Poker : Home Tournament : February 2008

I was looking forward to this months poker (as normal) and felt quietly confident. Everyone was up for the game, especially Jon who had made sure his business trip to US was engineered such that he could fly back Wednesday to be available for the game (albeit slightly groggy)

The early stages for me were quite relaxed. Playing cautiously I took a couple of small pots and built up my chips. I got a good win and nearly doubled up, so could play more freely. Was happy to get all-in against Derek and Roger when my AK hit top pair. Roger had a draw and Derek had K3 so looked good for me when K-K-Q came on the flop. The 3 on the river stuffed me up but luckily Derek was a smaller stack so I took Rogers chips at least to leave me a reasonable stack. After more patient play, I built up some chips again, then called Micks all in bet as I was on the Big Blind. As expected I was behind, but hit one of my 8 outs and took a large stack.

After the rebuys ended, I found myself calling Rogers all in bet. Everyone had checked the flop so I didn't thing Roger had matched the A and my pair T were good - but as it turned out, he had the A so was well ahead of me. Resigned to dropping a fair portion of my stack, I was delighted (but a little embarrassed) to see another T fall on the river, taking Roger out the game

There was some commotion on the other table, with Sean and Simon both being taken out in one hand, when on my table an unraised pot pre-flop saw a flop of 3-3-2 Alex went all in so as I had A-3 wanted to get heads up and re-raised for half my stack. I was a little surprised when Jon asked for a chip count, then re-raised to put me all-in. Mick called as he was getting great value and I really felt I was in front so called quickly. Unfortunately Jon's pocket 2's left me needing a miracle 3, which never came and so Jon took three out and we had 6 players left for the final table.

Jon and Darren were the chip leaders, but Darrens seemed to ebb away. Steve played well to build up some chips from a very low level but his luck ran out to finish a credible 4th

Darren was the lowest chips at around 3000 when the blinds went up to 2000-1000. Andy showed no fear to go all-in against Jon but Jon had him beat and we were heads up.

Jon played very tight and Darren had no choice but to go all-in every hand and slowly Darren built up to around 12'000 chips with 4 hands to play (winning post was 17'000 chips) Unfortunately it was inevitable that Jon would find a hand he liked and check, raised all-in. Darren had to call and at least had 2 live cards, but Jon stayed ahead and we had our worthy winner and runner up. Pehaps playing with jet-lag is the way for us all to go :-)

Another great game and sees our 2007 champion now in pole position in the 2008 league table ! (hopefully not for long ;-) )

Roll on next month, this season look like it will be a scorcher!!

General : Gym update

A new year and a time for reflection on my Gym progress.. (also got a new heart monitor for Xmas, so gotta try it out :-) )

So why so long to update the blog, after all it is February.... well after 3 weeks with no exercise and overeating and drinking over Xmas, I felt pretty unfit for the first couple of weeks in Jan !! Also decided to up my pace a bit so wanted to get into that before measuring very much in a meaninigful way.... but here goes.....

My previous update was in August so hope to compare favourably to my activities then... my weight is just under 12 stone, so still consistant

Monday (Running)
Run at 10 kph for 25 minutes, then 12kph for 5 mins, plus 5 minutes cool down. Total of 5.2 km covered. Heart rate peak at 178 bpm and average 142

Tuesday (Rowing)
25 minutes at around 30 spm, then 5 mins at 35 spm, plus 3 minutes cool down. All at maximum resistance (the hard seat gives me a sore bum, else would do more cooldown :-) ) Cover 6286 metres. Heart rate peak at 169 bpm and average 136

Wednesday (Cycling)
Pedal at around 80 rpm at level 11 resistance for 25 minutes, then 5 minutes at 90rpm and level 12, plus 5 minutes cooldown. Cover 12.6 km. Heart rate peak at 151 bpm and average 133

Thursday (Swimming)
Swim 25 lengths in around 25 minutes. Do alternate breast stroke and crawl, with 1 minute rest after each set of 10 lengths. Heart rate monitor could be used in the pool, but didn't bother this time round

Friday (Running again)
Same activities as Monday, but heart rate peak at 181 bpm and average 152.... it seems harder at the end of the week as well !!

Overall, I think I am doing pretty well and will likely keep the same regime over the long term. I can't get up any earlier and don't want to arrive at work any later... so time is the main constraint. Will be having a BUPA health check later in the year, so will be interesting to see what they say about my fitness and general health