When you are playing at a ring game. How long do you normally sit there and call it a session or a night?
do you site for hours, or double you buyin ?? Or when your eyes are sore and you butt is sore from sitting to long?

Just wondering when you all call it a session..

PB99 - that is pretty much up to you. If you feel you are not making good decisions because you are too tired or your butt is so sore that you can't think straight then that's a good time to quit. If you are still making good decisions and getting your money in when you should then there's no reason to stop, regardless of whether you are up 6 buyins or down 3.

Try not to judge your performance based on just one night's worth of play. I fall into that trap once in a while and it's not the ideal way to go about it. Even if you are 4 tabling you're only going to play maybe 300 hands an hour, tops. Over the course of a 3 hour session you will have what, 800-900 hands? Variance is such that you really don't want judge your performance based on just a few hands like that.

I used to play way past what should have been my stopping point, only because I was down a bit for the night and wanted to get back to even before leaving. What ends up happening is (unless I get stupid lucky) I lose more than if I would have just stopped at my normal time and hit the sack. About the only time you should really play on beyond your normal 'breaking' time is if you are on the juiciest of juicy tables, and feel that even with your capacity somewhat diminished you are still making better decisions than most of the table.

Of course, YMMV.

i recommend that you use checkyourbets.com. they have a stat called "fatigue" that lets you see how you perform over various time frames. it's not a perfect stat if you table hop (you should), but it's interesting nonetheless.

anyway, without a stat, just use your best judgment. if you review your sessions, you'll be able to see the point that you start making bad decisions (e.g., you say "wtf was that call for?" or "damn, i missed that bet!"). eventually, you'll be able to catch it while you're playing once your game gets consistent.

for me, four-tabling, two hours is about my max... maybe three. if i two- or three-table, three hours is very doable. keep in mind that i'm getting reads and making notes just about the whole time, so it tends to be very intense (just how i like it). i can play two sessions a day for about a total of five hours and still play my A-game.

fwiw, i recommend that you stretch, stand up, take some mental "time off" (e.g., for me, not getting reads, maybe watch a little TV). one thing some people do is sit out for one orbit every hour or 1.5 hours and stretch, get water, go to the bathroom, etc.

keep your blood circulating and looking away from the screen are two very important things physically.


from a diferrent angle, i will often get up from a table/site if i've taken a few bad beats. people tend not to respect your bets when you've taken beats, so you have to (gasp!) nut peddle.

i agree with the "zone" thing... i hit it for about 5 hours once (nice little heater).

that being said, i always monitor myself.