Yawning at the Tables

by John Carlisle, MA, NCC

Time and again, I read advice from poker experts in books, magazines and in online articles that encourage players to leave the cash game tables when they become tired. They lead the reader to believe that the best poker sessions are short, succinct and fully completed by the time you become mentally and physically warn. The idea that fuels the advice is clear, as they assume that your poker play will suffer damage when you are tired. They figure that you will be unable to concentrate, your focus will wane and you will start making mistakes that shrink your bankroll. Any of these may be partially true, but I find the advice to avoid poker while tired to be oversimplified and impractical. To me, there is no better feeling than to collapse onto the bed in a state of near-exhaustion after a marathon session that is measured in days and hours, rather than minutes and hours. You see, long playing sessions usually mean that I am meeting success at the tables.

Telling a poker player to pack it in and head to bed when you are sleepy is as ridiculous as telling a basketball player to head to the locker room when fatigue sets in during the 4th quarter. In both cases, the best of the best find a way to push through the physical and mental strain to shine at these more difficult moments. The issue is that most sporting endeavors have a definitive stopping point. A clock does the trick in football and hockey, the outs and innings fill the role in baseball and the shrinking field of remaining players is what we are used to in tournament poker. In cash games, though, the games are usually running around the clock. It is up to you to decide when it is quitting time, which leads many outsiders to chime in with advice such as hit the road when you start yawning a bunch at the tables.

The advice seems sound at first glance. "Don't play when you are tired" seems pretty straight-forward. In reality, this is not practical and not possible for even semi-serious poker players. Your level of energy or tiredness should not be the first measure of when to quit the game. When the situation is favorable for you, it is almost your duty to play as long as possible. If you have a solid read on your tablemates, you have to stay as long as they do to exploit them and take their chips. If your seating position at the table matches up perfectly with the player's style in front and behind you, you need to stay the course and use this advantage as long as you can. If your chip stack sets you up in position to bully the others, and you can tell they are indeed intimidated by you and your stack, it is imperative that you stay the course and do your damage while you can. Of course, if you have a couple of fish at the tables ready to purge their chips away, you'd better hang on to grab a portion of their chips no matter how worn you might feel. For instance, perhaps you are figuring you are tired enough to bow out of the game before the blinds come around to you the next time. Just as you ask for a rack to pile your chips to head for the cash out, two loud bumbling drunkards flop into open seats at your table. They toss a wad of cash onto the table as if it were garbage. Your fatigue should now take a backseat and you should be informing the dealer that you've decided to stay for a few more rounds of play after all. Ignore the yawns and the stiff back as you patiently await the drunkards to blow their chip stack off into a pot that you win.

Ignore that simplistic advice that some poker authors feed their readers to avoid the tables when not at your mental or physical peak. The true task is to measure your poker ability, even if decreased due to fatigue, against the advantage you currently have due to the factors listed above (position, read on opposition, chip stack, number of fish at tables, etc). If you feel that you should be profitable at that table, it is time to fight through exhaustion and pull in some winning pots. Many poker pros will tell you of times that they kept up the fight for days with no sleep and little breaks just because the cards were good and the situation was even better. Like a boxer in the late rounds, you have to find a way to struggle through and stay upright to get the win. So, please don't leave the table simply because you back is sore and your eyelids are heavy. Stay the course and fill your pockets and when your head finally does hit the pillow, you will sleep more soundly than ever with a smile on your face.

Questions or comments on this article? Click here to send a letter to the editors

About the Author:
John is a National Certified Counselor (NCC). He has a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from West Virginia University, and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from Lock Haven University. You can find out more about the psychology of poker from "the Poker Counselor" at pokercounselor@yahoo.com