How to Deal with the Inevitable Stress that comes from Playing Poker

Effective tips for poker players to relieve stress and anxiety.

There are two basic types of poker players. The first and largest group are recreational players, who enjoy the game for fun and relaxation. The second, smaller group are those who play for profit. If you’re among the second category, you understand the inherent stress and anxiety that comes with playing poker.

Like everyone else, professional card players experience highs and lows. There are good days and bad days—sometimes good or bad weeks, even months. And when your career is on the line, it can put a major cramp in your financial situation. As we all know, when it comes to finances, a tight budget can cause intense emotional strain.

It’s not just the financial issue, though. Tournaments can last for hours upon hours, and grinding multiple online poker tables is no easy task. Even when you’re winning, these can cause mental and physical exhaustion, taking an enormous toll on the mind and body.

How to Deal with Stress from Playing Poker

When you’re stressed, it can impact multiple capacities, include the ability to make smart decisions. That’s a dangerous problem for poker players. Fortunately, there are several effective ways to deal with the inevitable stresses of poker.

The very first thing you must recognize is that this; stress is an unavoidable part of the game. The key is to understand it, recognize it, and control it. The following are some practical and efficient ways to do so.

#1 Stay in Your Comfort Zone

When you pull a stone-cold bluff, your heart is pounding, your blood is racing, you’re just waiting for that moment when your opponent lays down his hand and the entire pot is yours—or makes the call and ruins everything. How you react to this moment will depend entirely on whether you’re in your “comfort zone”.

If you’ve got too much money on the line, you’re going to overreact, no matter which way it goes. If you win, it may be as visible as a grin, or as subtle as a sigh of relief. Either one is easily discernible by your opponents. If you lose, your face may go red, or your attitude change noticeably to quiet or argumentative. But if winning or losing that pot isn’t a life/finance-changing moment, you’ll be able to control your response, staying cool, calm and collected, regardless of the outcome.

Simply put, don’t buy-in to ridiculous stakes your bankroll can’t easily afford.

#2 This Amount of Stress is “Juuust Riiight”

There’s a century-old theory known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law that relates to the experiential relationship between motivational impulses and peak performance. The general idea is that someone who is too relaxed, or too stressed, will lack the motivation or clarity (respectively) to perform well.

In the poker realm, this is known as the ‘Goldilocks‘ approach to poker. Goldilocks looked for everything to be “just right”. Nothing could be too hot or too cold; too big or too small; too soft or too hard. For poker players, stress is necessary, but in proportionate quantities.

Francesa Gino, a behavioral scientist at Harvard, describes the effects of stress as:

“Performance increases with physiological or mental arousal (stress) but only up to a point. When the level of stress becomes too high, performance decreases.”

The point is, you shouldn’t attempt to completely eliminate stress from playing poker. Instead, try to bridle the stress into workable levels.

#3 Recognizing Different Types of Stress

Stress comes in two major forms. One is anxiety, which generally comes from a lack of confidence. If you’re sweating bullets as WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel announces “Shuffle up and deal!”, that’s anxiety. That’s your conscious messing with your head, saying you haven’t got what it takes to beat these people; that you’re way out of your league. It’s a negative emotion that can knock you out of a tournament before it’s even begun.

The second form is a severely strong desire to get in the action; that sense of eager anticipation that’s so strong you could reach out and grab it. This can be a negative or positive emotion. If you let it take hold too deeply, it will develop into over-confidence and can destroy your ability to make wise decisions. If you grasp it tightly enough you can harness that power. Take control of it—rather than letting it take control of you. It can do wonders for your game.

These are invaluable tools that will help you deal with the stress that comes from playing poker. You can let it overwhelm you, or use it to your advantage.