Playing late regularly [+ Professional Poker Playing Lifestyle Discussion]

luckylucky

I normally start playing shortly after I get out of bed in the morning which can be anytime between 8 and 11 a.m. by the time the evening comes around when all the juicy games are getting going I don't feel like playing so much anymore. After a poor run though I'm thinking sod this for a lark. I'm thinking of changing my playing times from about 6 pm. to 4 a.m for a couple of months at least - anyone else play to that sort of timetable and how do you find it affects other parts of your life.

Treehouse72

I am exactly the same LL. I get so knackered in the morning/afternoon trying to do a dance with the regs that I am burned out by 6pm most days and can't bear to look at the screen after that.

And rightly so - a day's work is a day's work and you need to break at some point. 4 or 5 hours of 4-8 tabling is quite enough for anyone to consider they have done an honest day's work IMO. (How many hours of actual work do people do in the office? After all the fag breaks and coffee breaks and after straring at the girl across the desk all day, I seriously doubt its more than 4 or 5 hours. I make 2,000 individual decisions a day for Chrissakes! That is a day's work!)

But occasionally, maybe once or twice a week, I won't get my hands in in the day and have to play some in the evening and I agree with you - it depresses me how many awful players there are. But I just can't switch to mainly-evening play because the idea of my evenings being eaten up kills me when half the point of trying to make a living playing this poxy game is that you are not constrained by horribe hours or nasty shifts.

That being said, I think I am going to try and mix it up through the week within an overall routine. For example, I go to the gym 2 days a week and am usually tired from that, so no evening poker on those days. Saturday and Sunday are the weekend, so I'd rather keep those evenings free (and the days the lightest of the week, maybe 1/2 - 3/4 the number of hands in a normal day).

That just leaves me 3 days, and on those I'm going to split my day in 2, with half the time in the evening. If I am right and 4/5 hours are a reasonable day in anyone's book, it can't kill me to find 2 hours three times a week to play between 8 and midnight.

Oh, and of course I like getting stoned in the evening, which makes playing then kinda silly.

luckylucky

Yeah 4 to 5 hours solid play is more than most people would do of actual productive work in a real job, that's for sure. I was chatting on msn to a Swedish pro earlier and he mainly operates for 4 hours between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. - i'll probably start a bit earlier that that and I don't think I'm going to go totally night owl after all - but I'm really going to just give daytime poker a miss all the same. Going to have to find some other stuff to do during the day then - though tbh there seems like f-all to do here during the day as I live in the Portuguese equivalent of County Leitrim (not slagging off Leitrim which is very nice place - just it's a bit depopulated and as such there's less to do)

Grafter

Yeh, I'd say 8pm-1am or 8pm-2am is optimal, but if you've nothing else to do all day then meh.

Try the open to US sites if you're up early of a morning. Cake (for example) sometimes has some good tables with late night their time, less than fresh and alert Americans.

Pretty much everywhere is a grind in the Euro time afternoons.

TheRock

Ever tried playing in the morning on US sites? like between 7am - 11am our time.

You get a lot of the US still playing at this time and the standards pretty poor I find. Lots of them coming to the end of their nights playing and plenty of value about.

luckylucky

Grafter wrote: »

Yeh, I'd say 8pm-1am or 8pm-2am is optimal, but if you've nothing else to do all day then meh.

think I'll aim to play those times, just going to have to occupy myself otherwise during the day, watch videos or get some exercise etc.

TheRock wrote: »

Ever tried playing in the morning on US sites? like between 7am - 11am our time.

You get a lot of the US still playing at this time and the standards pretty poor I find. Lots of them coming to the end of their nights playing and plenty of value about.

Yeah that's an option also played a few times on Full Tilt at around 6 a.m., still some good games then with West Coast US drunks playing. After about 9 a.m the amount of players dwindle rapidly though.

8 pm - 2 a.m sounds optimal alright.

Grafter

think I'll aim to play those times, just going to have to occupy myself otherwise during the day, watch videos or get some exercise etc.

