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Message: [QUOTE="Matt Vaughan, post: 2036572, member: 34747"] Thanks - it sure was! Especially given that I had a bit of a confidence-killing convo earlier Friday night. I had been planning to talk a bit about table image in my next post, but I think I'll talk about long sessions instead. No, I am absolutely not drinking during sessions, but I don't drink that frequently anyway lol. I think that the biggest key to being able to play long sessions through the night during times when I'd normally be asleep is that I typically get enough sleep during the week. I have not yet tried to do an overnight session Friday night through Saturday morning, then sleep Saturday afternoon, then an overnight session Saturday night through Sunday morning... But I imagine it wouldn't go that well (plus it would totally mess with my weekly sleep schedule). The human body is pretty resilient to minor blips in the overall sleep schedule, and will bounce back quite easily, so long as you are not accumulating sleep debt (builds on roughly a 2-week span). A hugely important factor for me is also keeping my body happy while I'm there. This means a few things for me personally: - [U][I]Staying hydrated[/I][/U] (I MAKE them call the waitress over) by drinking water semi-constantly throughout the session. - [I][U]Staying satiated[/U][/I] by bringing a few snacks with me for the times between about 2am and noon when no food places are open. - [I][U]Taking frequent breaks[/U][/I]. I tend to get cramped if I'm sitting in one spot too long. I tend to take more bathroom breaks than other people because of the water that I drink, but I also sometimes take walking breaks, just for a few minutes, to stretch my legs. These tend to increase in frequency as the night goes on and my body begins to feel the stress a bit more. But as important as all that is, I think this is probably less what you are asking. You asked about staying awake, and all the above is important to that, but you also mentioned staying motivated. I think that this is something that a lot of online players have trouble doing live. Online play can often be like a sprint, or a high-speed/mid-distance race. In comparison, the live grind can be more of a marathon. There isn't typically too much action for you per unit time compared to online, so there are fewer decisions for you to make, but you still have to follow action and continue to stay focused for a loooong time. So with that in mind, I also try to consider all this: - [I][U]Take breaks seriously[/U][/I]: Walking breaks ad eating breaks (and even bathroom breaks) aren't just about giving the body what it needs. It's about taking your mind, or your being, or whatever, and re-focusing it. It's about removing yourself completely from the game, both physically and mentally, and "re-centering" yourself (bear with me - more on this later). - [I][U]Find a way to stay engaged[/U][/I]: Breaks are great, but you have to keep yourself involved at the table. For me, this often means trying to keep the social aspect of the game going even when it gets to those wee hours of the morning when many people shut up and just stare at the cards. Another thing I find helpful is to follow the action [B]closely[/B] for hands I'm not involved in. This has the added benefit of making me play better and in a more opponent-dependent manner. - [I][U]Love it[/U][/I]: If you don't love live poker, you will not be able to pull 20-hour sessions playing it. There's just no getting around it. I'm able to pull monster sessions and stay motivated and focused throughout because I love nearly every second of it. From the strategy to the decisions to the action to the drama, I just can't get enough. This might be even more important than everything else combined, because I truly don't see myself going through that level of engagement for anything that I don't have an absolute blast doing. When it comes to monster sessions, it's a long, slow race, and you've got to pace yourself both mentally and physically. A lot of that comes down to meeting your needs in an efficient way that doesn't take too much away from your game time, but still helps keep you present and focused for a long time. This has (appropriately) turned into a bit of a marathon post, so I'll stop now, but I'll probably return to the idea of maintaining mental focus later on, and hopefully get into some Tommy Angelo (Eightfold Path) stuff. 'Til next time! :) [/QUOTE]

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