ID to the dealer to prove it is your seat prior to looking at the cards. I was about to muck my cards when I politely asked the players at my table if I could present my license to the dealer and take a moment to get settled, of which everyone grimaced a “fine…go ahead”. I quickly rummaged through my pocket to find my license in the loose leaf filing system I call a wallet (rubber band around everything in my pocket) and presented my license and the dealer a copy of my seat assignment. While the dealer was studying my picture and trying to match my name with the seat assignment card, I decided to take a quick peak to see my good/bad fortune and almost fell off my chair when I locked eyes with two aces. Before I get into the details of the events to follow, I want to explain (hear it again and aloud to myself) what the chances of walking/running up to a table at an arbitrary time and land two aces as a starting hand (220 to 1) with the multiplied odds of at least 10X based on the events leading up to this scenario. With this being described and the fact that I usually raise 90% of the time on the first hand to set tempo on what kind of player everyone can expect to play with (for those who don’t know my play); I am literally dying of joy and happiness on the first hand of event # 31 of the 2008 WSOP.

Now that the table has been set with semantics out of the way, I will begin to describe the emotional roller coaster of happiness, shock, disappointment and sadness at the most intense levels within 5 short minutes, the time it took to play out the hand. With aces in my mits, I slyly look around the table and say “let’s test the waters to see how you guys are” and announce raise. The blinds are 25 - 50, so i just raise to 125 to make it look like a standard raise, not a steal or a protection bet of a good hand (which people often do). Everyone folds around to the button who re-raises to 700, which is a very large, unusual but VERY acceptable re-raise to my two red aces. As the re-raise is announced and I see the chips that equal 6 times my original raise actually hit the felt, I am loving life. However, even with this amazing scenario of trapping a player like a rabbit with a titanium box and a pack of organic carrots, I take a quick moment to reflect and act as if my hand was just caught in the cookie jar. My thoughts of which direction to go of trapping him or just re-raising and taking the pot down, come down to the following:

A. If I re-raise I will certainly take down the $700 right here and now, especially if he is trying to make a move with nothing. However, if he has JJ’s or higher I will certainly get him to call or maybe even re-raise and get more money. With 30 seconds of thought and a some quick confused looks across the table to my opponent I decide that he probably has pocket QQ’s and wants to get me off my hand to avoid a bad beat and I raise the pot to 2100. He quickly makes the call, confirming my original thoughts that he has a pocket pair of JJ’s or better and will call whatever i bet if the flop is all baby cards.

Now I fully aware at this point that I can lose with pocket Aces if a J, Q or King falls even as a 45% or more favorite going into the hand; depending of course on what his cards and the flop are. The flop is 7d 4h 3s and I bet the remainder of my chips (2900) forcing him to call (hopefully) off the rest of his chips with his big pair while not giving him a chance to spike a J or higher on on the turn or river to spike a set. He immediately calls me, as I suspected, and I get ready to see his big pair and smile. He shows me the 7-3 of hearts and my eyes fall off my face onto the table. No need to go into the rest of the hand as the outcome never improved, but I can tell you the WSOP is a lot like the blackjack tables in Vegas; everyone has come to town to take a shot and spin the big wheel of fortune. Guys and gals from all over the planet are coming to take shots in the dark and are prepared to gamble it up with the hopes of taking it all down or go broke trying. The game is no longer poker…its Bingo, and I can’t wait to yell B-R-A-C-E-L-E-T someday soon.

On the enlightening side of things, I figure my luck and ’special’ events are going exactly how they are supposed to be, so after the initial shock (2 hours), I have chalked this up as ridding me from the poker demons of destruction and cleansing my body of all the unlucky anti-bodies prior the final event.  I don’t know how many more of these I can take, however, I’ll keep absorbing the blows till my chin falls off if somehow I can reverse the luck factor and make it happen for me when the final events begins.

