I didn't make it

I only made it through 16 hours before I decided it would be best to pull the plug. It all started off really well for me, within the first 6 hours I was up around $8k, but unfortunately that's where I'd peak and the only way from there on was down. I lost, lost some more, then a little bit more and eventually found myself back to even after about 13 hours of play.

I then took a 20-minute break, ate a nice breakfast, got some fresh air on the balcony and came back to the tables with a good feeling. The feeling proved to be a fluke and I lost an additional two buy-ins playing $10/20NL, which brought my total loss to just around $4k for the session. As previously mentioned, I stopped after 16 hours due to the fact that I noticed myself making questionable plays towards the end where I wasn't really sure if I would have played the hands the same had I been fully rested.

Conclusion: Though 24 hour sessions can be fun and are certainly challenging, it's probably best to break down the session into several 3-6 hour sessions with appropriate breaks inbetween. This keeps you refreshed and is certainly a healthier way to get in plenty of hours.

New attempt at a 24 hour session

It was around a year ago when I did my last 24 hour session and it's about time to do another one if you ask me. This time around I'll be playing $5/10 and $10/20NL, my only hope is that the games themselves will run for 24 hours straight without breaking. That's the downside of playing on a small network, the upside is obviously the level of competition :)

We'll start tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon after preparing by ordering a nice big sushi platter, getting a few pizzas and most certainly plenty of energy drinks to last the whole day. Olli is going to attempt the 24 hours as well, so I won't be here alone boring myself to death. I don't have a specific goal moneywise, but I probably am not going to be satisfied with the session unless I make several buy-ins.

As far as July goes, I am happy with the result considering how little I actually played. I was able to make it over 5 digits, which is fine for just over a week of play. I have a great feeling for August and I'm ready to get it started tomorrow!

By the way, if you have some spare time tomorrow then come say Hi to me at the tables, I'll need all the help I can get to stay awake!

Poker, literally for one day straight

24 Hour Session: +$624.09

At 5pm on Tuesday we began our 24 hour quest. I did it because I really wanted to put my mind and my body to the test, and see if I can still play successfully under such circumstances.

I had three tables open to start:
Table 1 = $1/2 NL Longhanded
Table 2 = $2/4 NL Longhanded
Table 3 = GBP 2/4 Shorthanded

Right off the bat, I made the mistake of playing a huge pot with just KK on table 2. I raised it to 14 preflop (my standard raise) and he reraised it to 40. I called, the flop came all low rainbow cards. I check/raised him, he came over the top of me, I made the horrible call and obviously lost the pot to AA. It was bad play by me, because there is no reason to built such huge pots with just one pair in such a deepstack situation.

I added a 4th table to the mix a little while later, because I discovered that my favorite fish was playing EUR 3/6 Shorthanded. Those of you who look at the screenshot will see his name, but keep your hands off of him, he's my fish :) I got my seat right next to him and a few hands in, the following hand happened. I had QTo in my BB and it was limped by all 4 players to me. I checked, and saw a pretty nice flop of T9T. I bet at it aggressively, got one call. I bet the turn and got raised by player sybs. I called his raise and saw a 7 land on the river. I tried to get cute and bet just 6 on the turn (you'd be surprised how often this works). He raised me to 96 and I made the crying call, only to see he rivered the shit out of me. Again though, I was the one making the final call, as is the case in most lost pots.

A short while later, I lost my whole buy-in at Table 1. You can find the screenshot here. We were all in on the turn, of course.

Meanwhile, the only thing that was stopping this from becoming a diasaster was Table 3. I had built myself a decent stack, but that quickly changed after this hand. I had 33 and could have potentially lost my whole buy-in if I didn't play it safe in the end.

At this point of the session, we were about 7 hours in and I was down well over $1k. Olli and Sutti were also down, and we began to look at each other like maybe this wasn't such a great idea. Sutti quit shortly afterwards, leaving Olli and myself as the lone survivors. No way in hell we were going to give up.

Over the next 4 hours, I was able to win back some of my money through small and medium-sized pots. At halftime, which was 5am, I was down just over $600. By the time 10am rolled around, I was just about even. At 1pm I was up a couple hundred. Just 4 hours to go and things were looking nice.

With around an hour to go, Gerlihard joined me at the $1/2 table. I came over the top of two of his preflop raises, both times with very strong holdings. He played back at me in a later pot where be bluffed me out of the pot and then showed 74o. Then, the following hand came down (edited to just show the both of us):

thecortstr is at seat 3 with 834.74
gerlihard2 is at seat 9 with 206.15

thecortstr: As, Kc
gerlihard2: --, --

Pre-flop:
gerlihard2: Raise 6.00
thecortstr: Raise 36.00
gerlihard2: All in
thecortstr: Call 206.15

Board (Board: Qd, 4c, 2h, 7d, Ac):

Showdown:
thecortstr shows: As, Kc (a pair of Aces)
gerlihard2 shows: Ks, Kd (a pair of Kings)

Mainpot:
thecortstr wins the pot of 411.30 with a pair of Aces

I decided to make the incredibly loose call preflop based only on our previous play. Obviously I am not making this call against an unknown opponent. I thought there was a good chance he was making another play on me, but he really deserved to win this pot. I got incredibly lucky, oops!

At 5pm, the task was over. Olli and I had each played for 24 hours straight. I did not take a single break longer than 5 mins, and the same goes for Olli. Hopefully my body will forgive me for feeding him just döner, pizza, sushi, and 2.5 liters of energy drinks while pretty much sitting for 24 hours straight.

Going into the session, I thought that I would barely be able to open my eyes by the end. Surprisingly enough, I was very awake and very concentrated for most of this session. I became very tired only a couple times for about 30 minutes each, but then I would snap out of it and play fully concentrated. Even at the end, I was very aware of every move that I made. I only made one misclick throughout the session, and most of my bad plays came in the beginning anyways. Kind of interesing...

I am proud of myself that I stayed focused even when being down so much in the beginning. For those of you who are considering doing something like this yourself, I say go for it! It helped to have Olli here as well, because it gave me somewhere to talk to and share my highs and lows with. Playing 24 hours alone would get pretty lonely I think. I'm very glad that I did it, and I would consider doing it again sometime.

*I was not involved in the hand myself, but this hand is pretty sickening as far as 99.9% favorites go.

1 dollar for every day of the year

Monday: +$365
I had forgotten how the $55 SNGs at CelebPoker are really a gold mine. If only they would fill up faster, I think that an average player could make a living playing them. No joke.

Since I don't have work tomorrow, we are planning a 24 hour session. The plan is to begin around 15:00 and play for 24 hours straight. I will play 3 cash game tables at CelebPoker, and then see how much I can make!

Being successful is going to require:

• patience - There's no need to force the results, I can take my time and plan my actions.
• concentration - This is going to be difficult to maintain for 24 hours, but I will give it my all, with the help of
• energy drinks - Take Off, a Red Bull spinoff, best drink ever

Feel free to stop by CelebPoker and chat with me at the tables, I can certainly use some company to stay awake! I am planning on playing one $1/2 NL Longhanded, one $2/4 NL Longhanded, and one $2/4 Shorthanded table. I may change my mind depending on what games are being played when I begin. I am not going to set any monetary goals, but coming out on top would be the least I am hoping for!