The Fiddlers Irish Pub is widely known in Bonn as one of the best pubs here combining great food and drink with excellent entertainment including live music on a regular basis.  Raymond Searson, who owns the pub, considers music as an integral part of an Irish pub, and with its successful Irish sessions held every Wednesday The Fiddlers has continued to showcase great musicians over its 10 years of existence. But what if you’re not there just for the music?   The Fiddlers also offers poker tournaments on Sundays for example –  how does the music affect the players?  Do they make better decisions? Or is listening to background music  actually a bad thing – forcing them to multi-task, and  reducing their accuracy and efficiency?

Psychology Today notes that background music, when used in proper situations, enhances performance. Music gives you a motivational jumpstart when undertaking cognitive tasks. Upbeat and pleasing music can even elevate your mood and create a motivational boost. This was proven in a cross-cultural study involving Canadian undergraduates who had better cognitive tests results when they listened to an upbeat piece by Mozart than when they listened to a slow and minor key piece by Albinoni.

music to count chips by?

Moreover, relaxing, low-information load, and repetitive background music even enhances cognitive performance. Jazz music is one of the background music genres that helps enhance the performance of poker players – they are able to concentrate on their game better.

This hasn’t been lost on the Poker scene, and was utilized in the Smooth Jazz version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman which online portal partypoker used as a bonus code for their online poker players. If you’ve ever played poker online, you’ll know that these sites also play background music – aimed at helping the players relax and make better decisions.

Ultimately, the type of music listened to has a major role when playing poker because it helps set the mood and the atmosphere of the game. Most players admit that they have their best  games when they are listening to jazz music. Some players even find that most of the time, when they get frustrated and listen to a different type of music like alternative rock, they just end up more frustrated and they lose hands more often. There’s an Art to playing background music then, and the Poker evenings at Raymond Searson’s excellent Pub  know about it – so, if you happen to be in Bonn-Endenich no need to get the Gambling Bar-room Blues, head for The Fiddlers Irish Pub – and when you hear Jazz music, head for the poker table!