How To Avert Poker Burnout
Avoiding Poker Burnout
According to the law of marginal returns, the joys, and happiness you get from doing something you love can seem to dwindle the more you dedicate time and effort to it. You could even start losing sight of your initial motivation for doing what you love.
The same can be said about playing poker. Imagine playing poker for more than half a day, every day for the majority of the week. It is likely that you would start to get tired of it and this would adversely affect your love for the game itself. You might find yourself getting burnt out and tired.
This often leads to the lack of motivation to even play, let alone continuing to try to improve your skills. You might feel like yourself stuck in a rut and before you know it, start to fall behind the dynamic and everchanging poker industry. All these would take a toll on your skills, as well as your mental well-being.
Taking an extended break from poker entirely might not be a feasible option for some but the good news is that burnout is totally preventable. As such, here are some tips that you might find useful in preventing poker burnout. For a flexible experience, here is a poker place with a number of game options.
Set Up A Schedule
Scheduling is extremely useful in preventing poker burnout. This includes scheduling even the little things of each and every day, and not just for major events. This means allocating time for when you have your meals when you are going to play poker and even when you plan to rest and relax.
By doing so, you would be consciously forcing yourself to take ample breaks and spend time caring for yourself. Otherwise, you might find it difficult to leave a good game if you did not already plan on doing so. That being said, creating a schedule is only half the battle won as you still need to take the effort and have enough discipline to stick to it and follow through with what you have planned.
Another perk of having a set schedule is that you would be able to get a visual representation of exactly how many hours you are spending on playing poker. This way, you would not risk spending a crazy amount of time just playing poker and let it take over your life.
Thus, set up a schedule for yourself and stick to it. Make changes accordingly to your needs and ensure you have a good balance of work and play. Only then would you be able to maximize your wins by being in your best condition for as much as possible.
Exercise
There are many already proven benefits of exercising and it is no different when it comes to poker. Working out helps to give you the energy, a clear state of mind, and release of emotions that you need to play to the best of your abilities in your next poker game.
While there is no need for you to work out like an athlete competing in the next Olympics, a simple 20-minute exercise would work just as well. This goes in hand with the previous tip of scheduling your day. Setting aside a short 20 minutes to exercise can be life-changing and it is also convenient since most casinos anywhere in the world usually come with a gym.
Some might say that going to the gym may seem intimidating but it is often not all that bad. Even if you do feel so, there is no need to actually go to the gym. There are thousands of bodyweight workouts that you can do in the comfort of your own room. Exercising would definitely help prevent that poker burnout.
Have Non-Poker Related Hobbies
The most important part of this is having hobbies that are as different from poker as possible. Suppose your other hobby besides playing poker is to do day trading. An activity like that is as equally adrenaline-pumping and fast-paced as a poker game would be. Such hobbies are too similar to that of poker and your brain would not be able to take the break that it needs. This impedes the benefits that you could gain from having other hobbies outside of poker.
Thus, search for hobbies that are as far from poker as possible and ideally ones that are not about getting money in a highly stressful environment. For one, playing another kind of card game such as bridge is not exactly the best break you could take from poker, which is also a card game that is played for money.
Have Friends Outside of Poker
While this does not mean cutting ties with your poker friends entirely, it is in fact helpful to have friends in the same industry to help you along. However, what you do need is the balance between work life and your social life. The risk of having only poker friends is that more often than not, your conversations would center around poker or you might even end up hanging out to play poker. However, this means that you would be essentially using your time to relax as more poker time.
On the other hand, having friends that do not play poker would enable you to completely step away from it when it is time for you to relax. You would also need to be wary to not turn the conversation towards poker with your non-poker friends.
Conclusion
By trying out some or all of the above-mentioned tips and incorporating them into your daily routine, it is likely that you would see improvements in your poker plays. It is important to strike a balance between work and play in order to prevent burnout. Getting burnt out can be detrimental to your health and consequently, your game as well. This would put a sudden halt to your thirst for learning more about the game and be a stumbling block towards your goal of improving your poker skills. Having ample rest would allow you to continue to work toward bettering your poker career.