How long do you play for?

I've been playing micro limits for four or five months now, and have always had a problem staying at the table. I play at least six days a week, often multiple sessions per day. However, my sessions are usually very short.

One of two things happen when I play. If I start off in the first few rounds of blinds and am up a fair amount, usually 4-5BB I convince myself that the session was successful, and that I should end it on a positive note. On the other hand, if I go down 4-5BB quickly I start thinking that I'm not playing good, and I try to either get back to even or just leave.

Obviously this is a mental problem, and I'm convinced that I'm costing myself a lot of money in the long run by leaving so soon, especially when I'm up. So how long is a normal session for you guys? Would a good solution be to set a specific time frame for me to play in? Or could that become a negative? Thanks.

[NateDog]

Long run, one long session, all runs together, one hand at a time.....yeah. One day's session doesn't mean much.

That said, I usually play for about 1 hr straight, 4 tabling. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but not by much either way.

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
Obviously this is a mental problem, and I'm convinced that I'm costing myself a lot of money in the long run by leaving so soon, especially when I'm up. So how long is a normal session for you guys? Would a good solution be to set a specific time frame for me to play in? Or could that become a negative? Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

I only play for about an hour at a time (one table). You shouldn't care too much about how long you're at any particular table, because the games at the micros are so universally bad you should be able to beat all of them (table selection is overrated). If you are able to adjust to players, you stand to lose a little bit of extra EV because you don't get to use the information you gain by playing with a particular player for an extended period. But other than that, it doesn't matter so much what you do.

(Well... to get the whole story out there... if the other players adjust to you, but you don't adjust to them, they gain when you're at a table longer... but this situation is a bit rare at these stakes.)

It's said that poker is just "one long session." Play as long as you are able to play well. If you get distracted after an hour, then don't play for more than an hour at a time. If your schedule only permits 30 minute sessions, just play 30 minute sessions. Worrying about these things isn't going to make much of a difference in the long run.

[Paxosmotic]

While on this summer vacation I play for about 3 hours at a time, 4 tabling. Normally while at home I play 3-4 3 hour sessions a week with 1-2 8 hour sessions. Yes, I 4-table for 8 hours at a time. No, I don't have much of a social life outside of poker, hockey, and music. No, you can't sleep on my couch.

[SavageMiser]

Argh, I just ended a 5-hour session. But don't go by me, I'm one of those guys who could play Civ for days at a time.

[Goodnews]

[ QUOTE ]
Argh, I just ended a 5-hour session. But don't go by me, I'm one of those guys who could play Civ for days at a time.

[/ QUOTE ]

or stay in friday nights because you have a 'clan match' on counter-strike

[SavageMiser]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Argh, I just ended a 5-hour session. But don't go by me, I'm one of those guys who could play Civ for days at a time.

[/ QUOTE ]

or stay in friday nights because you have a 'clan match' on counter-strike

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha! I'll have you know I've never played Counter-Strike. Besides, my clan plays World of Warcraft.

[ltb]

I've been 3-4 tabling recently for about 1-2 hrs. at a time. I'll drop down to 2-3 tables if I feel overwhelmed by the extra table or if I just don't like the 3rd/4th table I'm playing at.

While clearing the Party reload bonus, I'd play 2 or 3 sessions a day, depending on how much free time I had.

[Dave G.]

I typically 4 table 4 - 5 hour sessions. I play 4 - 5 times a week. I have very good concentration and focus so this isn't a problem for me, but any longer than that and I start to get distracted and disinterested. I find that music / singing (yes I sing when playing sometimes /images/graemlins/tongue.gif) helps me deal with bad beats pretty effectively, and I can stop and concentrate if I come across a tough decision. The play at these levels is so robotic that I can play well enough even with the music most of the time.

My advice is to set aside a certain period of time and just play come rain, hell or rivered gutshot. Quitting after you're up 5BBs is horrible imo. I don't see how you'd ever turn a profit.

[tiltaholic]

"If I start off in the first few rounds of blinds and am up a fair amount, usually 4-5BB I convince myself that the session was successful, and that I should end it on a positive note. On the other hand, if I go down 4-5BB quickly I start thinking that I'm not playing good, and I try to either get back to even or just leave. "

This passage illustrates the conflict you likely have between your desire to not lose money and the actual way poker works.

There is no immediate connection between "being up or down" for a session and how well one is playing. And 4-5 BB is what, like one hand won or lost?

I am down 5 bb virtually every session I play -- then along comes that 20 bb pot...

[mojobluesman]

My pattern is exactly the same. I like to end a session on an up note. So I tend to end a little quicker if I am ahead and stay a little longer if I am behind. Personally, I don't there's any problem with that as long as you are playing equally well on both occasions and are on a favorable table.

play until you suck. thats the best advice.

[fizzleboink]

I 3 table for 3 to 4 hour sessions. I generally play until my emotions start to affect my decisions (tilt), then I'll take a break. Although I've been getting better and better at avoiding tilt.

[imported_The Vibesman]

I single table, anywhere from 2 hours to 5 in a given session, two-three hours is usually at night after my day job, before I go to bed. Weekends I'll crank that up to 5, even 6 hour nighttime sessions if I am playing well. It actually takes me a half-hour to an hour or so to "get into a groove" and get the feel of the game.

I knock off early sometimes if I take nothing but bad beats for an hour or two ("it's not my night"), usually because, like most others probably, I find the game much tougher and mentally taxing if I am losing.

