Endurance

[DRUK88]

Backstory: haven't been playing a lot past couple of months, because was the end of my time in University, so had final year projects and revision, then a lengthy 1 month break in Thailand to relax and do a bit of travelling after a stressful year. Now I am back, in full time work, with time and desire to grind (both 6max and MTTs) as much as possible around work (mon-fri 37.5hrs a week).

I was off Monday, and put in a decent session, finishing at 5:30am and going to sleep (I backed a friend who took down an MTT which is why I was up so late - I stopped playing myself to sweat him with 2 tables to go at about 4am).

I woke up at about 11am (sleeping pattern for work has made it hard to sleep till mid-afternoon. But I got back to a new session at about 4pm, and by 9pm I could feel myself being very tired, and I could sense my focus/concentration was going. I was still in a couple of tourneys making decent runs so I didn't just quit. When I busted, I went to bed. I am now in work today, very tired and although I would like to grind tonight, I wont because it would be a bad idea.

The advice I need is regarding how you guys concentrate for these mammoth sessions you seem to play. Obviously it's easier when you don't have to work like I do, but I would like to put in some long sessions at times (and quite regulary over weekends when the games are juicier and can go on all night).

So, is there any advice to give on how to increase my stamina so I can play my A game for a long period of time? Or advice (now that you know my general living schedule) on when I should be playing and for how long?

This could be the fact that I am just getting back into playing after a fairly lengthy absence (although I never played awfully long sessions before), but I was aware how fatigued I was playing those tourneys Tuesday night after a long night the night before, and thought it would be best to get it checked out, hence this post.

[robbyd86]

I also work a full time job and have trouble loggin poker hrs. Really all ive heard is that if u do it emough eventually youll train your brain to focus that long. Ive also heard adderall works .

What i do is make sure i get plenty of sleep throughout the week to make sure i have enough energy for grinding on the wknd.

[DRUK88]

Cool thanks. So do I assume you don't play much live or online through the week and just log mammoth sessions at weekends? Or do you play say friday-sunday, then tuesday and thursday for relatively short sessions?

[robbyd86]

It really depends if im working overtime or not. If i am its hard to play during the week so ill just play for an hour or so if i can. Usually i try to log in quality hands rather than quantity so if i dont feel physically or mentally up to it i just wont play. I lost way too much money playin when i was tired or still stressed from work.

Another thing u can do on the wknds is play for an hour or two take a short break and then play again. This works pretty well for me. Even if its just to strech out for 10 min it usually helps

[RikaKazak]

The best way to "improve" your poker playing stamina is ironically to grind more imo. for me, I started 1 tabling. And was AMAZED when people 3 tabled (that was the max you could play back in the day). Then I started to 2 table, then 3, etc. etc.

Nowadays, I play up to 24 on a regular basis, and can keep that up for hours. So it's something that takes months to years to develop imo. So just keep playing, SLOWLY push yourself (don't overdo it) and you'll build up your tolerance.

[Hatya]

I recently start to increase my play time dramatically. I went from 2-3 short session a day, to where im grinding as much as 8 hours a day. And its not working, I made more money when i was grinding short sessions. Now I find my brain turning into banana pudding late in the sessions. Im doing some very stupid shit as a result.

I am going to be implementing a series of breaks into my game, something like a mandatory session time limit of 2 hours or so. Then i will force myself to take a break and decompress. I'm starting to think my brain is getting overloaded after a certain length of time.

In time, I would hope that these breaks will need to be less frequent and my stamina will increase.

[robbyd86]

Even in the "real world" ppl take breaks cause i dont think most ppls mind can handle working 8 straight hrs non stop. And when your using your brain as much as you are in poker its important to take a lil time every couple hrs or so imo. All it takes is 10 mins or so every 2-3 hrs and u should be fine. U dont even have to close tables most times.

Of course some ppl (rika ) are built to work or play insane amount of hrs but id say majority of ppl cant.

[Hatya]

I just did a HM analysis of session play time.

Session time / Won / Lost
30-90 mins / 47 / 21

90-180 mins / 33 / 29

180 mins+ / 8 / 14

So even tho the sample size is small, and results are generic by far my optmial play time is 90 min sessions. Im going to analyze this further, and figure session $ net, hands/hr figures. I'll post results when i finish this.

[RikaKazak]

Originally Posted by Hatya

I just did a HM analysis of session play time.

Session time / Won / Lost
30-90 mins / 47 / 21

90-180 mins / 33 / 29

180 mins+ / 8 / 14

So even tho the sample size is small, and results are generic by far my optmial play time is 90 min sessions. Im going to analyze this further, and figure session $ net, hands/hr figures. I'll post results when i finish this.

very interesting...I'm going to do the analysis with my HEM

[RikaKazak]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but one thing I do that allows me to play longer sessions is "have fun."

I know a lot of old timers like me don't exactly have fun come naturally to them anymore at the poker table. And it's more a grind. But I actually just made a video about "keeping poker fun" so hopefully that'll be up here soon