If you are a regular online poker player you can often feel like the game gets very repetitive. You may sit every day on the online poker tables and watch the same poker software playing against the same players and the grind can seem very grinding indeed. Perhaps you need a change either focusing on poker tournaments instead of cash games or vice versa. Avoiding burn out and looking for the signs of burn out are important to becoming and remaining a winning poker player.
Running multiple cash game tables removes the feeling of being involved on every table. Feeling a part of the cash game keeps you interested but if you are moving to and from different tables quickly then you feel like you are almost above the action and only a small part of it. This can resonate into a player becoming bored very quickly, which can compound any losses and make players leave a session early.
You could change your poker room and try a new site to keep things feeling fresh. Something as simple as looking at a different table style on a different poker room with different usernames playing poker can cause you to instantly perk up and feel more enthusiastic about playing poker. Do you ever get bored of seeing the same view from your office window? Although the feeling of buoyancy if you moved positions in the office is temporary, the feelings are real and you can harness these positive feelings by enforcing change in your poker routine.
Shaun Deeb, the online poker tournament phenom who played around thirty poker tournaments per day on multiple tables is currently on a break from tournaments after admitting to be completely burned out by them. Playing thirty tables per day I am surprised he was not burned out sooner, yet it shows even the best players recognise the need to change or take a break. He will probably come back a more dangerous player and enjoy renewed sustained success as a result of this self imposed vacation.
The right time to make a change is when things are not going well for you. The best time to make a change is just before the run of bad poker which comes about either through luck or self-inflicted bad play. Recognise the signs that you are becoming fidgety or on edge with the poker room or games before it turns into losses.
Remember, however, that grinding online poker is not easy and you must endure it to some extent exactly like a person working a full time job needs to do. You should enjoy playing poker but sometimes you will want to do something else and this is the point where you must be professional and grind it out. The research you have done on fellow players and hand histories you have worked on are lost if you change sites so some degree of pain is tolerable in the poker grind. If you work a normal job then you will probably regularly feel this way but stick it out and keep trying hard to win.
Playing on a new poker room will reignite your interest in poker as every room as different poker tournaments to participate in with slightly different structures, prize pools and bonuses. Try bwin.com which is backed up by the large sports betting company. Aesthetically the dark style of poker software and table layouts they use will be enough to make you feel fresh even when you play a lot of online poker.
By Malcolm Clarke