Many grinders these days like to play online poker because of the convenience and ability to get more hands in per hour. But that’s not to say the live poker scene is dead because many players feel they still have a big edge here. The only problem involves keeping this edge since it’s harder to stay focused during the lengthy process of playing live hands.

First the dealer has to deal cards to everybody. Then players decide how much they want to bet, which involves lots of chip counting. Finally, there’s no official timer in live games like with online poker, and this can sometimes lead to people abusing decision-making time.

Taking all of this into account, it’s not always easy staying focused during live poker sessions. However, there are a few tips that can help you with this process, and here’s a look at some of the best ones.

Use some Motion in between Hands – One way to keep yourself into the live action is to have some sort of motion in between each hand. For example, you could move your chip stacks around or count chips while waiting. No matter what the motion is, you’ll be able to reset your brain following each hand.

Don’t stop thinking when Hands end – When we’ve folded, most of us like to enter La-La land and stop concentrating on the game. However, you can keep your focus better by sticking with hands after folding your cards. This could involve either thinking about what you’d do as an opponent in each situation, or acting like you are still playing a hand.

Constantly analyze Opponents – One very simple way to stay in the game is by mentally documenting each move your opponents make. Sure you might not pick up on everything this way, but as long as you are trying to figure out what each opponent is doing, you’ll rarely get bored with live poker.