Mental Concentration

About the most things about Texas hold em is that it takes minimal time to teach the game, that makes it great for casual players. They can come in and play a couple of hands until the more experienced players run them out. For many, Texas Hold'em is like the slots with friends. They will forever believe that poker is based off luck. God bless 'em.

Whether you're playing on the web or offline, the first step to taking your game seriously is getting mentally prepared. Does that mean you should cram your head with statistics, hand odds and scenarios?

Quite contrary in fact.

Maintaining your head clear is the way to go, like prepping for a pop quiz instead of the final. Overloading your brain with facts, figures and reminders only distracts you from your game. Try to stay relaxed and calm as you pick your seat at the dining table and try to be aware of only the players and the table.

What about the other distractions? Science suggests that being well rested after a light meal may be the best time a human anatomy can concentrate. While it's obvious that being tired or starving doesn't help your concentration, a heavy meal is no help either. Dense dinners cause your blood flow to center around the stomach and away from your extremities, as well as your head.

The 2nd trick is always to keep up your concentration throughout a tournament or a long nights online poker qiuqiu. When you obtain a chance, have a break; walk around to clear your face especially if you've had a bad beat early in the game.

A lot of poker experts will tell you a string of bad luck is mentally devastating, completely distracting them from solid play. So by refusing to let a bad beat haunt the remainder of your play, you're already ahead of the game compared to many of your fellow players.

Realistically, you need to be prepared for that bad beat that will strike anytime. If you truly accept that it will eventually happen, you'll lessen the psychological impact whenever a bad beat rolls you over. You can take a page from the Far East strategist, Miyamoto Musashi, when it comes to overcoming adversity. He said, "... the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death. " In the West, Shakespeare said it most useful, "Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once. "