Use This Pre-Session Poker Routine

Most poker players do zero preparation before a session.

They drive to the card room, sit down, post their blind, and wonder why the first hour feels like such a grind. Here’s the thing: your session doesn’t start the moment you’re dealt cards. It starts before you leave the house.

If you’re not running a pre-session routine, you’re giving up edge before your first chip goes in.

This article walks you through the exact routine I use before every session I play. Five sections. Less than ten minutes total. And it will change how you approach every game going forward.

You can also download the free checklist here and keep it on your phone.

Step 1: Mental State Check

Before anything else, you need to answer one honest question.

Am I actually in the right headspace to play right now?

This sounds obvious, but most players skip it. They show up on autopilot and wonder why they’re making terrible decisions two hours in.

Run through these before you do anything else:

Do you have tilt carryover from your last session? If you’re trying to end a poker downswing and haven’t processed it, that frustration doesn’t just disappear. It sits in your decision-making and leaks out at the worst moments.

Do you have life stress bleeding into your ability to think clearly? Work problems, relationship problems, money problems outside of poker. All of it affects your decisions at the table whether you acknowledge it or not.

And here’s the big one: if you have a losing session tonight, will it negatively impact your life beyond your bankroll?

If the answer is yes, do not start the session. Full stop. You need to fix whatever that situation is first.

Look, if you’re not a professional and your livelihood doesn’t depend on volume, you have complete permission to skip a session. Waiting until your mental conditions improve is always better than forcing a session when your head isn’t right. Poker will still be there tomorrow.

If there are no red flags and you’re genuinely ready to play, move on.

Step 2: Set Your Session Goals

Now that you’ve confirmed you’re in the right state, set your goals for the session.

And to be clear: these are not monetary goals.

“I want to win $300 tonight” is a terrible goal. You cannot control results. Judging a session by profit and loss creates a feedback loop where you feel great after winning hands you played badly and feel terrible after losing hands you played correctly. That’s the opposite of improvement.

Set process goals instead. Things you can actually control.

I set two goals every single session. One will do goal and one won’t do goal.

A will do goal might be: within 20 hands, I will categorize every player at the table. What’s their general style? Are they loose-passive or tight-aggressive (TAG)? Getting a fast read on the table is something you can commit to and measure.

A won’t do goal might be: I will not make a single turn or river bet without being able to clearly articulate what it’s accomplishing. Am I betting for value? As a bluff? What hands am I trying to get called by or fold out? If you can’t answer that question, don’t bet.

The power of these goals is that they give you clear kill switches during the session. If you’re constantly breaking your own goals, that’s a signal. Maybe you take a break. Maybe you call it for the night.

Keep it to one or two goals. Ten goals is the same as zero goals.

Step 3: Game & Seat Selection

This section is quick, but skipping it leads to situations where you end up in a game you didn’t want to be in and can’t figure out why.

Know in advance what game you’re planning to play. What stakes. What format.

More importantly, know your Plan B before you need it.

If you normally play $1/$2 cash and you get to the card room and only $2/$5 is running, are you playing $2/$5? What if there’s only PLO? These are decisions you want to make with a clear head before you’re standing at the podium at the card room, not in the moment when emotions and the desire to just play can push you into a game you’re not ready for.

Same goes for a bad game. Know what a bad game looks like to you, and know what you’ll do about it. Will you table change? End the session early? Get on the list for a better game?

On seat changes: if you’re newer and still learning poker, seat selection matters a lot. Getting out of a spot with bad position on an aggressive player is a legitimate edge. Use it.

But at some point, staying in tough spots and learning to play through them is more valuable than always chasing the ideal seat.

You’re not always going to have the button on the fish. Learn to work with what you have.

Step 4: Poker Money & Comfort

This section covers money and your physical state. Neither is glamorous. Both matter.

Bankroll and stop-loss

Do you have your buy-in available right now, either in your pocket or your account? How many buy-ins are you bringing? How many reloads are you willing to take?

Set your stop-loss before the session starts, not during it. Deciding mid-session whether to reload when you’re steaming is a terrible time to make that call. You’ve already got bad info. You’re emotionally compromised. Make the decision now.

For online players this is especially important because your entire bankroll is sitting right there. One click. Decide in advance where the line is.

If you’re still building your live game discipline, here’s a trick I like: leave your bank card in your car. If you run through your session stake and think about reloading, you have to physically walk to your car to get it. That walk slows you down. It gives you a moment to actually ask yourself if you’re tilting badly and should just go home. A lot of the time, you’ll get to your car and realize the answer is yes.

Food, hydration, and sleep

Eat before your session. Drink water. Bring a water bottle if you’re playing live.

Bring snacks you can eat without getting your hands dirty. Trail mix is good. Tamales are not.

Take a quick inventory of how tired you are. The more tired you are, the shorter your session should be. If you know you’re playing a late, long session, take a nap earlier in the day. Plan for it.

Your decision quality in hour six looks very different when you’re well-rested versus dragging.

Step 5: Mindset Reset

The last piece of the routine is the most important one.

Before you sit down, give yourself this reminder.

You are here to make good decisions. Not to win.

Winning is great. Nobody is saying results don’t matter in the long run. But on any given night, losing plays can win and winning plays can lose. If you walk in measuring session success by profit and loss, you’re going to make decisions driven by results rather than process. That’s a leak with no bottom.

Focus on the decision in front of you with the information you have right now. That’s the only thing under your control.

A few more things to remind yourself of before you sit down:

Keep gathering information throughout the session. Update your reads on players as you see more hands. Your reads in hour one should look different in hour three.

You can take breaks whenever you need to. Getting up from the table and walking around for ten minutes is a better play than sitting there steaming. There’s no rule that says you have to stay glued to your seat.

And you can leave whenever you want. Nobody is keeping you there. If the session turns bad and you feel yourself losing the plot, you can just go home. The game will be there next time.

You are in control.

The Full Routine (Under 10 Minutes)

Here’s the whole thing in one place:

• Mental state check. Confirm you’re ready to play. If there are red flags, fix them first or skip the session.
• Session goals. One will do goal, one won’t do goal. Process only. No monetary targets.
• Game & seat selection. Know what you’re playing and have a Plan B ready.
• Logistics & comfort. Buy-ins, stop-loss, food, water, sleep. Cover the basics before you sit down.
• Mindset reset. You’re here to make good decisions. Not to win. Focus on the process.

That’s it. Run through this before every session and you’ll start every game in a better spot than 90% of the table.

Download the free pre-session checklist here and bookmark this so you can come back to it before you play next 👍