[jrz1972]

[ QUOTE ]
Obviously this is a mental problem,

[/ QUOTE ]

You need to get out of this habit. Force yourself to play, say, 300 hands every session from now on. Just tell yourself at the outset that come hell or high water you are not shutting down until you've logged 300. (Or whatever).

Keep doing that until the temptation to close up shop early has gone away.

Based on your post, it sounds like you have an unhealthy obsession with ultra-shortterm results. This is bad on several levels and the sooner you get out of this mindset the better.

[Piper Tim]

I usually play anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. The really short sessions are usually b/c my kids require some sort of attention or I find I really am too tired to play well.

Stop leaving when you are up and staying when you are down.

I will almost always play, even when I plan on stopping, until the blinds reach me again.

[DCWildcat]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Obviously this is a mental problem,

[/ QUOTE ]

You need to get out of this habit. Force yourself to play, say, 300 hands every session from now on. Just tell yourself at the outset that come hell or high water you are not shutting down until you've logged 300. (Or whatever).

Keep doing that until the temptation to close up shop early has gone away.

Based on your post, it sounds like you have an unhealthy obsession with ultra-shortterm results. This is bad on several levels and the sooner you get out of this mindset the better.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true, and a problem I have as well. I have no problem evaluating decisions based on their long-term value, with the exception of staying at a table.

[terrapin314]

30 minutes to 2 hours going anywhere from 2-4 tables. An hour is a nice length - I don't lose too much concentration.

I'm still learning, so I just single table. Usually about an hour (50 hands), sometimes more. I try not to start if I can't devote at least an hour. I'll quit if I drop a certain amount (usually around 15BB). Once I'm up by about 15BB I'll put in a 'stop loss' and quit after I've given 5BB back. Let's me keep playing if I'm doing well but let's me end up with a profit.

[Harv72b]

I did much the same thing you're describing for my first 6 months or so of poker. And I had a hard time convincing myself to change, because I was winning at a pretty good clip throughout this period.

When I finally decided to get "serious" about poker, I had a hard time adjusting to the longer sessions. I would get very frustrated when an hour or two's worth of winnings would all but evaporate over the span of a few hands, or push my sessions for way too long in an effort to chase early losses (I still have these problems from time to time, although I've learned to deal with them better).

Now, I've come up with a pretty good system--I play when I want to play, for as long as I want to play. If my mind starts wandering while I'm at the tables, then I finish up my orbits & find something else to do until I'm motivated to play some more. I do still enjoy the game enough that I end up playing nearly every day, but I might only put in 30 mins or an hour one day, and then knock out a 10 hour session the next. Or if I just don't feel like hitting the tables at all, I take a day off.

You are only costing yourself money by leaving a profitable table if you are still playing well at that point. If you're unable to focus properly on the game for whatever reason, or tilting because of a few losses, or just not motivated to stay in the game, then you are often costing yourself by money by not leaving. It doesn't matter how badly your opponents play if you end up playing even worse.

To specifically answer the title question, I usually play for at least 2 hours at a time. On the weekends, I'll often play long (8 hr+) sessions overnight. But I only 2-table; I can easily understand how trying to play 4 or more tables for that many consecutive hours would really suck.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
I am down 5 bb virtually every session I play -- then along comes that 20 bb pot...

[/ QUOTE ]

This is an excellent point, and one that deserves to be stressed. Especially when you're playing full ring games, you are going to "lose" money 1-2 BBs at a time for several hands, but when you win a pot it's often going to push you several bets into the black. You have to get used to seeing your stack move up and down like this over the course of your session; 5 BBs is truly nothing on the grand scale of things.

Probably not a great example, but donking around on a .50/1 table with a bunch of other 2+2'ers and a few unfortunate players caught in the middle last week, I went through a -110 BB downswing, a +115 BB upswing, another -100 BB downswing, and finally a +105 BB upswing in the same session. Obviously the fact that I was playing something like 60% of my hands at that table led to the huge amount of variance, but if you cut those in thirds (to simulate a more natural 20% VPIP), you still see up & downswings in the 30-40 BB range within one session. That is completely normal, given enough hands.

[TeeVeeDude]

My wife complained about poker eating up too much of my free time, so now Thursday is my "Poker night." On Thursdays I play five or six hours.

The rest of the week I'll grab a few hands while eating breakfast or lunch. My general rule is that I don't play unless I have time to stay for a full orbit, so the blinds don't eat me up.

So my shortest sessions run 10 to 15 minutes, my longest are five or six hours.

Don't focus on your results in a particular session. As someone else said, it's all one long session.

[deception5]

I usually play 2-3 6-max tables for 1-3 hours. I used to have the same problem you describe but recently I seem to have finally gotten past it. It used to be the case that if I was down overall or especially when I was down on all 3 tables I would begin to tilt and feel like I had to make the money back. I've finally started to really realize that it's just variance and I will make the money back over time, I don't need to end every session profitably.

What I do now is whenever one of my tables gets down 10-20BB I top it off so I pretty much always have the same amount of money at the tables unless I am doing very well. Then I try to forget how many times I've topped off. /images/graemlins/smile.gif The hardest concept to grasp is that you will have losing and winning sessions due to no fault of your own. What is important is that you do not have losing sessions because you tilt or because you played worse than usual. If I lose but feel like I wouldn't play anything differently then I feel like it was a successful session.

[deception5]

[ QUOTE ]
My wife complained about poker eating up too much of my free time

[/ QUOTE ]

Mine too. Then I read one of GrunchCan's posts about how 1/6th of his profits went towards the house. +EV! After I put a bunch of poker money towards paying bills it became much more accepted /images/graemlins/smile.gif