Poker is considered one of the most stressful and mentally demanding sports. Although poker requires skills that you can improve over time, it can bring a lot of frustration in the short term. Luck plays a significant role in the short run.
The big question in poker is, what is the short term? When will I start seeing results from all my hard work, and how do I know if I’m playing at the right stakes with the right strategy? These uncertainties can drive many amateur and professional poker players to madness. In this blog, We’ll give you 9 poker mindset tips to help you deal with these challenges.
9 poker mindset tips to crush your stakes
1. Create a step-by-step plan for playing a hand
Creating a step-by-step plan for playing a hand is an excellent way to keep your focus on your game, which is why it’s our first mental poker tip. By asking yourself a series of questions before making any decision, you ensure that you don’t overlook crucial information.
In mindset coaching sessions with poker players, it’s common to discover that they sometimes miss or fail to process key information. This often happens, especially when playing multiple tables online, where certain details might go unnoticed. Here’s an example of what a pre-flop step-by-step plan could look like:
- Has there been a raise before me?
- What position am I in?
- How many blinds do I have, and how many are effective in play?
- What is the image of the players still in the hand?
- What range do I play from this position?
- What hand do I have?
- Do I call, fold, or raise?
2. Create a warming up & cooling down routine
Just like with physical exertion, it’s important to have a proper warm-up and cool-down for mental exertion. While a physical warm-up gets your muscles ready, a mental warm-up prepares your brain for the challenge ahead. Poker is a mentally demanding game that requires thorough preparation. Doing so helps prevent tilt, increases your chances of getting into flow, allows you to play your A-game, and maximizes your EV.
A good mental warm-up for a poker session could involve reviewing certain spots you’ve been studying. This keeps the spot fresh in your memory (priming), so you’ll recognize it more quickly and know exactly what to do.
In addition, setting a clear process goal before the session can help focus your attention. What do you want to focus on today? Is it your self-talk after losing a hand? Are you aiming to stay as relaxed as possible at the table? Or do you want to pay extra attention to live reads?
Meditation is an excellent cooling down after a session. Your nervous system takes on a lot of stress, tension, and arousal during the game, often putting you in a fight/flight/freeze mode.
This demands a lot of energy from your body and can leave you feeling “switched on” if you don’t cool down properly. Meditation helps calm your nervous system and gives you a way to close your session on a positive note.
3. Check in with yourself regularly during the session
It can be helpful to regularly assess how emotionally involved you are while playing. Emotions can cloud your decision-making at the poker table, so it’s best to minimize their influence. Using a mental thermometer to check your thoughts and feelings can be an effective way to become aware of your emotional state, which brings me to mental poker tip number three.
Rational decisions at the poker table come from the rational brain. When you’re well-rested, have eaten and hydrated properly, and are experiencing little stress, there’s a lot of brain activity in this area. However, when you have 10 tables open, are taking bad beat after bad beat, and see your bankroll shrinking, it’s only natural to have an emotional response.
Unfortunately, this leads to less rational decision-making, with more brain activity shifting to the emotional mammalian brain. Once that activity spikes, it’s very hard to shift back into a rational mindset. That’s why it’s crucial to check in with yourself periodically—how emotional are you feeling, how tired are you, and how much fun are you still having?
Set an alarm every 30 minutes or hour, and write down the answers to these questions on a scale of 1 to 10. If any answers drop below a 5, it’s time to start closing your tables and take a break to recharge.
4. Set process goals before the poker session
Setting the right goals is one of the most important mental skills for poker players. At the table, this means sitting down with a plan—a strategy.
What will you focus on today, and what will you specifically keep an eye on? By doing this, you can track your progress and review afterward whether you achieved what you intended. This way, you maintain full control over your process rather than relying solely on whether you win or lose pots.
For confidence, this is an absolute game changer!
Here are a few examples of good goals to set at the poker table:
1. If scenario x unfolds then I’m going to think or behave y
2. Labeling opponents (tight, aggressive, maniac, whale).
3. Performing relaxation exercises after every won or lost pot.
4. Watching every showdown.
Setting clear goals like these will help ensure you stay focused on improving your game rather than just chasing short-term results.
