Planning your play is important for a couple of reasons. First off, unless you’re a professional you can’t just jump on the computer any time you want to. There’s only so much time in the day to play, so finding the best action when you can play will be a good practice. Inform everyone that might interrupt you that you’re playing poker, and don’t want to be interrupted unless it’s important.

Planning the length of your session is important because you don’t want to play too long. A few hands can easily turn into a marathon session. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the game, especially when you’re winning. If you play too long you’re likely to start making mistakes. Tired poker is not a good way to play, so limit your sessions to time frames where you stay fresh. Otherwise you’ll just dump back everything you have won.