Maybe play a couple of hours AM towards your daily hands/points/RB target if you have one, do other stuff in the afternoon when the games are poor anyway and then be kinda bored/looking for something to do and so be looking forward to the stimulation of the evening session?

It's kinda what I do, but I'm lucky because I wake when I want, play until my wife comes in from college, spend time with her and then play evenings unless we go out.

High-Tower

Pics please :D:D

Tight Ted

If you play on Stars there's always good games going on.

Grafter

High-Tower wrote: »

Pics please :D:D

luckylucky

Tight Ted wrote: »

If you play on Stars there's always good games going on.

Depends on what you call good and in what games you play. Stars is the toughest site - I'm trying to make a living from the game - so for me I normally just use stars for donkaments.

Grafter

luckylucky wrote: »

Depends on what you call good and in what games you play. Stars is the toughest site - I'm trying to make a living from the game - so for me I normally just use stars for donkaments.

I should have asked that. What is your game of choice?

luckylucky

Grafter wrote: »

I should have asked that. What is your game of choice?

I play quite a few different variations but mostly I play sngs and PLO. I'm dabbling a bit in Limit Hold 'Em again after a long time away from it, and I haven't played much NL in a long while. I'm probably going to focus even more on sngs - though they can be really frustrating when on a bad run, still though they're probably my strongest game. I'll be playing mostly $200 to $500 games and maybe some $1ks. Anyways the busy times for whatever game you play are pretty much the same times

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

I normally play from 9pm to 1am most nights not out of choice more to do with time constraints. I could imagine playing regs during the day would be a lot tougher than playing in the evenings were you get more recreactional players and greater value imo.
Not directed at anyone in this thread but i laugh when people say they are tired after playing 3/4 hours online ffs try working 10/12 hrs in the day job/family/and 3/4 hours odd online and come back to me:rolleyes: BTW i sleep around 5 hrs a nights which is plenty.
It appears there are many "lazy" players on boards at the moment doing themselves an injustice by not playing more and putting effort/hours in to give themselves a greater return over a full year.

Grafter

Andi Fluffy Criminal wrote: »

I normally play from 9pm to 1am most nights not out of choice more to do with time constraints. I could imagine playing regs during the day would be a lot tougher than playing in the evenings were you get more recreactional players and greater value imo.
Not directed at anyone in this thread but i laugh when people say they are tired after playing 3/4 hours online ffs try working 10/12 hrs in the day job/family/and 3/4 hours odd online and come back to me:rolleyes: BTW i sleep around 5 hrs a nights which is plenty.
It appears there are many "lazy" players on boards at the moment doing themselves an injustice by not playing more and putting effort/hours in to give themselves a greater return over a full year.

I agree with all of this.

I also think (without overly generalising and without knowing what age various posters are or what commitments/responsibilities they do or don't have) that there's a big difference between the youngsters having a crack at poker instead of a j o b, compared to the oldies or semi oldies who are happy to grind for extra pennies.

(in case of doubt, I'm in the latter category even though I've killed my bills and don't have to work any more)

cardshark202

Playing during the day is far healthier in the long term. Can't remember where I read this but someone who works nights for most of there life will lose something like 10 years off there life expectancy or something like that. I used to play during the nights 'cos the games would always be better but the trade off of sleeping less at more erratic times and often missing a lot of other daytime activities meant that it wasn't worth it. Playing during the day also means you lead a more 'normal' life and allows to socialise more with your non-poker-playing friends. Since I started playing during the day I've felt much healthier and have been way more active

Treehouse72

Andi Fluffy Criminal wrote: »

I normally play from 9pm to 1am most nights not out of choice more to do with time constraints. I could imagine playing regs during the day would be a lot tougher than playing in the evenings were you get more recreactional players and greater value imo.
Not directed at anyone in this thread but i laugh when people say they are tired after playing 3/4 hours online ffs try working 10/12 hrs in the day job/family/and 3/4 hours odd online and come back to me:rolleyes: BTW i sleep around 5 hrs a nights which is plenty.
It appears there are many "lazy" players on boards at the moment doing themselves an injustice by not playing more and putting effort/hours in to give themselves a greater return over a full year.

