Distractions when you're playing

Why should you avoid distractions when you’re playing online poker? You can multi-task can’t you?The first paragraph of this article asks you a simple question, why should you avoid distractions when you’re in the midst of a game online? For the same reason you would avoid them if you were playing in a land based poker tournament, staying focused during play is essential if you are to avoid making mistakes. What exactly are distractions? These are going to differ from person to person, many players require absolute silence when they are playing, others have a web browser open or the TV on in the background. A few will have four or five attention grabbing things going on at once, the wife talking about her day, answering email, chatting on the internet and even finishing up some work. Any one of these distractions could potentially cost you your tournament, which means a wasted buy-in or a cash amount in a ring game. How can we avoid these things? It isn’t too difficult, try playing when the wife is out or watching her favorite TV show. Maybe leave the computer alone until your young child is safely tucked up in bed. Turn the TV down or off completely, you cannot watch two screens at once very easily! Finish your work first, then play. It seems a very straight forward thing to do, but you’d be surprised at how many non-focused players there are on the internet. If you are 100% focused on the game, you have an edge over these players. Recognising and taking advantage of non-focused players.So, how can we spot a non-focused player? Keep and eye on the chat, is someone talking about the football game? The next horse race? Or perhaps the bad beat they just took on another table? These could be players who are not focused on the task in hand.