The food you put in your body the day before and even during the tournament should be healthy, back-to-basics food choices, with plenty of lean meat and fish, fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Try and base your meals on these simple food groups.

Carbohydrates

Avoid eating lots of high GI foods like sugar and white bread. Instead go for whole grain, brown carbs and low sugar choices. When you eat lots of foods with a high Glycemic Index (GI) your body senses all that carbohydrate hitting the blood stream quickly and kicks out a load of insulin to mop up all the blood glucose, leaving you with very low blood sugar a little bit later. This is not good. Your brain, being exclusively fed on carbs doesn’t like this one bit and you can be sure that its 200,000-year-old instruction manual doesn’t have anything in it about staying focused on poker tournaments while being starved. The GI of a carb can be easily spotted on a lot of food packaging today. High GI foods to avoid include baked potatoes, white bread and white rice.

Protein

Look to get protein into your diet as it aids blood sugar regulation and slows carbohydrate absorption. Good sources of protein include lean meat, fish and some dairy products.

Fats

They’re often seen as a pariah but I’m here to tell you they’re essential. Your brain is to a large extent a big lump of lipid and getting enough fat from your diet is essential for your nervous system to function properly. Look for products that are free of trans fats and low in saturated fats – they’re still important, but you’re probably getting plenty already. You really want to be looking for foods high in Omega 3 fats like oily fish, flax and eggs. The essential fatty acids found in fish oils, walnuts and so on, are especially useful as they have been shown to be directly related to changes in brain function.

When should you eat?

Meal times are another important factor. I recommend three meals and two or three snacks equally spread out through the day. This can help to keep your energy levels up and stop that end-of-day flagging. See the examples below for meal and snack ideas.

How much?

Be really careful what you do here as, coupled with the frequency and makeup of your food, meal size is another important factor in how your body will function in the aftermath of eating. I don’t care how low GI your food choices are and how lean your meat is, if you find yourself getting up for a third plate of cold cuts your body is going to be too busy coping with the half a cow you just ate to deal properly with the cards in front of you. Little and often is the key here folks!

The night before

What should I eat the night before?

Salmon in sesame with Chinese greens and noodles (serves one)
One salmon steak
1-2 heads of pak choi
1/2 pepper, diced
1-2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 an inch of ginger, finely chopped

Take one salmon fillet and glaze with a little soy sauce and oil. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Take the pak choi, separate the leaves, wash and shake dry. Place them to one side.

In a pan or wok stir fry the fi nely chopped garlic and ginger with the red pepper on a high heat. After a minute add the pak choi and cook for a further minute and a half before adding the soy and/or fi sh sauce to taste. Once cooked add the spring onion.

Remove salmon from the oven and immediately serve with the greens.

Morning after

What should I eat on the morning of the competition?

Sugar-free muesli
2 tbsp of crushed walnuts
200g full fat yoghurt
A small handful of mixed berries

Just mix it all up and get it in ya. Be wary of low fat yoghurts as they tend to contain a lot of sugar.