Today is the second to last day of the Master cleanse for me, I need to get some nutrients into my body and get some fuel into me. I really want to start running and cycling at longer intervals, and I dont want to risk pushing myself too hard without some internal fuel running through my veins. The cleanse has been going perfect, so I dont want to ruin a great experience.

Two weeks on the Master Cleanse is plenty long enough and I’ve achieved my goals and then some.

Physically - I’ve lost over 10 lbs and should gain back around 3-5 lbs once i start eating again, which will be an ideal weight of 170 lbs.

Mentally - I’ve overcome the 10 days as I originally set out to do and given my will power a whole new set of muscles with some accolades.

Spiritually - I’ve achieved new heights of internal strength and wisdom with a greater appreciation for everything.

This morning I took my son to his soccer game that we go to everyday Saturday and were very disappointed to see the other teams, very competitive parents, getting mad at their kids if they went the wrong way or didn’t kick the ball hard enough. The game really got out of hand when their coach/parent got in the face of ours, then all hell broke loose. I found myself getting very stressed and angry when one of their kids was purposely chasing down other players to elbow or hip check them to the ground…I couldn’t take it anymore after he made two of our kids cry. I completely lost my temper and told the coach to pay a little more attention to his misguided kids instead of berating them…among some other kind words. That intern caused an uproar on their side and the game that was supposed to be fun for the kids on Saturday morning, turned into a yelling match between parents.

It really makes me concerned when we as parents are taking the fun out of teaching our children the fundamentals of life through sports. My son doesn’t seem that interested in playing the game of soccer and is more about just hanging out with his friends on Saturday morning. This is the part I want my son to enjoy so we’ll stick through to the end of the season to finish what we started. Based on today’s escapades though, we will probably switch to Tae Kwon do in the future to avoid those crazy eyed parents who are living vicariously through their children. We all want our kids to do better than we did, but pushing kids to be competitive at any costs at the age of 4 and 5 is just a little disturbing and its sad to see people teaching their kids how not to have fun, forcing them to grow up too quickly.

The first month of 2008 is gone and I’m trying to figure out where it went. I am almost positive that the time lord has sped up the time continuum as there seems to be less than 24 hours in a day. I am working at least 12 of the 24 hours every day and while I am loving every minute that I seem to have track of, I am falling behind on the things I enjoy most and lose half of the day on a regular basis.

I’ve already broken my new year’s resolution by not writing everyday, not to mention I have been doing less exercise, not eating the way I want to or keep myself organized (resolution to myself) the way i planned. With all of this in mind, I’ve decided its time to do another master cleanse and reset the system. Its been almost 6 months and I think another cleanse is great way to put things back into perspective.

While I’ve not been great about keeping track of time and letting things slide a little, I have been researching like a maniac. My most recent finds include learning about water, its affects on the body (internally/externally) and the differences between bottled, tapped, filtered, structured and a ton more. I’ll be posting my findings soon.

Shame on me for not writing in over two weeks…I am back on the bike!

The year for me is going to be all about doing the right thing, creating good karma and paying it forward.  Based on the years past and my desire to understand and assess my successes and failures, I’ve paid close attention to my internal cycles.  In fact I have been tracking my cycles for years now and pay very close attention to when things are going smoothly or are seeming difficult; which largely depends on where I am in my cycle.   With that being said, 2008 is the beginning of my upswing  and the meter on the scale is pointing straight up!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I havent been much of a holiday person the past 10 or so years, mostly because my Mother always made a big deal out of every holiday, Christmas was no exception.   That is all changing though as my son is about to turn 4 and he’s on his best behavior to ensure Santa delivers his black and white helicopter on Christmas day.

Although Christmas in Las Vegas is very different than when I grew up in Canada; the Weather (snow and ice), no shoveling sidewalks for extra money and we would sometimes stay inside for days due to the -40 degree weather warnings - the memories and habits when holiday season rolls around is very much the same when it comes to food and my diet. 

