Johnny & Larry

Not much news on the poker front. Played a bit of NL100 on Pokerstars (getting closer & closer to Supernova) and was up a little. Played a couple of satellites for Sunday tournaments with no success. I've gotten used to playing 7 cash game tables while having a couple of tournament tables running in the corner. It definitely helps break up the boredom that creeps in while playing cash games, it also helps me play a bit longer. If I'm still in a tournament I keep the cash games open, so I have been grinding out more hands overall.

I really want to improve my tournament play, so this seems like a good way to do it. Play a lot of satellites during the week, while playing cash games, then concentrate on just tournaments in the weekend. I'll start keeping a list of my tournament results to show you my progress.

Today's Topic: How long is too long.

I think that a lot of player when first starting out play as many hours as they can, to try and improve their game. While this isn't a bad thing, poker players need to be aware when it is a good and bad time to be playing. Playing quality time rather than quantity time will always pay better dividends.

• When not to play poker:
  
  • When you are tired: One of the common mistakes is to play when tired. Either by starting to play after a long stressful day, or by playing a single session for too long. I find that when multitabling online the maximum amount of time that I can play without a break is 3-4 hours. After 4 hours my game and my results definitely deteriorate, even though I may not realize it at the time. When playing live in a casino I have no problems playing 8-10 hours at a time as long as I take a quick break every couple of hours. It has been proven in studies that gamblers who gamble when tired have a lower risk aversion and will be more willing to take foolish risks when tired. The same applies to poker. Work out how long you can play before your game deteriorates, and ensure you take a break at this point.
    
  • When you are stressed: If you have other things going on, like an ongoing argument with your partner, or lots on your mind, realize that it is a bad time to play. If you want to play to get your mind off things, then play at a lower level than you normally do.
    
  • When you are drunk: The amount of player that boast online about being drunk after midnight on a Saturday night, while donking off their stack, is amazing. I know that you are not always thinking straight when drunk, but under no circumstances should you ever play poker for money when drunk.
    
  • When you are not in the mood: Sometime I find that I am bored and while I'm not in the mood to play poker, I play anyway. Often in this situation I will play a bit looser and take more risks than normal to try and kill the boredom. This is not a good time to play.
    
  • When table conditions are bad: Sometime I'll log on and looking down the list of available tables I don't find many with flop seen % over 25%. When table conditions are tight either find another site to play on, or play a different game.
    

Today's Link:

This month's cardplayer magazine has an interesting article written by Daniel Negreanu. In it he looks at why some people climb all the way up the poker ladder and others don't. He uses two different players, Larry and Johnny" as an example. I am more of a Larry player, and want to be more of a Johnny sometime. Link to the cardplayer article here. Also there is an interesting discussion of the article at 2 + 2, link here.