Head Games: Top Mistakes and Tells Players Make in Tournaments Over and Over Again: Part II

Craig Tapscott: What kind of practices do you focus on away from the table to stay in good physical shape that help to prepare you for the long, grueling hours of poker?

Brian Rast: The most important thing has been good nutrition. I subscribe more or less to the Paleo Diet, which is all about eating natural food — food we’ve been eating for a long time as humans. This is vegetables, fruits, meats — with an emphasis on healthy meats (grass-fed beef, organic raised, no hormones, etcetera). You are not supposed to eat grains, wheat, processed foods, or sugar. I also take a small amount of vitamins. I believe the most important daily vitamin is Vitamin D, at 2,000-to-4,000mg per day, more on days where you don’t get sun, as our skin synthesizes it from the sun. It’s so important. I also take probiotics, L-Carnatine, and omega 3s. 

The other way to stay in good physical shape is through exercise. I do a wide range of exercises ranging from weight lifting, cross-fit style workouts, racquetball, cardio, rebounding, and more. I think it’s important to change up what you’re doing both for your own personal enjoyment and so your body doesn’t get used to the same type of workout.  
Poker is a game with a lot of lulls, but intense moments of high mental activity so raising your “A” game is always a positive. Additionally, exercise will increase your stamina to endure long hours at the poker table. Having good nutrition and a regular exercise plan is a no-brainer… good for poker, good for life.  

Darryll Fish: I believe it’s crucial to maintain an active lifestyle to balance out the hours spent glued to a chair. I try to work out in the morning before any live tournament, because those 30-to-45 minutes in the gym really go a long way when it comes to being physically relaxed and mentally sharp all day.

If I happen to miss a workout, I will usually be extremely tired by the end of the day. But on days when I put in a good weightlifting or yoga session, I will still be able to really focus during those last couple levels, which tend to be the most important. I also practice meditation on a regular basis, which helps me to be calm and mindful when making crucial decisions. A healthy diet also makes a big difference in energy levels; chugging Red Bull is no replacement for being properly nourished.

Faraz Jaka: I typically swim laps or do yoga in the mornings before I sit down to play. Sitting down all day isn’t good for your body, so it is important that you spend the little time you have available getting your blood flowing and stretching out some of those muscles. You don’t want to do too intense of a workout, because then your body is expending a lot of energy rebuilding your muscles while it needs that energy for your brain power and focus.

I recommend that that you avoid things that are very high in stimulus right before you go to bed. If your brain is doing a lot of active thinking or staring at a computer screen or phone screen right before you go to bed, you might find it difficult to sleep deeply.
 
Forcing yourself to wake up at a certain hour and biting the bullet is another strategy that has worked for me as well. But what I found would happen was I felt terrible for the first few days of adjustment to the new schedule. I was only able to get three to four hours of sleep, because I could not fall asleep early enough. But by the end of the week my body adjusted to the new routine and I started having no problem falling asleep at an early hour.

Ryan D’Angelo: For me, juicing and getting the majority of my calories from raw fruit and vegetables has been an integral part of my recent success at the poker table and overall clarity in my everyday life. I’ve come to realize in the recent years that humans are energetic beings. We all are comprised of more than 100 billion cells and eating foods that are easily absorbed by this massive cluster is integral to living a vibrant and healthy life. Juicing is especially effective because you are getting all of the vitamins, minerals, and living water from the fruits and veggies in a pre-digested, super easily-assimilable liquid. In essence you are avoiding wasting energy on digesting heavy, cooked foods and absorbing everything you need in 15-to-30 minutes.

One of the biggest benefits in my opinion is the mental clarity that clean eating provides. When you’re spending less energy breaking down your food you have that much more dedicated to brain function, which does wonders for your focus at the tables. The last thing you want to be doing while you’re making a decision after a dinner break is lamenting your poor decisions as your belly or head aches. Also, you’ll feel the biggest difference at the end of the session. Sometimes tournaments don’t end till two or three in the morning and it is clear to me that I have a big edge on most opponents because I am still feeling awake and alert deep into the night thanks to the fuel I’ve put in earlier in the day.

