Timer
06-16-2003, 02:02 PM
On Saturday the Commerce Club had a $250,000 guaranteed $300 limit hold’em tournament with rebuys at the first three levels-40 minute rounds. The tournament started at 3:30 PM. What time do you think it was completed? 7:00 AM the next morning. In my opinion this is a travesty. Who in their right mind can play poker for 16 hours straight, and still be in shape to play their best game when it counts the most—13 hours into the tournament.
As far as I’m concerned the number one tournament skill today is stamina. If you’re not prepared to play, and play well for 10, 12, 14, 16 hours or more, then you have no business entering in the first place. This fact alone eliminates me and many other players. Many of these players that will be eliminated have no idea this is the case. They don’t even consider the stamina factor, and for that reason alone they are dead money. I’m dead money because of this, and that’s why I don’t play tournaments.
20 years ago I could have gotten away with this, but not today. I don’t play that many hours when I do play. No wonder so many of the “young guns” are winning a lot of tournaments these days. Not only do they have the desire, but they also have tons of stamina. I’ve seen Huck Seed stay up all night instead of going to bed just so he could play in the next day’s tournament. There is no way on earth I could do that.
Eight hours a day is plenty for a tournament. When the event starts at 3:30 that’s a pretty late start as it is. I would be hard pressed to play if the event started at 9:00 AM, but that s exactly when it would have to start for me to even consider playing. I’ve wanted to play in several events this time around but the stamina factor put the kibosh on that idea.
It’s too bad tournaments are geared toward the younger high energy players. But that doesn’t mean all young players have lots of stamina, because they don’t. I’ve seen World Series events that started at 1:00 PM end at 7:30 the next morning.
If you don’t have the stamina to play long sessions, then when it gets down to the last one or two tables with all of the money on the line you are going to be very hard pressed to make a good showing. Sure, some adrenalin might kick in, but if you aren’t catching any cards it is very difficult to play your best game when you are tired. You don’t make the ante steals and other plays that are more obvious when you are rested, and it seems when you do decide to make a move every one else knows it or you pick a bad spot.
I haven’t played many tournaments over the years, and I’d kind of like to try a few here and there. But when I heard this tournament might go till six or seven in the morning I just went and found a seat in a ring game.
Not only must you play very well, but you must also have the stamina of an ox. Those that have this quality are winning tournaments.
As far as I’m concerned the number one tournament skill today is stamina. If you’re not prepared to play, and play well for 10, 12, 14, 16 hours or more, then you have no business entering in the first place. This fact alone eliminates me and many other players. Many of these players that will be eliminated have no idea this is the case. They don’t even consider the stamina factor, and for that reason alone they are dead money. I’m dead money because of this, and that’s why I don’t play tournaments.
20 years ago I could have gotten away with this, but not today. I don’t play that many hours when I do play. No wonder so many of the “young guns” are winning a lot of tournaments these days. Not only do they have the desire, but they also have tons of stamina. I’ve seen Huck Seed stay up all night instead of going to bed just so he could play in the next day’s tournament. There is no way on earth I could do that.
Eight hours a day is plenty for a tournament. When the event starts at 3:30 that’s a pretty late start as it is. I would be hard pressed to play if the event started at 9:00 AM, but that s exactly when it would have to start for me to even consider playing. I’ve wanted to play in several events this time around but the stamina factor put the kibosh on that idea.
It’s too bad tournaments are geared toward the younger high energy players. But that doesn’t mean all young players have lots of stamina, because they don’t. I’ve seen World Series events that started at 1:00 PM end at 7:30 the next morning.
If you don’t have the stamina to play long sessions, then when it gets down to the last one or two tables with all of the money on the line you are going to be very hard pressed to make a good showing. Sure, some adrenalin might kick in, but if you aren’t catching any cards it is very difficult to play your best game when you are tired. You don’t make the ante steals and other plays that are more obvious when you are rested, and it seems when you do decide to make a move every one else knows it or you pick a bad spot.
I haven’t played many tournaments over the years, and I’d kind of like to try a few here and there. But when I heard this tournament might go till six or seven in the morning I just went and found a seat in a ring game.
Not only must you play very well, but you must also have the stamina of an ox. Those that have this quality are winning tournaments.