Day 1, erm, where to start?

At the beginning of course and why I am here doing this! (also @_Mr_G_ for tweeters amongst you).

Well it started with my desire to not work and earn my fortune living of my poker winnings...20+ years later the desire is still there but reality has kicked in hard! So in between a fairly standard job in IT I still try my luck regulary with Ladbrokes Poker.

So...after winning a place on their poker bootcamp a few years back, and then winning a hoof share of an injury plagued 'racehorse' LaddiesPoker II (no, it did ok considering!) my luck turned and I won a place in their grassroots promotion #LPGR2012 which is where they will pay your entry fees to tournaments and slowly knock the field down from 40 to 1 lucky winner who will win a massive and potentially life changing £10k in sponsorship!

Well, I say my luck turned, as I've said, I'm still in my 9-5 job so you'll have guessed my poker isn't brilliant so when i say won...well i wrote a nice 'begging letter' for 'why i should be a wildcard entry' and ta-dah, winner!

Thankfully they're cutting teh field down in stages and for unlucky poker players...or for those who really just shouldn't be gambling anything more than matchsticks they can progress through social media activity...such as tweets & blogs...and here i am! Desperately hoping my writing skills are better than my poker skills...actually not true...hope its the other way round, but as i haven't won teh lottery jackpot yet i am a realist!!

Seriously though, so excited! My normal poker experience is a small time $10 online tournament and now, even at stage one they are paying my £100 entry fee to a live tournament where winners can take home £1000s!!  Soooo out of my comfort zone, especially as Ladbrokes are sending players branded merchandise to wear for teh tournaments...no pressure there then when turning up looking like a pro when inside as nervous as, well Nelly McNervous from Nervousville!!

And alongside this fitness bootcamp started a week before i got the good news, so Jody Blunt and her BootCamp has been dragging me out of bed at 5:30am...YES AM...to start sweating my whatsits off from 06:15 for 45mins three times a week. However...so far so good...alive, limbs that know they've done some exercise for teh first time in 15+ years but are still attached and a few pounds and inches shed!! Actually, quite enjoying it if that is the right words. Having paid my money i do feel teh need to go and give it my all, although after a boxercise session where at the end i could barely hold my hand up with teh glove on, let alone punch anything, I can only imagine what a girl she thought i was...'couldn't punch way out of paperbag' springs to mind! Still...it can only get better can't it!

Meanwhile family adjusting to me turning down chocolate, trying to bring me down to reality and stopping me resigning to try my fortune on teh poker circuit and reminding me that playing poker till early hours is NOT good when i have to be up at the early hours for my bootcamp!!

But...this is only the start...