Poker Tournament Preparation: Tips for Live Poker Tournaments From Real Players

This advice may seem unusual, but many players make the mistake of setting specific goals for big live tournaments. They want to make the dinner break, or they want to ensure they cash, or earn a certain amount of money. Unfortunately, as anyone who’s taken a bad beat knows, poker doesn’t always work like that.

In any poker tournament, there’s always a risk of going out or losing most of your stack in any hand. Instead of trying to achieve an arbitrary goal, stick to focusing on each decision individually and playing your best poker. While you should be conservative off a short or middling stack around the bubble or before a huge payout jump, that’s a strategic consideration about ICM. Wanting to cash just because you’ve traveled a long way is not. If you think that it’s a harmless thing to have in the back of your mind, professionals may disagree.

It was obvious, approaching the bubble of the €2200 high roller event, which players were focused on the game and which were constantly looking around at the screen to see the number of players remaining. It was clear who was going to stick to their game, and which players were in full shut-down mode – making them easy targets to push around.

This is probably the most important rule of poker tournament preparation. It may seem obvious, but jetlag, last-minute planning, and the general temptations of meeting friends in a glamorous location can occasionally get in the way of rationality. A full eight hours should be your goal – no less. However, studies have shown that just one night of poor sleep can seriously impact decision making the next day. According to the Sleep Foundation, even getting only six hours sleep can cause:

“trouble concentrating, as well as problems with memory, learning, creativity, and problem-solving. Short sleep can also cause impaired decision-making, increased risk-taking, and a higher chance of accidents and errors.”

That’s almost a perfect list of everything you don’t want to happen when you’re playing a major poker tournament. As you get deeper into the tournament – and even more tired – these decisions will be worth more and more money. Staying well-rested should be the main goal of everything you do once you’re off the felt.

While almost every player will agree with the above advice, others take it significantly further. Cold showers, lengthy fasting, meditation, and grueling 6am gym shifts are all some of the ways that professionals have advocated staying ahead of the competition. However, there’s no need to take it to any of these extremes.

If these things aren’t part of your daily routine, they’re unlikely to help you. In fact, when you’re not used to them, they can end up having the opposite of the intended effect. Try and stick to your normal routine as much as possible to stay in the zone.

As David Lappin, co-host of the Chip Race poker podcast, who also cashed the €2200 High Roller event, says:

“Poker tournament preparation for me doesn’t involve anything out of the ordinary. My study routine stays the same as it would normally. I don’t meditate or write in a gratitude journal. I guess what I try to do is be a little bit more well rested in the day or two before a big festival. Every moment at a big live festival is time away from family so I play all day every day, hopping into side events as soon as I bust. Therefore, being fresh is important.”

As Lappin pointed out, sticking to a plan when it comes to studying is also essential. If you always study at a certain time or in a certain way, it’s best to stick to it rather than drastically adjusting it in the heat of the moment. The subjects you study, however, can and should change.

If you’re deep in a multi-day event, it makes sense to study ICM spots, which come up constantly deep in tournaments, rather than 80bb deep spots, which do not. If you’re typically a cash game player, you should be studying shorter-stack spots, which rarely come up in cash games but are essential to know for poker tournament preparation.

Finding time to do this can be a challenge with modern tournament schedules, but over your breakfast in a cafe away from the hotel room is optimal if you have the time. For breaks, however, you’re better using them for their intended purpose. Clearing your head, getting some fresh air, and moving your limbs is probably going to serve you better than ten more minutes on a solver.

A key part of also making sure you’re well-rested and able to cope with the demands of a tough tournament schedule is by avoiding too many intoxicants. After a long shift at the tables, it can be tempting to hit the hotel bar for some well-earned relaxation. And with EPTs this year in locations like Paris, Barcelona, and Prague, there are plenty of tempting ways to spend your time that don’t involve sitting in a cardroom or studying PIOSolver over a bowl of ramen in your hotel room.

However, alcohol greatly reduces your ability to get a good night’s sleep. And with modern tournament schedules being increasingly demanding, sometimes it can be a challenge to even get back to your hotel room with enough time to get eight hours of sleep in before the cards are in the air again. Adding alcohol into the situation is unlikely to help matters.

If you’re looking to enjoy the locale, book a couple of days extra after the event to avoid any temptation during the tournaments themselves. Bert “GirafGanger7” Stevens, who was in Paris to play the €50,000 Super High Roller event, clearly agrees, having recently given up alcohol full-time. Next in line is smoking, which might be an impressive feat given the sight of his grinding den.