In theory, you ought to be wholly focused on the table(s) when you are playing poker. Even online, there are so many little things to pay attention to that can help you make better decisions in future hands. Who hasn’t raised from late position in a while? Who makes thin value bets on the turn? Who makes a bigger continuation bet with air than with middle pair?
I know what I should be looking for, and I know how to look for it. I just can’t make myself stay so focused. Even when playing two tournaments and four tables of Rush poker, which was my standard set-up during the WCOOP, I routinely found my attention wandering. Whenever the action wasn’t on me, I’d routinely browse around for stuff to read on the internet or for some little chore I could accomplish at my desk. If I noticed a big hand going down, I’d stop to watch and check what people had at showdown, but I rarely rewound the action to pre-flop, and I rarely noticed important details about small pots.
Except, that is, when I was nearing the final table bubble. Suddenly the pressure was on, the stakes were high, and the game had my full attention. With two tables left, I close the cash games I was playing, opened the other table, and studied every hand that took place at either table. The final table likewise had my full attention.
Although I didn’t have the highest opinion of Eric Beck’s Poker Mindfulness, it did pose a few questions that were helpful and though provoking. How does it feel when you are playing at your best? If you were to take your game to the next level, what would that look like? Visualization exercises like this are much more helpful for improving your play than generic advice like, “Stay focused. Pay attention. Make good decisions.”
OK, fine, but it’s helpful to know what that looks like. It was very helpful to have this recent example of high-level focus to remind myself what I was capable of and what it felt like. During the WCOOP main event, I set a few concrete goals for myself:
1. Watch every hand. Note the general range of hands players play in various situations, betting and sizing tendencies, and general approach to the game.
2. If you miss a hand, watch in the replayer. Make notes of the above.
3. Even when you are not in the hand, put people on ranges and think about what you would do in their shoes with various hands.
I found (1) and (2) to be realistic goals and good complements to each other. I can’t say I was 100% on them, but they were useful in reminding me to return my focus to the table whenever I started to open my browser. And (2) gave me a concrete action that I could take, besides chiding myself, if I dropped the ball on (1)
(3) was a lot harder. When I have a hand, I can narrow my range of concern a bit. Rather than thinking about a guy’s entire range, I can focus on the parts that I care about based on what I have and what I intend to do. And of course for one of the players in the hand, I know exactly what he has. When trying to keep track of all of the possibilities for every player in a multiway pot and also play other games at the same time, I got overwhelmed.
Still, I think it’s an admirable goal the pursuit of which will train me to be more focused in general. I’d encourage you to set some specific goals for how you feel you can improve your focus at the table as well.
“Stay focused. Pay attention. Make good decisions.”
Unconscious does not understand words.
Words are “empty”. Pictures are a way to influence your unconscious.Pictures are way to communicate.
With right picture you can do influence your ability to focus.
The visualization of lemon will make your salivary gland to work intensively.Try to do this without the visualization.LOL.
What is the right picture to make focus sharp? hm…
The questions from Poker Mindfulness are great.The questions are very difficult.To answer them you have to probe your unconscious.WOW!.
Thank you Foucault for great stuff.
Very interesting, Andy, thanks!
I found very enjoyable to answer the questions in real time during the poker session- facing difficult decision. I tweaked them a little bit.
Is this my A-game? If you were to take your game to the next level, what will be the move?
Very enjoyable!
Cool, glad you found it helpful.
Okay, I’ll make the contrarian case.
If you play a lot, paying attention to every little detail is mentally and physically tiring.* So all this “focus” can be robbing Peter to pay Paul – especially in long tournaments. And frankly, the return on investment in most cases is zero, because the player leaves the table, or because no situation arises where you can use the information, or because the information itself was bad.
Also, using (legal, of course) software that displays realtime session stats on the opposition makes up for a lot of not paying attention, as does using the replayer.
If you tend to play short sessions anyway, then laser-like focus isn’t as costly. But if you grind several hours per day, as I do, then it makes sense to accept a slightly lower per-hand EV in order to be able to play a lot more hands per day without getting so tired that you make stupid mental errors.
Or to put it another way, save your focus for when you most need it – e.g., when you’re deep in a big money tournament, or playing a big pot.
On the other hand, there’s such a thing as going too far the other way. Recently I was watching a Yankees-Rays game on TV and got so excited about the final couple of outs that I completely forgot I was playing in a tournament. By the time I remembered, I’d been blinded down to about an M of about 2.
The key is to find the right balance.
(*That’s why you don’t see fat chess grandmasters. You need to be in prime physical shape for your brain to maintain that level of concentration for an entire match.)
Very good point. I think you’re right that as a practical matter, it’s extremely difficult to maintain optimal focus for long periods of time (measured in both hours and hands). I believe that one ought to be able to visualize focus as a muscle that gets stronger with exercise, though. The point at which you currently max out your focus doesn’t have to be an upper limit forever. Once you know what it looks and feels like to be maximally focused, you can practice ramping up your focus and hopefully increase your stamina. Then again, I suppose “focus stamina” will also decrease with age. There’s probably a short-term fatigue factor as well. In other words, you wouldn’t want to push your limits in a small stakes game the day before playing a long, high-stakes session in which you want to be at your best.