In order to be a successful Texas Holdem player, one of the most important skills to acquire, which also happens to be one of the toughest, is staying focused.
Your brain has to assess your opponents and analyze many different situations, often hours on end.
This can be extremely taxing on your energy levels, considering that the average human can only concentrate fully for about 30 to 60 minutes.
This can certainly impede your ability to come out profitable from a long cash session, or to go deep in tournaments.
By remaining focused, you will get a "feel" for how your opponents play.
Are they tight or loose? Do they bluff a lot or do they only bet big with the nuts? What are their betting patterns? What types of starting hands do they usually play from each position, and how do they play them? If you don't pay attention while playing Texas Holdem, you will NEVER, EVER, acquire this information.
4 Factors That Can Sap Your Concentration 1.
Boredom Often, depending on the style of players at your table, you're probably going to get bored.
When you're bored, your attention drifts more quickly than normal.
If you're playing tight, due to a table full of maniacs, or you're getting a run of bad cards, you'll soon catch yourself not paying as close attention to your opponents as you should be.
2.
Distractions Distractions are EVERYWHERE! Distractions in your Holdem environment will take your attention away from your opponents, causing you to miss valuable information that you can use later.
Some common distractions include any sort of noise, the dog acting up, kids, email and the Internet, work or even that mouth piece opponent sitting beside you.
3.
Feeling Sick When you feel ill, or you are sleep deprived, or you aren't as physically fit as usual, you'll experience a concentration deficiency.
If you eat a lot of food before you play, your body draw resources away from your brain in order to assist in the digestion process.
4.
Mental State You HAVE to be in the right frame of mind to concentrate while playing Texas Holdem Poker.
If you aren't mentally focused, or you lack the motivation to play, or you just generally feel down, then it's probably best not to play.
All of these factors can develop into low self-esteem and hinder self-confidence.
This in turn will likely lead to poor concentration.
You just can't dominate Texas Holdem tables when you're lacking concentration.
When you lack concentration, you are gambling.
You are gambling on getting better cards than your opponents and hitting flops and lucky draws.
I would much rather pay attention to people's traits and EARN more money than be lucky and try to win money.