Tips for keeping concentration during live games?

I've been trying to play more live games recently and have noticed that I have difficulty staying as focused as I'd like to be and remembering opponents' tendencies. Do any have you have any tips, or exercises for improving on these skills?

I remember watching a video of Phil Galfond where he mentioned a piece of advice that included having a little motion to do before every hand, like moving chips from one side of your seat to the other, in order to reset your brain.

BiWinning said:

I've been trying to play more live games recently and have noticed that I have difficulty staying as focused as I'd like to be and remembering opponents' tendencies. Do any have you have any tips, or exercises for improving on these skills?

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It's really a discipline and like with any discipline it is usually rooted in a pattern that will always have a starting place. This can also be a trigger point like you are talking about with Galfond. What is it that connects you to your game face (focus/concentration)?

For me it always starts before I get to the table, many times before I get to the casino. For me it is getting ready for the competition and putting my headphones on with some driving, pumping music to help the adrenaline flow. usually accompanied by some self talk.

Now when I arrive at the table I have a mission and it is not waiting for a hand to plan. My mission is to determine who at the table I can exploit and take advantage of - who do I want in a hand with? Also, who would I just as soon avoid being in a hand with for a while. If it's a tournament this always starts with the 2 or 3 guys to my left since they will be in the blinds when I have position.

So I guess in a nutshell, you have to have another game level in your head to operate off of. Another game to play. Just playing the cards will get boring and will result in your focus drifting off. Even worse it sets you up for giving off a huge tell (all of sudden going from bored to high focus level).

I play a private game: I stay involved with the hand even after I have folded. I try to put every player on a hand (range and then narrowing) and pick up tells. I try to guess what each players next action is and determin how they approach the game. I find this to be a very fun game. It is like always being in the pot, but with nothing to lose. In fact, this is why I like live poker best. If I am having a hard time paying attention, I start or join a conversation with other players to occupy some of my attention while I watch the hands in play. After a while I can go back to paying close attention.

Learn to like people, like to people watch, and engage. If you play live as a person would online, it can be tough. Be friendly and engage your neighbors too, especially ppl on your left. It can help.

When I first started one way to keep myself engaged was to watch the hands I wasnt in (and the people) and try and guess what they had based on all kinds of observation, beginning with just figuring out what type of person the people are that you are playing with. You can learn a lot about a person just by how they dress/act/etc. It's also important to know that dynamics always change and people tilt (or un-tilt) literally hand to hand sometimes depending on what's been happening. So you can't just put someone in a mold and expect them to always fit that, and this is why its good to just watch the game and people and see if you can nail what's going on.