Motivational help question(s)

Hey ill explain abit before i get into the actual question.

Well i was "once again" in the daily dollar *the one that goes on at 8pm EST* Just to set the mood.

2hrs pass by: And im still playing very well...gathering up chips...playing freakishly tight *tighter than ive ever EVER played*...dont get me wrong i played a few 5/6 hands and connected with the straight or a flush.

2more hrs pass by : And its now 12am Im in the money and still doing very well for myself. Hoping noone wakes up to hassle me off the computer.

2more hrs pass by : And if your counting its now 2am in the morning and im both tired and my head is throbbing *i mean litterally splitting* (there are now 27 people left)

By this time i have absolutely no idea on what i can do to stay awake or motivate me to keep going. For the past 6hrs i had been saying to myself "remember what your playing for" in which in my mind sounds like "remember what your fighting for!" AND i had been sitting up straight because i felt that it would mean that im taking this really seriously *the tournement* which helped me to get to this point in time. I had no fear of the big chips that were on the table at the time *because during this time the highest chip leader had 1million + in chips and i had about 400k*...15minutes go by and only 2people have been eliminated.
About 15more minutes pass by and my mind is at a total blank...my previous "remember what your fighting for!" now sounds like "remember...what...your fighting for?" *pauses included* Before i knew it i was out in 24th or 25th place and got 30bucks out of the whole deal in which dont get me wrong was the BBEESSTTT ive ever done in any daily dollar event. *eevveerrrrr*

So i guess my question *confusing as all of this may be* is "what kept you going in the last 26 people of a tournament such as this ?" AND

"How did you manage to stay awake throughout the late tournament?"

Please note that i have no coffee and i attempted to walk around as much as i could during the breaks. Also note that i have never been in a tournament for this long *6 or 7hrs* and i felt that it would have been another 2 or 3hrs before the final table actually comes.

Lastly During the last stages of the tournament *as mentioned above* "is your head supposed to throb like that ? or is it because its your body telling you to go to sleep?"

Onnee more note: is that i kept constantly thinking about how many bb's i had left. and during the time i got out Blinds were 35k with an ante of about 2.5k or 3k *i forget*

Thanks for reading such a novel that is my life feedback before i attempt this monster again is desirably needed.

Dude I know what you mean... when I play the DD by the time its ITM I'm already tired from fighting the bubble... to keep going is annoying. FT doesn't start until around 4 for the DD, and thats where all the real money is...

my advice is if you're tired, just drink coffee, do whatever you need to stay awake, no other choice. Otherwise its gonna feel like a huge waste of time unless you atleast get close to the FT... like 11th or 12th place.

I dont even start a tourney unless I have the time to make the FT. That means being well rested, having a clear schedule and being prepared to stare at a cpu for more than 10 hours.

I have my meals ready, whether its pizza or almonds or bacon and eggs. I know I need to eat. At the 2 hour break I do start doing yoga asanas at every break to fight soreness and stay awake.

My head starts to hurt whenever I play for a long time (6-7 hours). I try to drink lotsa water but then I have to pee more.

Good luck

I have taken a step away from tourneys like the DD which take longer than 5h.

I just can't play optimally after that and your 8pm is our 2am starting time here.

The earliest DD starts at 8pm here (roundabout) - that would mean playing until 6am.

Undoable for me since I've got a life, too.

For myself, the last few dozen players in a touranment it is VERY EASY to stay motivated/enthused/awake, etc. (it's the early levels that I find boring).
There's alot of stuff I'm doing during this stage of a tournament (least of all is staring at the lobby... seeing who is moving up.. moving down.. moving out, etc.,... it's pretty much meaningless mundane stuff.... not alot of thinking involved & info. is really not all that relevant/important).

Instead, during this late stage play I'm assessing how big my stack is in comparison to the blinds & the sizes of the other player's stack on my table & how this will affect how I will play my hands (stack size adjustments)... ie. I'm not going to open for 2.5-3bb from Btn if both blinds have <10bb's (< this is pretty obv.). I will be looking to see which players have re-steal stacks, which are in shove/fold mode (and prob more importantly in super micro daily donker,.. which of these players even realizes they're sitting on a re-steal-sized stack, or shove/fold stack, etc.). I'm going to be looking for spots where I can shove over (if I'm on a resteal-sized stack),.. looking to see who's been most active, who's been stealing alot, who's been sitting super tight, hoping to just move up the money ladder a spot or two (& who's actually going for it.. playing to win!).
In super micros... other stuff >> who's been high blind limping & what ranges they're doing this with. Who calls off really light, who defends blinds like crazy, what do their donkbets mean?, who are the 'flushmasters', are they positionally aware, are they playing fit or fold when defending from blinds, or are they capable of floating flop.. c/c donkbet turn, etc., etc. etc.
I'm keeping the handhistory open & reviewing how my opponent's play their hands... again, TONS of stuff to look for.
There's just sooooooooo many things I can do while sitting on a table that there's no time for my mind to be idle & get bored/tired in late stages (alot of this work will be done (or at least started) from earlier reads on opponents in tournament) but there's still always ALOT more I can do.

Late stage of tourney is my absolute favourite time in the game,... I never get bored/tired at this point (I'm also a HUGE coffee drinker though).

Hmm... I think I must've had a couple of coffees when I wrote this^ or maybe a 'manic bipolar episode'? Regardless.... awesome post Mr.Orifice! lol

Take advantage of the breaks and do whatever it takes to wake yourself up.

Lol see your talking to yourself.

When I played freerolls (a pro playing freerolls omg lol) towards the end I was the least tired because I knew what I was playing for (a doller seemed a lot at the time). Red bull gives you wings so drink that if your feeling tired

Take a power nap before any tournament like this and drink lot of water before and during the tournament. Anddd...use the bathroom during the 5 minute breaks. That is all.

its normal to feel that way but like another other sport you have to pick yourself up and play till the very end if you want that money, you dont win money at poker y-ou earn it