Playing at a casino is hard work and can be stressful too, so relaxing properly between gambling rounds is very important.
While the online casino atmosphere is more stress-free and allows you to partake in more than one game session at a time, the vibe at land-based casinos tends to be more rigid. The ongoing one-on-one interactions exhaust and take their toll on the players quicker. To avoid this, the players must take productive mental breaks between their gambling sessions.
Here are a few ways that you can stay calm and ready to tackle your next round:
1. Observe Your Opponents’ Tendencies
In a land-based casino, it’s harder to keep track of opponents than during an online game. When playing online, you can gather numerous pieces of information about your opponent, especially when you use a heads-up display. Take as many opportunities as possible during the session breaks to collect data on your opponents’ play in different situations.
It is impossible to categorise your opponents statistically, but you can cluster them based on player types, e.g., deceptive vs straightforward players. Then you can segment them further based on the behaviours they exhibit during a game. Although this method may not be one hundred per cent accurate, these categories can help you make the right decision when playing against other players.
2. Count the Pot Size
When playing online, the pot is always displayed on the screen so that you don’t have to count it after each session. In a land-based casino, counting the pot size while relaxing may help you during the game.
While playing, you’d want to avoid stalling as you may give away your intentions to your opponent. Taking too long to make your next move is risky because the opponent will figure out how to anticipate your moves before you make them. Take the time to count the pot size when taking a break to assist you with strategising easier at the game table.
3. Make Rapport with your Opponents
Chatting with other players is an excellent way to relax in-between sessions, helping you determine which players remain focused and which ones have switched off. Get the players to discuss previous tournaments and games they’ve lost or won, as this always offers good insights.
People that engage and have financial pressures may be preoccupied, making them favourable opponents. These individuals may give you an indication of when they’re ready to leave or a hint of what they’re playing for. These interactions also give you crucial clues about how the players may react to specific moves or their overall mood. You can exploit this knowledge when you face those opponents and perhaps even profit from it.
4. Replay a Game in Your Head
It is always good to grasp the context of your opponents’ play. Understand if it’s your play that has prompted them to act in a certain way or if it was their own move. You can only grasp the play by rerunning it in your head while waiting for the next round. When you replay, you understand the actions of a player based on how you played. The more you replay an action, the easier it becomes to play during the next session.
5. Keep Logs on your Opponents
It’s wise to keep notes on how your opponents play. When playing live, recordings and visual displays are not present, making it more challenging to have up-to-date information on your opponents, so you need to do the work yourself. The best time to keep tabs is in-between sessions. While this was done previously using a pen and paper, today, there are less conspicuous ways of observing and making notes on your opponents.
You could type notes on your smartphone as you scroll across other apps without drawing too much attention. When playing, you can use your phone and act like you’re texting and not paying much attention, which would throw off your opponents, who would assume that you aren’t concentrating. Instead, you end up reading their next move from the notes you’ve made while they were playing the previous game.