Whoa, now hang on a goddam moment.

1. Away from work, full time poker players have exactly the same responsibilites and committments as you do - families, kids, bills, constraints on time and so forth. Quite why you should think otherwise is beyond me and frankly I find it insulting, as though I piss around without a care in the world except moaning about playing poker. I don't like your condescending implication that we are somehow separate from society and normality. We are not.

2. You say you have a job to worry about: yeah, so do we and it's called poker. You have the financial security of your job to fall back on, we do not. You seem to have no conception of the level of emotional and financial commitment relying on poker requires, nor the pressure and stress of having to make money month in, month out exerts.

3. Yes, playing against the regs in the daytime is tougher than the evening. Much tougher. Much, much tougher. Good luck trying to grind the rent out of dozens of 14/13 rakeback pros from Hungary or 25/23 child geniuses from Sweden. It's like poker, just less fun, sometimes a bloody hell of a lot less fun.

4. If you work 10/12 hour days, good for you. I usually work 5 or 6 hours a day and often up to 8. Every single minute of that is concentration - that is not the same as work in most real-world jobs. When I think of previous jobs I've had in the real world, out of an 8 hour day, I'd have an hour for lunch, and I'd piss away another hour in coffee breaks. Add to that the time you surf the net or send personal emails or call your girlfriend, and a large chunk of that 8 hour day is gone. And concentrating on 1,000 decisions in an hour is not the same as "working" on an email for an hour (which I have done myself many times in the past) in terms of concentration.

Oh, and I work 7 days a week....do you? Every day. I take maybe 2 days off a month, or maybe 4 half-days. No more. Been doing that for over 2 years now. I played on my birthday last month, and will play some hands for RB on Christmas and NY day, as I did last year. If I want to go out on a Saturday night, I don't get a lie in that morning and I have to skip Football Focus cause I need to get my hands in before disco time. And when I wake up hung-over on Sunday I don't have the luxury of not being arsed. I tell you, needing to grind out even 1,000 hands over 2 hours on a hungover, gloomy Sunday is not my idea of fun.

5. By all means talk about laziness, but you would be pretty silly to direct that accusation at anyone trying to make a living at poker, because most of us try to be professional: getting up early, concentrating, trying to eat well, stay exercised, do research etc. etc. Any suggestion most pros piss around getting stoned and watching Loose Women all day is wide of the mark.


Not sure you thought through your post.

sickpuppy

Jaysus treehouse it seems that you should take more breaks.
I mean surely one of the joys of playing poker for a living is the chance to take nice breaks.
Do you go on holdiays?
Wander like a lostysheep in coppers looking for a comatosed fat bird?
If i had to break my arse 7 days a week id do another job.
Of course not all players have the ability to work short hours and be profitable.
As cardshark said daytime playing is of course better sleep when its dark not when sun is shining.
Its been proved scientifically its better for your health too.
It allows certain social interaction playing some sports activieties etc not just pulling the stones off yourself on a web cam to some yoke online.
Camfro:pac:g.com
But most players you talk to esp pros dont make as much effort as they can happy with a wage not driven enough to move up and on.

DrJFF

interesting propostion, not too sure wat is the healtier proposition, all i know poker fcuks up the most solid minds up long term

Tight Ted

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Whoa, now hang on a goddam moment.

1. Away from work, full time poker players have exactly the same responsibilites and committments as you do - families, kids, bills, constraints on time and so forth. Quite why you should think otherwise is beyond me and frankly I find it insulting, as though I piss around without a care in the world except moaning about playing poker. I don't like your condescending implication that we are somehow separate from society and normality. We are not.

2. You say you have a job to worry about: yeah, so do we and it's called poker. You have the financial security of your job to fall back on, we do not. You seem to have no conception of the level of emotional and financial commitment relying on poker requires, nor the pressure and stress of having to make money month in, month out exerts.

