Sleep: Your Secret Weapon at the Poker Table

What if there were a drug that could boost your focus, performance, and emotional control at the poker table by 100%?

Before you decide to take it, you should know some of the side effects: More happiness away from the table, improved body composition, and a longer life.

The good news is that this exists. The bad news is that it doesn't come in pill form.

Zzz

We all “know” that sleep is important, just like we all know that exercise is healthy and donuts aren’t.

But I feel as though people don’t realize just how valuable good sleep actually is.

If you’re a poker player — or in any line of work that requires “performance” (intense focus, high-level decision-making) — I’d argue that sleep is probably* as impactful to your bottom line as any preparation or study you can do.

When I played my heads-up ​Galfond Challenge​ matches, the difference in expected value between my A and B game became crystal clear to me.

Playing a format that intense against tough competition, how I showed up could mean the difference between being a 7bb/100 favorite and a 7bb/100 underdog.

I began tracking some of my habits, sleep included, in a spreadsheet, along with grades for my performance each day.

Two clear patterns emerged from all the noise:

1. Sleep

2. Work/Study

*”Probably” because you can’t just sleep perfectly for years and never learn the rules of the game, just as you can’t study 24/7 and never sleep. Neither will lead to success in isolation. I’m assuming a more reasonable balance to your existing life.

Sleep

I was entirely unsurprised to find that better sleep led to better play.

I track my sleep with an Oura ring, and I set the sheet up to import my sleep scores each day.

Better sleep was correlated to more focus, more discipline, less sloppiness.

A shock, I know.

Work and Study

What actually was more surprising was the impact that working before a session had on my play.

Whether this was taking a business call or studying solvers or stats from the match, I played worse when I worked before I played.

My best explanation for what was going on is that I was “using up” brainpower.

Conclusions

What I took away from this is that I needed to put my routine above all else — study included!

Yes, I would try to study post-session, but I often barely had time for that. So most of my studying and learning came before the match.

The only “study” I like to do before playing these days is watching videos, without taking notes — passive learning.

If I didn’t need to cram in as much studying and other work as I could, my aim shifted towards maximizing sleep quality.

Note: This is significantly harder while playing intense poker than while not.

My friends and I have seen sleep scores drop across the board when playing as compared to not playing, even with all of the same habits. Poker is a stressor to our bodies, no doubt. The focus, the number of decisions, the adrenaline, cortisol, and dopamine.

Regardless of that — it can still be improved from whatever place it’s in.

Do It

There are many places to find advice on improving sleep. I’ll share some tips below, but I’m no expert.

The main purpose of this post is to convince you to finally take it very seriously.

Get better sleep. Prioritize it. Do it.

Study all you want, but if your brain can’t access the information quickly enough, you’re not going to play great.

You should absolutely ​work on your mental game​, but you’d have to overcome far fewer mental game obstacles if you just slept well.

If I were your personal poker coach, this would be my #1 piece of advice.

So, what are you waiting for? What do you deem more important?

Getting Better Sleep

While I’m not a sleep coach, I have spoken to one! I’ve also consumed a lot of sleep-related content and tracked my own for years now.

There are times when I do everything I “should,” and there are times when I don’t.

While I’d advise you to do your own research, I’ll share my basic learnings.

Lowest hanging fruit, roughly in order, as I understand it:

• Consistent waking hours (whatever they are. Yes, including weekends)

• No alcohol

• 5+ minutes outside in sunlight in the morning

• No caffeine after ____ o’clock (depends on your body)

• No binging before bed

• No blue light in the hours before bed*

*I actually haven’t observed a measurable impact for me personally as it relates to blue light, but there seems to be consensus that it’s important.

Once you’re ~35+, you also can limit liquids before bed to avoid waking up to pee during the night and risking not falling back to sleep.

What Works for Me

I quit caffeine a few years ago and found that it drastically improved my sleep and gave me more energy. Maybe I metabolize caffeine slowly, as coffee, even at 9 am, would impact me at night.

For those who drink caffeine regularly and are interested in quitting cold turkey (as I did), you can expect a very tired 2-5 weeks!

The times that I do wake up at night, the only thing that has somewhat reliably helped me get back to sleep is Yoga Nidra for sleep. While most people get sleepy doing any kind of Yoga Nidra, there are some specifically designed for sleep. I use the Insight Timer app and have found a few audios that I like.

I also use an app called Opal to block my social media apps in the hours leading up to bed. Getting sucked into the algorithm’s vortex has damaged my sleep more times than I can count.

As mentioned above, I’m not ultra careful about blue light, though I do turn my iPhone’s screen red with color filters when I go to bed. (I still watch a poker video to fall asleep almost every night to quiet my mind — not recommended by experts, but it works for me!)

Just Do It. Again.

It can be daunting to make multiple changes and expect to stick to them.

So, how about starting with one?

What’s one of the items on the lowest-hanging fruit list that you can start implementing today?

Each and every one of them just tilts things further in your favor.

Good sleep is not binary. If your sleep is terrible, it can get slightly better, still be “bad,” and have a positive impact on your life and performance compared to where you are today.

Stop worrying about perfecting your turn c-bet range and start worrying about recharging your brain each night.

PS: If you're looking to seriously improve your sleep quality, my friend Mollie is a sleep-genius who has worked with countless poker players. She regularly runs group coaching programs, which ​you can find here​ — use the code 'PHILGALFOND' upon checkout for $100 off.

I'm also planning to have Mollie do a guest Q&A for the students of my coaching program, ​Beyond the Game​.