The Perfect Session: How many hours do you ideally like to play?

john_entony · 2026-09-04T12:55:05-0400

fzap1983 said:
10 hours??? If it’s online poker, I can probably play for 5–6 hours since I’ll be at home in a comfortable chair. But if it’s live poker, I can probably play for about 3 hours straight before my body starts hurting.

I wrote about online poker while sitting in a comfortable chair

Jillychemung · 2026-09-04T13:01:35-0400

Nameless14 said:
What is your absolute sweet spot for a poker session length? Do you prefer a quick 3-hour sprint, a standard 6-hour grind, or do you regularly pull 10+ hour marathons?

I like 8-12hr sessions ideally but my stats for this year say 5h30m is my average over 58 sessions.

skaterick · 2026-09-04T13:13:25-0400

i play freerolls on and off all day but i am constantly busting out and waiting to enter another so my steady sessions are not usually very long . if i am multitabling in plo8 SNGs then i seldom can last more than 2 hours without starting to make mistakes. .

fzap1983 · 2026-09-04T13:20:55-0400

john_entony said:
I wrote about online poker while sitting in a comfortable chair

At a certain age, comfort becomes a priority, no matter where you are. I don’t care if I’m playing poker, watching TV, or sitting in a five-star restaurant. If the chair isn’t comfortable, I’m already thinking about leaving

swaggyzoots · 2026-09-04T14:59:31-0400

MishkaZL · 2026-09-04T15:59:42-0400

I rarely play for 10 hours or more. I usually play for 5-6 hours a day. This is the most optimal time for me. It is difficult for me to play for more than 6-7 hours.

Nameless14 · 2026-09-04T20:47:23-0400

TeUnit said:
The perfect session for me would start out with some hypers while I am waiting for MTTs to start.

Then when the MTTs are winding down, add some more hypers to fill the screens.

After the session is over -eat, exercise, then review the hands for icm errors, and then its time to start the next session.

That is how I used to do it, now I just try to find as many good games as possible and fill in the rest with freerolls.

That does sound like a good routine. 😂 I would enjoy that a lot. Having the time to fill the gaps with hypers and then look over the hands afterwards and specifically the ICM spots. The only problem with that is being able to find the games in the first place these days. Freerolls sure do help to fill up those screens. 😄

Nameless14 · 2026-09-04T20:49:06-0400

andron205 said:
I can sometimes play 2-3 days, 8-15 hours a day

Working 8-15 hours a day for 2-3 days straight? That's a serious grind! I can hardly imagine being able to keep that kind of focus for such a long time. I think when you play poker for this amount of time your mental game is just as important as the game itself!

Nameless14 · 2026-09-04T20:50:12-0400

istbno said:
For me, the sweet spot is around 4-6 hours. Three hours can feel a little too short, especially if I’m playing tournaments and just getting into the rhythm when the session ends. Six hours is usually enough to get a decent amount of volume without completely draining my concentration. I can play longer occasionally, but 10+ hour sessions are not something I enjoy regularly. At that point, even if I’m still sitting at the tables, my decision-making usually isn’t as sharp as it was earlier. I’d rather finish a session while I’m still focused than keep playing just to hit some arbitrary number of hours. For me, quality of decisions matters more than the length of the session.

I completely agree with that. 4-6 hours is a very good timeframe that allows you to get sufficient volume without compromising the quality of each decision. If you try to do more than that, it will affect the quality of your work significantly. And, I personally believe that quality is more important than volume. ✅

Nameless14 · 2026-09-04T20:51:11-0400

BillyR23 said:
For around 2 years, I've switched from grinding cash games to mtts, so it's tough to say how long the poker session will last... Personally, as I'm getting older, I feel like the standard 6 hours/session is the best for me, but depending how I run in the games I usually play (I prefer slower structure mtts), the session can become a quick one (I'm not someone to chase losses, so I usually just end it after a certain number of mtts), but also a marathon in which case I have to go for a few extra coffees - winning money is great, still I don't like the extra time

Haha, I could not agree more 😂 6 hours sounds about right, especially with slower structured MTTs. I get it, and i respect your approach to not chasing down losses and having a set amount of tournaments in mind. I hear you about those marathons and the extra coffees bought for the time put in at that point is basically part of the buy in ☕😂 Winning is nice, but I hear you when it comes to the extra hours it can take.

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The Perfect Session: How many hours do you ideally like to play?

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