Developmental Question

[Cheshire]

At the pace I am going right now I play about 15 hours online poker a week. However, this time is always in 1 to 2 hour blocks. I am wondering if I am missing out on anything developmental wise by not playing 4 or 5 hour sessions. I cannot think of any difference between 4 one hour sessions and 1 four hour session. But I am just curious if I am over looking something.

[Redd]

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I am wondering if I am missing out on anything developmental wise by not playing 4 or 5 hour sessions.

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You're probably missing out on some tilt. Not that that's a bad thing to miss.

[Greg J]

I don't think you have too much to worry about. Anyone disagree?

[Bodhi]

Take advantage of online play and keep doing what you're doing. Sitting in front of the screen for 4 hours straight isn't fun and isn't necessary. I like to play 4 hours in 2 blocks. It keeps my brain fresh and alert, and doesn't keep my body in one spot for so long.

[jrz1972]

I actually find that I tilt less when I play longer sessions. During the week, I can only play an hour or so a night; if I happen to run bad and drop 20 BB it casts a pall over the next 24 hours until I can play again. During a longer session, those kinds of minor hits come and go and by the end of the session you hardly even notice that they were there.

Of course, I just finished a 500 hand session of 6-max in which I got pwn3d from start to finish, so maybe I need to rethink that philosophy.

Seriously though, I think beginning players will do better to play shorter sessions. First of all, you won't have time to lapse into bad habits. Second, its easier to go back and review a short session in PT, which is probably one of the most useful things you can do when you're starting out.

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
At the pace I am going right now I play about 15 hours online poker a week. However, this time is always in 1 to 2 hour blocks. I am wondering if I am missing out on anything developmental wise by not playing 4 or 5 hour sessions. I cannot think of any difference between 4 one hour sessions and 1 four hour session. But I am just curious if I am over looking something.

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Most of your development as a player happens when you're *THINKING* poker and not *PLAYING* poker. Playing short sessions aren't going to hurt you at all. When I was starting off at $.50/1 Paradise games, my average session over 10000 hands was .89 hours (53 minutes).

Just make sure that when you play, you take note of things that were strange or confusing to you. After you finish the session, look at the hand histories and think them through again. Often, when the gametime pressure is relieved, you can see a lot more clearly what you should or should not have done.

[Cheshire]

I have noticed that I can stay focused alot better and think through every hand instead of just playing if the session is short. The short sessions also allow me to easily remember one of two hands where I did really stupid things that I would forget if I played long sessions. Thanks for the responses.

[nomadtla]

A 1 to 2 hour sesion online see's as many hands as a 3 to 4 hour session in a casino. So you're still seeing a lot of hands. I play in 1 or 2 hour blocks myself, but I try to get a 3 or 4 hour session in once a week. Like I'm sure others have said you'r probably only missing some tilt (not a bad thing) you may aslo miss a bit of the constitution and patience that comes from sitting and staying focussed on a game for that amount of time. But I really don't think it's a problem. Interesting Question by the way and one I've kinda wondered about myself.

[stuartharris]

I'll slightly disagree with the others here; I do think that playing longer sessions generally allows me to know more about my opponents and make better decisions (one player has bet out on the flop 5 times and only had top pair one time; another has raised on the turn three times and had a set or better every time, etc.)