Hold'em championship

Fatigue The Real Killer

There aren't any upsides here. Everything we know from the research on fatigue in psychology and medicine points to the same conclusions: Fatigue slows down our thought processes; tired people just flat-out think more slowly. Fatigue diminishes your ability to concentrate; when you're tired, you tend to lose track of events, particularly when they are complex. Fatigue increases error rates; you make more mistakes and, alas, become less likely to notice them. Fatigue produces changes in muscles and muscle control, so that you react more slowly and erratically. The more tired you are, the more poorly you will perform in every conceivable way. It really doesn't matter what you're doing: heavy physical lifting, writing, surgery, reading, playing poker, even sex gets hammered when you're flaked out.

So, the moral for us poker junkies should be utterly clear: Don't play poker when you're tired. Playing solid poker requires quick thinking, a sharp focus, keen concentration, a good memory, correct decision-making, and smooth, controlled muscular reactions. The data from literally thousands of scientific studies is unambiguous: We gradually lose all these abilities as we become more and more fatigued. Since the point of poker is to win the money, why would you continue to play when lack of sleep is robbing you of the skills you need to pad your bankroll? What piece of advice could be more compelling? Don't play poker when you are tired. Ah, that life were that straightforward. This simple bromide has several complexities.

People Differ From Each Other

If the folks you know are anything like the crowd I hang around with, it's pretty dramatic how much they differ from each other. Some need more sleep than others; some seem to be able to function better when they are tired than others; and, interestingly, the way in which each of them acts when they are sleep-deprived differs, often dramatically. Some get angry and stupid when they are fatigued; others simply nod off. You can't give all these folks the same advice.

Some People Are Dense As Fence Posts

Alas, we are a stubborn species. People will often refuse to admit that they are tired when it is clear that they are. Worse, they will simply deny it if you suggest to them that they cannot do something because of fatigue.

You see these little tricks of the mind everywhere: at finals time, when students are staggering through all-nighters, at dusk-till-dawn parties, where zoned-out clowns do their pathetic imitation of the Energizer bunny, and, of course, at poker tables, where testosterone-stoked poker players with outsized egos and uncompromising macho personalities would fall off a chair before admitting that they are too tired to play.

This pattern is particularly common among younger players who believe, simply because they are young, that they can play forever. While it is true, as noted, that the elderly tire more easily, youth is not a prophylactic for exhaustion. In fact, believing that you are immune to the collapse of your game brought on by fatigue can be a fatal mistake.

So what's the bottom line here? How should you, as a poker player, deal with fatigue? Well, like many interesting things in life, the answer is both utterly simple and wonderfully complex. The simple part of the solution is pay attention to your body. When you feel tired, stop playing. Go home and go to sleep. The complex part, pay attention to your body, recognize when you're tired, and pick up your chips and leave.

Life's like that.