5. Recognise your tilt triggers
Tilt is inseparable from a good poker mindset. The lack of control over the outcome of something you value deeply can create a certain “error” in your brain, which, if left unchecked, can become a serious issue for poker players. The first step in addressing tilt is understanding what triggers you as a poker player and what is happening in your mind. According to Jared Tendler, there are seven forms of tilt, each with its own cause and solution.
Tilt can arise from running -EV for a prolonged period, feeling resentment towards others who you believe are worse players than you, or simply feeling completely helpless.
There’s a small window in your brain where you can act to control tilt. Alarm bells should go off when you notice the first signs of tilt so you can take action. If you ignore these signs and continue to play stoically without addressing the issue, it could turn into a very expensive evening.
You can recognize tilt triggers through subtle changes in your thought patterns, tension in your body, irritability, shaking your head, swearing, or thinking, “How is this possible?!” Physical sensations like a knot in your stomach can also be early signs of tilt. Recognizing these signals is the first step toward tilt-free poker!
6. Optimise your focus, optimise your poker mindset
Focus and concentration are terms you often come across, but you might think, “Yeah right.”
Focus or concentration is the ability to direct your attention. It involves actively ensuring that you’re only engaged in one thing at a time while minimizing distractions. This allows you to think clearly and deeply about your decisions at the poker table, setting aside thoughts about results and worries about the outcome of a particular hand, focusing solely on what matters at that moment: playing the hand as well as possible.
Working on your focus takes time, and it’s a poker mindset skill you can train and improve and it can help you become more disciplined.
7. Visualise difficult spots
Visualisation is one of the most powerful mental tools you can develop as a poker player. In visualisation, you mentally play a specific scenario or situation in real time. These scenarios can vary; they can be positive ones, which are particularly useful for long-term goals, such as reaching your vision as a poker player, winning a WSOP bracelet, attaining complete financial freedom, or taking a vacation with your winnings.
Another effective use of visualisation is preparing for difficult spots at the table. The more concrete and specific you can be, the better.
For example, imagine you’re deep in a tournament facing an aggressive opponent who has check-raised you a few times in a frustrating manner. In the next hand against this player, you hit a flush on the turn, but the river pairs the board, and you immediately feel a knot in your stomach. How will you respond, and what actions will you take?
By visualising this situation, you can prepare for tough decisions, making it easier to take action when the time comes. This mental rehearsal helps you stay calm, disciplined and focused, enabling you to navigate challenging scenarios more effectively.
8. Self talk for a better poker mindset
Self-talk is a powerful way to enhance your mental resilience at the poker table. Self-talk is your internal dialogue—essentially, how you speak to yourself. Research shows that we can have up to 60,000 thoughts a day. You can imagine the enormous impact all those thoughts have on your decision-making at the poker table. They can easily throw you off course, especially when you’re feeling tense or under pressure.
Many of those thoughts aren’t particularly helpful. Our next poker mindset tip is to train yourself in the thoughts you develop or to steer your thoughts when they don’t support making rational decisions at the table.
By consciously directing your self-talk, you can build a more positive mindset, helping you maintain focus and clarity when it matters most.
9. Use relaxation techniques to calm down
Stress during poker is unavoidable; it’s one of the aspects that makes the game so interesting and why so many people are drawn to it.
However, excessive stress can lead to diminished cognition, meaning you may struggle to think clearly. By practicing the right relaxation techniques, you can calm yourself and continue making sound decisions.
A simple way to relax at the table is to use belly breathing. Here’s how to do it: Place your hand on your belly, take a deep breath in through your nose, and push your belly against your hand like a balloon. Then, slowly exhale through your mouth, wait for a moment, and repeat the process.
This technique helps reduce stress, promotes relaxation, and minimizes the risk of tilt in poker. By incorporating belly breathing into your routine, you can maintain focus and clarity, even in high-pressure situations.
Conclusion: 9 poker mindset tips to crush your stakes
In conclusion, managing stress and maintaining mental resilience are crucial for success at the poker table. Techniques like visualisation, structured self-talk, and belly breathing can significantly enhance your focus and decision-making abilities. By incorporating these strategies into your routine, you can navigate the complexities of poker with greater clarity and composure, ultimately improving your performance and enjoyment of the game.