Poker is a hard game. Texas Holdem and all of the other forms of poker take a lot of deep thought and focus. Every poker player needs a break from time to time. Juicy Stakes takes a look at a few ways to take a break that will make you a better poker player down the road.
The Great Outdoors
Almost all poker games are played indoors! So, our number one way to take a break is to get outdoors! A break might be a simple walk around the block. On the other hand, it might be a couple of days away from the poker table hiking in a state or national park.
Most countries have many small to large, local to national parks with great trails for easy, moderate, and hard hiking. We used to think that only athletes and hiking enthusiasts hiked the difficult trails. We now know that some games are sports of a sort and the players have to be in excellent physical shape to excel at these games.
The Connection between Poker and Chess
Who ever thought that chess was a sport? A chess player who is out of shape physically can never reach the heights that same player might have reached with the same amount of study and adding physical fitness!
The same applies to poker players. Poker requires a commitment to play, study, practice, and focus relentlessly on poker. But focus does not mean obsession. A developing or established poker player has to leave room for non-poker activities. So, we start by encouraging all poker players to find a happy niche in the great outdoors.
Exercise Outdoors
There are many places where the city has set up an exercise court outdoors. In cold climates, these exercise courts might not be usable for many months. During those months, exercise such as resistance training and spinning is best done in the gym. Once the weather warns up a bit, these same exercises are a perfect fit for time spent outdoors.
Find a Great Hobby
There is a growing recognition that people need a hobby. Some people say that reading is their hobby and that’s fine. However, poker players benefit more when they find a hobby that requires close concentration and attention to minutiae.
Stamp collecting is a hobby that requires these qualities as a good stamp collector looks at his or her stamps closely. It is the details of each stamp that intrigues collectors.
Collections generally are as much fun to look at as to collect. Some people love to collect figurines. Some even fill kitchen cabinets with figurines. But collecting them is not enough; you have to look closely at them to fully appreciate the artistry that went into making them.
This is the same kind of deep focus that allows a poker player to advance from someone who doesn’t see the nuances in a situation o someone who suddenly does see nuances in a situation!
Develop the Joy of Cooking
When you come down to it, poker is a game that uses 52 cards in billions of combinations and subtleties. Still, it is all done with 52 cards. The world of cuisine uses hundreds if not thousands of basic foods, spices, herbs, condiments, and different cooking techniques to create a wide variety of local and national cuisines.
Learn to Make Sushi
You can learn to make sushi at home. Sushi starts with a special type of rice that gets sticky as it cooks. When the rice is done, you add rice vinegar. A good recipe will explain the unique technique of folding the rice to add the vinegar.
That’s just the start! You need equipment, seaweed, and the added ingredients. There are as many variations of sushi and sushi is just one of hundreds of foods that are unique to a single cuisine.
Create Food in Your Kitchen
You might make a list of all of the food items you buy in the supermarket. How about learning to make ketchup, curry, pizza, bread, crackers, beer, sausage, and an unlimited number of other food items at home! This requires patience, attention to detail, creativity, a desire to learn from others and many other qualities that poker players can benefit from!
Make Sausage at Home?
We knew you would ask specifically about that! There was a professional baseball player in the United States who never played in the Major Leagues because he didn’t have the requisite skill. He was, however, a student of the game.
He became a manager (the baseball term for coach) and reached the Major Leagues in that capacity where he won so many games as a manager that he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a manager!
This manager, Earl Weaver, said in an interview that he liked making his own sausage! He said that it took time and patience, qualities he valued!
Try Your Hand at Writing
Writing requires a lot of imagination and imagination is a big part of seeing the possibilities in a hand of poker. Imagination is especially needed in order to see hand ranges but it also helps remember betting patterns. You need to be able to remember the betting patterns of all of your opponents! That makes poker a lot harder in some ways than even chess or GO which we generally play against one opponent!
There are basically only two types of writing: fiction and non-fiction. However, within each main category of writing is an endless number of sub-categories. You don’t have to be a great narrative writer in order to write.
James Michener, who wrote many very long books, once categorized himself as “a sucker for a narrative”. Sidney J. Harris was a daily columnist for two Chicago newspapers for a few decades, writing relatively short pieces every day. He grew up with Saul Bellow that Nobel Prize winner for literature. Harris once spoke about the difference between his writing and his boyhood pal’s writing: he was jealous to a degree of his friend who could write as the birds could fly while his own writing was must more pedestrian. Nevertheless, Harris was a seminal thinker and a great writer in his own right! All this to say....there is so much variety possible, you're sure to find your writing niche!
Enjoy Your Poker Life and Your Non-poker Life
Every poker player needs to have outside interests aside from poker. We have touched on just a few; actually, there are an endless number of interests people have outside of their vocation.
Juicy Stakes Poker offers great poker gaming. We also have a large library of articles that we believe help players improve their poker and add to their enjoyment of this great game!
If you have not done so yet, we urge you to join Juicy Stakes Poker NOW! Once you are aboard, you will see that the world of poker is as vast and rewarding as are all of the activities you can take part in outside of poker!
