The Profound Effects of Meditation on your Poker Game

Proclivity for meditation and the profound impact it can have on your poker game.

Do you love playing poker? Are you a cash game grinder and/or tournament hound? If so, you’ve surely experienced some of the negative side effects of extended sessions on the felt. They include, but are not limited to:

• Mind wandering during long sessions
• Emotional disruption following a bad beat (i.e. tilt)
• Feelings of stress and anxiety
• Lack of attention to strategy building (books, videos, hand reviews, etc.)

If you’ve experienced any of these, you may be feeling like you’re not cut out to play poker. To the contrary, if you love the game and know you have the skills to compete, it could be that all you’re lacking is the proper mindset.

Many players turn to supplements or pharmaceuticals. Coffee and energy drinks, experimental “mind awakening” drugs, even marijuana to relieve stress—these are rarely the answer. They often elevate one aspect of brain function, while diminishing another. Take marijuana for example. It will wash away all anxiety, but good luck trying to focus on your opponents, pot odds, and expected values. Drink a Red Bull and you’ll be wired for hours, but when you come down, it’s crash and burn.

While a hot coffee never hurt anyone, there’s a proven way to enhance your focus and awareness on the felt. It’s free, it’s effective, and you can do it anytime—even during a tournament break.

Profound Effects of Meditation in Poker

Meditation is essentially a way to re-calibrate your brain. When you’re not thinking clearly, have a hard time concentrating, or your emotional state gets out of whack, this simple form of meditation will relax your mind, center your brain function, and ultimately prepare you for the game ahead.

Some of its benefits include:

• Elevation of self-awareness
• Stress/anxiety relief
• Heightened concentration
• Enhanced cognitive thinking
• Improved brain function
• Increased oxygen flow to brain and blood cells

6 Ways to Meditate before a Poker Game

There are six different forms of meditation one can apply before hitting the felt. They can be separated into two distinct categories—sitting meditation and moving mediation. I don’t necessarily suggest doing them all, but rather try them and see which works best for you.

Forms of Sitting Meditation

Guided Meditation: This form of meditation takes place with a guide, or teacher, who talks you through the process. If you’re unfamiliar with meditation, this is the best way to start. It’s all about helping a person to utilize their imagination and sensory recall to direct the mind into a relaxed state of clarity. Mindworks.org offers an amazing Guided Meditation App for Android and iOS.

Mantra Meditation: This meditative state is achieved by repeating a specific, meaningful phrase. It’s usually repeated a certain number of times, or until the person feels they’ve reached the embodiment of the mantra. The idea is to attain a powerful and lasting directive of the mind.

Mindfulness Meditation: A more complicated form of meditation, mindfulness relates to observing the connection between the physical and mental form, and connecting them together through breathing. Thoughts are allowed to come and go without grasping them; without reacting or following their natural path. The idea is to remain in the present moment, observing the mind and body in unison.

Forms of Moving Meditation

Tai-Chi: This ancient form of meditation involves the congruency of slow, meaningful movements with breathing; inhaling and exhaling at the precise moments. Tai Chi is the easiest of all moving meditations, and is an excellent way to elevate self-awareness and increase the flow of prana (life force) through the body.

Yoga: Similar to Tai Chi, except that Yoga requires the user to hold specific positions, rather than slow-moving through them. Yoga means “union”; the purpose being to unify self-awareness and clarity through a heightened state of consciousness. Long term practice of Yoga is said to increase the body’s strength, mobility and vitality.

Qi-Gong: This form of moving meditation is more advanced, but extremely effective. Qi-Gong is the practice of working with and directing the body’s energy. It’s centered around four elements—breathing, the mind, movement, and sound. Using these four elements in unison, one can converge their mind, heart, body and spirit to achieve any goal.