Maintaining the A-Game: A Recurring Problem

So, this is my first full month playing cash after 18-months of casually taking on the Chris Ferguson challenge with MTTs.

I was off work at the start of the month and played 1-3 very short sessions per day with some decent success, despite some inexperienced plays at times. My mind was fresh each session and 10nl seemed like it was going to be easy to crush on Stars within 1-2 months.

Since returning to work however, nearly every session has a recurring theme: I get 2BI up in the first hour (500 hands, 9-tabling) playing "thinking" poker and then proceed to become a tired, button-clicking zombie and donk the buy-ins off (and occasionally some more on top with some coolers).

My questions therefore are:
(1) What session length do others play before their A-Game starts to slip away?
(2) Are there any tricks you use to spot when you may have become a button-clicking zombie? Or tactics you use to prevent becoming too tired?
(2) How do I increase my stamina beyond one hour per night (no jokes necessary)?

I'd recommend getting a copy of Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker" - he covers this stuff a lot.

I think what session length other people manage is irrelevant - you've got to stop comparing to anyone else, and just as you'd (at least try) feel good about your game if you played well and lost money, so you must feel good about your mental game if you play 1hr 5m of good poker today when you only managed 1hr yesterday. Whether or not someone else can play 10hrs is neither here nor there.

Incremental improvement is the key - start with 1hr, and resolve to add 5 minutes each day for a week, so each time you reach yesterdays total that you know you can play well for, you only have to push yourself to maintain optimal concentration for another 5 minutes, then you can quit for the day.

Again, I highly recommend Jareds book.

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Originally Posted by The Bean Counter

My questions therefore are:
(1) What session length do others play before their A-Game starts to slip away?
(2) Are there any tricks you use to spot when you may have become a button-clicking zombie? Or tactics you use to prevent becoming too tired?
(2) How do I increase my stamina beyond one hour per night (no jokes necessary)?

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That Boris is one smart ape. I can't agree more about how important it is to compare yourself to your previous self and not to other people. I suspect you know your self much better than you have acknowledged in the OP. Relax, you took on a new job, that's bound to add stress to your daily routines.

(1) If you really want to know, I play 2 to 3 hour sessions @ 3 or 4 times a day. I feel I start slipping off my A-game after about 2 hours, and it depends on how many feeshies are at the table if I try to push myself.

(2) Certain thoughts are clearly tilt-based and I have learned to recognize certain arguments I make to myself as "bad thinking".
E.g. "I'm not leaving this table until I get $x.xx"
"I'm not leaving until I get even with that donk for 3-outing me."
"I just want to book another 100 hands today."
"I got coolered 4 times today and I'm NOT down 4 BI's (I'm down 3), I am winning it back."
"I'm up a BI, I can afford to make a hero-call here."

Those are the kind of things I tell myself before I try (what in retrospect was) an obvious bluff that was completely out of character and there's no way a half thinking villain would have fallen for it. AND I should have known that THAT villain is certainly not the one to bluff.

other (2) During the session: Consider going down to fewer tables after some time period.
(a) I force myself to take deep breaths when I'm deciding to get involved in a hand. Extra oxygen to the brain makes for less stress when making smart decisions.
(b) I force myself to relax my hands and shoulders when I'm not involved in a hand (wow this makes a BIG difference).
(c) Any time I feel my patience wearing thin, I stop watching the post-flop action for a couple-few hands. What I lose in info, I gain in focus.

Most common breaks between sessions include: A meal, a (pedal) bike ride, and a shower. It takes about an hour, but my head is completely cleared when it's done. Even bad beats from earlier that day don't bother me anymore; it's just a past session.

One of the most important skills in poker is knowing when to quit, if you become tired after 1 hour then quit the moment you realize you're starting to play bad. Don't keep playing on while playing/feeling bad, it really isn't worth it.

As for increasing the amount of time spent playing it's all about small consistent steps.

"I made a post once in HSNL about a thought which helped me a lot. It basically was the idea that every time the action is on you, it’s an opportunity for you to make the perfect play. Thinking about poker that way is good for your game."

Phil Galfond

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If you want to be able to play long sessions with any frequency, your first priority is to be aware of how long you can go before you start getting burnt out. By burnt out, I mean you start playing worse because you really don't care anymore and you want to get up and do something else. For example, if you work a 9-5 and usually play for an hour and a half in the evenings three or four days a week, your threshold is probably around 2-2.5 hours four times a week.

So here's what you do. Start off by paying attention to how long you're normally playing each session, each week. Hell, write it down or keep a text file that lists how much you play and each day for two weeks. Don't do anything out of the ordinary, just keep up with when you play. After you know where you're at, you want to try to start adding 15 minutes to the end of each session for a couple of weeks. If you play four sessions a week, this is going to give you an extra hour of play without taking up much time on any individual day.

The idea is to start conditioning your mind to handle poker information for longer and longer times, but if you don't focus on your whole session, including the extra 15 minutes, then you're basically wasting your time and will gain very little from this process. To make the most of this extra 15 minutes, make sure that when that 15 minute block comes around that you're actively engaged and trying really hard to stay focused on the game. You won't improve your playing stamina if you slack off and half-ass through this extra block of time. Now take a couple of weeks and focus on maintaining concentration through your whole session with this extra 15 minutes added on. Once you get in the habit of staying fairly focused on what you're doing, add another 15 minutes to each session and continue the process.

It sounds pretty simple because it is, as long as you don't get ahead of yourself. If you start in your comfort zone and incrementally increase your playing time to whatever goal you have for yourself, then you'll achieve your goal with relatively few growing pains. The people who have the most trouble learning to play long sessions tend to try to jump right into playing eight hour sessions six times a week when they're used to playing two hour sessions four or five times a week. Your mind cannot adapt to that big of a change so quickly and maintain (or increase) the level at which you play the game. If you try to play this long of a session out of nowhere, you'll start playing horribly at one point or another -- look at any thread where someone has played a 24 hour session (who wasn't used to it) for proof of this.

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by spoon http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...st-151254.html

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Originally Posted by BorisTheSpider

I think what session length other people manage is irrelevant - you've got to stop comparing to anyone else, and just as you'd (at least try) feel good about your game if you played well and lost money, so you must feel good about your mental game if you play 1hr 5m of good poker today when you only managed 1hr yesterday. Whether or not someone else can play 10hrs is neither here nor there.

Incremental improvement is the key - start with 1hr, and resolve to add 5 minutes each day for a week, so each time you reach yesterdays total that you know you can play well for, you only have to push yourself to maintain optimal concentration for another 5 minutes, then you can quit for the day.

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good post

Thanks a lot for the detailed and considered replies - really appreciate it and it's helped a lot. It seems MMM knows my exact thoughts at the table and I'll definitely get the book.

I've also been strict with myself since reading the replies and incrementally adding some time to each session, deliberately sitting up straight and having Galfond's thought at the back of my mind (but taking care to end the session after a maximum of 75 minutes at the moment). Seems to be working a treat as I've played 7 sessions since and I'm up 17BI in 4.2k hands.

Will let you know how I get on in future, as the acid test is on a work night (partly because the nitty regs are more prevalent). Once again, thanks a lot.

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Originally Posted by The Bean Counter

(2) How do I increase my stamina beyond one hour per night (no jokes necessary)?

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Drink a small cup of coffee about 30min into your session (or at the start). Should help you play a bit longer.