Risking Burnout

I started my day by playing on the Internet, $30-$60 hold'em at Pokerstars.com, in my bathrobe, with the dog at my feet, and drinking fresh gourmet coffee. Ya gotta love Internet poker! Alas, the cyberspace poker gods were not being kind to me. It was just one of those days. I was stone-cold card-dead. I was dealt almost no playable starting hands, and those that I got, I flat-out missed the flop. It wasn't that I took a lot of bad beats, but I just couldn't push a hand to the turn, let alone to the river. Post, fold. Call, fold. Raise preflop, fold. I never made a hand or found good situations in which to makes plays, and my chips just trickled away.



During your poker career, there will be many times when you'll face situations like this. You can't catch a card. You search for correct situations to play yet find few, and when you do find a correct situation, it doesn't fare well. During these times, it is important to stay patient, and not start stretching situations within your own mind out of frustration or the desire to get even. Stay in the moment, try to focus only on the moment, and let the moment consume your mind. I know it can be hard when you are getting pounded on, but forget about the past and focus on the present. If you play well enough to have an edge, you will get even, and beyond even; it is just a matter of time. That is, assuming you have a bankroll that's big enough to handle the swings in the game you are playing. And if you don't, you are playing too high!



After a few hours of play, I quit, having promised my afternoon time to my wife and daughter. While quitting while being stuck sucks, letting it control your life can lead to situations that are much worse. Letting the game override your personal obligations is almost always a mistake; it does damage to other areas of your life. I enjoyed the afternoon and early evening with my family, and then headed to Bellagio for an early Saturday night of play. I was emotionally fired up, ready to overcome my afternoon's loss, and in the mood to play, and felt I would put in a good performance.



Things started out much better at Bellagio than they had at PokerStars. In my first hand, I picked up wired jacks, flopped top set, turned jacks full, and won a pretty good pot. Unfortunately, getting off to a good start doesn't guarantee a good session. Things settled back to the way the day had started. I went a couple of hours without winning a pot, won a small one, and went dead again. Five hours into the session, I was good and stuck again. Combining the two sessions, I was really stuck for the limits I was playing.



Even if you play limits that make your life swing-resistant, such that no one hand, session, day, week, or even month will affect your lifestyle and your stability, it still is no fun to go bad. It's almost the same feeling as hacking around the desert all day on the golf course (I have a lot of experience at that, too). When I was much younger, a day like this might have been extremely meaningful to my life. When I was having these types of sessions, days, and weeks, it affected me mentally, physically, and even spiritually. It drained me. Having an adequate bankroll for the limit you're playing makes life and the game less stressful and much more enjoyable.



The Bellagio $30-$60 game got much better as the night progressed. I picked up two aces, and got involved in a multiway capped pot. They held up, and I won a huge pot, leaving me stuck $900 for that second session, but I was still buried thousands for the day.



The swing-shift crew left and the graveyard dealers arrived. I'd played a lot of hours that day, and was tired and worn down mentally and physically. That said, the game was good, and likely to get better. If I chose to stay and fight it out, I might be able to get unstuck. However, it was not guaranteed to work out that way – as I was also capable of digging a deeper hole.

In your poker career, you will be faced with many, many decisions of when to stay and play, and when to leave. You're tired and stuck, have played a lot of hours, and maybe have personal commitments, but the game is good. You're a competitive person, and you want to fight it out and be victorious for the day. It's why you play poker … to win! And that's real money, what used to be your money, sitting in your opponents' stacks. What is a player to do?



The answer is, a player should treat the game as a business, and make the play with the greatest expectation over time. The edge at the moment might be significant, but looked at from a greater perspective, it might well be secondary.



Treating poker as a business, and breaking the poker equation down into a time/value equation, you have a specific edge expectation per hour in any game you are playing. It breaks down to how well you are playing versus how well your opponents are playing, and the size of the game. The better you play and the more inferior your opponents play, the greater your expectation per hour will be. Quantifying your edge exactly is an impossible thing to do, but an experienced player can judge his hourly rate within a reasonable range, based on experience.



Early in my poker career, I stood fast and played through spots such as this as long as the game was good. While I made money during those extended hours, the fact that I was tired caused me to increase my propensity to make errors – in strategy and, more importantly, reading hands. In spite of the fact that I was playing because the game was great, I don't think I did particularly better than when I played while fresh in tougher games. Furthermore, playing long hours when tired tends to have a wearing effect. It burns you out mentally, emotionally affecting your ability to play the next day. Playing long hours continuously can burn you out on poker altogether, significantly reduce your edge against the fields you confront, and make it much less fun. This can even have the effect of shortening your career as a player.



A huge part of playing poker well over time is how you manage your game based on your own abilities and how you fit it into your life. If you are young, eager to play, and in shape, and can concentrate for long hours and consistently play well through the ups and downs, playing long sessions can be the right thing to do as long as you don't allow yourself to burn out.



That said, most people's resources of energy, patience, discipline, and concentration deteriorate over time. All things being equal, you will make less money after those resources have deteriorated. The extent to which you stretch those situations should be based on the quality of the game, the level of variance of your opponents' abilities, and your desire to continue playing. I do not recommend playing just because you are stuck and are looking to break even.



If you are a high-limit player and the games are generally tough, a different set of rules and capabilities apply. Games at high limits are generally less consistent. One player can make a huge difference in the edge factor. Playing long sessions when such opportunities present themselves can make a huge difference in one's expectation for the year. This makes maintaining concentration much more valuable. So, if you play high limits, developing focus and concentration skills should be high on your list, and you need to be prepared to pick off those cherry opportunities when they present themselves, as they will likely have a significant impact on your annual win rate.



Manage your life and game such that you give yourself the greatest long-term advantage for your particular situation. Poker is a game for life, something to maintain and keep strong. While it is easy to get caught up in the emotions of the moments of winning and losing, not losing sight of the long term can keep your game stable, consistent, and long-lasting.



I went home right after the graveyard dealers came on, stuck that $900 for the session, and more than $2,500 for the day, which is a sound spanking for $30-$60. Over the next week, I won it all back, bit by bit, and then some. (How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!) The decision to leave a great game when stuck, and get up the next day rested – and the day after, and the day after, all of which would have been affected by a late-night session trying to pick off a few live ones – was the correct decision.



If you play when you're burned out, you're likely to become a burnout – and that will make ashes of both your game and your life.



Roy Cooke has played winning professional poker since 1972. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. His books are available at www.conjelco.com/cooke. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a freelance writer in South Florida.