My fondest memories of Christmas include eating until I popped with chocolate, candies and Christmas cake  for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  While the early memories make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, the days of eating chocolate oranges (my favorite christmas stocking gift) are long gone.  Boy what I would do now to have the metabolism I had back then!  There was a time when I could eat 5 big macs and still be hungry 3 hours later even when the 5 sandwiches were accompanied with fries, hot apple pie and an ice-cream cone for desert! 

These days, I put on weight just looking at the chocolate my son scharfs down in 2.4 seconds and feel like I have to run 3 miles after watching a Mcdonald’s commercial.  Truthfully it’s not that bad now that I exercise on a regular basis and watch what I eat, but trying to avoid eating comfort (38 years of feel good vittles) food at holiday time is something I think will always be a difficult thing for me.  This is probably the biggest obstacle for many people trying to stay on course during the holiday season to achieve healthy living and balance.  To the strong I salute you…to the weak, I understand you.

Now that I am eating healthy, (but not often enough) everyday, I am concentrating on rebuilding my body from the core (inside) outwards.  There is a lot of information floating around the world as to what excercises will make you fit, lean, stronger, flexible or just get your heart and blood pumping to improve overall health.  I typically get bored easy, which makes it more interesting for me to find and do exercise or activities that I enjoy doing for any period of time. 

I’ve decided to focus on working from the core out; which means exercises that can usually be done at home using your own body weight with controlled and concentrated repetitions.  This includes stretching, pushups, situps, body lifts, lateral movements and many other combined excercises with a some fitness props.  Initially I was going to purchase an eliptical machine and some other home gym equipment but decided that if i wanted a gym workout, I would go to the gym and use the best equipment on my body.  For the daily excercise routines I do at home, I’ve collected some simple fitness aids that have been around for a long time and are used regularly in a pilates gym or excercise class. 

In addition to my 3 mile a day (minimum) walk or jog (depending on my energy and motivation levels), here are the things I am doing at home to get healthy and the results I hope to achieve by doing them: 

1. Skipping, using a mini-trampoline or rebounder stimulates the lymphatic system, which consists of millions of tiny channels that parallel our network of blood vessels.  The lymph channels transport fats and other substances around the body and helps with the elimination of waste products from cells. Unlike blood, which has the heart as a pump, the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump. It relies on exercise and deep breathing to keep it moving.   I spend alot of time sitting down when I work on my computer or when playing long hours at the poker tables during tournament time.  Additionally, stress causes shallow breathing, which can further reduce lymph flow. The end result is sluggish lymph flow, leading to frequent colds and flu, tiredness, and increased risk of chronic disease.

Skipping is said to be one of the easiest ways to target lymph flow (although any exercise will help).  It takes a bit of getting used to, but I enjoy doing it at home or sometimes at the gym. The mini-trampoline, or rebounder, is another option. Five minutes every morning and night is just enough to get the blood moving without enduring any cardio activity. 

2. Balancing My Workout with calm and controlling excercise

100 year old practices such as tai chi, qi gong or new ones like pilates and yoga improve flexibility and balance. They use breath, mind, and body to restore energy, reduce stress, and calm an agitated mind.

3. Target the Core

The body’s “core” - the area around your trunk and pelvis, including your abs and your low back - is where your center of gravity is located. Targeting these muscles not only gives you toned abs, but they support your low back. Over time, a weak core can make you susceptible to poor posture, low back pain, and be injury prone.  Traditional abs exercises, like sit-ups and crunches, focus on the rectus abdominis, but it’s important to work all the core muscles because one weak area can cause poor posture and make you susceptible to injury. The best core exercises involve moving your limbs while stabilizing your abs.

My favorite tool for working the core muscles is the stability ball. It’s effective because you have to balance on the inflated ball while exercising (it looks like a big beach ball), which engages your core. There are many exercise videos available using the balance ball and I may even throw up some videos one of these days if I get around to it. 

