Taking Breaks During Tournies

I posted this topic elsewhere and it got some good responses.... at most of the sites I play at they have 5 min breaks every hour or what not, but do you guys take more than the allotted breaks... like do you ever walk away if you are steaming or just sit out if you have a lot of chips? what is your strategy... I need a new one I find myself always leading a tournament and then i spew and i think if I would walk away for a while I would do better... I don't know... TALK TO ME GOOSE!

I have been known to take extended breaks if it is early in a tournament, blinds/antes are low and I find myself with a huge chip stack (at least 4x the original stack). I find it does good to clear my head.

I think everyone's goal is to win the tournament. If you've coseguido finish a tournament with all the chips and win, I suggest you remind your state of mind and their inner conversations that can help.

I do think you might take huge breaks when you're in the begin of tournaments and have a large amount of chips. The important thing is when to come back. Most of tournaments with something like 30,40 min,the players usually don't play as much agressive as in the first 10 min, so may be is a good time if you want to play without depending on lucky.

tilan501 said:

I do think you might take huge breaks when you're in the begin of tournaments and have a large amount of chips. The important thing is when to come back. Most of tournaments with something like 30,40 min,the players usually don't play as much agressive as in the first 10 min, so may be is a good time if you want to play without depending on lucky.

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yes avoid all the donks

sightgasm said:

yes avoid all the donks

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'the donks' in early levels of any tournament are easy chips! Why would we 'avoid them'?

I'd suggest working on the steam problem.

i really dont feel this need of having a lot of breaks.... the most important break for me is when i am not playing a hand, even being at the table.

Never. I can't bear the idea of unknowingly throwing away KK or AA simply because I wasn't there.

well i don't like taking early breaks because it always seems i miss a good hand or i get timed out before i can call the beat with a good hand so the only way i take a early break is if i have to go see a man about a horse,lol

Tournament poker already has massive variance. Voluntarily reducing the number of hands you see is only increasing that variance. If you think you have an edge on the table you should be trying to see as many hands as possible.

If you're on tilt after a losing a hand, take a mini-break if you need to.

Wait for the next hand, determine if you're going to play it or not. Lets say you're going to fold it. Click auto-fold, then get up and walk away. Get some water, use the restroom, whatever. Then don't return until you hear the notification that it's your turn to act. Depending on the action of the other players, this might give you 1-3 minute break. Then repeat if you need to.

As for as the regular 5 min breaks, you can leave before they start if you're out of the hand and you know it's coming up. And you can return once you hear the notification that it's your turn to act. This could give you an extra 1-3 min break.

Taking huge breaks at the start of a tournament is just stupid. You're already on a break before it starts so, why do want to wait longer. If you think you're going to avoid bad plays by waiting 30-40 minutes, you're very mistaken. If that's your strategy, you might as well just late register.

I think its good to get out of your chair every 55 minutes . The sync breaks have been one of the best quality of life changes for mtt grinders ever . I remember the pissin in bottles and sitting in my chair for 9 -12 hour days lol ! But if you are struggling to maintain a good state of mind , then I think you might need some work on your mental game . Every 55 mins is more than enough and I dont believe anything more than that is needed .

sightgasm said:

I posted this topic elsewhere and it got some good responses.... at most of the sites I play at they have 5 min breaks every hour or what not, but do you guys take more than the allotted breaks... like do you ever walk away if you are steaming or just sit out if you have a lot of chips? what is your strategy... I need a new one I find myself always leading a tournament and then i spew and i think if I would walk away for a while I would do better... I don't know... TALK TO ME GOOSE!

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I like to take a break in the early stage of tournament when the blinds are low or when i win some huge pot and i got a lot of money. I only dnt take breaks in turbo tournaments.

sitting out doesn't make any sense to me - tighten up a bit (or a lot) is ok to me as well but you still get AA or KK every 200 hands so i wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to get a hand like that (or a set or a monster like that) - especially against the tourney donks at the beginning of an tournament..

Kekule said:

Never. I can't bear the idea of unknowingly throwing away KK or AA simply because I wasn't there.

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Yep, that's me! :dito:

Just play accordingly,exploit table weaknesses but dont donk to much.

After the break, you came back late and push the replay button and saw you had AA, KK, AK, etc for past hands.

Add to it, the blinds are substantially high.

Why let the donkies out? IMO u have learn to play againt these before, probaly if dont know how to play against a donkie u never will know play against a Pro.

i hate missing hands but i guess you cant cry over spilt milk