Off Table Factors in Online Poker

One of the biggest culprits to your money when playing online poker is distractions. This holds true for live poker games as well. The beautiful blonde at the table, or the blabbing drunk idiot are both distractions that have the potential of robbing your money. While you can’t see a beautiful woman at an online poker table, you can give yourself a host of other distractions that will all eat into your bankroll. It is crucial that when you sit down to play a session of online poker you are thinking about one thing and one thing only: Beating your opposition and taking their chips. If you are thinking about other things, maybe you should find a different game or at least not play until you can clear your head. Your focus while at the table should be on your cards and your opponents playing habits.

Before we go any further lets take a look at some of the common distractions for the online player:

• Surfing the internet: That’s right, if you’re surfing the internet while you play online poker you are being distracted and you might not be making the best decisions. Close down that damn browser and pay attention!
• Watching television: Even if you’re watching poker it’s not okay, your eyes need to be on your opponents and the decisions they make, not what John Juanda does (unless you’re playing against him online). If you need something else going on while you play poker, listen to some music.
• Multi-tabling: Now this one might seem a bit weird but you can get into a lot of trouble if you aren’t skilled enough to be multi tabling. What happens is you are stretching out your poker skill among many tables and ultimately your quality of play drops. What would be an easy decision on one table becomes a distracted mess and before you know it the buzzer is making noise and you are about out of time. If you are going to multi-table do it in a methodical manner. Start out small and increase tables only as you get use to them and can play them at an effective of a level as you could one table.
• Other computer applications: If you haven’t gotten the point by now, you need to close down other applications going on your computer that could serve as a distraction. Not only are they negatively influencing your play, they could be influencing the speed of the poker client. Having a fluid, fast poker client is an important aspect to good play.
• Turn off the chat function, both in the poker client and if you have AIM or something else open. Poker chat functions serve nothing more than to aggravate when bad players lose or when hot heads get full of themselves. Do yourself a favor and silence the chat window.

With those things in mind, now we can focus on the advantages of distraction free poker. Sometimes players get wrapped up completely in their two cards. Yet players know that poker is not a game about them, it is a game about their opponents! Start concentrating on your opponents and how they play and you will notice a marked improvement in your game.

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Next time you sit down to play online poker remove the distractions and concentrate on making a poker environment that helps you win and play better, not one that robs you of chips. Here are a few tips to help reduce your mistakes, increase your concentration and ultimately win more money at the tables:

• Play poker in a comfortable environment free from other people and distractions like a television. Play in a familiar area of the house, or try sitting outside once and while with the laptop. If you find that your desktop computer is just in bad area of the house, then move it now or you are going to keep losing.
• Listen to music. Listening to music is one of the few things you can do that will provide something besides poker in the room and might actually help you concentrate more.
• Play only when you have a sound state of mind. One of the great distractions in poker is you. If for some reason you find yourself in a losing state of mind or just aren’t feeling good, then get away from that computer as fast as possible. The only time you will be able to win is when your mind and heart are in it to win.

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