People who love to play poker love to play poker! That means that there is a tendency among diehard poker fans to start playing before making the best preparation for playing. Let’s learn a few ways to prepare for poker at Juicy Stakes Poker.
Juicy Stakes provides a broad range of informative articles to help you prepare for poker.
Preparation is a Major Life Hack
We need to prepare properly for many moments in our lives. Here are a few:
- A big job interview.
- An important business meeting.
- A date with someone we live a lot.
- A dinner with one’s significant other’s parents.
- A crucial at bat.
- A long flight.
- A long drive.
- Your wedding or an immediate family member’s wedding.
- A speech.
- Going shopping.
We think that you will see that every tip we give as preparation for poker is important in everyday life in general.
Make Sure That You are not Drowsy
This is different than being tired or sleepy. Being drowsy makes it very difficult to impossible to concentrate and make good decisions. In a business meeting, yawning is a sign of drowsiness and it is a very big no-no!
If you re going on a long flight, and you are not a member of the flight crew, then drowsiness might be a good thing. Imagine yawning in any of the other examples above!
How Can a Poker Player Avoid Drowsiness?
The very simplest answer is getting excellent sleep. At Juicy Stakes, our players play very often. Some online poker players play every day! So, to be at the top of your game, you need to learn how to sleep so that you are fully awake when you play.
In the modern world, getting enough good sleep is a learned skill. You might need to abstain from late-night streaming or snacking. The book you are reading might intrude on your sleep.
Alcohol and Food Make Many People Drowsy
Now, most people like a little alcohol, and everyone needs more than just a little food! So, how does a wide-awake poker player balance the pleasure he or she derives from a drink or two, a necessary meal, and great awareness at the poker table?
Poker should be planned! That means that if you plan to play at 8:00 pm, you should eat a substantial meal no later than 5:00pm. You need to give your body a chance to fully digest the food you have eaten. If you are hungry during the poker session, you might eat some raw vegetables! They won’t make you drowsy.
It's amazing how much a single carrot can satisfy one’s hunger at the moment.
The effect of alcohol is well-known. We suggest taking that drink after the poker session and not before!
Be Mentally Prepared
There are many ways that people in general and poker players, of course, might not be mentally prepared. Anything that produces stress will take away from the calm mental state you need to be in to play top-notch poker.
If you are stressed for any reason, take care of that issue before sitting down to play poker.
Taking a walk to get some fresh air in your lungs is a good way to prepare yourself mentally for poker. Poker is a sedentary event and our legs need to stretch to get blood flowing towards our lower extremities.
Stretching during a game is also good and stretching for poker readiness before the game is better yet!
Doesn’t Poker Create Stress?
Yes, it does!
That’s why we need to come to the poker table as unstressed as we possibly can! Let’s say that you plan to play for one hour because you have an important meeting the next day. If your thoughts during the poker game are on the meeting, you will feel stressed and your concentration will waver.
In a situation like that, the best course of action would be to leave the poker game and work toward preparing for the meeting.
You might find that some short extra preparation for the meeting leaves you enough time to play some poker!
Take a Shower
This depends on the weather and many other factors. If you live in a hot and humid place, it is probably a good idea to take a shower before poker. The shower will wake you up and that feeling of being especially clean will make your overall mental state better.
Study and Learn
The recently deceased and beloved Doyle Brunson claimed that he played opponents and didn’t have any need for poker math. In the modern world of poker, he would be in the minority!
We all need to learn poker math. This is a long-term project. It is harmful to try to cram a lot of poker study, including poker math, into a short course on smashing poker games.
Trying to do too much creates stress. Actively doing too little creates stress. Our study of poker has to take years. That means that we will be playing for a very long time with insufficient information.
We All Live in a Yellow Submarine
The truth is that all poker players, including the top pros, all play with insufficient information. The players who can get beyond that fact and make the best of an imperfect situation reduce stress and usually end up doing better than those players who are obsessed with not knowing!
Obsessing over not knowing leads to incessant bouts of tilt which one of the world’s best players (unnamed here) is all too familiar with!
Allow No Distractions
One of the reasons people make gambling mistakes at land-based casinos is because there are so many distractions there!
From slightly inebriated people to women dressed as they never would dress at home, to people who blame a good blackjack player for their losses, to the need to use the restroom, to never knowing what time it is, to bells and whistles abounding, and so much more, a land-based casino is a hotbed of distraction. Here are a few ways to eliminate or reduce distractions:
- Shut out as much noise as you can.
- Be sufficiently hydrated that you won’t need to drink a lot.
- Shut down your phone.
- Make sure that all other residents of the house know not to disturb you.
This last item is one of the hardest. This is especially true if there are kids around. To combat family distractions, play at a stakes level lower than your poker skill level would expect you to play at.
This does not eliminate distractions but it allows you to play with less than full concentration.
Juicy Stakes Poker Wishes You All the Best in Your Poker Play
As an online poker room, Juicy Stakes offers players a great poker environment. We have poker in several different games and formats. As this article attests, we try to help all players get better at our beloved poker!
