Take a break to win big
Why breaking up your play can help you achieve success at the table.
During their sessions, poker players require high productivity, focus and alertness. However, with that comes a problem. When we do one thing for a long time, both our focus and alertness gradually get worse leaving some researchers to call this phenomenon "reduced vigilance".
For almost half a century, it had been common to think that such a decrease in focus was the result of our "attention resources" exhaustion. In other words, scientists considered attention a resource that can be exhausted. However, newer studies prove that attention is not the problem in itself. If we work hard on something, we begin to pay it less attention over time. The total volume of our attention stays the same, we just start to re-distribute it towards other tasks and objects.
Troxler's fading and mental perception
The same phenomenon is noticed in sensory perception too. Most people don't feel clothes touching their bodies, our skin simply "gets used" to the feeling and our brain stops registering such impulses (at least, we stop perceiving so).
The same can also be said for visual perception and is known as Troxler's fading. Over time, we stop perceiving a visual stimulus that has a position fixed directly towards the retina. This stimulus simply disappears for us.
You probably won't believe it but the same thing happens to our thoughts too. "In the same way as a stimulus disappears from our conscience after our attention has been fixed on it for a long time, fixed attention on a thought results in us not thinking about the subject!" – says Alejandro Leras, Psychology Professor at the University of Illinois.
The results of Leras' research confirms his hypothesis. People from his test group, who were made to take two short breaks during the experiment, didn't show any loss of attention and focus. However, those working without breaks showed a decline in productivity.
Toronto University Professor, John Trugakos compares mental concentration with muscle tension. Both our muscles and our concentration get tired from work and need a break to recover.
When and how often should we take a break?
So, if your work or some other tasks require a long time to complete, breaks are necessary. For poker players, by 'work' we mean playing a session, theoretical analysis, watching poker videos or attending coaching. Even short pauses will help you support concentration and attention on a high level.
If you can't take a break (e.g. you're playing heads-up against a very weak player who may leave if you do or your joint coaching session takes more time than expected), don't forget to do some breathing exercises once an hour or so. By this, I mean inhale deeply for three seconds and then exhale slowly for six. It's a good way to relax and acquire lots of energy. Make sure you have fresh water nearby, as well as some fruit and nuts so that you could eat and drink every 90 minutes.
We're all unique, so each of us has to develop our own break schedule. However, there are a few basic rules we should adhere to.
The general principle is that your gaming process should consist of repeating cycles of intensive work, ending with breaks. Many experts recommend taking a break every 90 to 120 minutes max. In poker's case, any time you feel your concentration is waning (the 120 minutes max rule still applies here), such breaks will help you recover. However, you'll have to find your own balance since breaks that happen too often can cause procrastination.
You should plan your breaks and set an alarm clock in order to not miss any of them. There's even specialised software in which you can create your schedule which will give you notifications about breaks. If possible, breaks should last around 15 minutes. In the case of tournament sessions with breaks of only 5 minutes, try to use this time as effectively as possible.
Next time we will be looking into what are good and bad breaks, how to rest properly and what to do while on a break.
Other articles by Grigoriy "ahlinpoker" Skrypnik
- When you knew there were nuts...
- Why our feelings don't agree with the maths?
- How overconfidence could be your downfall
- How your brain betrays you at the poker table
- The best exercise for your poker skills
