Pre-tournament routine: You only have one hour to prepare

[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

 

[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

 

[chinezu23]

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

 

[Risto234]

I do nothing (spectacular) :motz: ?!?

 

[MattRyder]

Pee.

 

[Kenosavage_TX]

Pee.

And poop

 

[black and]

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.

 

[emzadii]

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?

 

[emzadii]

And poop

Most def. Taking toilet break first IS mandatory.

 

[Misaki]

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.

 

[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

 

[emzadii]

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!

 

[LFC_yllnwa]

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

 

[Alizona]

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!!!

 

[ADRI7HO]

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

 

[Pindiez]

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

 

[MAGICUZ]

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

 

[fegyo]

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

 

[Katie Dozier]

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!

 

[1player2]

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

 

[Katie Dozier]

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

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

 

[Rob Hobson]

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

 

[DS3]

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.

 

[TerryBLE]

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

 

[poker_bro]

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.