Session Lengths

Well, after reading posts on here for a while I am about to make my first one.

I am a new player that is playing 10NL on Fair Poker. As a new player, I am playing rather tight and not relying too much on tells or notes on other players, although I am making notes when i see that it is necessary.

Since I am playing straightforwardly do I need to play long sessions, so that I get used to the table and the players that I am playing at? If I have half and hour to an hour of free time should I go play or wait till i got more time to play?

How long are the sessions that you people play? I don't usually even enjoy playing for more than 1.5-2 hours.

Thanks for any responses and I look forward to improving my game at FTR!

I usually play about an hour and half to 2 hours at a time then take a break and come back. Ill play anywhere from 4-8 hours at a time though with several breaks in between. I found it was easier for me to play longer lengths of time playing tournament than cash though. That could have been because once you in a tournament you have to play til the end and when you have 3-4 tournies going at one time the breaks never fall together.

I usually play 1 hour cash game sessions, but even then I'm not necessarily staying at the same tables the whole time.

Sometimes I play sessions as short as 10 or 15 minutes. I know it seems kind of pointless, but it's fun.

If you play for an hour and never played a hand because the cards werent there, then that was a good hours play, and great practise.

I'll play anything from 30 mins onwards. Sometimes you sit down and 10 minutes later your stack has grown by 50%. Its not like it takes a certain amount of time for the cards to come, if you're playing theres a chance thats when they'll come.

Breaks are good though. I went interstate for work and stayed up late at nights in my hotel room playing for 6-7 hrs at a time. Lost a lot in the later hours. Now I know when I'm tired and losing concentration, I need to walk away, at least for a while.

Since I'm mostly a tournament player (for some reason I SUCK at cash games... but that's another story) I tend to play much longer sessions. It isn't uncommon for me to play for 6-8 hours at a time. That being said, I'm always sure to take breaks if it's at all possible (but sometimes it isn't since if you're playing two or more tourneys they never break at the same time) and don't play if I'm too tired. If I've had less than 6 hours of sleep, I play like crap no matter what so now I don't bother because I know it's a guaranteed loss. I guess I'm just much more careful about when I play because my sessions tend to be quite long.

i do something similar to poker_pup.

i will play short sessions of 10-15 minutes sometimes. btw, i don't do it because it is fun - i do it because i have spare time and i think i will can make a quick profit in that time.

i will usually play 40mins to 1hr long sessions. but i haven't had too much free time recently.

i will move tables quite a lot. i don't want players picking up reads on me. i feel that i am more profitable when moving from table to table. if i play 1hr or more with the same group of players i feel that they start to play much better than me and work out what i'm up to. if i hit and run every hour it's hard for players to get great reads.

My sessions start off as short-ish ones of about an hour or so, but soon descend into four or five hour ones with breaks for the toilet and food when they are needed.

It's not unknown for my girlfriend to call at 7pm and realise I'm playing and then call back at about 10pm only to openly question my sanity at _still_ playing. Half the time this is because I am ahead and want to ruin people and the other half is because I have reloaded and want my money back.

about 1.5-2 hours when i can.

but, i am not opposed to sitting on the john and peeling a quick one off.

Nothing better than stacking a fish while you're laying a depth charge.

Usually between 10 min and 1.5 hour x several sessions. Pretty chaotic but I have wife, 3 year old daughter, day job ... so finding time to play undisturbed (and to play at all) is a skill yet to master.

Originally Posted by biondino

Nothing better than stacking a fish while you're laying a depth charge.

i read in here somewhere that there's nothing better than "taking the Browns to the Super Bowl" and hitting a full house at the same time. it was described as orgasmic.

i have yet to experience that one... but, with wireless internet connections, its only a matter of time, right?

i try not go over 2 hours as my brain will shut off, take a break.

an hour and a half is my standard id say tho if games juicy i stay alot longer

i play as long as im profitable, focused and calm. depending on these factors i put in two sessions á 2 - 2 1/2 hours on average.

obviously, you will get a lot of different answers to the "proper" session length. everybody's different, thats not front page news.

heres a different twist that has yet to be mentioned.

are you profitable? if no, get that way before you get too concerned about these "smaller" aspects.

if yes, focus on hands played. not time.

whether you play 10 hands per session, or 1000, your win rate will not change...much. of course, i understand playing while tired could indicate playing too long at one time, but as long as you adhere to a little common sense (not playing drunk, angry, while surfing net, etc), your rate should not suffer from the amount of time you play any given session.

its hard to do, but forget about watching your won/lost numbers for the day (they dont tell you much), and watch them for the week or month. cram in mini-sessions, marathons, and "tweeners." then, check you rate after 2500 hands. go back and analyze each individual session and you will not see any difference in the way you played from one to the other, imo.

same as the question: "when do you know when to quit?" the answer: its the number of hands you play. play enough of them and it will all even out.

assuming you are a profitable player.

Playing when I'm pressed for time makes me be less disciplined. I get antsy and my range creeps. I'm less selective about tables too. I never play unless I have 2 free hours min. On a cash table I can get in >100 hands in 2 hr. I'm playing mostly SNG now though. I try to get in at least two a day. Some times one tabling, sometimes 2. Usually they're over in 1-2 hours. I play exclusively on UB using a laptop and wireless. UB software is clean and quick. I carry the laptop to the fridge, bathroom, sitting on the porch to smoke . I've even played poker while in the bathtub (never the shower though!). Sometimes I'll go sit on the dock at the local lake and fish while playing using my Sprint wireless broadband card. But never if I'm pressed for time.

I just play on my mood perhaps but not in a negitive way. One massive leak I found *seriously* was I cannot play while hungry or slightly hunger. I go *tilting* and get cranky, its so true it took my gf to tell me that. I eat and therefore relax before a session. I will try not play more than 2 hours coz i like to get in a CR vid, go on Vent or do other stuff.

Originally Posted by Da GOAT

I just play on my mood perhaps but not in a negitive way. One massive leak I found *seriously* was I cannot play while hungry or slightly hunger. I go *tilting* and get cranky, its so true it took my gf to tell me that. I eat and therefore relax before a session. I will try not play more than 2 hours coz i like to get in a CR vid, go on Vent or do other stuff.

man, if i did that, i would weigh 300 lbs, as much as i like to play poker...lol.

if it works, keep to it. its funny how poker teaches you about yourself.