3. Yes, playing against the regs in the daytime is tougher than the evening. Much tougher. Much, much tougher. Good luck trying to grind the rent out of dozens of 14/13 rakeback pros from Hungary or 25/23 child geniuses from Sweden. It's like poker, just less fun, sometimes a bloody hell of a lot less fun.

4. If you work 10/12 hour days, good for you. I usually work 5 or 6 hours a day and often up to 8. Every single minute of that is concentration - that is not the same as work in most real-world jobs. When I think of previous jobs I've had in the real world, out of an 8 hour day, I'd have an hour for lunch, and I'd piss away another hour in coffee breaks. Add to that the time you surf the net or send personal emails or call your girlfriend, and a large chunk of that 8 hour day is gone. And concentrating on 1,000 decisions in an hour is not the same as "working" on an email for an hour (which I have done myself many times in the past) in terms of concentration.

Oh, and I work 7 days a week....do you? Every day. I take maybe 2 days off a month, or maybe 4 half-days. No more. Been doing that for over 2 years now. I played on my birthday last month, and will play some hands for RB on Christmas and NY day, as I did last year. If I want to go out on a Saturday night, I don't get a lie in that morning and I have to skip Football Focus cause I need to get my hands in before disco time. And when I wake up hung-over on Sunday I don't have the luxury of not being arsed. I tell you, needing to grind out even 1,000 hands over 2 hours on a hungover, gloomy Sunday is not my idea of fun.

5. By all means talk about laziness, but you would be pretty silly to direct that accusation at anyone trying to make a living at poker, because most of us try to be professional: getting up early, concentrating, trying to eat well, stay exercised, do research etc. etc. Any suggestion most pros piss around getting stoned and watching Loose Women all day is wide of the mark.


Not sure you thought through your post.

You must be making serious pittance if you're playing as much as you say, yet still have to play hands at xmas 'for rb'. I thought the whole idea of being an online pro was to have more free time for family, friends etc.

Maybe you should quit, and get one of those cushy 9 to 5s you described. Then you might have some free time for xmas, lol.

HIVeindhoven

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Whoa, now hang on a goddam moment.

1. Away from work, full time poker players have exactly the same responsibilites and committments as you do - families, kids, bills, constraints on time and so forth. Quite why you should think otherwise is beyond me and frankly I find it insulting, as though I piss around without a care in the world except moaning about playing poker. I don't like your condescending implication that we are somehow separate from society and normality. We are not.

2. You say you have a job to worry about: yeah, so do we and it's called poker. You have the financial security of your job to fall back on, we do not. You seem to have no conception of the level of emotional and financial commitment relying on poker requires, nor the pressure and stress of having to make money month in, month out exerts.

3. Yes, playing against the regs in the daytime is tougher than the evening. Much tougher. Much, much tougher. Good luck trying to grind the rent out of dozens of 14/13 rakeback pros from Hungary or 25/23 child geniuses from Sweden. It's like poker, just less fun, sometimes a bloody hell of a lot less fun.

4. If you work 10/12 hour days, good for you. I usually work 5 or 6 hours a day and often up to 8. Every single minute of that is concentration - that is not the same as work in most real-world jobs. When I think of previous jobs I've had in the real world, out of an 8 hour day, I'd have an hour for lunch, and I'd piss away another hour in coffee breaks. Add to that the time you surf the net or send personal emails or call your girlfriend, and a large chunk of that 8 hour day is gone. And concentrating on 1,000 decisions in an hour is not the same as "working" on an email for an hour (which I have done myself many times in the past) in terms of concentration.

Oh, and I work 7 days a week....do you? Every day. I take maybe 2 days off a month, or maybe 4 half-days. No more. Been doing that for over 2 years now. I played on my birthday last month, and will play some hands for RB on Christmas and NY day, as I did last year. If I want to go out on a Saturday night, I don't get a lie in that morning and I have to skip Football Focus cause I need to get my hands in before disco time. And when I wake up hung-over on Sunday I don't have the luxury of not being arsed. I tell you, needing to grind out even 1,000 hands over 2 hours on a hungover, gloomy Sunday is not my idea of fun.

