How do you keep yourself calm while playing poker

The question at hand is two fold. While playing live and or online poker what do you do to keep calm or focused? Is it bringing a Ipod with you? Do you laugh at bad play? Make sure to mention if you do this for online or live poker.

I will start. I play mostly live so this is what I do. In loose passive games I tell jokes and buy a beer for the player that is making bad calls. In most good games however I bring my Ipod to listen to. This helps me focus and play good cards. I have something to do while I wait.

For live I almost always compliment the Donks at the table to encourage their play. Like the donk that is giving away free money chasing and missing or calling down with middle pair when you have big hand..

For Online I have the T.V on and I sit there and watch a show or movie and look when the alert tells me its my turn to act. If its a good hand i will play and focus otherwise i fold and wait (This helps with my patience to only play PREMIUM hands)

Playing live I just plain enjoy myself and have fun. Poker is a social event and therefore I am very social. All in the name of fun and trying to get reads and tells. Its all about negative and positive feedback and being able to read that into the cards.

Online since it isn't nearly as much fun. I am analytical. I will chat some but for the most part I am constantly analyzing my play and making sure I am playing fundamentally sound poker.

Either way bad-beats don't get to me. If I take a tough loss I look at the hand, try to see how I might have played differently and if I played it right and lost then I move on with confidence. I find it much more empowering to look inward rather than outward. I know that the only one I can fully control at the table is me.

Hey, I play mostly online. In loose, low-limit games, I don't mind distracting myself by playing multiple tables, watching TV/movie, or listening to music. Here I just play my hand for the most part, not paying much attention to how others are playing, and just try to get in with the best of it. At higher limits, I try to focus more on the game and keep the distractions to a minimum. Either way, bad beats are always frustrating, and it's tough to always convince yourself after a particularly bad one that you should be encouraging the other person to be playing that way. Just pat yourself on the back for making a correct read, and realize that it is impossible to win every hand of poker, and losses and just as much a part of the game as wins, and the more times you get in good, the more your bankroll with continually grow.

I play mostly live games, and I find poker to be naturally relaxing. In all honesty, I can't think of any time that I am more relaxed and more focused than when I'm playing poker.

My wife actually likes it when I play poker regularly. When I don't play regularly, she says she can tell I'm more stressed and not near as relaxed and laid back as I normally am. (Boy, do I have her going on that one!!!)

Playing online I have a couple of ways, Gin or Vodka.

I know how it feels to lose control during the game.. what helped for me is to focus on the hand that will bring you the money. Just stay calm and wait if that does'nt work you can always think about the times that you lost control and lost your stack. That might help to.

Goodluck...

I take an herbal approach

The game itself with some meaningless conversation does it for me live. Haven't figured out a way yet for online.

I try to remember that the pros can lose 100k and never blink an eye.Ive watched em do it.They dont even show it either.I get more upset dropping a cigarette than they do losing a stack.So,I try to remember this and go on.Lately I dont waste my time with a loss,just move on and forget it.

Yeah ya cant dwell on a loss. A loss is just that. Its evident by the money you lost being gone and no longer in your posession.
90% of the time when i lose a pot. I know right then how i should have played the hand.

I dont.

I have 24 of those "stress" dice that Party Poker had as prizes you could redeem their points for. When they stopped taking US players, I redeemed my points (very few points) for those dice and cards. I didn't plan on that many of them but I got 4 packages, all the same, from Party. Each one had my order in it. So instead of one order of each, I ended up with 4.

I use them to destress myself. Throw them, squeeze them, they are scattered all about the place.

I still have 24 decks of Party cards, haven't found a use for them yet.

sell em on ebay....jk

I try to stay focused by guessing everybody's hands while I play. It's a game I play inside my head. I'll also try to predict the play in my head. "OK, he'll make a continuation bet. Yep. Now that guy will fold. Yep. This guy will fold too. He called? Well then he has the King because he won't play without at least top pair. Maybe K/J because he just called pre-flop?"

I do the same thing at live tables, but I try to keep an eye on their mannerisms as well. I had to train myself not to look at the flop as it's being exposed, but rather look at the people's reactions when those cards are laid out. I can always look at the cards later, but you only get one chance to see their initial reaction. "He sure liked those cards. He'll bet or re-raise for sure."

i took 9th in a freeroll last week, 4 times during this tourny i did not have enough to play the blinds when they came around, i had to chip up just to survive the blinds. in no limit holdem, especially when the blinds really start to get high, so much can happen. i have seen chip leader out in 3 hands. people with nothing bounce back to 3rd - 4th in couple hands. you really have to believe in a chip and a chair because it is true. i am only a beginner yet, but i have played endless tournies, not only freerolls i have bankrolled enough a couple times to get up to $5 + 0.50 mtt's, i just love building something from nothing on a new site, much more fun for me than just throwing down $50 and playing micro-limits. even this new to poker i have faith in my own game to play short-stack, middle-stacked, high-stacked. deeper i get into a tourny alot more depends on who is in the pot, what sized stack, than the actual cards, that 9th i took, i did not always have the best hand, you have to play the people not just the cards. have confidence in your game, all that other crap will fade away.

I can't either

>How do you keep yourself calm while playing poker
I do this by not losing huge hands.....
If I do lose huge hands however, I am nowhere near calm.

I do this all the time as well.

I like taking my iphone, well i use the ipod. Kind of relaxing, to be playing poker and listening to music at the same time. I can't think of any other place or time that im that relax then when i play poker.

Playing online I usually tell "experts" to shut up that are lecturing other players on how to play, or keep putting "zzzzzz", if they won't I turn chat off so they don't end up putting me on tilt. Bad beats don't bother me too much, either live or online, they're just a part of the game.

Playing live I find it far more difficult to deal with people who announce to the whole table "He should never have been in that pot with a pair of 9s" after I knock him (and his AK that he went all-in with) out of the tourney. If I was a more experienced player I'd probably come back with some fancy answer about negative implied pot odds or something, but I'm not at that stage yet...
Well I've read all that, but I'm still not sure how you remain calm...

I listen to the classics by the great masters such as Bob Dylan, the Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, etc. etc.

I haven't done this in months,but yes,nothing like hitting the bad beat bowl to calm you down .

The pills I'm now prescribed is all the medication I need to stay calm.I do have a few beers while playing live to calm me down though.That being said I have only played live 4 times.

My approch to live play is just play with confidence, as you know what you are doing. Playing well and being patient is key.

I dont know what you mean by calm exactly, I get excited when I win, but until the particular hand is over im stone cold.

Well to stay focused I....focus. I do nothing but concentrate on the players and betting that particular players do. Im talking 6-7 hour sessions, I have an Ipod with me but rarely use it (Its for the bus).

Try to be in a state where the question would be "Why would you get upset when playing poker?"...

Good point!! If your are in the state of mind where you will be upset you are not going to play solid poker.