Playing w/Fatigue

Don't do it.

When we are tired, everything we do, from thinking, driving, walking, talking, listening, comprehending, remembering, typing, sex, sports, to poker, are all affected negatively. Everything we do is not up to our 100% potential when we are tired!

We all want to pad our bankroll at night after work or school or doing the wife or girlfriend or mistress, but how late do you stay up to do so? I know some of you are 'used' to staying up late PWNING Warcraft or Minesweeper, but you must take my word for it: Do not play poker tired.

Some of the aspects of poker that are affected negatively:

Memory - A big part of poker is remembering things like: table presence and tells. You will not be able to fully understand the type of player you are playing against because you are not absorbing everything as effeciently.

Math - "Are my odds correct to call here? Ah fuck, I'll call anyways.." Maybe this is a problem for you even when you are rested. If not, it surely is affected when it's past your bedtime.

Preflop - The unrested or intoxicated tend to play more hands preflop. I am not saying playing a lot of hands preflop cannot be profitable, but I am saying that a sleepy person often developes impatience. You should be playing your 'A' game, and playing the way that works for you best. If you want to lag it up, do it while 100% concious, as this is not the best time to call in the 'learning curve of laggy play.' Also, tired people care less about position, because tired people think that they can outplay their opponents post flop no matter where the button is.

Tilt - Increases.

Maximizing gain / Minimizing loss - You're postflop play will be hindered by your inability to figure out what exactly to call, how much to raise, how often to fold. You ability to maximize/minimize these gains/losses does not increase when you are tired.

Table selection - Becomes less important, because patience is killing us to find the best table. Like what's his name said: "If I could find a table of 12 year old retards to play against, I would." Fatigue increases stubborness, which increases our desire to take money from those who are better than us. Which relates to tilt, or a sudden desire to hit for a home run by jumping levels.

There are many more factors that are negatively affected by fatigue I'm sure.

This thread was inspired by recent trends I've noticed with my own game, as well as an article in Card Player Magazine. Friday night I was tired beyond anything else. I had worked a long hard day and stayed up until 7am the night before playing heads up live against my brother for 7 hours. Friday night I decided to sit down and play. I lost 6 buy-ins in 2 hours due to BAD PLAY. Because I was so tired, I slept for 12 hours, woke up, played for 8 hours, and won 8 buy-ins. Same negative affect lastnight. This may be just a short term variance, but I don't think so.

Don't play with fatigue, because you are better off playing roulette.

So true.

I posted this in my thread on MTT time management, but I think it fits your topic...

Classic exhaustion example...2 nights ago, [now a few weeks]
I was pretty well ahead[MTT], and got into a (stupid) hand with A8s...
I raise up, 1 caller, the flop comes QKK. I check, He checks...
Turn Q. I check, he checks,
River 4 (no flush draw on the table)...
So I figure he's got a mid pp and I am looking at a dead board with my ace kicker... I bet. He raises. I think ??44?? It was a 4? nah... So I call... He flips 88, I think AHA!!! I outkicked you for the board with my stupid A...
LOL... wait a minute... why are the chips sliding towards him? There's no such thing as 3 pair, I clearly have him out-kicked...

Then I look at the board again... It wasn't QKKQ4... it was QKQQ4...
I am a tired donkey - and he has a full house (and I KNEW he had a pair 77-TT!)

"if i could find a table of 2nd graders with 200 dollar bankrolls..." - aok

I dunno, when you're totally exhausted that's not good but if you're a little bit tired it seems to be ok. Makes it easier to just grind and drone instead of getting too attached, atleast that's what it seems like for me. I hadn't played a lot the past week as I had picked up studying - mainly dropped some buy-ins trying to play poker while studying which does not work at all. But today I was a bit tired, didn't get much sleep, so I decided to put in some hours again. So yeah, there was fatigue but I also nearly tripled my BR.

Now to deal with the overconfidence that is bound to hit me.

Indeed one of freddy deebs 6 rules

#1: Don't play while under the influence.
#2: Don't play any other games while playing poker.
#3: Don't play mad, don't play tired.
#4: Don't play out of my Bankroll.
#5: Manage my losses, horrible days leave, if the cards arnt coming leave.
#6: Take my profits, if i am winning, and i start losing leave don't be greed