5. By all means talk about laziness, but you would be pretty silly to direct that accusation at anyone trying to make a living at poker, because most of us try to be professional: getting up early, concentrating, trying to eat well, stay exercised, do research etc. etc. Any suggestion most pros piss around getting stoned and watching Loose Women all day is wide of the mark.


Not sure you thought through your post.

[ ] Sounds enjoyable

[ ] Sounds way better then a 9-5 Job

[x] Get a real job ffs

Daithio

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Whoa, now hang on a goddam moment.

1. Away from work, full time poker players have exactly the same responsibilites and committments as you do - families, kids, bills, constraints on time and so forth. Quite why you should think otherwise is beyond me and frankly I find it insulting, as though I piss around without a care in the world except moaning about playing poker. I don't like your condescending implication that we are somehow separate from society and normality. We are not.

2. You say you have a job to worry about: yeah, so do we and it's called poker. You have the financial security of your job to fall back on, we do not. You seem to have no conception of the level of emotional and financial commitment relying on poker requires, nor the pressure and stress of having to make money month in, month out exerts.

3. Yes, playing against the regs in the daytime is tougher than the evening. Much tougher. Much, much tougher. Good luck trying to grind the rent out of dozens of 14/13 rakeback pros from Hungary or 25/23 child geniuses from Sweden. It's like poker, just less fun, sometimes a bloody hell of a lot less fun.

4. If you work 10/12 hour days, good for you. I usually work 5 or 6 hours a day and often up to 8. Every single minute of that is concentration - that is not the same as work in most real-world jobs. When I think of previous jobs I've had in the real world, out of an 8 hour day, I'd have an hour for lunch, and I'd piss away another hour in coffee breaks. Add to that the time you surf the net or send personal emails or call your girlfriend, and a large chunk of that 8 hour day is gone. And concentrating on 1,000 decisions in an hour is not the same as "working" on an email for an hour (which I have done myself many times in the past) in terms of concentration.

Oh, and I work 7 days a week....do you? Every day. I take maybe 2 days off a month, or maybe 4 half-days. No more. Been doing that for over 2 years now. I played on my birthday last month, and will play some hands for RB on Christmas and NY day, as I did last year. If I want to go out on a Saturday night, I don't get a lie in that morning and I have to skip Football Focus cause I need to get my hands in before disco time. And when I wake up hung-over on Sunday I don't have the luxury of not being arsed. I tell you, needing to grind out even 1,000 hands over 2 hours on a hungover, gloomy Sunday is not my idea of fun.

5. By all means talk about laziness, but you would be pretty silly to direct that accusation at anyone trying to make a living at poker, because most of us try to be professional: getting up early, concentrating, trying to eat well, stay exercised, do research etc. etc. Any suggestion most pros piss around getting stoned and watching Loose Women all day is wide of the mark.


Not sure you thought through your post.

So why do you play poker for a living exactly?

The thing I disliked most about playing poker full time was the late nights. I'm defo more of a daytime person, but it's really hard to keep to the discipline of getting up early when you're not going to lose your job if you don't.

reilly110

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Whoa, now hang on a goddam moment.

1. Away from work, full time poker players have exactly the same responsibilites and committments as you do - families, kids, bills, constraints on time and so forth. Quite why you should think otherwise is beyond me and frankly I find it insulting, as though I piss around without a care in the world except moaning about playing poker. I don't like your condescending implication that we are somehow separate from society and normality. We are not.

