Dealing with mental fatigue

[Dobbler1]

Today was a tough day. I mostly played pretty well, but the variance gods were not on my side, so I experienced many bad beats. I played for about 7 hours, which is longer than usual for me, and I was still playing pretty well by the end of it, but I just was feeling mentally exhausted, and on top of that I was down.

Part of me feels like I'm building mental endurance, so days like today are a good thing. A different part of me thinks that I might be inviting fatigue to take a toll on my game?

Do you play for long stretches? Do you experience mental fatigue? How do you deal with it? Do you think a person can build mental endurance by playing long sessions?

 

[mclay]

Yep, hours long sessions are hard work for MTT players. Cash players in this sense are much freer.

 

[rhoudini]

Hey Dobbler1, how are you doing?

I understand you, because I have been feeling like this recently, not only because of variance, but also because I work 8h/day as a programmer, so most days are quite difficult, and sometimes we want to play to relax and win something, and we end up getting more stressed, mainly if we make the right play but variance catches us. But let me share with you what has helped me a lot.

First, if you are already mentally tired, don't play at all. That may be quite obvious, but we might just be playing a freeroll and ok, we are not losing any money, but chances of you get upset is too big. That may look like nothing, but it can have a compound effect if you are already tired.

One thing that helps me is to laugh everytime I get a bad beat, even if I have to force a laugh.
Also, if you need, collect examples of good hands you played and review them from time to time, to make you remember the good right decisions you took. Or maybe good results you had in the past. Try to remember how you felt at the moment.

But the best thing to do if you are feeling tired is resting: do other thing far away from screens, like running, walking, etc. Maybe even take a break of 1 or 2 days. Poker will be here when you come back. The opportunities will be here.

 

[ROYALROAD]

Being mentally strong is very important. Bad beats are normal, so don't worry about them at all. It's not just about poker, it's about everything in the world.

 

[Cooking]

When I started I could play 8-10 hours and still be ok in the end of the session. Nowadays if I play more than 5 hours I notice that I start to lose my focus. I play mostly tournaments, so, I try to rest as much as I can on the 5 minutes breaks. I need to work on this too, because to win a big tournament you need to be focused for way more than 5 hours.

 

[Dobbler1]

One thing that helps me is to laugh everytime I get a bad beat, even if I have to force a laugh.

I think this is excellent advice to avoid tilting from bad beats. I've sort of been trying it too. I'm not sure if it's something that relates to long playing sessions, but laughing more could never be a bad thing, I don't think.

 

[fundiver199]

Yes its pretty normal to lose some focus and motivation towards the end of a long session. So probably better to make the sessions slightly shorter, especially if we lost many games in a row. A way to limit the lenght of an MTT session is to only buy into regular speed games at the beginning of the session. Then after a few hours only turbos, and after 4-5 hours only hyperturbos or SnGs. For me it also help reduce mental fatique to have less tables running. So rather than trying to press in yet another 1-2 games, sometimes its better to focus on those, we already have running.

 

[Luvepoker]

Longer sessions can be very fatiguing. How I handle this time is during breaks taking a quick walk outside and getting a drink if needed. I also listen to meditation music when playing and that helps keep me in focus of my poker playing.