Does your biggest poker villain live in your house?

AdelsonFagundes · Jun 19, 2026

Talk, guys!

We often talk about bad beats, coolers, and difficult players, but there is one adversary that faces everyone who plays online: home distractions.

You're focused on the tournament and all of a sudden:

🔹 The cell phone vibrates
🔹 The dog barks
🔹 A message arrives
🔹 The delivery rings the bell
🔹 Someone decides to talk precisely on that important hand

And sometimes the biggest culprit is ourselves.

I already lost a hand because I opened a “quick” video on YouTube and, when I realized it, my turn had passed.

I am trying to improve my concentration during the sessions, because often the error is not in the strategy, but in the lack of focus.

And you? What was the most absurd distraction that ever cost a hand or even an entire tournament?

CDNMAN 42 · Jun 19, 2026

AdelsonFagundes said:
Talk, guys!

We often talk about bad beats, coolers, and difficult players, but there is one adversary that faces everyone who plays online: home distractions.

You're focused on the tournament and all of a sudden:

🔹 The cell phone vibrates
🔹 The dog barks
🔹 A message arrives
🔹 The delivery rings the bell
🔹 Someone decides to talk precisely on that important hand

And sometimes the biggest culprit is ourselves.

I already lost a hand because I opened a “quick” video on YouTube and, when I realized it, my turn had passed.

I am trying to improve my concentration during the sessions, because often the error is not in the strategy, but in the lack of focus.

And you? What was the most absurd distraction that ever cost a hand or even an entire tournament?

I fully understand your issues described as I have encountered more than a few distractions which have cost me tournament wins or at least placing ITM.

On quite a few occasions I have been involved in a tourney and had a large chip stack and bang my wife insists she needs help with something, of course since a Happy Wife is a Happy Life I put the tourney on sitting out and assist my wife with her issue..when I return to the tourney a good portion of my chip stack is gone to antes and blinds./..some times I never get back in time to avoid being kicked out due to a lack of chips.
One other disturbance is having to take the dog out...she sits at the door growling when she has to go. so. put the tourney on hold and due my duty..

Yes I have experienced this and at times had been on the FT and boom. domestic issues call....

I guess it is part of the game? lol

valeski 28 · Jun 19, 2026

Good afternoon.In my case, is when the delivery rings the bell and I´m playing cash games.That happens everytime a product from Amazon arrives,so I have receive it.The good thing is that I haven´t lost a big amount

lwccasz · Jun 19, 2026

Any order that requires me to go out to receive it gets in the way a lot. I usually check the option to “sit out next hand” so I don't get worried.

AdelsonFagundes · Jun 19, 2026

CDNMAN 42 said:
Compreendo perfeitamente os problemas que você descreveu, pois já me deparei com diversas distrações que me custaram vitórias em torneios ou, pelo menos, nenhuma colocação entre os premiados.

Em diversas ocasiões, participei de um torneio com uma grande quantidade de fichas e, de repente, minha esposa insistiu que precisava de ajuda com algo. Claro que, como esposa feliz significa vida feliz, cancelei o torneio, fiquei de fora e a ajudei com o problema dela. Quando voltei, boa parte das minhas fichas havia sumido para antes e blinds. Às vezes, não conseguia voltar a tempo de evitar ser eliminado por falta de fichas.
Outro problema é ter que levar a cachorra para fora... ela fica sentada na porta rosnando quando precisa sair. Então, tive que suspender o torneio e cumprir meu dever.

Sim, já passei por isso e, às vezes, estava no FT e, de repente, problemas domésticos me chamavam...

Acho que faz parte do jogo, né? rsrs

I think this is one of the few situations in which we take a happy loss. 😂 Family and dog always have priority.

AdelsonFagundes · Jun 19, 2026

valeski 28 said:
Boa tarde. No meu caso, é quando a campainha da entrega toca e eu estou jogando cash games. Isso acontece toda vez que um produto da Amazon chega, então eu o recebi. O lado bom é que não perdi muito dinheiro.

Amazon's famous bad beat. 📦😂 Good thing you can't always get money back into the action.

AdelsonFagundes · Jun 19, 2026

lwccasz said:
Qualquer pedido que me obrigue a sair para recebê-lo acaba atrapalhando bastante. Normalmente, marco a opção de "ficar de fora da próxima mão" para não me preocupar.

Good strategy! Better to be out of one hand than to go back and find that you've lost half the battery

burro · Jun 19, 2026

I have a lot of these problems too, lol. But I think most people have. My main thing is to have to pick up my son from school every day. I end up losing most of my chips in community tournaments because of this. 😅

austral · Jun 19, 2026

Your worst opponent isn't your home environment or the best player at your table. It's the version of yourself that shows up when you're tired, frustrated, scared, or out of control.

