Sunday is the day for online poker players, and we know that means a potentially very long night with huge money up for grabs.
Our Sunday Majors tournaments guarantee hundreds of thousands of dollars each week in prize money! So how do you prepare for the biggest online poker day of the week? Here’s what we think on how you can get in the groove for Sundays.
1.) Sleep well
Everyone knows that a good night’s sleep is always a great way to prepare for the following day’s events. Sleep experts tells us the mind recovers best after between seven and eight hours of unhindered sleep, which, for many poker players, is no simple task. If you struggle to get to sleep after a long online session, use lavender oil on your pillow, nasal spray to decongest and try to avoid ‘blue-light’-emitting smartphones and tablets before you hit the hay.
2.) Eat like a king
It’s gone midnight, you’re deep in a few tournaments and your stomach starts to rumble – we’ve all been there. Before you know it, you can’t get sugar or some other craving off your mind. You’ve gone for a short-term solution and your game slides because of it.
Daniel Negreanu has no caffeine or sugary treats while playing because of the adverse effects he was experiencing. Maybe it’s time for you to cut out coffee and doughnuts and switch to nutritious snacks such as bananas or ‘brain-food’, in the form of fish. Popcorn is a good option, unless you’re dipping it in chocolate, as it’s easy to snack on and isn’t terribly unhealthy.
3.) Learn from the best
There are hundreds of different ways to improve your game, but here is some advice you shouldn’t definitely take: ‘If you’re going to steal, steal from the best’.
Finding your own style is very important, but sometimes it’s better to find your poker persona once you’re already making money. Once upon a saloon shoot-out, poker was the hardest game to master because only a handful of successful players were willing to share their methods.
Nowadays players at the top of their game are all-too happy to share their successes. From poker podcasts to training videos, old-fashioned books to Twitch streams, it has never been easier to follow in the footsteps of those you admire. You could always, by logging on to partypoker on Sunday, watch some top players at the virtual felt in the biggest games to learn some tricks of the trade.
4.) Mentally prepare
Most poker players love to shoot the breeze with friends over a couple of cold ones. But if you’re playing online a bit of focus can be the difference between logging off before midnight and making it deep into the money. Staying calm at the virtual felt gets more difficult the more tables you play on, increasing the chances of a suffering a bad beat. Just remember, you’re the one in control.
Practicing yoga may seem a bit extreme, but would you give it a go if it increased your chances of a five-figure payday? Work at getting yourself into a relaxed state of mind before play and stay clear of anything that has the contrasting effect.
5.) Bring your A-game
This sounds like the easiest piece of advice we could give, but it’s most definitely the hardest to put into practice. Everyone loves to tell their friends they’re on a roll, but in reality, we rarely stay ‘in the zone’. Professionals are used to following a specific set of guidelines, techniques and processes to optimise their performance. Keeping focused on your goals is crucial, so make sure you always have some in mind.
Play tournaments that suit your style and skillset. If you’re great at your ranges, then you should be hitting the turbo tourneys fast. If you’re a bit more measured and take longer processing crucial decisions, slower tournament structures may benefit you.
Play to your strengths and remain one step ahead of those who don’t.
6.) Adjust to changes
One of the biggest leaks in tournament play is not adjusting to the levels changing as the action progresses through to the final table and inevitable heads-up battle. Tournaments go through any number of different stages during the journey you will take in them, so knowing what these are is going to accelerate you past others who will flag in the race.
How many times have you seen a player drift away due to being way too timid during a level requiring aggression? We’d bet it’s probably compares to the number of times you’ve seen a loose player bite the bullet early by getting too many chips into the middle in the early levels.
Change with the level and know how best to take advantage of those players to refuse to budge from their Plan A. Whether its stealing antes or pressurising the bubble, making your game all about exploitation of your opponents is going to lead to you running deep way more often – and winning bigger!
Good luck at the tables this Sunday, and follow @partypoker and use the hashtag #SundayMajors to win FREE prizes and learn tips while you play!
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