Poker is a game where a lot of things are out of your control. What cards you get, who sits at your tournament table (and where), and how the cards fall are left up to the poker gods. What is under your control are your diet, study habits, and state of mind. Studies have shown that having a pre-game routine can greatly increase performance. So what constitutes a pre-game routine and why should you have one?

I was talking with a pro recently about routines and what I thought about them. If we define a routine as a pattern an athlete takes before a performance to enhance their ability to perform, that can cast a wide net.

Michael Phelps swings his arms and slaps his back before every swim event. Michael Jordan was said to wear his University of North Carolina shorts under his uniform in every NBA game. Greg Merson has spoken many times about breathing and meditation. So how can all of this help you?

Doyle Brunson wrote a story in “Poker Wisdom of a Champion” about a man named Keith who had a routine of staring at himself in the mirror and repeating “I will win” over and over again until he believed it. Doyle said the kid was a beast at poker and that Keith was always experimenting.

One day, he discovered that he played better when he was slightly behind, so he started convincing himself he was a little behind. He worked harder at the tables and ended up winning more, thinking he had to make up for perceived lost income. Eventually, Keith turned it up to 11 and convinced himself he would be completely broke if he lost and he ended up spewing away his entire bankroll he had built up.

When speaking with this pro, I told him that yoga, meditation, breathing, and all other manner of mental tricks can show measurable beneficial results. You have lower blood pressure, you are calmer, and you become more focused.

I also told him that you, with practice, can get the same effect from just about anything. You can say exercise releases endorphins, which in turn make you feel better, which in turn helps you play better. You can listen to classical music if it calms you, or NWA if it gets you focused on the task at hand. You can even buy a bag of M&Ms and only eat the brown ones. All it takes is a little classical conditioning.

Everyone has heard the story about Pavlov and his dog. Pavlov was a researcher. He would ring a bell then feed his dog every day until the dog associated the bell with dinner. After that, he could simply ring the bell and the dog would start salivating.

Poker routines can be the same way. You simply need something your mind associates with poker so when you do a certain thing, everything else is pushed out of your mind. It is almost like flipping a switch.

With the benefits of routines also come dangers. Selena Williams has a handful of routines that she follows so closely, she has chalked up losses to not following her routine properly. Having an object that is lucky might make you feel in control, but you can easily become a slave to it.

What if Jordan lost his lucky shorts before the playoffs? What if you can’t find a bag of M&Ms or a quiet place to mediate? You could easily become so caught up in the disruption of your routine that it might hinder your performance even though it’s only psychological.

Also remember that you may not be superstitious, but a lot of your opponents are. If they think you are superstitious and luck has turned on you, they might try to take advantage of that by making costly mistakes.

Am I advocating not having an actual routine to follow? Of course not! Take every edge you can get. The best advice I can pass on is from my favorite poker author, Mike Caro. He would end his seminars with what he called a positive affirmation. People would repeat that they are a good player and that a winning force surrounds them, not that they would win.

This exercise was simply to help players keep their confidence in the face of overwhelming bad variance, and that’s a tool we should all have in our toolbox.

John Wood is the on-staff mental coach at Alex Fitzgerald’s Pokerheadrush.com. For a discount on his mental coaching services, please visit this link. John Wood is an ICF certified on-staff mental coach at Alex Fitzgerald’s Pokerheadrush.com and director at mentalflow.org.