The Professional Approach: Applying Pro Gaming Discipline to Casino Games

The life of a professional gambler and a professional gamer are more similar than you might think. As professionals who spend lots of time sat in front of a screen, or in high pressure situations, both require keeping the mind sharp during long periods being stationary. Successfully navigating the mental challenges of a high stakes blackjack session or a competitive Valorant tournament requires big risks, but can translate to big rewards. So what can aspiring professional gamblers learn from pro gamers?

This article will look at how professional gamers stay on peak mental form, how players of any game can avoid bad luck leading to bad decisions and tilt and how both gambling and esports are often a game of pure numbers. This, is how gamblers can apply the discipline and mindset of esports to a casino gaming session. 

Performing Under Pressure at High Stakes is Key

Imagine sitting in front of your computer playing your favourite competitive game, but on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans about play for a tournament trophy and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, imagine you're playing online blackjack - completely by yourself with no audience - but tens of thousands of dollars are on the line with each decision and card flip. Many people would be wracked with anxiety and pressure in either case. Both situations are similarly intense, in their own way. Learning to manage that kind of high stakes drama is key to long-term success in gambling as it is in videogames. 

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Although there are many ways to keep calm under pressure, these four tips are the most commonly cited:

• Breathing and mind state - positive affirmations, confidence and regular breathing before performance harmonise your body and mind for peak performance
• Long hours of regimented practice - if you can do something to a top standard almost automatically without concentrating, you're well on your way to be able to do it under pressure
• Minimise distractions - turn off your phone to silent (or put it away), close all your other tabs and make sure you're locked in to activate flow state
• Physical health, hydration and fuel - keep yourself hydrated and ensure you aren't hungry during periods of intense mental work, light snacks with heavy protein are best 

Health is Wealth - Supplement Your Game to Be on Top Form 

Cognitive and physical supplements, on top of a clean and junk food-light diet and regular exercise, will have your brain working on top form. Imagine misclicking your bet size in a slot, or hitting the hit button when you meant to stand in blackjack, because you had the jitters after that third can of energy drink. Not very professional.

It's not very fun, but if you want be at peak performance when gambling you need to be living a mostly healthy lifestyle otherwise. Sure, if you just spin a few slots once a week - go live you life, you might hit the jackpot one day. Probably won't, but you do you and you never know. But if you're seriously interested in hitting a big blackjack session, a big poker score or finding the right slot advantage play to grind out consistent wins - there is no substitute for the improvement a healthy diet, exercise and supplements combined will give you. And that is backed by science. 

Sleep is also a very important factor. To avoid tilt from an unlucky streak, and ensure you make the correct decision the next time you really don't want to be playing when you're tired and run down. A lucky win might make you temporarily feel better. But more often than not, you'll make the wrong plays and you'll lose. A professional will only play when they feel sharp and ready to be in the zone, not at 3am after four beers. 

Go Deep on the Numbers Where Possible and Pick Your Fights 

Lastly, both pro esports players and gamblers need to be somewhat mathematically minded, from picking the right game table or analysing the odds on a poker hand to grabbing the right build in a MOBA or choosing the right gun in an NFT-driven FPS. Learning fundamentally correct blackjack play, for example, is not that hard - but it does require some dedication to understanding it.

Once you understand some gambling theory, the rest becomes something you feel. Just as in League of Legends, where fighting a player at full health with three levels and two items up on you is probably not a good idea, betting 10% of your bankroll per spin on a high variance low RTP slot might not work out for you either. Careful management and study of numbers, to the point some of it becomes almost intuitive, is needed to consistently excel in casino gambling, as it is in competitive esports.