One hour before an MTT, and you only now managed to sit down to prepare (coz you've been busy with life, or if you're live overseas, like me, you just woke up because the tournament is at 5am).

What do you do? Go over hand history/notes? Meditate? A quick cardio? Suck carbs and caffeine? Maybe just don't play at all?

And what if you only have half-hour to prepare?

~ still learning

as mtts sessions are long I don't make a poker routine before. It means I don't read poker notes, I don't analyze before becase It takes energy too. I mainly focus on desk preparation, food preperation, refreshing my mind by walks, open window in my room and I meditate or visualize my session

Watching some videos with success poker players and adopt their strategies.

I do nothing (spectacular) ?!?

Pee.

Originally Posted by Rowdy Greg

Pee.

And poop

Even half an hour is enough for me to prepare for the tournament. First of all, I take a shower, drink coffee, and usually I make myself sandwiches.

Originally Posted by Misaki

as mtts sessions are long I don't make a poker routine before. It means I don't read poker notes, I don't analyze before becase It takes energy too. I mainly focus on desk preparation, food preperation, refreshing my mind by walks, open window in my room and I meditate or visualize my session

Hiya Misaki,

How do you meditate? Especially with such a short time?

Originally Posted by Kenosavage_TX

And poop

Most def. Taking toilet break first IS mandatory.

Originally Posted by emzadii

Hiya Misaki,

How do you meditate? Especially with such a short time?

there are different options. Often I just open some meditate session from youtube, I close my eyes and follow with a voice from video. There are many shorts meditations on youtube like 5-15 minutes.

Just do everything possible to go into it feeling on your A game! That will look different for everyone but for me it means eating a healthy, high protein meal (like good old scrambled eggs), getting outside for a little walk/some sunlight, and ideally taking a refreshing shower as well. Then I like to sit down with a hot mug of coffee and my trusty water bottle. I find being active beforehand makes hours at the computer far more palatable

Originally Posted by Katie Dozier

Just do everything possible to go into it feeling on your A game! That will look different for everyone but for me it means eating a healthy, high protein meal (like good old scrambled eggs), getting outside for a little walk/some sunlight, and ideally taking a refreshing shower as well. Then I like to sit down with a hot mug of coffee and my trusty water bottle. I find being active beforehand makes hours at the computer far more palatable

Hi Katie,

Q: Aside from the physical preparation, is there any pre-game mental preparation that you prescribe to?

p/s Am a fan! Thanks for your input!

I think there is no need for special preparation for the tournament . On the contrary, if you think a lot about possible hands (hands), how to play correctly, how to avoid mistakes at the table, this may be a bad situation for you..

I choose to play poker with a good, fresh head and not think much about what will happen and how it is necessary to play.. A calm state and a desire to have a good time is a great chance to play a good tournament

My warmup routine for poker looks something like this:

Place filter into coffee maker
Place 5 scoops of coffee into filter
Fill water reservoir to "12 cups"
Press power button
Wait approximately 5 minutes (pushups optional)
Pour coffee
Try not to burn mouth too severely.

That's it! Now I'm ready to play some poker!!!

I don’t do anything extra before tournaments. I just sit down to play and enjoy the game.

I don´t do anything before a session of poker! I only take a glass of water and I try enjoy the game

How it all sounds strange:-) I never get ready for the game,the game itself is preparing for me)

Drinking cofee and watching short video of tilting TonyG or Poker Brat

Originally Posted by emzadii

Hi Katie,

Q: Aside from the physical preparation, is there any pre-game mental preparation that you prescribe to?

p/s Am a fan! Thanks for your input!

That’s very sweet, thanks!

There are some things that I do in order to prepare myself mentally as well. The whole time I’m getting ready in terms of physical preparation, I’m getting into my poker clear-head mindset.

When I sit down to start actually playing, I always listen to: Wake Up by Arcade Fire. I don’t know why exactly but that has become a song that really helps me get in the right mindset to only think about poker and nothing else.

As it plays, I think about my notes for the day—things that I’ve picked up on from studying my own play recently. Often times that will include things in the realm of: “Remember I need to call late position 4-bet shoves slightly wider today as I had a couple instances where I was too tight last week.” I used to write my notes down, but over time I’ve become able to just remember them. As the song winds down, I just do a final reminder to play my best, and make the most profitable decisions that I can.

Hope this helps and thanks again for your nice words!

Coffee brewing, light meal cooling, and techno is rolling.

Originally Posted by Brett R

Coffee brewing, light meal cooling, and techno is rolling.

Coffeeeeeeee yes! And my Ember mug has been amazing while playing too

I take a shower, fix a coffee, get the water, set the jazz and start listen to it until the tourney commences.

Emzadii

Well, as you note, if living in one time zone and having to play a tournament which is scheduled half way around the world, you have a problem.

