Playing your A-game in long sessions.
Posted by Xsecutor
Posted by
Xsecutor
posted in
Low Stakes
Playing your A-game in long sessions.
I find myself that I play super well for a maximum of 60 to 90 minutes.
Than I start doing silly mistakes and become spewy. As some of you grind 10 h a day :) , like how do you manage to play your A game for so long?
Recently I started imposing myself a rule. Every hand that I play I will take a minimum of 5 seconds to think throw. I also reduced the number of tables from 4 zoom tables to 2.
The results, for me are pretty good so far with the changes, but as you can imagine the numbers of hands I play drop.
Also , before session I listen to some relaxation hypnosis. I think it helps me be in the zone.
Thank you for taking the time to read! All answers are welcome!
Loading 5 Comments...
Hey mate,
i guess anybodys concentration drops after a while. Keeping up the A game for 90 minutes is already pretty solid. Sounds like a decent idea to meditate before start playing.
What helps me to get started is also some kind of warm up: solverwork, watching a vid, HH-review or reading at the forums here.
But i guess a lot of ppl lack to take breaks before they mess up. Its sometimes not that easy to recognize upcomming tilt. So i limit eevery session for about 90 minutes as well with at least 20 minutes of break.
If you have nothing to do in life but poker, you can add up to 10h of play per day like this (i guess :))
Really like the idea of the mediation before a ssn ( Ive been doing that after my exercise and sometimes before the ssn just listen relaxing MP3s by Elliot Roe.)
Agree with breaks and would like to ask, because I have moved to full ring tables and now its much harder to take like 15minute break after 60-90minutes of playing since only waiting for 6-12tables takes sometimes even 30minutes soo I can only sit out at next big blind, so that I have like 1 minute before I will be kicked from some table, because the sit out on the next BB is not happening at the same time. Therefore found myself playing 2h or more in a row which I do think is a bit unhealthy and also my focus drops down.
definitely not recommending anyone to play 10h a day of poker xD I mean its almost impossible to play your A-game for such a long period of time. Maybe try to focus on getting into the flow state. Nick Howard has 2 free youtube videos with Kevin Lawrence where he is talking about that stuff in the context of poker.
Taking breaks whenever you feel a bit distracted or just start looking at the time or having the need to check out your phone etc. it might be just few minutes, regaining your concentration and also its healthy, since you can take a short walk outside your room.
Regarding the tilt, Daniel Negreanu says in the podcast with Elliot Roe (absolutely recommend, its free:)) to close your eyes after some bad beat or if you just lose bigger part of your stack, or just feeling a bit tilted. To separate your thoughts from your feelings and physical sensation.. saying what happened to you, what are your feelings and why, then visualizing how do you wanna feel... and then basically choosing from there, so that you are conscious about your choice...:)
Having a tilt diary might be also helpful, writing down whenever you notice you are just feeling more tilted... Figuring out whats the cue and then working from there just to bring more of an awareness of whats actually causing your tilt
Last, but not least would be to visualize before every ssn how do you want to play.. meaning to start from the end and then move backwards.. its helping you since you are now conscious about how do you wanna play so that its more likely to happen (usually its sth like confident, well balanced, dominating your opponents, playing based on odds without any emotions etc).
Sorry for the length of this post, its also a bit messy, sry guys, hope that you can take away at least 1thing:)
Thank you bouth for the replays, i apreaciate them!
really ez and simple solution: play short sessions more frequently, 30min play 30 min break and repeat
Its very hard to maintain A game all day long. I'm trying atm to play 1h session then take 5 minutes breaks, sometimes doing push-ups or squats to stay focus. I heard recently in a poker podcast (I think it was Chasing Poker Greatness) that if you want to maintain very high concentration the first thing you have to do is take long and deep breath while you play. People tend to stress and keep their breath too much but it prevents them from going ''in the zone'' / flow. Concentration is kind of a muscle, you have to train it progressivly, so maybe play shorter sessions at first and add a bit more after some time. 10 hours seems wayyy to much, you better cut some playing time and study more. My 2 cents.
Be the first to add a comment