2. You say you have a job to worry about: yeah, so do we and it's called poker. You have the financial security of your job to fall back on, we do not. You seem to have no conception of the level of emotional and financial commitment relying on poker requires, nor the pressure and stress of having to make money month in, month out exerts.

i would advise you to get a regular job -

3. Yes, playing against the regs in the daytime is tougher than the evening. Much tougher. Much, much tougher. Good luck trying to grind the rent out of dozens of 14/13 rakeback pros from Hungary or 25/23 child geniuses from Sweden. It's like poker, just less fun, sometimes a bloody hell of a lot less fun.

4. If you work 10/12 hour days, good for you. I usually work 5 or 6 hours a day and often up to 8. Every single minute of that is concentration - that is not the same as work in most real-world jobs. When I think of previous jobs I've had in the real world, out of an 8 hour day, I'd have an hour for lunch, and I'd piss away another hour in coffee breaks. Add to that the time you surf the net or send personal emails or call your girlfriend, and a large chunk of that 8 hour day is gone. And concentrating on 1,000 decisions in an hour is not the same as "working" on an email for an hour (which I have done myself many times in the past) in terms of concentration.

Oh, and I work 7 days a week....do you? Every day. I take maybe 2 days off a month, or maybe 4 half-days. No more. Been doing that for over 2 years now. I played on my birthday last month, and will play some hands for RB on Christmas and NY day, as I did last year. If I want to go out on a Saturday night, I don't get a lie in that morning and I have to skip Football Focus cause I need to get my hands in before disco time. And when I wake up hung-over on Sunday I don't have the luxury of not being arsed. I tell you, needing to grind out even 1,000 hands over 2 hours on a hungover, gloomy Sunday is not my idea of fun.

5. By all means talk about laziness, but you would be pretty silly to direct that accusation at anyone trying to make a living at poker, because most of us try to be professional: getting up early, concentrating, trying to eat well, stay exercised, do research etc. etc. Any suggestion most pros piss around getting stoned and watching Loose Women all day is wide of the mark.


Not sure you thought through your post.

i would advise you to get a regular job -does not seem like you really enjoy the game at all

you really seem to loath playing

also playing 7 days a week is crazy


and also i happen to like Loose Women

pok3rplaya

agree with cshark

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Whoa, now hang on a goddam moment.

1. Away from work, full time poker players have exactly the same responsibilites and committments as you do - families, kids, bills, constraints on time and so forth. Quite why you should think otherwise is beyond me and frankly I find it insulting, as though I piss around without a care in the world except moaning about playing poker. I don't like your condescending implication that we are somehow separate from society and normality. We are not.

2. You say you have a job to worry about: yeah, so do we and it's called poker. You have the financial security of your job to fall back on, we do not. You seem to have no conception of the level of emotional and financial commitment relying on poker requires, nor the pressure and stress of having to make money month in, month out exerts.

3. Yes, playing against the regs in the daytime is tougher than the evening. Much tougher. Much, much tougher. Good luck trying to grind the rent out of dozens of 14/13 rakeback pros from Hungary or 25/23 child geniuses from Sweden. It's like poker, just less fun, sometimes a bloody hell of a lot less fun.

4. If you work 10/12 hour days, good for you. I usually work 5 or 6 hours a day and often up to 8. Every single minute of that is concentration - that is not the same as work in most real-world jobs. When I think of previous jobs I've had in the real world, out of an 8 hour day, I'd have an hour for lunch, and I'd piss away another hour in coffee breaks. Add to that the time you surf the net or send personal emails or call your girlfriend, and a large chunk of that 8 hour day is gone. And concentrating on 1,000 decisions in an hour is not the same as "working" on an email for an hour (which I have done myself many times in the past) in terms of concentration.

Oh, and I work 7 days a week....do you? Every day. I take maybe 2 days off a month, or maybe 4 half-days. No more. Been doing that for over 2 years now. I played on my birthday last month, and will play some hands for RB on Christmas and NY day, as I did last year. If I want to go out on a Saturday night, I don't get a lie in that morning and I have to skip Football Focus cause I need to get my hands in before disco time. And when I wake up hung-over on Sunday I don't have the luxury of not being arsed. I tell you, needing to grind out even 1,000 hands over 2 hours on a hungover, gloomy Sunday is not my idea of fun.

