- Delve into the intricate psychology of focus and concentration in online poker, understanding how stress, fatigue, and external factors can influence decision-making.
- Discover effective time management strategies tailored for online poker, including the Pomodoro Technique and the art of scheduling breaks to maintain cognitive sharpness throughout sessions.
- Learn how technology can be harnessed to enhance focus, explore the tools designed by Jurojin Poker to manage screen time, boost productivity, and fortify attention to peak performance at the poker tables.
In the overwhelming world of online poker, focus management is a crucial ability you must have. The elite-level professionals can maintain concentration for long periods, allowing them to follow the action, process the information in front of them, and act optimally.
Constantly following everyone’s actions at the tables, decoding opponents' subtle tells, mentally calculating pot odds, reverse pot odds, implied pot odds, and other poker-related nuances can be mentally exhausting.
We have all experienced the promising start to a cash game or a tournament, where every decision aligns with strategic brilliance, only to find ourselves making silly mistakes later in the session as fatigue sets in and, most importantly, when you need high concentration levels. If you have found yourself nodding in agreement, you're not alone!
Keep reading as we unravel the secrets on mastering the art of focus management at online poker.
External Factors that Affect you Concentration
Before delving into what you can do to improve your focus at the tables, it’s great to assess what external factors affect your concentration levels. It is easy to get distracted by outside influences when playing online poker.
External factors can significantly affect your ability to maintain concentration, influencing decision-making and overall performance. Here's a breakdown of key external stimuli:
- Environmental Distractions: Creating a distraction-free gaming environment is paramount. Reduce the potential distractions and noises around you. Do not have the television, a movie or a football match playing in the background. Use a room that nobody else enters in and distracts you from playing.
- Technological Intrusions: Who has never checked his emails or social media accounts while playing online poker? Manage your devices wisely by silencing unnecessary notifications and utilizing apps that promote focus. Screen time management tools can prevent the intrusion of non-poker-related distractions, ensuring your undivided attention remains on the poker table.
- Emotions: Emotions wield influence at the poker table, from the thrill of victory to the sting of defeat. Positive emotions tend to aid a poker player's concentration. Conversely, negative emotions have the opposite effect. Recognize stress, anger and emotional swings, mitigate tilt and control a negative mindset.
Do not play poker if you are feeling stressed or angry for personal reasons. Negative emotions will lead to suboptimal decision-making.
Tilt, a term well-known in poker circles, referring to a state of emotional frustration or agitation, can swiftly turn a winning player into a losing one.
Keep reading to learn the best tips to improve your focus at the poker tables and drastically increase your win rate!
7 Focus Management Tips: How to Improve Your Focus
1. Put Away Your Phone
In the digital age, our smartphones can be both a blessing and a curse. When engaged in an absorbing poker session, the constant ping of notifications and the allure of social media can be potent distractors.
If you are able to stay off your phone while you play poker, live or online, you should have a big advantage as people become more and more addicted to constantly checking/being on their phone while playing. Put the fucking phone away (I say this to myself as well).
- Joe Ingram on Twitter
To safeguard your focus, establish a dedicated poker space and stow away your phone. Furthermore, turn your phone on ‘Airplane Mode’ or simply turn it off while you are playing. The dopamine hits from seeing messages and notifications are just too attractive.
Many of us grab for our phones as soon as we wake up, but you may begin to break the habit by beginning the day without it. It will be difficult at first, but give it some time and you won’t notice that strong desire anymore.
2. Take Notes
Amidst the fast-paced dynamics of online poker, the ability to retain valuable information about opponents is a game-changer. Equip yourself with a notebook or utilize the note-taking features of your poker tracker to jot down observations.
By actively recording player tendencies and strategic insights, you not only sharpen your focus on the current session but also create a valuable reference for future encounters.
👉We find that taking notes is great for discovering exploit patterns, write down the situations where your opponent is deviating from optimal play and come up with strategies to exploit those vulnerabilities.
Constructive note-taking is a skill all on its own. Keep your notes as essential as possible as you will not have sufficient time to read loads of notes while you play and also come up with the right strategy against that player type.
Also, notes should be useful for suggesting about a player’s tendencies or playing style. A note like “bad regular” is not very useful compared to something like “calls too often pre-flop and plays aggressively post-flop” as in the latter case you could exploit this player type by making more light calls.
3. Reduce the Number of Tables You Are Playing
Players often succumb to the temptation of managing an excessive number of tables simultaneously, thinking that they will increase their earnings per hour by playing more hands. Being able to play multiple tables at once is one of the significant benefits of online poker and also can help prevent boredom from setting in as you play.
However, the allure of quantity can come at the expense of quality decision-making. In fact, while it is true that by increasing the number of tables you are playing, your total number of hands will also go up, your expected BB/100 will decrease after a certain threshold.
