How much study should you do before a poker series?
Dara O'Kearney shares how to approach study before, during, and after, a major poker festival like the WSOP.
We are in the middle of the biggest period for online poker followed by the biggest live festival in the game. It's a good time to talk about something I was asked about recently - how much study should you do for a big series?
The way I approach studying before a big series is the same as the way I approached a race in my ultra marathon days. Despite being physically polar opposites, there are a lot of commonalities.
There is the Training Period, which is where you train as hard as you can to reach your peak. Followed by the Taper Period, which is a maintenance phase. You just want to avoid injury and get lots of rest. Finally, after the race is the Recovery Period.
Stop learning new things
When I have no poker events on the horizon, that is my Training Period. I study a lot and grind online, which is a form of training.
As the event gets nearer, this is the Taper Period. I stop trying to learn new things and instead try to consolidate what I have learned. I discuss what I have learned with my study buddies and we discuss specific exploits for the specific fields we are about to play against.
I also prioritise my physical health, lots of exercise and rest. Finally, I will try to shift my body clock to match the series I am about to play.
During the series, the only study I do is looking up strange hands I played in a solver. If I notice the population tendencies were not as expected, I will study exploits for the new tendencies. I keep my exercise light to make sure most of my energy goes into poker.
Immediately after I keep the poker and study light to recover.
Rinse/Repeat.
Of all of the above, the biggest takeaway is not trying to learn new things during the series itself. Learning new things takes up a lot of mental bandwidth, as does trying to apply the new things at the tables. A big series is the time to showcase what you have learned.
You can get Dara's free book on effective poker study by joining his mailing list.
