Increasing Mental Endurance
One of the wonderful aspects of online poker is its nonstop availability. However, it’s important to recognize that your mental endurance and energy levels are not infinite. In the previous chapter, we discussed how to identify your ideal energy level. This chapter will focus on how to extend that energy for longer periods.
Having a heightened level of mental stamina proves beneficial when aiming to increase your earnings without necessarily moving to higher stakes or navigating through the later stages of significant multi-table tournaments. tournament like the Multi Table Tournament that attracts thousands of players.
Moreover, improved endurance will positively influence your mindset, enhancing your performance during high-stress moments, such as reaching a pivotal final table, which can be incredibly taxing.
Throughout my experience, I've assisted numerous players in boosting their mental stamina, enabling them to play longer and manage multiple tables simultaneously, all while maintaining a high standard of play. The focus on maintaining skill level is crucial, as merely playing more without skill won’t yield progress. poker Here are some effective strategies known to enhance mental stamina:
- Take small steps
- Rest
- Improve your C-game
Take Small Steps
However, after viewing the poker video I shared earlier, it's clear that this represents a 100% improvement! Just think about it: if you walk into a gym and try to lift 100 kg while currently being able to lift only 50 kg, or if you plan to run a 10k when your previous limit has been only 5k. While it's not impossible, sustaining such a jump is a different story. If you push yourself to lift more, run farther, or play significantly more poker, you risk injury. In mental terms, this means you could exhaust yourself, leading to diminished focus, a slower reaction, and a drop in motivation. It might feel like you're being lazy, but really, you're just fatigued and need considerable rest to recuperate. burn Players who desire substantial improvements in their mental approach to poker often experience erratic shifts in their playing frequency. For instance, they may play 80 hours one month, then drop to just 25 hours the following month, only to ramp back up to 75 hours and then back down to 20 in the next. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this pattern, and if that’s your preferred way of playing, go for it. Yet, there is an alternative.
Start with the 50-Hour Poker Package
If we examine this example closely, the average over those four months is 50 hours, which represents a comfortable monthly playing duration. Starting from that baseline of 50 hours, aim to gradually increase your hours each month. I've found that adding about 10% to 20% monthly is manageable. For instance, your goal in the first month might be to play between 55 and 60 hours. After that, you could aim for 60 to 72 hours in the following month, and so forth. Building endurance with a balanced mindset doesn’t take long, but if you consistently aim for a 20% increase, you might find that after 3 or 4 months, taking a month to stabilize at your previous level can help secure your gains and enhance your ability to keep increasing your time. By the way, this advice is particularly valuable for those engaged in Texas Hold’em.
To illustrate how this plays out daily, here are some practical tips for enhancing your mental stamina in poker. If you play an average of 20 days each month for about 2.5 hours per day, and your goal is an additional 10 hours for that month, you’ll want to organize your increasing workload effectively. Assume you also wish to add an extra table to the four you're already playing. general strategy applies when adding more tables–Day 10: Add 15 extra minutes and introduce one additional table.
Day 13: Again increase by 15 minutes and add one table.
| Increasing Time | Increasing Time & Tables |
| Day 1: Increase by 15 minutes | Day 1: Increase by 30 minutes |
| Day 2: Increase by 15 minutes | Day 2: Increase by one table |
| Day 3: Off day | Day 3: Off day |
| Day 4: Increase by 30 minutes | Day 4: Increase by 30 minutes |
| Day 5: Off day | Day 5: Off day |
| Day 6: Increase by 30 minutes | Day 6: Increase by one table |
| Day 7: Off day | Day 7: Off day |
| Day 8: Increase by 30 minutes | Day 8: Increase by one table |
| Day 9: Increase by 30 minutes | Day 9: Increase by 30 minutes |
| Day 10: Off day | Consider tracking your sessions with an Excel spreadsheet—this is a highly beneficial tip for both novice and seasoned players. Record your intended hours or tables each day, your actual performance, and any notes regarding the mental intensity of your session. This last element is crucial as it provides valuable context to the numbers. For example, if on Day 4 you didn’t do well and faced many challenging decisions, and although you aimed to extend your session by 30 minutes, a bit of frustration, fatigue, and being down in chips led you to quit after 2.5 hours. Documenting the reasons for falling short of your target will reveal patterns over time, allowing you to understand what hinders your ability to increase your playing volume. |
| Day 11: Increase by 30 minutes | Day 11: Off day |
| Day 12: Increase by 45 minutes | Day 12: Increase by 30 minutes |
| Day 13: Increase by 30 minutes | Sometimes, your ambition to enhance your endurance isn’t the obstacle; rather, it's issues related to your mental game, personal life, or other psychological aspects of poker that may be affecting you. If you struggle significantly with feelings of tilt, anxiety, or other emotional hurdles, these challenges will likely intensify as you try to extend your playing time or table count. Ignoring these issues while pushing for greater stamina could exacerbate them, requiring more significant breaks to regain your balance. Addressing these mental challenges is crucial for achieving your endurance objectives, and it’s likely that these were substantial barriers preventing you from reaching them previously. |
| Day 14: Off day | Day 14: Off day |
| And so on… | And so on… |
Keeping a Detailed Poker Log
If you decide to take this seriously, keep track of your progress Just like working out in the gym involves straining muscle fibers and signaling your body regarding the weights you want to handle, rest is essential for healing those small injuries and ultimately gaining strength. If you forgo rest and persist with intense exercise nonstop, you risk diminishing your overall strength. The same principle applies mentally when working on expanding your cognitive capacity. poker strategy Whether your goal is to increase hours or tables in your poker play, remember to integrate these psychological tips that will assist in harmonizing rigorous practice with recuperation. I’ve already shared various suggestions about how to achieve this in the chapter titled
Clear Your Mind Before Playing Pokeroas well as in other strategic poker articles throughout this guide. Make sure to revisit those insights and incorporate them into your strategy.youStrategies to Enhance Your Poker Stamina confidence problems A key advantage of online poker is its constant accessibility.
Rest
A different method to improve your endurance is by enhancing your mind's energy efficiency. This can be accomplished by
mastering corrections to your suboptimal plays, often referred to as your C-game. Just a reminder, your C-game consists of significant errors or weaknesses in your approach. While you may be well aware of the corrections needed, they do not come naturally yet. Decluttering Your Mind Utilize Poker Strategies to bolster your mental well-being as a player.
Improve Your C-game
![Jared Tendler, MS, LMHC, is a licensed therapist who specializes in sports psychology and is recognized as a leading expert on the mental aspects of poker. With nearly a decade of coaching experience, he has collaborated with over 500 players from more than 45 countries, including many of the world’s top players. Jared has also authored two popular books on the subject, namely 'The Mental Game of Poker 1 and 2' [insert link to our book review section].](https://parquetbinet.com/magazine/sites/magazine.888poker.com/files/styles/webp_convert/public/inline-images/One of the great things about online poker is that itÆs always open for business_6_0_0_0_1.jpg.webp)
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