Setting up your playing space
A key difference between WINNERS and LOSERS is that winners pay attention to the "little things". One of theses is where you play when you play online. Not talking about the poker room itself. Talking here about what your environment looks like. Here are the dos and don’ts that is strongly recommend you adhere to.
- Do turn off the TV
- Watching TV while playing online poker is a kiss of death for your bankroll. Not only will you be completely distracted from the game, you will get disconnected from the poker atmosphere. You wont be thinking about poker between the hands and this leads to loose the undisciplined play.
- Do sit in a comfortable chair
- If you are uncomfortable, you will get frustrated more easily. When you are comfortable you will be able to focus better.
- Don’t lay down (with laptops)
- You want to be in a comfortable chair but you don’t want to be too comfortable if you are lying down while playing you are going to be tempted to sleep between hands. That’s a no-no.
- Do have a radio if you want
- Background music helps me play better poker. Don’t think of it as much of a distraction between don’t focus on the music. It is also a crucial boredom fighter because the music works like a TV to provide a light distraction between hands, but you wont get to out of the game. Music = Good, TV = Bad.
- Don’t bring up other programs on your computer
- If you have your web browser up a game of solitaire running and your email inbox open you will never be able to give serious attention to your game.
- Do you have poker ebooks
- You can fight boredom and improve your skills by having a lot of poker literature around.
- Do have a notebook
- If you want to manually take notes as opposed to using a software program, make sure that you have the notebook out at all times. You may need to refer to it for important information at any time during the game.