4. Bands and Balls

Resistance bands and exercise, or balance, balls are two effective exercise tools that both work great together.  I’ve been learning dozens of excercises from my fitness consultant and trainer during the past few weeks.  Once I’ve perfected them and seen the results, I will post the “how to” for each excercise and the results associated.

Exercise ball - Performing exercises on an exercise ball enhances flexibility, balance, and co-ordination, and strengthens and tones muscles. Doing exercises on a wobbly ball builds a lean and strong core, which is the key to better posture.

Resistance bands - Resistance bands are another efficient way of exercising. You get more out of the return part of each movement compared to using free weights or machines.

It’s been three (3) months and I feel as if I am now mentally prepared for the for the battle or task of living every day life where calories, exercise and the time continuum come into play.  Many of us can acheive the short term gains of extreme diets, short term gimmicks or a week/month long exercise regiment, but what about the rest of the time?  How can we achieve a balance without going underboard (not eating) on the food we like or worse, overboard on the foods we love and have become used to eating?  Many of today’s foods are addictive based (by design) on cravings for a particular ingredient in a food or the simplicity of eating whatever is available in a particular place (work or home) at a particular time (whatever we have time for). What is even more difficult is how to avoid or go against the grain of the environment we live and thrive in on daily basis. 

Good, bad or indifferent, many of us dont have a choice (or think we dont) or havent developed the ”will power” tools to ignore the surroundings that influence our daily routine.  In lew of not using our will power, we fall victim to our environment and simply follow what’s easy, convenient or simply do what others do.  The solutions to all of these issues are available if we practice and train ourselves to use the tools that have been stripped or lulled away by fast food restaurants, marketing gimmicks and the influential media. 

For everyone its different, but there is one common denominator that groups us together; we are all very creative when it comes to fabricating excuses as to why we “cant” change the way things are in our lives.  As a race, we have become who we are by the people we surround ourselves with and our influences (friends, family, support groups).   And, as long as there seems no reason for change then we continue to exist in these groups until we wake up one day and dislike who we’ve become. 

This “victim of our environment” mantality can be changed if we choose to change it.  Its not easy, but it can be done with superior attitude and superior state-of-mind to break the mold that we’ve poured ourselves into.  One moment, one day and one person at a time we can change…I’ve proven it in a short period of time and will continue to evolve the new me.

As my mind and body work together in harmony and chaos, depending on the day, I find myself becoming more in tune with everything and developing a keen sense of intuition. 

Yesterday seemed to have writing on the wall as I was on my way to the foxwoods tournament in Conneticut and was unable to get on 3 overbooked flight in a row.  While its not that unusual to be unable to fly out on a Sunday morning/afternoon out of Mcairan Airport out of LV, the sense of something else was telling me maybe there is something else i should be doing instead.  At that moment i decided to browse the internet on my blackberry to find out if there were any poker tournaments going on Sunday that might be worthwhile playing in.  While my intution was telling me one thing, my mind was cross referencing the poker tournament search and it only seemed logical that it was telling me to play another event if the flight gods werent letting me have my way onto a plane.  Sure enough I found the final event of Caesars starting on Monday and a feeling of winning blew over me at that moment.  I preceded to leave the airport and head directly for Caesars to buy-in for the main event and something unusual happened to validate my intuitive premonition….

The last few 6 weeks have been rewarding for many reasons as I’ve achieved my initial goals, created new ones and begun to help and inspire others.   Within the last 2 weeks, I know of at least 15 people that have gone on a similar program and been applying the research and experiences I’ve been describing.  This gives me the most satisfaction over anything I’ve acheived to date as nothing is more gratifying than helping people to change their lives. 

The world is an amazing playground of excitement, dissapointment, unity and chaos.  As the human population continues to grow at exponential rates, so does the difficultly to stay on track in a changing world with the ability to acheive success in health, wealth and humanity. Fortunately for this expanding planet the Internet has also shrank the world and given a spec like me the chance to pay it forward; for that I am grateful.