Healthy Body, Healthy Mind Sorel Mizzi Challenges Poker Community

It is very common for poker players to do things that are generally extremely healthy, and from which they can benefit on many levels, but as their motives for doing them are purely monetary, or based simply around competition and bragging rights, the positive changes are rarely permanent. In the past, Sorel Mizzi has known to be one of these players, and the poker world has seen him take on many a challenge in the past, and complete them, but with no real lasting impact. It seems these days, the once online kid prodigy has done some growing up, and in doing so, has decided to make some positive changes, both to himself and others.

It all began when Mizzi went to Thailand and took part in a detox where he lost 20 pounds in one week. It was then he decided he was going to get back into shape. “After losing all that weight, it was like a fresh start psychologically, I really didn’t want to gain it back” he says, “then when I got back to the U.S. I just decided to go full throttle with it and do a 90-day programme because I was just so happy with the results I had that I wanted to see how far I could take it. Half-way through the programme I had the most amazing results, way better than I thought I would have.” Mizzi was so impressed with how he felt and the results of his efforts that he decided he wanted to inspire others to do the same thing, and from here grew the health challenge which attracted in and around 70 people from the international poker community (largely low-mid stakes grinders).

Forget About The Price Tag

Looking back on the difference between his current personal challenge and those he has undertaken in the past, Mizzi says, “There was always a finite amount of time for me to get to my goal, and as soon as that goal was complete, I would just go right back to my old ways. So this time I did it for myself, and I did it because I wanted it bad enough. Other than a bet I have with Antonio [Esfandiari], which is a 10-year bet that I really don’t have to focus on right now, there is no financial interest involved. That financial interest I have with Antonio was zero percent a factor in why I did it, so that’s kind of why I kept at it.”

Mizzi’s latest public health challenge asks those interested from the poker community to go on a three-month fitness programme and record their progress and take photographs. There are four judges and all the contestants are rated in three categories; blog, best transformation, and stats. The winner gets a year of poker mentoring with Sorel himself, and according to him “probably a lot longer because I’m really going to take them under my wing and teach them everything I know."

Mizzi, who has seen his fair share of controversy, appears to be really happy with his new lifestyle and honestly wanting others to experience the positive changes that he is. When asked what he himself is getting from it, he answers, “Nothing really, just the feeling of sparking changes in people’s lives. Looking at people’s blogs and all the positive changes people have made, that’s very inspiring to me. Somehow I’m adding years to people’s lives by being a poker player. I’ve gone through a lot of the before and after pictures so far and some of these guys have gone through dramatic transformations. It’s really exciting to see that if I didn’t think of this, that wouldn’t happen at this time. It feels really good that I, as a poker player, someone who’s constantly taking things away from people (because my job revolves around taking money from people who don’t know what they’re doing) am able to give something back and that makes me really happy. That’s what life’s all about; sharing, helping people, and doing things to make other peoples’ lives better, and I feel like I’ve taken a step towards that.”

No Excuse

They may be those that are skeptical about such ventures, however the results speak for themselves. Poker fans, players, even high stakes regulars from all over have been changing their eating habits, hitting the gym, and monitoring their progress, en route to becoming a better version of themselves. The list of comments on Mizzi’s own site and amount of videos and blogs posted in various forums show that this challenge has sparked a feeling of community and support among those who may have been once intimidated or uninspired to make changes. Let’s face it, in general, the poker way of life could not be described as a healthy one. In fact people often get more unhealthy as they allow the game, and the physical inactivity of it, to take over, preventing them from being the ultimate version of themselves, both physically and mentally. Diet is whatever’s convenient, hours are usually quite unsociable, and there are not many incentives apart from money and prop bets, to break habit and routine. Mizzi says however that you could say this about any job — and that actually makes sense. He says, “You could say you don’t have time for it, or that the poker world isn’t a great place for it, but in reality it is because you have a lot of free time. It’s just that people use it as an excuse for why they don’t make those changes. If you think about it logically, yeah, there’s a lot of travel and a lot of weird hours, but that’s not really an excuse, especially when you have a lot of free time on your hands. All it really takes is an hour, five days a week, to have a ridiculously healthy lifestyle, and when it comes to the diet, you just need to be surrounded by enough healthy food, which is hard if you live in the States but if you want it bad enough you’ll make it happen. It’s just about developing that habit and getting into it, and as soon as you start that routine then it’s pretty easy from there. It’s just a matter of making those small changes,” He goes on to point out, “It’s all about tricking your brain into what you really want. Obviously there are certain foods I really love that aren’t really good for me, but now I associate them with being poison more than I do being really good and really tasty. Most of it is mental and just changing your perception about certain things.”

