I have just recently started grinding micro stakes cash games on PStars about 3 months ago. I play about 10K hands a week and average about 40K a month 6 tabling either 25NL or 50NL. I play about 3K hands a day on about 4 days out of the week and that will take me about 6 hours. But unfortunately this seems to be killing my winrate. Because for whatever reason I can never seem to play my A game for an entire session. I will usually start out playing at the top of my game and then after about 1.5K hands my game goes to ****. It might be what some people call "winners tilt", for some reason when I build all of my stacks up I think it is ok to start gambling. In the back of my mind I tell myself that it doesn't really matter if I loose this pot because that money is all profits anyways. So I start playing like a friggen donk and start check calling to look players up, instead of going with my read and laying it down. I get in really high variance spots, such as getting it in on the flop w an over and a flush draw. I never usually do this when I am on my A game I just play small ball poker and try to stay away from big pots unless I have something huge. As the session goes on it seems like this strategy is completely flipped 180 degrees and I start trying to get involved with big pots whenever possible. This is what I call my F game and it can come out at almost anytime, for no particular reason. Basically all of my PT graphs look like at upside down U, with me racking up about 5 buy ins and then pissing 3-5 of them away, if not ending it with a loosing session, before the day is over. I know the most obvious solution would be to just quit at about 1-2K hands when I am basically always up big, running at 10 BB/100 or better. But this is not the solution that I am looking for. I want to be able to stay at the tables with the same WR all day long so I can keep moving up through the limits as quickly as possible. Have any of you grinders come across this similar situation? What are some of the things that you do to help keep you 100% focused for those long sessions? Please tell me any variables that you think might lead to me having these problems so consistently. This is really hurting my winrate and making it near impossible to move up. I feel if I can just play my A game for the entire session my bankroll would grow tremendously, so any tips to help me do this are greatly appreciated!

#1 Game killer: Tilt.

#2 Game killer: Tilt.

#3 Game killer: Fatigue.

In your case, though, it seems like it's discipline. I've been guilty of loosening up and gambling it up with a big stack every now and then myself. You should try to play tighter with a bigger stack and go into lockdown mode, since you're deeper.

def fatigue for me. I work 10-12 hours/ day at the regular job and try to grind up my roll in the evening....sometimes i only get 5 hours of sleep per night...if i'm rested (rarely), i notice a much higher win rate.....

Was actually thinking about experimenting for two weeks, week 1 play as much as i want and intentionally sleep deprive myself.

Week 2 same play, limit sessions to 2 hours max, and require 7 hours sleep per night, compare...

Brunson said that he usually went broke in large MTTs after dinner because of fluctuating blood sugar levels and lack of concentration....made me think of this experiment...plus i'm not exactly in the best shape physically....

good luck.

I tend to do the complete opposite of OP actually. My biggest problem in microstakes is the beginning of a session. I tend to bluff too much and I look at the potential long term winrate and I'm more likely to want to buy pots and call big AIs with less. Also later in a session PT gets running hot with some of my reads so it's a little easier.

Definitely sounds like your problem is with discipline. When I multitabled on Party, I had exactly what your problem was "winner's tilt".

The best way for me to deal with it was to click "Sit Out Next Hand" on all my tables...then go to the bathroom or get a drink or drive to a convenience store, then click "I'm Back" upon my return. You may need to cut your sessions in two halves of about 1.5K hands, and take an hour break in between.

I know my one friend swears the only reason he doesn't go on tilt is because he drinks a beer every hour and takes a 10min break to smoke a cigarette every hour too. To each his own.

You mind posting some graphs that show this trend?

You don't ... what you do is make your B-game good enough to beat whatever stakes you're playing and then make an effort not to drop down to your C-game or below.

If your B-game isn't good enough, then just move down after an hour or whenever your A-game starts going down the drain .. or just move down period ?

well said. its not about what u can do when u r at ur best, its about what you can do when u r not at ur best