Today, I decided to play continuously again. I purposely opted to play 24 tourneys in a row at two different times. To recap, "continuously" means that I start with 6, and rather than play just those 6 until all are finished and then open a new 6, I open new tourneys continuously, as I'm finished with each one, to keep 6 live at all times. The advantage is that I play quicker, so my hourly profit goes up, the disadvantage is that it's significantly more fatiguing and I probably miss more +EV spots, so my ROI probably goes down.

The first "group" of 24 was played in 2 hours and 1 minute. I kind of got crushed a bit. The first 6 tourneys finished were all out of the money, and it set the tone for the entire group. It seems as though regularly you can predict an entire session from the first 6-7 tourney run, particularly if it's either really hot or really cold. I've noticed often that a solid 6-10 block of instances either way typifies the meat of the daily story, whereas the other tourneys are usually just treading water. I'll have one block during a hot day that goes 1,1,6,4,1,1,2, and I'll be way way up, with the rest of the tourneys at a typical distribution. Conversely, I'll have one block that's 6,5,3,6,2,3,3, and I'll probably be down or hopefully even. C'est la game.

Luckily, in this case, the group as a whole didn't get much worse than that, ending at -7 buyins overall. I basically tread water after the first 6.

The second "group" of 24 was played about 5 hours later. Breaks are really required when you are playing this intensively, so it's not really possible to play for 2 hours, take 15 minutes, hit the john, grab a slice and a coke, and then sit back down and fire up another 24 tourneys for 2 more hours. Mentally and emotionally, one gets very fatigued. I played the second in 2 hours and 17 minutes, and as you would guess from the extended length, that group fared much better, + 11 buyins, for an overall +4 buyins for 48 tourneys.

2-2.5 hours seems to be the limit of good concentration. A lot of pros who go for Supernova Elite have blogged about playing 3 times a day in 2.5 hour sessions, because of the fatigue factor. Many recommend not playing more than that at once, and apparently, stats bear out that you decline rapidly after just about 150 minutes. Your brain really does get fatigued from making so many decisions so quickly. Towards the end of the second group, I did notice myself severely fatiguing, although it apparently had no negative expectation on the result. My last seven finishes were 1,5,1,2,2,1,1.

It is encouraging that I was able to simply do this today, despite whether the result was positive or negative (NO, NO, NO...I'LL TAKE THE WIN, POKER GODS! REALLY!). It's akin to distance running, something I used to do in high school. It takes a ton of conditioning to be able to run 3 miles effectively, and often you need to train by running much longer distances to build up endurance. I used to put about 1000 miles on my body every summer, often in 12 mile jaunts, just to be able to have the strength, stamina and endurance to handle running 5 kilometers at about 12 miles an hour.

Poker endurance is very similar. I've found that it's taken me a couple of months to develop the concentration and willpower to be able to play this much this often. Originally, I thought I could only handle playing 4 tourneys at a time, but through some trial and error, I was able to get up to 6. With hotkeys and the right companion software, I'm sure 8 would be no problem (I kinda like 6 for now, though). Playing 24 a day was originally my goal, but I was able to move that up to 36. Now I have my sights set on potentially doing 42-48. At first, playing continuously was too tough to manage, so I stuck with sets. Now I'm getting used to both.

I was hoping to find a way to get more tourneys in per day, and it appears that playing continuously may be the way to go to get this result. The decisions are starting to become very automatic, particularly at high blind levels. Honestly, I don't really want to play for more than 3-4 hours per day on average. Not only does it wear you out mentally, but it also just interferes with life too much on that level, and we aren't playing for enough money where it really matters that much yet.

I'm still digging myself out of what I'm now terming THE RED HOLE. I can see the top, but there's still a lot of digging to do, and I may end up slipping down again before I see the surface. Still, I'm very encouraged by 3 winning days in a row, albeit with modest returns on each day.

ADDENDUM: I snuck in 6 more tourneys while I couldn't sleep. 3,3,4,3,1,1 for +$8 more. Booyah.

Kicking it old school, here's some stats.

Beginning 11/28 bankroll: $511
End 11/28 bankroll $544
Net: +$33
Today's FPP earned / cash value: 297 / $4.75
Total FPP accrued / cash value: 6864.12 / $109.83
Current Status (Multiplier): Goldstar (2.0)
Total tourneys played: 1275
Average buyin: $8.14
Total amount invested: $10373.00
Total profit earned: -$151.30
ROI: -1.46%

My girlfriend said something funny today. She said that I should play more poker today, since she knew I enjoyed it. If only she knew....this is work, folks....

Also, only 6 days until I hit the slopes with my snowboard for the first time this season. I can't wait!