PokerWarmUp.com is an innovative concept that allows players to both create structure and develop continuity in their online poker warm-up routine. It can be used to create and maintain good pre-game habits that will foster positive changes in your results at the table. Its current design is simple, smooth, and very user friendly. The only real criticism I have is that it could be a little more robust.
The bottom line is that PokerWarmUp is a solid idea and good tool right now. There is some room for improvement in the program, but I’m sure that if the developers keep on enhancing it, it will be an even more valuable in the future.
Being Mindful about Your Poker Game
The first step in the program is to lay out your poker goals. Then, you need to answer some hard questions about what’s currently keeping you from achieving them. If you aren’t sure where to start, there are pre-programmed suggestions available for use in each of the three categories: goals, technical game leaks, and mental game leaks. After breaking down the game itself, you are asked to input your major in-game distractions (Skype, Facebook, etc.).
When you begin the warm-up process, PokerWarmUp will take you through all of the items that you have listed. At each stage, you are asked to state these goals and leaks out loud. The idea here is that if you take the time to be mindful of what you are trying to achieve and what is holding you back, you will be more prepared to succeed.
Once this process is completed, you are prompted to close (or remove) anything identified as being a potential distraction. Finally, you are asked to write a message to “future you” to get any last negative or non-poker-related thoughts out of your head. You can then click a button that says “I am ready” (I loved the choice of that phrase!) and begin your online poker session.
A timer tool built into the site will alert you when a designated amount of time has passed, creating an audio/visual cue to stop your online poker session when fatigue might be setting in.
Great in Theory; More Accountability Needed
Your responses and history are saved to your account, and, if used consistently, the program will create a body of work for you to see and measure progress. This is a great and necessary feature, but it also inadvertently highlights what is the site’s only real weakness in my opinion. The lack of an outside motivational force providing inertia and incentivizing discipline is a hole in the execution of what is an otherwise solid idea.
The most basic suggestion I could make would be to have some sort of visual cue where you could mark the number of consecutive sessions you have used the program successfully (people like the sense of accomplishment the visual brings).
There is huge potential with PokerWarmUp for a truly interactive service that would provide community reinforcement. I could envision weekly and monthly leaderboards tracking consistent program use with strategy videos as prizes. Alternatively, you could also have the option to warm up with another user who could help you with affirming your goals and being mindful of your leaks.
The possibilities for collaboration within the poker community are endless and really exciting, so it would be great to see the PokerWarmUp developers make at least a basic attempt to harness this latent innovative power of their concept.
A Program Definitely Worth Trying
Being in the right poker mindset to bring your best game to the table is essential for anyone who wants to play winning poker online in 2015. PokerWarmUp is a great attempt at bringing process and method to an area of the game that can be overwhelming for some, tedious for others, and completely ignored by too many.
The site is clean and logically laid out, easy to use, and can be set up in as little as five minutes. Although it could be greatly enhanced if players could collaborate with one another, it is still a worthwhile tool for players in isolation. It deserves a look by any amateur or pro serious about taking charge of their preparation in order to turn a profit on the virtual felt.
Nice!
It’s worth to mention that there are 2 more interesting features:
1) You can play music while doing your warm-up. The players controls are on the top right corner, while warm-up is in progress. Baroque music is best for to stabilize “mental, physical and emotional rhythms to attain a state of deep concentration and focus in which large amounts of content information can be processed and learned.”
2) You can share your goals on Facebook for more commitment right from PokerWarmUp website by clicking “share on Facebook” button when editing/reviewing your goals.
We will surely take into account all the critisim mentioned in the review. And we have several more features planned in the next release, like a proper Cool Down procedure after playing poker and Brain Games as fun way to warmup your brain,
Cool – thanks for the comment; happy you liked our review 🙂