Poker Articles

You know, people always ask me the same question...

"ROOFLUS, HOW DO YOU OWN SO MUCH?!"

I generally don't let people into my secrets, but every so often you have to feed the masses. So here it is, one of the biggest secrets to my online poker success....Personal Hygiene.

I know you literally fell out of your chair when you read that.

Kidding aside, routine has been no small factor in my success with online poker. When I wake up, I make sure there are a couple of things that are consistent. Number one is I always shower, and then after that I use some of the time that I've given myself before I start my daily grind to watch some TV and eat breakfast. Sometimes I catch up on shows I've got on the DVR, but during this time, the only thought I have about poker is what time I'm going to sit down and play.

Almost every winning day that I've had at home starts this way, and honestly, if I wake up just before I plan to start playing, it goes like this: register real quick, order a pizza to deal with my hang over, and sit down and try to grind---and it doesnt work. According to my memory, a lot of losing sessions started out that way.

Routine isnt the same for everyone, but it needs to be there,  and it can't be "Roll over, turn on the laptop you fell asleep with, and start playing." If you're that kind of person and think that you're playing at your peak mental state at all times, you're vastly mistaken. Allen Cunningham was said to eat the same breakfast every morning and the same dinner at the end of every day of the World Series of Poker this year. Jamie Gold very specifically ordered the same breakfast every morning also. Skill aside, having a great preparation for the event gave both of these guys an edge over someone who had a couple of hookers the night before and threw on dirty clothes on their way out the door of the hotel room, with no time for food because they were almost late.

Poker Players, as a breed, can be a lazy group of people. This includes myself, and I've used this routine to break that mold just enough to give me that little edge. You need to find something that works. Exercise? I mean, I dont practice, but do as I say, not as I do. If you could get up and do 50 situps in the morning just to get the juices flowing, your mental capacity would increase exponentially. Showering has always been something that "wakes" a person up, no pun intended. Did you know that your brainwaves in your deepest of sleeps are almost identical to those of when you're awake? What you do to further differentiate the two determines whether you're going to go through your day as a zombie or a shark.

Maybe our high school teachers were onto something when they told us to eat breakfast every morning. But who in their right mind would get up early enough to ACTUALLY eat breakfast?! That's the benefit of being one of us: Nothing starts for us until 3pm EST! There's no reason not to wake up at 1:00 and shower and get down to business.

Adam Levy
"Roothlus"