Focus: The Key to Better Decisions
Novice poker players tend to spend a lot of time analyzing their results and trying to figure out the best way to generate a better win rate or a better ROI. This is partially because results are where the money comes from, and our society is inherently money-oriented, but it’s also because results provide validation for our efforts, and we’re conditioned to want validation to prove that our decisions are correct.

In reality though, our decisions are the only thing we actually control – we don’t really control our results at all, beyond our ability to do the things that are more likely to produce positive results. So our main area of concern needs to be how to produce better decisions. But while most players know that learning is crucial to poker development, they underestimate the impact of achieving peak performance at the tables, and in particular, they underestimate the impact of achieving the correct focus.

What do we really mean by ‘focus’?

Focus is the direction in which we point ourselves – it’s the thing that is occupying our mental space at any given moment. If we’re exercising, our focus is usually on the movements we’re making with our body. If we’re meditating, our focus is on our breath. If we’re doing an office job we don’t like, our focus might be on a work task for about 50% of the time – the rest, it’ll be on that fight we just had with our spouse, that new movie we want to see, or our fantasy football team.

In poker, it’s easy to lose focus. It’s easy to think that simply being at a poker table means that poker is the thing we’re most focused on. But that’s not the case, any more than sitting in front of a TV screen means you’re automatically watching intently at each moment. The problem, however, is that watching TV doesn’t present us with any decisions, and with modern society consistently attempting to drive people’s attention spans lower and lower through advertising and constant distraction, most people these days just aren’t very good at focusing on one thing.

‘The zone’ and ‘flow state’

Our goal in focusing on poker should be to aim to be in ‘the zone’, where we make all our decisions using all of our poker abilities. At the very least, we should aim to be in a mindset where we don’t allow outside factors to occupy brain space – those of us who Tweet constantly at the table, watch movies while playing online, or chat on Skype for the entire length of our session are simply not acting in a focused way. It’s impossible to get in ‘the zone’ while we’re distracted by these things. If you want more information about ‘the zone’, read Jared Tendler’s The Mental Game of Poker 2.

Similar to ‘the zone’ is the concept of ‘flow state’. This is a concept developed by Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, to denote the state of absolute focus and absorption in the activity a person in which a person is engaged. High-performing athletes reach ‘flow state’ when they’re in action; an experienced teacher might reach ‘flow state’ when teaching a particularly rewarding class; a mountain climber might achieve ‘flow state’ when scaling a daunting peak.

A poker player is most likely to achieve ‘flow state’ when they’re highly motivated, with the right balance of confidence, relaxation and energy, and in a situation that puts just enough pressure on them to bring out their best. An experienced MTT player might find this at a big final table, while a cash game player might see it when playing higher stakes against good players.

In order to get to this point, we need to start out with a level of focus that allows us to be open to this state, at the bare minimum. We simply can’t reach flow state while we’re vulnerable to distractions, or while we’re too tired to think straight, or drunk, or doing something we don’t really care about. The reality is that if you don’t really care enough about what you’re doing to be totally focused on it, you’ll probably never reach flow state – those of you who sometimes feel ambivalent about poker might want to ruminate on that.

Squeezing out every tiny bit of information

Flow state is most useful at a poker table not only for making better decisions in the moment, but for gathering additional information that can be used to make better decisions in future. It allows us to focus on the hands we’re not playing, as well as the ones we are, to better understand our opponents and the thought processes they might be employing. This is particularly useful at live tables where we may only get a matter of 30-40 hands at the same table with the same players – any information at all that we can get in that time might be vital.

If you’re not focused and you believe it’s possible to achieve your maximal win rate without paying full attention, then flow state will still be a long way off for some time. You’ll never know how many good spots you might be missing, or what you could gain by resisting the urge to take your phone out of your pocket or open that web browser. Not only do you not know what the information you missed actually is, you don’t even know how much of it there was for the taking.

Give yourself a break

Despite all this, and despite the obvious importance of focus in delivering peak performance, it’s crucial to recognize that we can’t be at 100% all the time. Permanent flow state is not possible. What we need to do, therefore, is maximize the efficiency with which we allow our brain to rest – take conscious downtime on tournament breaks, instead of trying to analyze hands with your friends. You can even spend five minutes meditating instead of pacing the hallways, or just two minutes on your five-minute online break.

Regulating your break times will allow you to generate additional focus at the times when you need it most – you won’t burn out after four hours of your session, and you won’t find yourself getting tired at the time when the decisions get more important. Of course, other factors play a part – physical tiredness, diet, exercise, stress, and anxiety, etc – but all these things are simply tools that support your ability to achieve maximal focus. If you start to look at each of those preparation tools as a method by which you can achieve the proper focus on the areas of your life that need it – either inside or outside of poker – then everything you do will become more effective and productive. That’s the path to better poker decisions, and better results.