My preferred routine when viable, is to work out shower and then settle into play often with some reminders of what I have been focused on in terms of strategy/play.

Then there are times where I am forced to participate (like many others) at terrible hours and to be frank, it is almost impossible to manage consistently. I have now taken to waking up 15 minutes before such tournaments and then attempt to get as focused as possible. Its an uphill struggle. I have a strong mental approach to many things but this issue is physical, to do with sleep patterns and I have come to accept that some days my game will suffer.

Over all I can deal but it does strike that if someone was to take poker seriously and play full time, then they would genuinely need to treat it as though they were working a night shift. As it is, I am day based, try to sleep early, disrupt that sleep and the game unfortunately suffers at time.

I usually prefer to take notes in real time, coffee can't be missing either

Some tai-chi, and rest of time I will listen to some hypnosis/meditate. If more time, I will do so exercise, and of course, have to eat well before tourney.

Originally Posted by emzadii

One hour before an MTT, and you only now managed to sit down to prepare (coz you've been busy with life, or if you're live overseas, like me, you just woke up because the tournament is at 5am).

What do you do? Go over hand history/notes? Meditate? A quick cardio? Suck carbs and caffeine? Maybe just don't play at all?

And what if you only have half-hour to prepare?

~ still learning

Light movement/yoga, deep breathing to get energy, meditation to cleanse the mind, and then setting intentions for how I can play my best poker that day.

Eat a good meal and then off to the races

For live tournaments here's a video I made on preparation

You Tube

And for online tournaments here's a video I made on preparation as well

You Tube

Hope you find them helpful, best of luck!

P.S. If you feel absolutely exhausted, jet lagged or whatever, there's nothing wrong with skipping the event or giving yourself extra time to rest and registering late. It's better to be sharp for the last couple of levels of the day than it is to be there from hand one but be exhausted after dinner break (which is when the stakes are the highest)

gget up
eat something
exersize
eat something else
shower
fire up tracker start reviewing using last tourney and VPiP and Cbet Flop filters
fire up sites and get signed on
pour a cup of coffee and have water nearby
take A pee
Grind untill break.

toilet, food, wash

i don't think i am motivated enough to play a tournament that starts at 5am. however, to prepare myself, I try above all to relax. watch a series or a historical documentary that allows me to escape and change my mind. when I am not motivated enough I repeat the same sentence for several minutes as for example I am happy to eliminate all the negative thoughts which can prevent me from playing my A game.

Originally Posted by emzadii

One hour before an MTT, and you only now managed to sit down to prepare (coz you've been busy with life, or if you're live overseas, like me, you just woke up because the tournament is at 5am).

What do you do? Go over hand history/notes? Meditate? A quick cardio? Suck carbs and caffeine? Maybe just don't play at all?

And what if you only have half-hour to prepare?

~ still learning

I'd spend the hour looking over the tournament schedule with a fine tooth comb, making sure I'm not missing any blatant +EV MTTs.

Meditating is good, but no, I don't do it to play, I just prepare my chair and a drink so that I don't get distracted later, it only takes me 5 minutes to prepare to play

If it is near mealtime I will make my meal before the tournament starts. Other than that I don't really have any special routine other than making sure that everything is up online.

PS - I usually also make sure that my rifle is loaded in case I catch someone dealing off the bottom of the deck.

Coffee and a bit of warm up. I play a few hands to get on my jam

Do something very smooth and calm and prepare my meals ahead of Time because 5 minutes break is not enough if I want to eat healthy.

Usually spend 45 to 50 minutes of the hour continuing to deal with life so that maybe I can concentrate on the MTT uninterrupted. Not likely to happen, but a man's gotta have a dream.

If my gf in the mood then a little humping if not then a little me time, toilet, shower, prepare food and coffee, bring a case of beer from the supermarket, put three in the freezer and the rest in the fridge, talk to my gf until she tells me everything she is going to say for the next few hours, warm up with some spins or cash games, always put me in a good mood winning some before hitting the real deal.

Originally Posted by emzadii

One hour before an MTT, and you only now managed to sit down to prepare (coz you've been busy with life, or if you're live overseas, like me, you just woke up because the tournament is at 5am).

What do you do? Go over hand history/notes? Meditate? A quick cardio? Suck carbs and caffeine? Maybe just don't play at all?

And what if you only have half-hour to prepare?

~ still learning

Listen the songs that always motivate you and empty the mind!!!

Brief workout, go to the bathroom, maybe a quick shower, make coffee.

My focus is better after a workout, especially if I have some coffee and am comfortable and relaxed.

It is no different from other days, the most important thing is that I be on my day off, and drink coffee or tea and some cake

I meditate and prepare everything that may be needed during the game.

I will meditate before I play. It just puts me into a better state of mind. Other than that I will probably have a drink at the table and just be ready to play.

Eat something
Take a shower
Some coffe and enjoy the game