Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 22 May 2009 / Leave a comment

With the WSOP just around the corner, it is worth thinking about one of the key differences between live and online poker - that of endurance.

No amount of coffee or energy drinks can compensate for a good nights sleep, nor can it provide the natural energy and fitness that comes from being physically fit.

Apart from a few very deep stacked online tournaments, most games on the internet will take no more than a few hours, and its is rare tournament players will ever have to think about fatigue and how to deal with it. Compare this with live games, where tournaments will often run from noon until the early hours of the morning. Here, fatigue becomes a real threat, and small mistakes can quickly start to add up.

As poker is a game of small edges as it is, having even a small number of mistakes start to infiltrate your game can quickly negate any edge you have, with the result that you may well lose out on a deep finish or big cash. Dealing with fatigue is a struggle for all players, but there are techniques which can really help.

Arguably the two most important things to get right when playing long hours are sleep and exercise. These two things are very dependent on each other, as it is much easier to sleep well if you have managed to get in some form of exercise into your day. Staying physically fit and mentally fresh is critical to keeping your concentration up for long hours, and many of the best players in the world (Daniel Negreanu is a particularly good example of this) spend a great deal of time on keeping themselves fit, well rested and sharp.

No amount of coffee or energy drinks can compensate for a good nights sleep, nor can it provide the natural energy and fitness that comes from being physically fit. Look to prepare your game off the felt as much as on it when playing long live tournaments, it may be that a good schedule will win you vastly more money than a bad one.

Always remember that tournament poker is a marathon not a sprint, and the key skill you need is to be able to make good decisions consistently over a long period, and doing everything you can to aid that skill is critical to long term success.

Related Entries

Tiredness Can Kill
Preparing For A Live Tournament
Knowing When To Quit
Thinking Outside The Game

Get 40% Rakeback at Betfair Poker