I'm not talking about 2 or 3 hour sessions. I'm talking about 4-6 hour sessions. I have noticed, personally, that if I play 9, 10, 11 hour sessions, most of them are losing sessions. Everybody is different. Some players can grind for 13-14 hours and stay sharp, and some can't. Bottom line is about how much money you bring home at the end of the day.

You are right the money won at the end of the day is an important measure. I need to be able to play 10 hr sessions while maintaining a solid level of play. Some things I'm doing to improve my endurance is eating healthier and exercising every morning when I wake up. I take a break every 2 hrs. If I don't feel like I am playing well or the game sucks I don't have a problem quiting.

a day does not count

The other reason to not allow yourself to play 12 hr sessions is that it's possible at the ten hour mark that you can no longer truly evaluate how good you are playing or how good the game is. It's one thing to play 12 hours b/c the game is so juicy you feel like it would be burning money to leave it, it's another to stay and play longer when you don't want to be there and aren't focused just because you think you have to. That leads to frustration, which is the root of most evil in poker.

Also, if you see you don't have good results from your sessions longer than 8 hrs, that seems like a very useful data point. Use it. It seems like you've been trying this relentless focus on hours approach for a while without great results. Why not try a different approach. Maybe instead of grading your play after each session, take a break and grade it every hour or two. If it's ever a "c", leave. Also maybe ok to leave if it's a "b". If your "b" game is break-even, then your not giving up anything by going home and resting up to play a winning "a" game the next day.

What would happen if priority #1 was only playing your A game, and priority #2 was putting in as many hours as possible?

I'll grade my play a B. I made a couple tight laydowns that were possibly bad. I was at 2 really good early morning tables, a couple guys losing over 1k in a short period. Pretty tired out, gunna be back at it tomorrow.

I meant average won per day. Obviously a single day is only 100 or 200 hands which isn't statistically meaningful.

I appreciate your thoughts as always.

I'm probably not going to play longer than 10 sessions after tomorrow.

My main priority is on playing my A game. I do think my B game is still winning at most tables, C game I can probably only beat soft games. I generally do evaluate how I've been playing at each break.

I feel like my play has been really good with very infrequent large mistakes since the end of October but I am going through another tough stretch of standard variance.

4 day mini goal

hrs- 27

2013 YTD

Total hours played- 63
Average hourly winrate- -$4
Winnings- -$232

Op set a standard of minimum hours because in the past he has not met weekly or monthly goals. If I am not mistaken it was not many hours for a full time poker pro.

Most decisions at 1/2 & 1/3 are trivial so I dont think Op grinding that many hours is a concern.

Just read the majority of your thread and have to say you seem like a really chill dude. Best of luck.

This is true for quite a few people because if people win a lot of money in the first 6 hours, they quit, even if they are in a good game. The opposite is also true for most (people play longer if they are stuck). If you play for a living, you can't do this.

fwiw my hourly is double my average for sessions over 10 hours

Sadly I failed again. I will be doing the cinnamon challege. I was super tired after the last long session and slept most of Sunday . I'll just keep freerolling you guys until I have the discipline to hit goals I set for myself. I'm thinking I need to set daily targets because even 4 day goals I can't keep up with. I feel a little pathetic, very poor start to the year.

So here is what I owe everyone so far-
[]pics of at least 3 girls
[]cinnamon challenge recorded and uploaded to youtube

Goal for today- 10 hrs playing my A game

Yep my biggest opponent is laziness. Most decisions aren't too tough, just have to be able to deal with running bad for seemingly long periods.

Thanks

I can relate to leaving sooner when I have won a decent amount, I feel less guilty for leaving even though that is the wrong mindset.

I think in the future I will be able to win more in longer sessions because of deeper effective stacks and more detailed reads.

2013 YTD

Total hours played- 63.5
Average hourly winrate- -$1
Winnings- -$83

sorry u failed but

dya drink caffeine? i know it sounds gay but coffe/green tea/coffee/green tea helps me keep grindinnnn

glglgl

Enjoy your thread!

In regards to not putting in the hours, do you think it has anything to do with something more psychological? Maybe you've lost some passion for the game, or getting sick of it? From what I've been reading lately in your thread (past few months or so) it seems like the drive just isn't there compared to what it was in the beginning of the thread.

As a poker professional, relying solely on poker for income, there definitely needs to be a drive to play certain hours/days to sustain your everyday lifestyle. Have you thought of possibly picking up a part time job to supplement poker?

Good luck man, hope you can finish the month strong! Juicy games right around the corner with Super Bowl coming up, and March madness after.

Kinda bored, about to head out for my session in a minute. Just typed up some tl;dr respones haha. I warned you!

I'm sure you'll get a kick out of my vid haha.

I used to 16 table .05/.10 on ftp and drink a bunch of mountain dew which has the highest caffeine content of any soda. I would drink like 6 or 7 a day, really unhealthy. I've also gone through phases of drinking a bunch of black coffee when I play. I did drink tea at Lucky Chances because they had it laying out.
All that stuff irriates my stomach now so I try to stay away from it.

