Patrick Leonard’s five tips for a successful Powerfest

partypoker ambassador Patrick Leonard is one of the most-feared poker players of his generation. With online winnings in excess of $3.5 million and another $2 million won in the live arena, it is safe to say Leonard knows a thing or two about poker.

Powerfest is a busy time for recreational and professional poker players alike. For recreational players, there is the opportunity to build their bankrolls with a big score, while the professionals often use online poker tournament festivals as a way to give their yearly earnings a significant boost.

Leonard has seen it all when it comes to poker, especially online, thanks to the millions of hands he’s played in tournaments and cash games. With $35 million being on the line during Powerfest, we decided to pick Leonard’s poker brain and ask him for five tips for having a successful Powerfest series.

Patrick Leonard’s five tips for a successful Powerfest

I would like to consider myself as an expert at playing tournament online series. I’ve had big winning series, winning bracelets and belts, break even series where things went OK and series which were disastrous and I lost over $100,000. I’m going to give you my five top tips on how to be successful during the series.

1.) Don’t study poker right before the series

Poker strategy and content intake is supposed to happen over time, slowly moving itself to your brain until it’s your first thought. Have a think about the guy who studies super hard all year and takes an exam versus a guy who crams everything he’s learned into the night before. If these people have equal abilities, who will do better in the test? If you use some software such as piosolver for two days and then don’t get to put it into practice properly, you will get lost before you even start and try things you’re uncomfortable with, which is hardly ever a good thing.

2.) Plan your series

Powerfest is three weeks long this year and features 330 different tournaments. Plan some days off, make yourself a Google spreadsheet and write in the events each day, make notes in advanced for what the day means to you. Plan when you will start each day, allowing and allocating sport and exercise time before certain days. You can also check out the partypoker blog each day because here you will find an article with the next couple of day’s events and the previous day’s results.

3.) Get your food sorted

If you are eating leftovers while registering late for tournaments, or ordering takeaways during the scheduled breaks, you’re likely eating foods that will drain your energy and impact your performance. Eat well and order prepared meals. The extra $5 a day you may spend on quality, nutritious food will be recuperated in the expected value (EV) you gain at the tables.

4.) Swap action

It’s likely that the variance in these three weeks will be bigger than throughout any other time in the year thanks in part to there being larger fields, so why not try to reduce it? If your friends have equal skill levels to you, then it makes sense to swap action around to minimise the chances of you having a losing series. Imagine three weeks in, you’ve run really poorly then on the last Sunday your friend wakes you up asking where you want your $20,000 sent from the 5% swap in the main event? Cha-Ching!

5.) Don’t anti-sweat friends

It’s very easy to become bitter when you’re losing and then want those close to you not to run like God. We’ve all been there, you’ve lost every flip whilst your best friend has won every one of his. It can and will turn round, poker is a game of mathematics and your time will come. Keep positive and enjoy others successes to keep your mind on the game. A negative mindset can and will produce negative results, try to stay positive regardless of your results and focus on making the best decisions possible at the tables.