How to double your hourly win rate

In this article, you'll find a few recommendations that will help you improve your performance at the tables.

Let's say, you're a winning player at your stakes. Your win rate is x$/hour. You want to double it and earn 2Ñ…$/hour. How is this achieved? Obviously, there are two ways:

1. Double the effectiveness of your work.
2. Double your hourly workload to earn twice the money.

Today we'll talk about the second way, although they are both connected anyway. You'll be always working more or less in both ways but with different results.

So, during your gaming session, you do some volume of work every hour. It is measured by the amount of actions at the tables (decisions taken). To double your earnings, you have to double the amount of actions that bring you the same amount of money. What is required for this? The following recommendations range from the most to the least effective:

Stop thinking!

Of course, we still have to think. But to increase the hourly number of actions, we'll just have to think less. This is the most reliable and effective way to start earning more.

Do you know the speed reading technique? While reading, most people repeat the text they read at the back of their minds. Speed reading suggests that you don't read a text but take a photo of it in a sense. These images are sent to your brain which processes them as effectively as repeated words.

You should aim towards the same thing in poker. If you want to double the hourly amount of actions, your brain should make a decision at the same moment as it 'sees' a situation. You must forget about analysing your current hand while you play it. You should already have an answer for every scenario (OK, for most of them).

It's obvious that you'll have to improve your game analysis outside the tables. You should have prepared ranges for any situation, so that you wouldn't waste precious seconds during play.

Drop the habit of thinking about a hand right in the middle of it. If there's a situation, there's already a decision in your head. Apply it and forget about the hand, move on. While playing you should use those 'offline' instructions you prepared for the session. Then when the session is over, you look through the hands you've played, analyse your decisions, and reach some conclusions.

Healthy changes to your lifestyle

It's obvious that the beginning of your session is more productive than the end in terms of the number of actions per hour. Our goal here is to keep constant the number of actions of a certain profitability during the course of whole session. To achieve this, you need to train your concentration and keep your attention focused for as long as possible.

There are lots of books and guides on this, but basically it all comes down to healthy food, a stable sleep schedule and regular fitness. This is the base on which you can start building your "house" of healthy lifestyle in order to serve you as another tool.

The main thing you should never forget: it should be exactly a tool and not your goal in itself. In other words, you don't need to cage yourself or radically change something.

Fitness ia a good example. You shouldn't be into fitness for its sake, but to be more energetic, more active, refreshed, enduring, healthier. If you don't feel such effects, you're doing it wrong.

By the way, poker players should adapt here as well. I would add more exercises for your neck, back and hands.

And don't forget about breaks! Don't play for 3-4 hours straight. Take a rest after 90-120 minutes, ideally for at least 15 minutes. Of course, if you play МТТs, you only have 5 minutes per hour. Then you should plan what exactly you're going to do during those 5 minutes to make your rest more effective.

Organising your workspace

If you replace your old stool with a new chair that has armpads and back support, then after 4 hours of play you'll be able to make more decisions (on average) with constant profitability. Also, after a couple of years, you won't need a chiropractor to fix your spine.

Players who play poker for a living (or it's one of their main sources of income) but don't even try to organise a better workspace for themselves remind me of those who believe that they save more money by starving themselves.

Poker players should definitely be aware of the profit after some important investments: a widescreen monitor, a really comfortable (not pseudo-ergonomical) armchair, a solid table; good mice and keyboards also matter. Same goes for poker software! No skimping on supporting applications (TableNinja, Starshelper, comfortable table layout etc.) that directly affect the speed of your decision making!

Before you start working, make sure you have a supply of water and fresh fruits. Turn off your phone or switch it to silent (you can check your messages during breaks). Also set your Skype status to "Do not disturb".

Always try something new. For example, try a trackball - it may be good for you. Move your furniture around, change the location of your workplace. Buy a stressball. Don't stop looking for new ways to make your play a bit more profitable (even if it's just a tiny bit).

Computer games

When we talk about the number of actions per minute (APM), it's hard to forget cybersports. We all know that PC gaming pros often become great poker players. These activities have much in common, and if one is successful at cybersports it means that they already have the skills necessary to be a poker pro.

Maybe if you raise your APM in Starcraft from 100 to 200, it somehow might improve your poker skills. But using PC games as a tool to improve your poker APM isn't really reasonable or effective.

First, age really matters. With age, it's gradually harder to keep your reflexes up to the challenge and improve further. Second, it takes too much time. Third, you're still sitting at your PC, while you could do some fitness or just rest more effectively.

If you're really into improving your poker play through other games, try some specialised courses and minigames. You don't have to spend more than 15-20 minutes per day on them, and they work like a mental fitness machine. And that's what you really need!