I've also had a really unheathly habit of drinking a bunch of energy drinks like full throttle and amp not to mention they cost like $2 or $3 each. This year I'm trying eat and drink healthier stuff. More fruit and water less bad stuff. I just buy cases of water .15 a bottle, that's much cheaper than energy drinks. Side note- don't drink the tap water in Vegas it's so ****in gross.

There is always the options of real stimulants like coke and meth/ adderall. I have known addicts and it's not something I ever want to mess with.

Yeah the last 6 months have been pretty tough pokerwise. It is sometimes hard to make myself hit the casinos and grind. There is that moment when I am about to head out and have that passing thought "is this the night I go completely busto?".

Also when I am playing and get in some frustrating spots I start to get that feeling "**** I gotta get outta here". Spending so many hours with quite a few unsavory characters, and paying for the privilege.

It shouldn't be that surprising to anyone that poker isn't much fun when losing. Breaking even for a stretch of 700 hrs sucks. It is what it is just have to deal with it and avoid playing like a fish.

I want to keep a positive mindset this year and use will power to push through it.

As far as getting a "real" job, for me it would be hard for a couple reasons. I was chaptered out of the military for drinking underage and getting a dwi when I was 19. I have a felony record for some petty **** I did when I was 20 (selling weed and having a brass knuckles that ironicly I won playing a buddy HU). After I got out of jail I went job hunting with very poor results. I filled out 500 job apps> 5 interviews> 11 months later I found some temp work for $10/hr.

Anyhow around that time I was lurking 2+2 and p5 seeing these sick graphs posted in bbv and I'm like damn I wish I could do that. So my plan was to grind up the stakes online... until bf happened and luckly I turned 21 in 2011. That's when I started this thread.

I have been working on a lot of art of the past few years and I want to get into selling it online. So that is a possible source of income outside of poker.

I'm looking to finish out the month strong, these first 2 weeks I did not put forth enough effort. I'll be taking care of my obligations and will be offering 2 more freerolls this month.

You seem like a really level headed dude and I really believe that you will be able to accomplish your long term goals if you keep the current positive mindset that you have. I have to say it is a treat to read your thread. I understand completely what you say about sharing your company at the poker table with undesirable characters, especially while dealing with a downswing. That **** just sucks. You are a beacon of hope and a guiding light for a lot of us with similar aspirations to you, so keep up the grind and the great attitude my man.

download the 'live poker bankroll' app

I only played 8 hrs today, very swingy session starting off taking some sick beats but ended up booking my biggest win since I arrived back in Vegas. I definitely played my A game today.

Biggest pots I played-

I pick up AA utg and open for 15, 2 callers.

Flop- 973
I bet 30, bb c/r to 60 I jam for 185, he tank calls with 88

Turn- 10

River- J

nh sir

I found another super juicey game, there was a drunk guy tilting off over 1k, he had a fat stack of hundos in his pocket and kept reloading. He was open raising as big as 100 at 1/2 .

I limp KK utg maniac makes it 50, somewhat tight guy makes it 100, I jam for 240 total, maniac folds. Tight guy calls with AQ and I hold up.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

What does it do?

2013 YTD

Total hours played- 72
Average hourly winrate- $6
Winnings- $396

Subscribed. Ill be out in Vegas early in February. Maybe I'll see you there.

goal for today

[] 10 hrs

mini challenge

[] 60 hrs in the next 6 days

Gl sending positive vibes. I've almost read most of my thread I'm glad that you have made good changes in your life. I can relate in my past I was really good at screwing sh## up and running from my self...but Hell Ya Vegas next week dude. For me I'm gonna be doing a lot of legal hustling and trying to get setup for something and from ground Zero. It's a fresh start. Sorry for long post....your on a good route learn from all your mistakes and fix like you've been doing.---Devin

Sent from my SCH-I535 using 2+2 Forums

I put in a solid 10 hrs of A game today.

I passed an important milestone



810 hr breakeven stretch, finally recovered from my $4.2k downswing. I want to give a huge thanks to dhcg86 for helping me through the tough times. Cheers to 2013 and actually making money playing poker.

PM me if you want to hang.

Thanks man, cya when you get here. You are totally right about learning from mistakes.

Mini Challenge

hrs played- 10

2013 YTD

Total hours played- 81.5
Average hourly winrate- $11
Winnings- $857

Damn was expecting teh pics

At what point on the graph did you move in with me

Ok guys, no more ****ing around I am going to snap pics of 4 hot chicks today... I am a man of my word.

Right at the half way point.

I tried out "Multi Action Poker" at Aria for the first time. It went smoother than I expected. I actually really like it. I would recommend everyone at least try it if you visit Vegas. We were playing 1/3 nl on both sides. I think it would be even more fun to play half nl and half plo. I'll grade myself an A for the session.

As promised





Got turned down by like 5 other groups of girls, some were reeeally hot.

MAP



Cinnamon challenge coming up soon. Looks like I am on pace to fail this week's mini challenge so I need some more ideas for negative reinforcement, thanks guys.

Mini Challenge

hrs played- 16

2013 YTD

Total hours played- 87.5
Average hourly winrate- $16
Winnings- $1402

Grind dat bitsh

1/4 attractive women ... not bad.