5. By all means talk about laziness, but you would be pretty silly to direct that accusation at anyone trying to make a living at poker, because most of us try to be professional: getting up early, concentrating, trying to eat well, stay exercised, do research etc. etc. Any suggestion most pros piss around getting stoned and watching Loose Women all day is wide of the mark.


Not sure you thought through your post.

Not sure you grasped mine fully tbh, not my problem u cannot beat 10/20c

El Stuntman

Treehouse72 wrote: »

Whoa, now hang on a goddam moment.

1. Away from work, full time poker players have exactly the same responsibilites and committments as you do - families, kids, bills, constraints on time and so forth. Quite why you should think otherwise is beyond me and frankly I find it insulting, as though I piss around without a care in the world except moaning about playing poker. I don't like your condescending implication that we are somehow separate from society and normality. We are not.

2. You say you have a job to worry about: yeah, so do we and it's called poker. You have the financial security of your job to fall back on, we do not. You seem to have no conception of the level of emotional and financial commitment relying on poker requires, nor the pressure and stress of having to make money month in, month out exerts.

3. Yes, playing against the regs in the daytime is tougher than the evening. Much tougher. Much, much tougher. Good luck trying to grind the rent out of dozens of 14/13 rakeback pros from Hungary or 25/23 child geniuses from Sweden. It's like poker, just less fun, sometimes a bloody hell of a lot less fun.

4. If you work 10/12 hour days, good for you. I usually work 5 or 6 hours a day and often up to 8. Every single minute of that is concentration - that is not the same as work in most real-world jobs. When I think of previous jobs I've had in the real world, out of an 8 hour day, I'd have an hour for lunch, and I'd piss away another hour in coffee breaks. Add to that the time you surf the net or send personal emails or call your girlfriend, and a large chunk of that 8 hour day is gone. And concentrating on 1,000 decisions in an hour is not the same as "working" on an email for an hour (which I have done myself many times in the past) in terms of concentration.

Oh, and I work 7 days a week....do you? Every day. I take maybe 2 days off a month, or maybe 4 half-days. No more. Been doing that for over 2 years now. I played on my birthday last month, and will play some hands for RB on Christmas and NY day, as I did last year. If I want to go out on a Saturday night, I don't get a lie in that morning and I have to skip Football Focus cause I need to get my hands in before disco time. And when I wake up hung-over on Sunday I don't have the luxury of not being arsed. I tell you, needing to grind out even 1,000 hands over 2 hours on a hungover, gloomy Sunday is not my idea of fun.

5. By all means talk about laziness, but you would be pretty silly to direct that accusation at anyone trying to make a living at poker, because most of us try to be professional: getting up early, concentrating, trying to eat well, stay exercised, do research etc. etc. Any suggestion most pros piss around getting stoned and watching Loose Women all day is wide of the mark.


Not sure you thought through your post.

lol

what a load of self-serving tripe

zap27

So do you make a good living from it treehouse?

luckylucky

Andi Fluffy Criminal wrote: »

I normally play from 9pm to 1am most nights not out of choice more to do with time constraints. I could imagine playing regs during the day would be a lot tougher than playing in the evenings were you get more recreactional players and greater value imo.
Not directed at anyone in this thread but i laugh when people say they are tired after playing 3/4 hours online ffs try working 10/12 hrs in the day job/family/and 3/4 hours odd online and come back to me:rolleyes: BTW i sleep around 5 hrs a nights which is plenty.
It appears there are many "lazy" players on boards at the moment doing themselves an injustice by not playing more and putting effort/hours in to give themselves a greater return over a full year.

tbh Fran there's a number of differences between having a regular job along with poker as a serious sideline as opposed to having poker as your main job. Before I went totally full-time I approached it in pretty much the same manner as yourself - I'd do my 8 to 10 hours of my normal job which I couldn't stand and then be really looking forward to playing poker in the evening and then play basically as much as I could get away with it in the evening.

