It’s not uncommon to find people curious about what champions eat during the grueling days of a poker tournament when calories are consumed to power up the brain and give it a competitive edge. When it comes to an all-consuming passion, such as perfecting your poker hand, knowing more than terminology and game strategy is key.
Poker is akin to a living breathing entity and as such requires diligence and dedication. Making time to practice endurance, is not the only task. Finding the right platform is also part of it. So, it’s not so uncommon to find people interested in knowing where and how to play online poker in Australia. If this is your case, you can find out more by visiting topaustraliangambling.com.
In the meantime, you get to improve your game hand and gain a greater understanding of the global poker community as a whole.
Crown Australian Poker Championship (Aussie Millions)
The big league poker tournament championships are highly anticipated events for many budding stars. The World Series Poker Tournament in Vegas is perhaps one of the most known due to having given poker players a platform to vex their gaming hands, way back in the 70s.
While the US might have had a head start in the poker tournament scene, the Crown Australian Poker Championship (Aussie Millions) was sowing taking note, and following suit. Fast forward from its first tournament in 1998, a new victor, Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan, was crowned during the unforgettable year of 2020. Yes, he won millions, proving his disciplined prowess when the world was otherwise in chaos. However, such mastery of poker does not come without certain adaptions being made.
Still, all the efforts you put in to balance the cards and turn the tables in your favor are for naught if you don’t eat right. Hopefully, this does not come as an astonishing revelation, because a healthy body makes for a healthy mind, which in turn gives fuel for the long, long challenges associated with poker tournaments.
How playing poker affects your brain
As the command center of the entire body, the brain holds an esteem position when it comes to assisting in daily functions. The most essential of these are the synaptic signals that are triggered when cognitive capabilities are required. In the body mass pie, it only represents 2% as a consequence of the neuron’s increased metabolic need requirement. That is why its consumption of the total body energy budget is 20%. With such a high consumption rate, it only makes sense that certain activities, like poker, are likely to be both taxing and rewarding.
As a game of strategy, poker is very synonymous with studying, whereby the brain is called upon to recall, assess and decide on appropriate action. When you are in a studious mode, the essential part of the process that requires energy is during the information consolation mode. This is when your brain is actively working to process newly learned information such as when learning effective strategies to play different poker games.
So, how then can playing poker affect your brain? Under normal daily circumstances, the brain can use up to 320 calories, just to think. However, the intensity of concentration required during a poker tournament indicates that a higher calorie consumption happens. With neurons metabolizing to assist with information recall and relay, the brain is grabbing all the energy it can to avoid going into survival mode. This is the undesirable effect, whereby it pulls the plug on all parts that involve logical, intellectual, and conscious reasoning.
The role of food in improving brain quality
As part of the human anatomy, the brain too knows the trigger signs which indicate survival mode is required. When food resources, which are the nutritional balancing elements for the neutrons to metabolism, are deducted from the energy resource equation then only base functions are preserved. For a poker player, whose mental and intellectual energy expenditure requirements are increased with each passing hour in the game, a healthy well-fed mind is important.
The brain almost works as an engine and for it to function, it requires fuel. There are different types of food categories that the brain needs to work properly. These variants supply the brain with different sources of energy. There is a variety of food groups that are beneficial to the brain that it with most of the energy and nutrients it requires like fiber, iron, vitamin B, and calcium.
When it comes to improving nerve cells and building the brain, Omega-3s are the memory and learning-boosting fats. They are known to also assist in slowing mental decline as part of the aging process. Omega-rich foods are often oily fish such as salmon and other seafood. However, their plant-based counterparts include flaxseed (linseed), walnuts, chia seeds, soybean oil, and others. So, no excuses for dietary preferences can be made.
Choose balanced meals and superfoods
Trying a healthy diet is a wise decision as it carries the tools and components of helping the brain. Eating more fruits and vegetables can boost the mind with vitamins A, E, and C, zinc, and folic acid. Sugar, on the other hand, can sometimes work well for the brain, by giving it a jolt of instant energy, and giving high levels of alertness. On the contrary, it can also adversely affect the mind by slowing down, especially when the sweet mind is created.
When you play you need meals to stay focused for the arduous hours of concentration. A superfood is not tough to describe. It is a meal with all the necessary ingredients, so the poker player stays alert. It provides nutrition to their body and mind to help their attentiveness.
Most superfoods are based on plants for their dominant iron composition. However, dairy options also provide the best results. In short, superfoods are a part of a greater meal plan rather than using them as sole ingredients for when intense concentration is required.
The list of superfoods includes berries and legumes. Even though they might not taste or look the most attractive, they provide sufficient energy to multiply your initial bids. You can also try pumpkin, kale, or spinach. The highly antioxidant concentration of blueberries makes them a natural inclusion. They are the body’s support as they offer great assistance in balancing free radical numbers which is the mechanism used to counteract oxidative stress.
