Young Me

used to playing extra long sessions

wouldn't unusual for me to play 12+ hours in a day with a dozen or more tables going on (18ish was where it began to be unmanageable and 12 was my autopilot)

playing live my average session well over 8 hours, would often start playing at 5pm and finish when table broke at 9am

during trips i would put in so much volume that i eventually started booking a hotel for every other night because i often played through the night anyway

Current Me

39 years old

if i play more than 4 tables it become untenable, will be timing out and sometimes not even aware of that, if i'm doing spins then it goes down to 2

often times if i play more than 2-3 hours i can sense myself mentally checking out and not interested in playing anymore - i've found if i ignore that feeling i inevitably start making bad decisions

is this stuff standard, what do you guys do to defeat this aging curve?

it's also possible a lot of this is because i'm not used to playing anymore. i've barely played in the past few years and these days play on a laptop so that probably has a lot to do with this but at the same time it's really frightening how much my brain seems to have slowed down on me

i'm thinking of starting to meditate before a session and take scheduled breaks - anything else i should look into?

unsure if this is relevant but I'm drug and mostly alcohol free, haven't been drunk drunk in years and maybe only have a few drinks 3-4x a month

i certainly lost plenty of braincells to daily weed and heavy social drinking when i was younger but these days not too interested in either anymore - interestingly my tolerance has gone to hell, i still can't get over that i can feel a buzz after a single drink now like back in high school days

I hear very low carb can improve mental clarity.

It's a bit of a myth that alcohol kills brain cells. Chronic consumption can cause neurological conditions, but not kill brain cells and social drinking certainly would cause an irreversible damage.

Regarding your theory, I think there is some merit to the view that age might affect online poker ability. For example, reaction time declines with age, which at some point is going to mean you have to cut back on the number of tables you are playing. Other factors might be concentration and earlier onset of fatigue in sessions.

However, I'm also of the view that tilt is primarily an issue of testosterone and competition. Competitive situations raise testosterone in males and directly lead to aggressive behaviour. However, as the pre-frontal cortex finishes development in the mid twenties, this moderates impulsive behaviour generally and therefore moderates aggression.

Therefore, I would suggest you are right that older players might be more constrained in their volumes of play, but they are also likely to be less-prone to tilt.

39 seems a bit young for this much of a difference. I'm 39 too and have been playing fulltime for just over 14 years.

I think part of it might be that you've lost some of the passion, which is normal as the years go by. Just like how the weed and alcohol may seem less interesting now, the poker can seem less interesting too.

Are you physically fit?

I dont know much about psychology etc but i think its common knowledge in that field that the brain developes fully at around the age of 25, especially in those areas in the brain who controls attention and thinking fast.

Even though were smarter (have more knowledge, experience) at 39 years old, our brain probably works better when we're 25-30. Thats should mean thats its easier to multitask (play 20 tables etc) when youre young.

But yeah, i heard meditating, good food, working out and stuff like that is good for your brain.

loving all the discussion on this

I'm arguably in the worst shape of my life right now but still in pretty decent shape overall imo