Lee Davy sits down with Faraz Jaka to talk about his affiliation with SharemyPair, Dough, and a cleansing routine that has seen him lose 12 pounds in just three weeks.
As Faraz Jaka walks towards me, he looks like a cross between a basketball player, Netherlands football fan and tennis player.
He is as orange as an orange, and the word Dough is pasted on his clothing and John McEnroe headband. I recognize it from one of the booths that lines the interior of the Rio.
But before I get onto his affiliation with Dough, I want to know what the man has been doing to lose so much weight? If you know Faraz Jaka, then you will be aware that the Huggy Bear look-a-like was always on the lean side, but today he looks positively Kate Moss like.
“I did a 10-day no carb diet, where I basically ate pretty much all fat and a little bit of protein. By fats I mean good fats like avocado, nuts and good oils. I ended up losing 12-pounds in three weeks. I wasn’t doing it to lose weight. I was doing it to get my body to stop relying on carbs, and sugar, for energy and instead rely on healthy fats, and I felt good doing it.
“Another cleanse I did was a gallbladder cleanse, and that’s where you get some stones that build up in your gallbladder and you flush them out. Some of these cleanses are unproven, and controversial, but the way I look at it, I am just experimenting with a lot of different things and I feel great right now.
“I think it’s important to switch things up a little, and surprise your body. There a lot of different organs, and muscles, that don’t normally get too work, and you are waking them up, so it’s been fun experimenting. I think I find a lot of the stuff I lost was just fatty tissue. Junk that I didn’t even know was there. I guess I didn’t know what my real body looked like?”
So that’s the healthy stuff out of the way, now on to business. A few months ago I was fortunate enough to interview Steve Miller during our round of ‘Innovation in iGaming Profiles’. He had just created an app called ShareMyPair and Faraz Jaka had recently been added as an affiliate of sorts.
“SharemyPair is an app that allows you to put in a hand history that visually displays it into a link. You can send the link to your friends, and fans, on Twitter and it’s an awesome app. Instead of typing long streams of words to describe a hand you can just see it visually play out on the app. I think it’s the new way people are going to start sharing their hands.
“It makes me feel good that they approached me. I don’t get involved in too many companies, unless I actually believe in the product, and I think this is insanely useful for the poker industry. It’s a new app, so there is a lot of development that still needs to happen to make the process faster, smoother and more efficient. But the idea in general is a good one and what it does for the user is great.”
Now on to the John McEnroe style headband with the word DOUGH emblazoned on the front.
What is Dough?
“Dough is an options trading platform. They are sponsoring me and we have a booth set up here at the WSOP. We have a raffle where we are giving away $10k, to one person, and free iPads every weekend. All you have to do is sign up to get involved.
“It’s an option trading platform with a learning tool built into it. They have these 2-5 min videos that you watch and take a little quiz after. You can follow professional traders to see what they are doing, what trades they make, and why? They have a live TV show every day, and they also have a platform you can trade on.
“The reason they are out here is the skill set to trade is very similar to poker. You are making decisions with limited information and you are trying to predict the market, using probabilities, odds, risk-reward strategies, and managing bankroll. A lot of the same concepts used in poker.
“You look at a trading platform and it looks like a different language. Dough’s parent company, Tasty Trade, realized this and Dough is the bridge that needed to be built. This is what Dough is about.”
The interview ends and Faraz walks away into the distance. At one point he turns to the side and I can’t see him anymore.
From Huggy Bear to Kate Moss and all he had to do was crap out a load of stones.
Take note people.
Take note.
