How to relax at the Poker table

It is difficult to remain calm in all situations around the poker table. However, all players strive to find an effective solution. Massages, walkmans or personal good luck charms are all good ways to make one feel more comfortable, but in the end, everyone gets nervous.

Woody Allen once said: "as long as man is mortal, he will never relax". This quote makes sense at the poker table: "as long as a player can loose, he will never relax". Whether professionals or amateurs, players have all at one time or another cracked under the pressure. This is what happens in tournaments, games or even just one's turn; poker creates intense emotions that man cannot always control. And even if some players brag about having the "poker face", that does not stop them boiling over inside. That is why at the Partouche Poker Tour Super Satellites, many players came with their good luck charm and others with advice from the biggest poker stars that they found on the internet, in magazines or DVDs. It was not rare to come across clones of stars such as Phil Laak. All of these methods are good to try to relax and ignore all the things that could disturb one's concentration. But the stake was so big…that it was all in vain.

"When one is nervous, it never ends well" Remy Biechel

This is a true statement and some players do appear to be relaxed. For example, François Tardieu is chilled out and is used to big international backgammon tournaments, the Divonne-les-Bains finalist Eddy Glaude is always smiling, and the winner of the Saint-Amand Super Satellite Remy Biechel also seems relaxed. For the latter, the pleasure of playing is his only way of escaping the pressure. That and his walkman: “I am relaxed simply because I enjoy playing. It is not obvious, but when one participates in a tournament feeling nervous, it never ends well. So one does what it takes to relax. For that, I have my walkman which isolates me when I am not feeling so great or when I want to block out the taunts of certain players who are always either unhappy or too happy. I turn up the volume and become calm immediately. This is what I did last year at Cannes [where he came 4th]. I took my walkman and was sleepy for 20 minutes at a table. The funniest thing was that I still observed what was going on around me. Sometimes if nothing much is happening, I leave the table to have a rest. It is that simple.”

“Snapping is bad for one’s health”

If Remy takes such precautions, it is because he know that staying calm in a tournament is the key to one’s success, even if 12 hours of intense competition can seem long. But the more one rushes, the less one is on top of things: “I have already seen people crack when they have one or two bad losses. You see them end up eliminating themselves by calling when they should really fold. They literally snap!” This is a perfect demonstration of what one must not do. To avoid this, at Divonne, certain players close to snapping asked the PPT masseuses to relieve their stress. That is why we say that poker is a one of the most violent sports in the world…and why a Zen attitude is recommended to help one win. One rarely hears of the best players weeping over losses, excluding some exceptions like Tony G from Lithuania. But as the well know proverb goes: “When a tree falls, one hears it, when a forest grows, not a sound”. Champions understand this…