New And Improved?

Adamant he’s not just making changes to his health and physical appearance, Mizzi discusses in-depth how he has been reading a lot of books and looking within himself to make a transformation for the better. It is painful past experiences, according to the Canadian, that have guided him to do this, and in his words it is clear he has been looking in various places to better himself. He says, “In actuality, those negative experiences that I’ve had have made me a way better person than I’ve ever been and I’ve completely re-evaluated myself as a person. I truly believe that when you’re in a really bad place, two things can happen; you’re either depressed and just don’t do anything about it, or you make changes and you forgive yourself for the things you may have done in the past… Exercise obviously helps your mind quite a bit, that’s a fundamental base for promoting positive differences in your life and if you have that down pat then other things that are really good for you follow suit as well, but I’ve just been doing a lot of reading and changing my outlook.”

In that vein, he goes on to say, “Every few years I find I look back at my past self and say, ‘Wow, how did I think like that? How was I like that?’ For example, I used to think money was a very, very important thing, and when I was really young I believed money equated to happiness. Obviously, that was disproved in my mind a long time ago but it was still my biggest motive and a certain financial amount is what I’d work towards. I’m just starting to realise more and more that we have a finite amount of time and we all have the same fate, and it’s what we do during the years of our lives that is important, the influence we have on people, and not just how much money you can make and what you can buy. A lot of people, especially in poker, they kind of identify with how much money they have and the objects they have, it’s like a big epidemic.”

Taking Control Of The Reins

As well as working out, eating healthy, and attempting to gain more self-awareness, Mizzi actively sought out the endorsement of Alpha Brain, a much-debated dietary supplement which is meant to increase mental drive, focus, and memory, among other things. He says that this mixed with his new healthy lifestyle has made him notice significant changes in his ability to focus and make correct decisions. “I almost feel like when I wasn’t healthy I was kind of on auto-pilot all the time, I just wasn’t super conscious of myself, I didn’t really feel alive, if that makes sense,” explains the well-known pro. However, regardless of his new zest for life via his health buzz, it is clear that Mizzi is growing tired of the game. When asked about cutting back playing time in order to maintain a more well-balanced lifestyle, Mizzi’s response is surprisingly quite indicative of the current state of the game and what many professionals may be experiencing. He speaks honestly and indepthly on this subject, saying, “I almost feel like I’m on autopilot when I’m playing poker now, no matter how healthy I feel because I’ve seen all these situations multiple times, it’s no longer as challenging as it once was, and also to make matters worse, it’s getting a lot harder — it used to be the good players would take the fish’s money and that’s how people made their money, that was the food chain, and now it’s more like dog eat dog, good players have to take the good players’ money and it’s just a lot harder to win.

“I’m fortunate enough where I still have good results in those situations but how long is that going to last? It just looks like until things get regulated and until it’s easy for people to play and deposit money freely and not feel like a criminal if they play online poker, until all that stuff happens, poker in general is just in a really bad place; you can see now the fields are dropping at the World Series, and the players are getting a lot better. A lot of people don’t know this but backgammon used to be the same way, there used to be tournaments, there used to be a lot of money in it, and slowly it just became about all the good players and it dried up. The difference between backgammon and poker is poker has more of an element of luck, so bad players can convince themselves that their good for a lot longer because they might have short term results, not even tournament results, but they could just win a huge hand and there’s a level of excitement, whereas with backgammon if you’re playing one of the best in the world and you know the rules and have played a few times, as far as I understand it, you just can’t win.

“But going back to the original question I feel like I need to focus my energy on something else, poker has had a good run and I’m very grateful that it gave me the kick-start I needed in life, but there’s going to be a new opportunity and challenge that presents itself and when it does I’m definitely not going to play as much poker as I have been. I’ll still come play but I’m just not going to have it be my primary focus.”

Positive Poker

Mizzi, like many other players, finds it hard to stay motivated for the entire length of the WSOP but being of a more healthy body and mind will certainly go a long way towards helping him perform his best in what can be an excruciatingly tiring and high-pressured two months. It will be interesting to see if he is of the same opinions in a year’s time, but that may also depend on the ever-changing poker landscape. It will also be interesting, of course, to see if he is able to keep up his desired lifestyle or if the habits of the past will come back to haunt him. With only his own wishes to be better, it appears the young pro is more determined than ever to stick to his new, healthier way of life, and is adamant on proving to others that such changes can improve both the quality of one’s life and one’s game.

Whatever Mizzi does next or has done in the past doesn’t really matter however as, in this case, it is true to say he has used the game to inspire many to make positive changes to their own lives as a gift only to themselves. ♠