The one where we start our diet

Sunday 15th April 2007

OWEN - So I awaken Sunday to a slight hangover and Jack ringing the bell. We’d agreed to play tennis and I’d slept in!

I dragged myself to the door and invited him in. I was somewhat off the idea of playing tennis and we sat down whilst I went to get ready. It was round about this time that we were chatting about how fat we were getting and decided to see just how bad things were.

We weighed ourselves with Jack coming in at 15 stones 11 lbs and myself at 14 stones 13 lbs. Using a quick calculator we worked out that we both had a body mass index just topping 30%!!!

With that in mind we decided that if we’re going to gamble it might as well be (or not be depending on how you look at it) with our health.

We wagered almost half of our remaining bankroll on who could lose the most weight after three months. £500 is riding on who can lose almost 3 stones to get into our ideal weight.

With £500 now being a deciding factor I was ready, tennis racquet in hand and out the door before Jack knew what was happening.

We’ll be keeping you up to date with the weigh-ins each Sunday.

A £50 side bet lay on the outcome of this match and as we’re both equally poor tennis players it resulted in quite a close match. I eventually lost 6-4, 6-3 but I was hoping my running around would help me with the earlier bet, by playing the balls close to Jack he didn’t have to run around as much. The £50 I lost here would be an investment for the future.

That evening we decided not to have any other bets but both of us went back onto Poker Heaven for some social poker. I played some $3/6 Omaha hi/lo and ended my session $245 up, which went a little of the way to mending the hole in my wallet these bets I keep losing were making.

JACK – We are both fairly inexperienced, and therefore dreadful, at tennis. I think the extra edge I needed to win came from my badminton playing days. That reminds me, I must try to get Owen onto a badminton court for £50 – it’s money in the bank!

When we got back to Owen’s, we decide to forego our usual Sunday evening beers and plumped for some healthy fruit juice instead. This could prove to be a long and hungry 3 months.

On the poker front, it was a decent night for both of us. I played 4 tables of $1/$2 NL Hold’em and finished around $350-$400 in profit – I wish this was counting towards our wager, then at least our bankrolls would be looking a bit healthier (much like we hopefully will be in 3 months). We decided that we should keep the £500 for the weight-loss bet in our bankrolls until the 3 months is up – the last thing we want is one of us going bust after a week!

Current bankrolls

Owen £1,030

Jack £1,245