You are just about to sit down for a session of Texas Hold’em poker online and you want to make sure you have everything you need at your disposal. Hopefully this article will ensure you are fully prepared to devote 100% of your best poker game at your opponents to win their chips. Being comfortable and well-prepared is a good thing to do. Poker players are not known for their forward thinking so you are developing real skills when you start thinking about the little things in poker. Remember the saying, “Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves”. This is very relevant to poker playing.

Get a Comfortable Chair

Do not simply pull up your plastic chair. After sitting in it for a few hours you will feel the pain and so will your concentration levels. Find the best office chair in the house and if you do not have one, make plans to purchase a good one. Being comfortable, i.e. not in pain, means your focus can be solely on your poker game which helps you have the best chance of success possible.

Food and Drink

If you are heading towards a meal time and you want to play without a break, take a snack and something to drink to the computer with you. Avoid consuming too much alcohol as this will not only make you need a toilet break, but make you drunk. Drunken play is something we hope the USA fish and UK fish do when they come home from a night out and you are stealthily awaiting their return. Do not fall into the trap of donating chips by playing bad poker whilst drunk or under the influence of any intoxicant.

Turn off Phone and Email/Lock Door

Unwanted distractions cause you to move your focus from the poker game you are involved in. At the beginning of a cash game poker session or tournament is where you learn about your opponents so when you are faced with a tough decision later on you have something to base your decision on. If you find yourself late in a tournament not sure about a player you have sat with for a while you are making errors and not watching enough. Switch off the phone, lock your door and have everyone in your house know that you mean business when you play poker.

Cool, Calm and Collected

If you are moody, upset or you are suffering from an illness this may not be a good time to embark on a poker session. Playing poker is stressful if you take bad beats and are playing well but not getting rewarded. You should learn to manufacture a positive attitude whilst playing poker. Try and enjoy playing poker and treat it as a reward. Have a comfortable seat, some nice food and no distractions will help you concentrate on playing poker and we all love to do that. Be happy to play. If you are not happy to play, then do not play! You should play most of your poker at optimal conditions, some of which like those above can be manufactured manually.

The recommendations given above will not guarantee profits but it will help create a comfortable poker environment that allows your poker skills to flourish to their best ability.

By Malcolm Clarke

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• Hitting and Running in Cash Games
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• How to Become Immune to Variance
• Slow Playing in NLHE Cash Games

Tags: cash games, online poker, planning in poker, poker, poker advice, poker session

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 11:26 pm and is filed under Poker Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.