There are a million words of advice we could give you about improving your poker game with positive mental and practical habits. But, in such a time of global retreat, while you can put many positive poker tips into practice, there’s as much merit in avoiding the errors that can crrep into your game.
From fatigue to low mood and through bankroll or behavioural changes, playing poker in a time of a global pandemic is so difficult purely because it has never happened before. Here are seven ways to avoid stopping yourself being at your best.
- Adjust Your Bankroll
Returning to the felt may be simple from a point of view of looking forward to poker, but if you’ve been forced to take a break during these rather odd and troubling times, it would be perfectly understandable.
This video from Jaime Staples on bankroll management is a really good way of looking at what you should be doing.
When you get back to poker, it can be hard to know what your bankroll actually is. If you’ve had to dip into your poker funds to keep real-life money coming in. Make sure that you look at what you can reasonably afford to risk and make the necessary adjustments. If that means stepping down in stakes…
- Check Your Stakes
Playing at the right stakes for you is vital to two things in poker – enjoying the game and making profit. Don’t block your own enjoyment by playing too high and losing, make sure that you stay positive about your development in the game and play the stakes that allow you to do so.
It could be that after playing a few games, you have the funds and time to step up, so don’t be afraid to do so if you think the games are good enough, with some attractive tournament series coming up this summer. Just be mindful that if you need to drop down again, you have the discipline to do so.
- Remember to Stop-Loss
Having a sensible stop-loss amount pre-lockdown was something that every poker player worth anything did. It can sometimes feel that, amid any crisis in your own life or in society that this sort of rule is less important, but if anything, it’s more so.
Having the ability to stop and limit your losses in a bad session is vital, especially if you were to have to take some time away from the felt for any reason. Self-discipline can be one of the hardest things to maintain during an enforced period of social distancing, whether you’d gone into hospital for an operation long before COVID-19 or anything thereafter. Be sensible – you’ll feel better for it the next morning whatever your circumstances.
- Playing Patience
Over-confidence is not something naturally attributed with returning to playing poker, but if you come back to action at the felt and immediately win, it can feel like you’re ready to step up stakes, take some shots and generally shoot for a bit more than perhaps you should.
Exercise patience. Practice the things that made you good at the game and understand that variance can go both ways. Lockdown could well have been used by you to learn new skills at the poker table, but don’t run before you can walk and be patient to see the results of your labour.
- Rely on Your Skills
Poker is a long-term game in many ways, and as such you’re only ever really battling the previous versions of yourself. You should be able to beat the win-rate of that gawky kid you were fresh out of University, so what if you can’t match his or her results?
Stay calm, rely on the skills you honed first and fondest. You’ll see the route back to playing the game with the same love and application that you did first time round. Just like it’s a bona fide method of keeping mentally healthy to watch old shows you know you’re going to love on the TV, so too is it emotionally beneficial to play poker that you actually enjoy playing.
- Fall Back in Love with the Grind
All of which brings us to falling back in love with the grind. If you’ve missed poker during lockdown then you may very well have dreamed of spending hours at the felt, clicking buttons, mashing tournaments from before the bubble and grinding your opponents down.
That’s the ideal, but there are many time-related factors to consider that might temper excitement into focus for you. A long grind at the online felt will include bad beats, bust-outs and late registrations. If successful, you might be at it until the small hours, so prepare for the mental and physical demands of that mission. Embrace it with expectations of the reality and you’ll enjoy it that much more.
- Remember to Value-Bet
Remembering to get full value on streets like turn and river, especially at the micros and lower limit buy-ins is commonplace after a break from the game. Make sure that you take advantage of situations where you feel like you’re winning.
Maximising your winnings and limiting your losses – recognising when others are value-betting you and can’t be bluffed off the pot on the river – will stand you in good stead for saving money when you lose pots and filling up when you win them.
If you’re returning to playing poker after a few weeks off, good luck at the felt and make sure you keep mentally healthy and financially stable, gambling responsibly and playing your A-Game.
