I wrote an article about getting a good poker mindset for playing online poker.
I wrote this article to order my thoughts and maybe it has some tips for some (beginning) players.
The Poker Mindset
The way we think influences the way we behave. So our mindset, while playing poker, influences our poker behavior. Following this deduction, if we want to play optimal poker (at least the best we can), our mind set has to be optimal. I believe, that a person performs best, if he is confident, is having fun, focuses and is not distracted.
This article discusses how we can reach and keep the optimal condition for playing online poker. I will give recommendations, based on the years of online poker experience that I have. Therefore, it is not an absolute list of advice, but what works for me, and what might work for you.
Have fun and do not think too much about money
My belief is that a person performs optimally if he is confident and has fun in what he is doing.
Poker is a fun game and we should play it, because we love the game intrinsically. So if I am playing poker, I will tell myself how lucky I am I can do this for a living, even during a severe downswing.
But this applies also for starting players, who are lured to the game, because of the glamour stories that we read on the internet or see at TV. The advice that I always give to starting players is to forget about the money and focus on improvement and having fun. There is just no quick money in poker. There are those exceptions who win thousands of dollars in a couple of months, but for everyone of those, there are thousands of starting players who lose their deposit.
So if you are starting player, please play for fun. Focus on your development by reading forums, books, and watching videos. If you do this, then you will earn money sooner or later (or you don’t, but then poker is just not suited for you).
The above is valid too for more experienced players who play break even or win marginally.
If you are a big winner, you should be happy every day that you can play poker. Look before you start at your flat screen TV or at your car and bless yourself that you earned it and can earn it by playing a game. Even if you face a downswing, think about all the good that poker has brought you.
Dealing with a downswing
It happens to everyone. In one session your aces get cracked twice, you lose your set to an overset. Your flush is counterfeited by a full house on the river and after one hour play you are down 8 buy ins. For people who think they are more unlucky than others: you are not. (For the record: this does not only happen on Riverstars and it does not occur more on Full Tilt Poker).
There are a few things that you can do to reduce the pain of a downswing.
First of all, a downswing will be relative smaller (and feels smaller) with a bigger bank roll. Everyone has downswings of more than 10 buy ins. So if you play with the 20 buy in rule. You might lose 50% of your bankroll. On the other hand, if you play with the 100 buy in rule, you will lose only 10% of your bankroll. The latter will have probably have less emotional impact than the first. I don’t think that there is a golden buy in rule for playing particular stakes. I think that some people are just more risk loving than others and I think you should play with the bank roll you are comfortable with (although I think that a 20 buy in rule is the minimum in order to handle variance). I am relative risk averse and I follow the 100 buy in rule to play at higher stakes.
Secondly, you should also stop if you are tilting. I think everyone knows that feeling of anger and frustration if you are 2 outered three times in a row. Some players can handle this better than others, but I think you should stop immediately if you make 1 tilt induced error. Poker players, and people in general, have the tendency to take more risk if they have a chance to win their losses back. By doing this players take too much risk and make negative EV decisions and probably be spewing money.
Finally, you should analyze your play in a long term perspective and not in a short one. Do not change your game immediately after one bad session. Luck plays a part in poker, but only in the short run and not in the long run. Therefore, you should draw conclusions after a longer period of time and not after one session. This does not implicate that you should not be continuously critical to your own game and that you should not analyze your game constantly. It implicates that in analyzing your game, you should take a long term perspective and not being tempted in being result oriented after a bad session.
Distraction
If you are playing poker you should be focused on the game completely and you should not be distracted by other stuff. If you are distracted, you will miss important information (like bet sizing and timing tells), miss lucrative spots, and in general develop a tendency of playing robotically.
When I start a session, I switch off messenger programs and internet browsers. I don’t watch videos or play other games. The only thing I do simultaneously is listen to music. When I begin a poker session I start up my statistical program (which can be e.g. Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker), but I don’t look into it, when I am playing. The moment I check Holdem Manager (which I use), to see whether I am losing or winning, I am playing worse. When I am up, I start being too risk averse and start avoiding risky +EV spots, because I want to “secure” my profits. On the other hand, when I am down, I will start to make too loose calls or too light value bets, because I want to earn back my losses.
Naturally , when you are playing a session you have a good feeling about your winnings or losses. But my experience is that I can make better decisions, if I don’t think about winnings or losses, but only think about poker and the specific situation itself.
My final recommendation is that you should not play too long sessions. I notice for myself, that after 2 hours of play my concentration level drops significantly. Therefore I play 2-2.5 hour sessions. If I play longer, I will make mistakes, because I am not paying attention as I should do. The length of your concentration curve is again personally and some players can play 24 hours optimally, but I think you should be aware of your own concentration level.
I hope that these recommendations will help you in improving your poker mindset. As I said, before, these are recommendations that work for me, and they are not meant as universal guidelines. Otherwise I believe that an improved focus will help everyone’s game. If you have any remarks, critics, or questions; feel free to respond!
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