Training for a marathon.

I am still excited about my Copenhagen Poker Marathon experiment. The more I think about it the more I want to do it, and the more am I convinced that the experience will help me expand my capacity for playing fully focused long hours. Furthermore, I think it is quite possible I could be a better player at the end.

Like all other body parts, I believe that you can train your brain to perform at a higher level for longer periods of time. So, if I am to play poker for a whole week only interrupted by a bit of sleep here and there, I think it will be necessarry for me to practice at playing long sessions.

Yesterday I did my first marathon session experiment. I played for 9 hours and 45 minutes, the last 7 of those hours basically uninterrupted. That came out as 7744 hands of poker in a day. Quite an output considering a normal month for me is at 30k-40k hands. Results wise it was also a good day, with a 3.9PTBB/100 win rate.

I was pleasantly surprised that I suffered no ill effects during the long session. I was able to play well throughout, and I still feel sane today. Of course there is no guarantee that I would know it if I had actually lost my sanity... I alternated between sitting and standing a little bit, but still had a little back ache when it was over, so I foresee more of that when I am going to do it a whole week. I think I need to condition my back a little bit during the next month, or I could really hurt myself with an experiment like the one I am planning. Overall, being in good physical condition is absolutely necessarry if you are going to be sitting down a lot!

While I felt well throughout the entire session, the last hour was really a bore, and I felt very tired. Quite possibly my fatigue was only a result of knowing that I was close to the end, as I had planned ahead when to stop. If I had planned for two hours more, there is a chance I could have easily done that and still only been tired the last hour. But since I don't think I have ever played such a monster session before, I can't complain about being a little bombed in the head.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole project is what it will do to my poker game. In my opinion, the worst thing that could happen is nothing. You could point out that this is a likely result, since the main focus is on long hours and many open tables, so there is no time to really concentrate on quality. But I hope that simply burying myself in poker for a long time, and clearing my mind of every day items will have a positive effect, and allow me to get deeper into the game. All of the top cash game players have one thing in common: They have all played insane amounts of poker. Also, I have read several of the top players describe important steps in their carreers as periods of time where they focused solely on poker, without the hazzle of an every day life ruining the concentration. Additionally I hope that when I am in the middle of a +50k hand week, the imidiate results will seem more trivial, and allow me to focus more on decisions, less on results.

I look forward to reporting how things turn out.