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February 2, 2013
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Hi. I am an older player and I can do a reasonable job of hand reading when I am playing online. However when I am playing live, I can’t follow the action in a hand at all. I don’t know whether this is because of all the noise and the distractions of table banter. I also get it hard to actually see what amount is in players stacks ( I wear glasses). I just find it so much easier to play online with all the information on the screen and with no distractions.
Has anyone any ideas how I could improve my focus live?
February 20, 2015
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In cash games I always go for seat 5 for the reasons you state. Most dealers will announce the action or read the flop to a player with vision problems, but this also casts a lot of attention on the player, which can make success harder to achieve.
Player stacks are a toughie because it can be a tell if you’re asking for a count (although if you ask every time I guess it’s just annoying). It’s hard to keep track of in your head, especially if you get moved to a new table. I struggle with this too.
In terms of focus, I think it helps explain the stereotype that all the millennial players are on Adderal 🙂 Minor things, such as getting enough sleep and having a reasonable amount of caffeine in the system, can help. Another idea is when you get up to take a break to glance around the table. Same story when you get back. It’s unlikely you’ll get there right when the dealer begins a hand, so there’s no need then to take a seat right away. You can also get stack sizes more easily when everyone is on a break.
Some use noise-canceling headphones, which removes auditory distractions, but you still have to see. Some studies say if you only use some of your senses that the body compensates as a survival technique, meaning you’ll see a little more clearly, smell the massage therapist a little better when she walks by, etc.
Hope this is helpful or at least entertaining.
January 20, 2014
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I know exactly what you are talking about. And I think this will help a lot, it really helped me. You need a warm up routine. A ritual. Something you do every time before you play. If you don’t do this warm up routine, then you don’t play. Look at all the professional athletes before they start a game. They are each doing some kind of ritual before they start a match, to mentally get their mind right. You might try the same. Jared Tendler talks about this in his book The Mental Game of Poker.
One routine that I use is I listen to an Elliot Roe MP3 before I start playing. It’s part of my routine and I won’t play unless I listen to one first. There are warm up MP3s Live Cash, Live Tournaments, Online Cash, Online Tournaments, just about anything you can think of. Here’s the links: Free one to try out. Specific MP3s for your game. Try it, you have nothing to lose. It will get you in the right state of mind so that you are completely focused and you are only thinking about the action at the table.
Another thing … Start by removing any distractions that are within your control. Number one is your phone. You don’t need it. It will only distract your focus. There is nothing on your phone that will make you play better. Leave it in the car.
Number two. Look at your watch when you sit down to start playing. Then look at it again the first time you glance up at a TV in the poker room, or start looking around the room and not thinking about the action at the table. How long was it? 30 seconds? 2 minutes? Now look at your watch again. Try to beat your last time. Think of Phil Ivey when he is playing. He is watching everyone at the table like a hawk. That’s what you want to become. Entertain yourself with ranging each and every player at the table at every point in the hand. Even when you are not in the hand.
As far as estimating players stacks … This will come with practice, just like building your focus. It will not happen over night, but it will happen fast if you work at it. Guess every players stack size. Guess their bet amounts, and then when the dealer counts it out, see how close you were. If it’s tournaments you are playing, the chip colors are a big clue. Guess how much it is by how tall the stack is.
Hope this was helpful 🙂 Thanks for the great post!
~Steve
February 2, 2013
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Thanks guys, some great tips there.
Joel -. I do try and sit in the middle of the table where I can see the cards more clearly and as regards stack sizing, I think i just have to work harder at counting them. As regards sleep, well you have hit on a good point there as I have a habit of staying up too late playing online which obviously leaves me drained the next day.
I am not sure about headphones but I think I am better off without them as I feel there is a lot to be picked up from other players table talk.
Oh I do notice the massage therapist walking by and I lose all focus on what is happening at the table
SIGABA – , I have Jared Tendler’s book for a while but just started to read it a few days ago. It is a great help so far.
I also have a few Elliot Roe MP3’s and must listen to them.
The phone is a major distraction for me and if I can restrict myself to looking at it every hour or so , Id imagine it would allow me to focus on the game more.
I will definitely try and range all the players in a hand and keep my focus to see what they show down. That should be a great help in improving my hand reading skills. It will be a lot harder than online where I depend so much on my opponents HUD stats and also in my live games, players calling ranges are so wide that you could have 5 or 6 players seeing a flop.
June 9, 2014
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My suggestion would be to read Tommy Deangelo’s “Elements of Poker Book”. In particular the sections on Quitting and the section at the back of the book “Elements of Performance”.
To quote from the “Focus” sub-topic in “Elements of Performance”
Even at our best, it’s hard to focus on the right thing at the right time all the time. Throw in some fatigue, stuckness, television, and mind noise, and it’s impossible. But wouldn’t it be amazing if we could? …
…Think weight-lifting. If you lift weights, you will increase the strength and stamina of your muscles. It’s not a matter of if, it’s only a matter of how much. And the results will be proportional to the effort. And you have options. You can do many repetitions with light weights, or you can do few reps with heavy weights, or you can do any combo in between. It all works. The key to doing it is just doing it.
It’s the same way with strengthening your mind.
To lift weights mentally, what you do is focus on something….
Angelo, Tommy (2010-06-23). Elements of Poker (p. 240). BookMasters. Kindle Edition.
(And then Tommy goes on to describe techniques you can use to improve your mental strength in the area of focus…)
For myself, being able to focus on the information that is available at a live poker table is an area I’m currently struggling with.
I recently saw an Ed Miller web cast where Ed talked about the information that you can pick up and act on during a hand. And if you have observed the villain in other hands you can sometimes pick up information that is useful in the current hand…
Subsequent to watching the Ed Miller video I realized how little I do pick up during a hand I’m not involved in. And how few times I could reconstruct the betting action. Often I would wake up when a big pot that I wasn’t in had developed and I was unsure of who had been the aggressor and how the action had developed. Which meant that I was leaving a lot of useful information on the table which I couldn’t use if I found myself in a big pot with those players later on.
So I’m trying to be more focused myself during my time at the live tables so I can pick up that information which I previously missed. It takes time to develop the mental strength to maintain focus. And the improvement may be gradual. Much like going to the gym to improve muscle strength takes time, but over time with persistence and discipline you see improvement in your physical strength. Similarly, with persistence and discipline you can improve your mental strength.
I suggest that you dove tail the information Tommy provides in the section on Elements of Performance with the Quitting section. You need to take breaks to refresh. Whether the break be a 5 minute break or break for the day. Most of us have smart phones now. As an aid to encourage yourself to take a refreshment break you could set up an alarm in your smart phone prior to sitting at the table. There is a body of work that remembering to do something in the future without giving yourself a cue is often likely to be forgotten. When the alarm goes off on you phone, remember that the alarm has been set as a cue to remind yourself to take that break so that you can return to the table refreshed. Alternatively, if the alarm is yet to go off but you find yourself going through a period of mental fatigue where you are unable to focus well, preempt the alarm and take the break early.
To give yourself the best chance of being able to focus at the table take the advice Tommy gives in his book re building your mental strength in your ability to focus, plus take regular breaks to refresh.
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