The problem for me now is I'm in the habit of playing on/off throughtout the day and by the time the evening comes around just as in a regular job the last thing you want to do is the same stuff you've been doing all day, though I still often do play from morning to bedtime - it's not the most productive use of my time though imo - so that's why in a way you could say I want to get back to the days where I was more enthusiastic for the game and be raring to go when the evening time comes and the games are juicier - 4 or 5 quality hours against weaker opponents is way better than 11/12 half hearted hours against tougher opponents.

Also I think the point is still valid that 4 or 5 hours of actual play time is probably more than the equivalent productivity of the normal person's working day. i.e. between break times, researching the game, looking at poker forums, going back over hands, maintaining spreadsheets, being an arse on boards and yeah just browsing the internet, on msn and checking emails(something I did as a computer programmer 'n all ) 4 to 5 hours of actual play can mean 9 to 10 hours of being on the PC.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

luckylucky wrote: »

tbh Fran there's a number of differences between having a regular job and having poker as a serious sideline and having poker as your main job. Before I went totally full-time I approached it in pretty much the same manner as yourself - I'd do my 8 to 10 hours of my normal job which I couldn't stand and then be really looking forward to playing poker in the evening and then play basically as much as I could get away with it in the evening. The problem for me now is I'm in the habit of playing on/off throughtout the day and by the time the evening comes around just as in a regular job the last thing you want to do is the same stuff you've been doing all day, though I still often do play from morning to bedtime - it's not the most productive use of my time though imo - so that's why in a way you could say I want to get back to the days where I was more enthusiastic for the game and be raring to go when the evening time comes and the games are juicier - 4 or 5 quality hours against weaker opponents is way better than 11/12 half hearted hours against tougher opponents.

Fair point above Barry but if i was doing it for a living i feel only playing/working 10-15 hours a week is not enough (again not directed at you) If you are a winning player you are limiting your earning potential by not putting the hours in. I suppose i am different to the normal poker pros in that i have the day job but i use every opportunity i get to play and maximise my profits. Sounds a bit anal but i treat my poker as a business and if i make a good hourly rate i obviously try increase the hours i play, within reason of course:)
I think the key is find a routine that fits your lifestyle but maximnises your opportunity to earn as much $$$$ as possible.
I could name at least 4/5 good posters here on boards that have decent win rates but do not have a set routine and have the potential to earn so much more from the game.

Stands off soap box.....:p

EDIT to say i am posting this whilst taking a business call, i can multi task!!! You must be all lazy feckers in your jobs if your productive less than 50% of the time

luckylucky

Andi Fluffy Criminal wrote: »

Fair point above Barry but if i was doing it for a living i feel only playing/working 10-15 hours a week is not enough (again not directed at you) If you are a winning player you are limiting your earning potential by not putting the hours in. I suppose i am different to the normal poker pros in that i have the day job but i use every opportunity i get to play and maximise my profits. Sounds a bit anal but i treat my poker as a business and if i make a good hourly rate i obviously try increase the hours i play, within reason of course:)
I think the key is find a routine that fits your lifestyle but maximnises your opportunity to earn as much $$$$ as possible.I could name at least 4/5 good posters here on boards that have decent win rates but do not have a set routine and have the potential to earn so much more from the game.

Stands off soap box.....:p

I agree with all of the above. I think you need to find a happy compromise between putting in a decent effort and avoiding burnout - in a way with my current routine I'm doing neither hence the post.

Also btw I think treehouse just got the wrong end of the stick - I knew you weren't being condescending. I think if you take the 'heatedness' :P element out of treehouse's reply he is talking sense also.

zuutroy

Andi Fluffy Criminal wrote: »

If you are a winning player you are limiting your earning potential by not putting the hours in.

It all depends what you want. I don't think I'll lie on my deathbed cursing my wasted earning potential For guys who play for a living and can make a decent amount playing 15 hours a week its a great situation to be in. A lot of people (myself included) are happy enough with a moderate lifestyle once their time is their own.