Your playing style will become much more predictable and many of your decisions will be auto-pilot, as you won’t give them a lot of thought. Your opponents will soon understand your patterns and exploit you.
If you find that you are getting overwhelmed by the huge amount of hands you are playing, consider cutting down the number of tables. As you progress along your poker journey, you will find that “sweet spot” number of tables that will prevent you from becoming bored while allowing you to observe the patterns and strategies of your opponents.
👉Multi Tabling is a skill that must be developed to increase your table count in a healthy way. Learn more about that here
4. Take a Break
Because online poker can be so captivating, it''s simple to lose track of time and play for extended periods of time. Even the strongest poker players will get tired and make bad and impulsive plays. Recognize the signs of mental fatigue and grant yourself moments of respite to recharge. Taking breaks can make the difference in the long run to improve your results.
Consider using the Pomodoro technique, a time management method born in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to divide work at intervals, traditionally 25 minutes long, separated by brief breaks. Each interval is known as a "Pomodoro";, referring to the shape of some tomato-shaped kitchen timers.
Consider taking a day off now and then as well. You don't have to play every day, and taking days off can make it much easier to focus when you return.
5. Listen to Music
Harness the power of music as a tool to enhance your online poker focus. Selecting the right tunes can create a conducive atmosphere, helping you enter a state of flow and concentration.
Music can keep you “in the zone” and helps you to break the habit of checking your phone. Furthermore, it can boost your mood. Opt for instrumental or low-lyric tracks to minimize cognitive interference, allowing you to immerse yourself in strategic decision-making.
Tune in to the ultimate Lofi Chill 1-hour Playlist for Poker Players produced by Jurojin Poker! Whether you're a high-stakes pro or a casual card shark, this hand-picked selection of relaxing beats will keep you in the zone, no matter the stakes!
Unwind, relax, and let the smooth tunes be your guide as you bluff, raise, and conquer the virtual or real-life poker tables! Press play and let the rhythms inspire your every move!
Discover Jurojin Poker channel to access more content!
6. Sit Up Straight in Your Chair
The connection between posture and focus is undeniable. Being slouched puts you in a more relaxed mindset, which is not ideal for focusing on a poker game. Maintaining an upright and comfortable seating position not only promotes physical well-being but also positively influences mental alertness.
Elevate your focus by incorporating this simple yet effective tip into your poker routine, ensuring that your posture becomes a silent ally in the pursuit of excellence at the poker tables.
7. Talk About Ranges and Hands Out Loud
Talk through your ranges, hand assessments, and strategic considerations out loud. This not only reinforces your understanding but also engages multiple senses, enhancing cognitive retention. By articulating your decisions, you create a mental dialogue that keeps your focus sharp and your strategic acumen finely tuned.
In my poker career, I have frequently found that talking about ranges and hands out loud as I’m playing helps keep me engaged. Verbalizing your thought process can be a powerful tool in maintaining focus during online poker.
Software Tools to Improve Focus on Poker Session
Now let's dive into software features that you can leverage to help you maintain focus during long poker sessions.
Action Required Border
The 'Action Required Border' is a color-frame for tables that require focus, there's a variety of configurations for it, you can have it blink, or change color as the table becomes more urgent. Below there's a screenshot on how to get to that feature.
Urgency Management
It is common for players that only have 1 monitor to place many tables overlapped. Jurojin's Urgency Management feature will ensure that every time you take action on 1 table, the next most urgent one will pop to the top.
This feature is specially important when Playing Stacked as it will pop to top the most urgent table buried down the stack, across all your poker-sites
For this to work correctly, you must turn off native Poker-Sites "Pop Up Tables / Steal Focus" features.
Make sure to match your config to the screenshot.
Delegate Urgency Management to Jurojin
Each poker site (in general) has some urgency-feature, and in order to let Jurojin manage all this for you, some tweaks must be done on the site's native configuration.
PokerStars
PartyPoker
Winamax
Bovada - Bodog - Ignition
Winning Poker Network
888 Poker
IPoker
ChicoPoker / BetOnline / TigerGaming
Focus Management Final Thoughts
Emotions shape the poker landscape, from the highs of victory to the sting of defeat. You should learn to navigate emotional swings, mitigate tilt, and leverage emotional intelligence for enhanced decision-making. Try our practical tips, like putting away your phone, talking through hands out loud, and maintaining an upright posture.
Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newcomer, the art of focus management holds the potential to elevate your game. Consider exploring tools like Jurojin Poker to help you in this process thanks to its amazing features.
I have been using this for 4 months and I literally don't think I could play without it now, so so useful for multisiting. Almost all my students are also using it now too, great software and can't recommend enough if you play multiple sites.
PlasticElephant on TwoPlusTwo
Download Jurojin and try it for free to start playing poker like a Pro, now!
