Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinyl_Pimp
I am writing to see if anyone has advice on naturally getting sleep night before the final day during a large MTT? Usually I have poker players are giving less than 12 hours rest period in between.
Couple of weeks ago I was 3/17 going into day3 in a £1k comp, but after getting only 3 hours sleep, I played terrible and went out in 11th.
I would really like to switch off and not celebrate too early in my head. How do you do it?
Hi Vinyl:
I’ve written about this in some of my psychology stuff. The key here is that there are two ways you can get tired. The first is being physically tired which is what you’re describing, and it’s my opinion that most good poker players should play fine when somewhat physically tired. For you to play poorly it means that some of your hands now must be played differently and this new way of playing must be inferior to your standard way.
Now if you go let’s say 50 hours without sleeping your ability to function well will certainly degrade, but missing a few hours sleep the night before should have little effect on your mental decisions. To see this, just think of all the things you’ve done fine when physically tired.
Mentally tired is a different story. Without explaining exactly what it is let’s just say it’s why we all need vacations every now and then, and it’s also my opinion that this is the number one reason why tournament players, especially those with less experience, will often crack up and do poorly relative to their strategy decisions in a tournament when close to the big money.
So what’s the solution? Make sure you’re mentally fresh before the tournament begins. That is you may be better off taking that vacation before the tournament and not after. Also, if you’re starting to feel warn out, it might be time to skip an event. This way you should be able to stay mentally fresh for longer even if your sleep gets shorted the night before the final table.
Best wishes,
Mason