Craig Tapscott: Share a few things you do that keep your mind sharp and spirit and motivation fed in between events? Share whatever works for you and how it specifically aids you in poker and your life.

Brian Rast: The main things that keep me going in life are my family and friends. I love spending time with them away from the tables, and this time has motivated me to be a better person and stay away from things in life that tear me down. I feel like since I met my wife and stopped going out, there’s been a big difference in my poker results.

Staying motivated for tournaments is hard, especially when they feel small compared to the high-stakes cash games I’m playing. I’ve struggled with that a lot. I’ve found that from tournament to tournament my effort and motivation can vary substantially. The solution I’ve come up with is to try and approach the tournament now based on how big and important it is. For a smaller tournament I will register late to avoid a long first day for a tournament that isn’t that important for me. And for a bigger event (like the One Drop, the WSOP main event, etcetera) I will mentally psyche myself up a bit and go in on time and ready to rock. Otherwise, the best way to keep your mind sharp is through good nutrition and exercise.

It’s also good to always keep your mind busy, read, play other games, study poker in various ways, and doing puzzles like Sudoku, etcetera. I feel that, similarly to a muscle, your brain needs to be worked out regularly and just like the “muscle confusion” theory; it’s more effective when you use different methods.

Darryll Fish: Poker is only getting tougher, so it’s important to do what you can both at and away from the table to give yourself the best chance possible. For me I began my journey with self improvement about three years ago, and it has taken my poker game, and my life, to new levels.

Taking care of your body is important for obvious reasons, but it also helps in less obvious ways. I do weight training, cycling, and hot yoga not only to stay in physical shape, but to stay mentally sharp and increase my sense of awareness, both of which are big factors when playing poker at the highest levels.

Sometimes, I feel consumed by poker, and a great thing about weight lifting is that you are constantly setting new goals and improving, which gives me something positive to focus on when poker isn’t going so well. Essentially, life is all about balance, so it’s important to invest energy into more than just poker, even if it is the game we all love.

Faraz Jaka: Meditation and awareness exercises have helped to keep my mind sharp and in good spirits. They help to keep me aware of the thoughts that enter my mind and how they affect my actions and stress levels.

The funny thing about this is most people probably have very little idea about how often they worry about things that are out of their control. A player that pisses them off at the table, bad beats after playing a hand perfectly, a player that is playing poorly and winning, are all examples of things we waste our energy on that benefit us in no way whatsoever. My advice is to save the brain power for things that actually matter.

Ryan D’Angelo: In the ten years I’ve been a poker professional it’s become incredibly clear to me that “balance” is a key element to my overall success. Now there are many different ways I have found to achieve this: simply getting a part-time job helped me in my early years to get out there and meet new people. Maintaining a healthy social life and staying active kept me from always thinking about flops, turns, and rivers night and day.

Lately, I feel like I’ve found the balance provider that will have some staying power in my life and that is yoga and meditation. Just being able to have some peaceful time to yourself on a daily basis to sit and contemplate or stretch out your muscles is immensely helpful in calming the constant turbulence that is our mind and egos. It is astounding when you formulate a regular meditation practice to see from an unbiased place how wrapped up we are in our day-to-day attachment to the roles we play and what other people think about us.

Over the years my tilt control has gotten progressively better. Being able to step away from poker and just focus on my breath does wonders for my abilities to stay Zen at the tables. I feel like with meditation and a more Zen-like state of mind I’ve put the nail in the tilt coffin. ♠

Brian Rast is a very successful high-stakes cash game professional. In 2007 he won the WSOP Players Championship. He has more than $6.5 million in career tournament cashes.

Darryll Fish is passionate about spreading awareness of world issues and inspiring people to live healthy, fulfilling lives. He has more than $2.1 million in online and live tournament cashes.

Faraz Jaka was the WPT Player of the Year in 2010. He has more than $6 million in career online and live cashes. He is the co-founder of www.axiscasterboarding.com and can be found at www.farazjaka.com.

Ryan D’Angelo has more than $2.7 million in tournament cashes. He is the cofounder of Two-Pears.com with his girlfriend Ronit. They will be doing raw juices, salads, and desserts for purchase at the 2015 WSOP. Check out their YouTube channel informing people about poker and health.