The Power of Focus: 9 Ways to Enhance Concentration for Peak Poker Performance!
Have you ever had an experience where you were playing exceptionally well and building up a large stack only to lose it in a few minutes?
Looking back, would it be fair to say that losing focus was a contributing factor?
This scenario happens many times – even to very good players.
- Maybe they missed the signals their opponent was giving them about the strength of their poker hand ranking. So, they kept barrelling, only to see the bad news when the cards flipped over.
- Or perhaps they felt fatigued and played their hand too passively.
While it’s possible that other psychological factors played a role, lost focus is often the main culprit.
In 1890, psychologist William James argued that you must be able to take “clear possession of the mind in order to focus only on the most important factors at the exclusion of non-important factors” if you want to achieve your goals.
He meant that focusing on irrelevant, unimportant stuff would lead to subpar performance. You must focus on what is crucial and block out all the rest.
If you want to improve your combinations in poker performance, you must do the following:
- Focus only on relevant cues in your environment while ignoring irrelevant things.
- Maintain your focus over time.
- Be situationally aware so you can adapt as needed.
- Be able to shift your focus as necessary.
Doing the above four things well will help you achieve your poker goals. Don’t do them well, and you will likely be in for a rough ride.
