The perks of being patient in a poker game

Take a more patient and laid-back approach to poker and the chance tilts far more in the direction of making the right choice

PATIENCE MAY WELL be a virtue. But for successful poker players it’s far more than just that. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful emotional and mental tools that they can have in their armoury.

Why? Because the game of poker is as much a mental tussle as it’s a card game. So, the more balanced and calm a player can be, the better they’re going to be equipped when the going gets tough.

This is a principle that extends far further than poker. But unfortunately in an age of instant gratification the values of patience may be gradually being overlooked if not forgotten altogether.

So hopefully what follows will spell out some of the advantages that taking a patient approach can bring to a game that already offers a number of mental benefits to players of every standard.

Slowly does it

It’s sometimes said that the hands you don’t play are as important as the ones you do, you’re likely to find it’s easier to fold when you play poker online compared to being in a casino, which can encourage rash decisions. So if you’re new to the game, get some practice online so you can learn when to fold and when you need to bet.

Boiled down to its very essence, the game of poker is one of decision making. Whether to raise, whether to fold, even whether to get up and walk away from the table altogether.

While being in the midst of a tense and fraught situation can be the catalyst for making a decision, your focus and concentration are likely to be compromised. That means there’s a 50/50 chance, or worse, that the decision will be wrong.

Take a more patient and laid-back approach and the chance tilts far more in the direction of making the right choice. But to reach this state of mind you need to have the courage of your convictions to remain patient, waiting for exactly the right situation to arise before you act.

Yes, it could be that you take such a relaxed and patient approach that the whole game passes you by and the situation never does materialise. But that would be very unusual indeed.

By exercising patience you’ll be avoiding those marginal situations when the cards and betting are as likely to go against you as you are to succeed.

The patient player is also far harder to read for your opponents compared with the one who goes in all guns blazing. And inscrutability is something that every poker player needs to cultivate if they want to win.

Having the mental fortitude to be patient also works wonders for a player’s self-esteem. They feel more self-contained, more self-confident – and more able to put the other players firmly on the back foot.

4 ways to perfect the patient approach

Some of us are naturally patient. Others need to work a little harder at it. But here are four tried and tested ways to hone your skills.

Try a little mindfulness

A great deal has been written and said about mindfulness. So, you shouldn’t find it too difficult to get some guidance. In a nutshell, mindfulness is a question of being present in the moment. So instead of letting your thoughts wander you are absorbing all that’s going on around you with curiosity, acceptance and openness. Don’t obsess about how you should have played previous hands, and don’t strategize about how you’ll play future ones. After all, poker is a game in which focusing on the cards in your hand is the only way to play.

Reflect on past sessions

There is a time to think about previous games, but it’s certainly not when you’re playing. Instead, take some time out between sessions to think about how you’ve reacted to certain situations in the past, and how you could have handled them better. Don’t affix any blame to previous mistakes – just follow the famous adage that we learn more from our errors than we do from our successes.

Keep a journal

It can be easy to remember the specifics of a game of poker. It’s harder to remember how we were feeling at particular points in the session. By keeping a journal that you write shortly after the game has finished you can capture these emotions. By understanding and remembering them it can help you to remain calm and patient whenever similar situations recur in future games.

Ask for feedback from other players

The image we project can be very different from the one we believe we are emanating. So if you have played against friends and others whose opinions you respect, why not ask for some honest and fair feedback? It will make you a more rounded player – and more rounded players are also more successful.

So put all these together and you’ll be building an altogether more patient you. And we all know that it’s the good things that come to those that wait!