How to stay focused at the online poker table

Besides picking a game of online poker to play, one of the biggest problems many poker players have at the table is the ability to concentrate.  Analyzing situations and examining your opponents for many hours at a time, can really suck the energy out of you and your gameplay is bound to falter. In fact, scientific studies show that humans can concentrate for around 30 to 60 minutes at a time. This is a massive obstacle when it comes to prolonged online poker tournaments, and coming out as a winner can be a difficult task.

Here are a few times when you shouldn’t play online poker:

• If you’re bored: If you are getting a bad run of cards or you are playing quite tight at the table, you won’t have the chance to play that many hands and you may quite soon, not pay close attention to your opponents.
• If you’re distracted: Distractions are the bane of an online poker game as they pull your attention away. This could include anything from emails to noise in the room. Make sure you play in a room away from the noise and other distractions so you can better focus on the game.
• If you’re feeling unwell: If you have a big meal before you sit down to play, your digestive system will use resources from the brain to aid digestion. Suffering from insomnia or feeling ill in general depletes the concentration levels considerably.
• If you’re not in the right state of mind: If you are not mentally focused or lack the necessary motivation to play, then it’s best not to play.

How to improve your concentration levels in online poker

The great news is that you can always improve your levels of concentration. Read the below tips:

• Take notes: This is an age-old piece of advice and which can be applied to any task at hand in your day-to-day activities. If you need to keep track of your opponents’ starting hands or which position they are playing from, take notes so you can base your decisions based on the actions around you.
• Narrow your focus: You don’t have to focus all your attention on all your opponents at once. That is too much work and too much to think about. Start off by focusing on just two players. You need to ask whether they are raising you or else defending the blind. Once you have established this information, you can focus on another factor. Once you work on your concentration, you will be able to process enough information about all your competitors, turning you into a winner.
• Analyse your hand: After each hand, analyse how you’ve played and ask yourself if what you did was good or bad. Reward yourself if you have done something right so you can continue to encourage yourself.

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