TerryBLE · Jun 19, 2026

When the doorbell rings, It really is complicated. The other distractions can usually be handled from wherever you are (although they can affect your focus, as you mentioned). In my case, it was the doorbell. It wasn't Amazon (this time), and it took longer than I expected. I kind of forgot I was in the tournament. 🙃

tuitui · Jun 20, 2026

Cat on the keyboard caused some serious hassle 😹

moraeskvmi · Jun 20, 2026

My villains all live in other countries, and some even live in Brazil.

G0930 · Jun 20, 2026

AdelsonFagundes said:
And you? What was the most absurd distraction that ever cost a hand or even an entire tournament?

A rant of my fiancée because of a freakin stain of a coffee mug
Missed crucial hands and was pissed afterwards and tilt.
Thanks better half 🙄😅😆

Hospedar · Jun 20, 2026

Obviously, I see him everytime I take a look on the mirror...

I don't think the houses distractions destroys my game, but I think that I need to take my poker studies back (too much time without studying is the biggest problem with me now).

Mwaki · Jun 20, 2026

My kid's,I can count the number of times one just shoved all in or called and it costed me dearly, they come thinking they are playing with me and voila am messed up totally

Skot_Gy · Jun 21, 2026

I am lucky enough to have my own space and time whenever i want, so no problems on this part.

JuniorCordeiro10 · Jun 21, 2026

I understand and identify perfectly. As I have a 15-year-old daughter, she's always asking me for help with schoolwork, and since it's just the two of us at home and my wife works there, it ends up falling to me to make lunch or answer delivery calls, and so on. I know she doesn't do it on purpose, but it always breaks the focus.

GLAVI65 · Jun 21, 2026

AdelsonFagundes said:
¡Hablemos, chicos!

A menudo hablamos de malas rachas, rachas negativas y jugadores difíciles, pero hay un adversario al que se enfrenta todo aquel que juega en línea: las distracciones en casa.

Estás concentrado en el torneo y de repente:

🔹 El teléfono móvil vibra
🔹 El perro ladra
🔹 Llega un mensaje
🔹 La entrega hace sonar la campana
🔹 Alguien decide hablar precisamente sobre ese tema importante.

Y a veces el mayor culpable somos nosotros mismos.

Ya perdí una mano porque abrí un video "rápido" en YouTube y, cuando me di cuenta, mi turno ya había pasado.

Estoy intentando mejorar mi concentración durante las sesiones, porque a menudo el error no reside en la estrategia, sino en la falta de concentración.

¿Y tú? ¿Cuál fue la distracción más absurda que te costó una mano o incluso un torneo entero?

Distractions are one of the toughest rivals when playing online. In my case, more than once it has happened to me that I start to read something in another tab or to respond to a “quick” message and, when I return to the table, I have already lost an important hand or I have just a few seconds left to decide.

It has also happened to me that the phone rings just when I am in a difficult hand and end up making a hasty decision. The funny thing is that many times we don't lose because of a bad strategy, but because we are not completely focused.

That's why I try to play with my cell phone silently and avoid opening other applications during tournaments. I don't always get it,
but the difference in my performance is quite noticeable when I'm fully focused on the table.

Nameless14 · Jun 22, 2026

My most ridiculous distraction was checking my phone after folding a hand. I thought, "I've got plenty of time." A few seconds later I looked back at the screen and discovered I'd been dealt pocket kings and timed out preflop. 😭♠️

The worst part wasn't losing chips—it was spending the next hour thinking about what could have happened.

These days I try to put my phone on silent and close everything unrelated to poker. It's amazing how often the biggest opponent in an online session isn't the player pool—it's our own attention span. 😂

Does your biggest poker villain live in your house?

AdelsonFagundes

Rock Star

CDNMAN 42

Legend

valeski 28

Legend

lwccasz

Enthusiast

AdelsonFagundes

Rock Star

AdelsonFagundes

Rock Star

AdelsonFagundes

Rock Star

burro

Rock Star

austral

Rock Star

TerryBLE

Legend

tuitui

Rock Star

moraeskvmi

Visionary

G0930

Captain Fathermucker, Satty Aficionado

Hospedar

Visionary

Mwaki

Rock Star

Skot_Gy

Visionary

JuniorCordeiro10

Rock Star

GLAVI65

Rock Star

Nameless14

Rock Star

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