Images courtesy of World Poker Tour
There is a lot of work that needs to happen behind the scenes if you want to really prepare for live poker tournaments and win money. In this article, I’ll be sharing some of my own tips and advice. These work for me, and I’ll admit that they may not necessarily work for everyone.
But, for a large majority of players out there, these should help put you in a good spot to accomplish the goal of winning money!
It is entirely possible that you may be planning your next poker trip around having a good time and not caring about the money. That’s perfectly fine, but this article will not help you. Its main focus is on how to prepare for live tournaments with the view of making as much money as possible.
Plan What You’re Going to Play
First things first, you need to figure out exactly what you want to play and have very clear intentions about what it is that you want to accomplish.
Figure out your priorities so that you can really optimize the use of your time.
If your goal is really to make as much money as possible, I’d go as far as to say, skip tournaments altogether. Instead, sit down and grind cash games all day, every day. You’ll make much more consistent profit than playing tournaments.
The reality is, at lower stakes, especially, it’s not that hard to win money at poker. Find the game you can beat, play a lot, and keep proper bankroll – it’s really that simple.
Of course, this is easier said than done, as many players lack the discipline required to stick to the plan, and this is the biggest reason they fail.
Generally speaking, there are two types of people in the world: those who are happy to put in their 40 hours a week and be done with it, and those who are ready to do whatever it takes to succeed. I am certainly in the latter category as I absolutely love the grind.
Back in 2007 – 2010, I was able to make a lot of money playing tournaments, and it wasn’t hard. You had to raise a lot and c-bet a lot, and that was pretty much it. People folded way too much, and they check-raised way too strong.
Things may be harder today, but games are very much beatable still. You just really need to figure out what your goal is, zone in, and then put in the volume.
Finally, even if you do all of these right, things can still go poorly for you, as that’s just the nature of tournaments. Be prepared for this eventuality and realize that it’s perfectly fine. This, in fact, only further emphasizes why putting in the hours is so important.
Study What You Want to Play
Ideally, you should stick to one or two forms of poker, and I would suggest just one. What I mean by this is, pick something like good, old No Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments or cash games. You do not need to diversify as long as you can put in enough volume.
Try to specialize as much as possible. A lot of people want to replicate the likes of Ivey and Negreanu, where they go and play all the games. But there aren’t many people in the world who can just show up and play all the games.
Plus, good pros know that there are usually a few games that they aren’t that good at, so they tend to avoid them and minimize their exposure.
The simple fact is, if you hyper-specialize, you’ll have much more success.
While there could be a lot of white noise confusing you, it gets down to this: you want to play a game that has a future. Spend your time learning something where you can potentially win a bunch of money, and that is likely to be around for years to come.
Before You Play
The night before you are to play, you should get a lot of high-quality sleep. This means no partying, no drinking coffee at midnight, or anything else to mess up your rest. You want to sleep soundly throughout the night, and you should sleep as late as you reasonably need to.
Next, clear your plate of all non-poker distractions. I personally have a lot going on. Every morning, I have 20 things I have to address, a bunch of emails to go through. So I try to clear my plate before I go to play. I don’t always succeed, but if I play at noon, I will wake up at 10:30 to give myself enough time.
Once you sit down, poker should be your sole focus for the entirety of your session.
Another advice I like to share is that you should make the best use of the wait time. There are ways to avoid tournament registration lines, but if you don’t do things ahead of time and you find yourself waiting, don’t let that time go to waste.
Instead, try listening to a podcast or reading a book. Don’t just sit there, mad that you’re stuck in line. My motto in life is that anything I do, I want it to be a ton of fun, to make me smarter, or richer. So, find a way for every moment to fit into one of these buckets.
When you finally sit down to play, there will be a lot of distractions coming at you, especially through your phone. These days, everyone’s trying to win your attention, bombarding you with the stuff that doesn’t really matter, and especially doesn’t matter at that moment.
Avoid burdening yourself with things like what’s the average stack or who’s chip leading the tournament after two levels of play. If you came prepared and with a plan in mind, stick to that plan and shut out everything else!
These tips will help you improve your live poker results, but don’t expect miracles. As I said, you’ll still have to deal with variance, and there will still be bad days and bad runs for longer periods. In the long run, however, as long as you stick to it and do the work, success is pretty much guaranteed.
