Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule
 

i play live and have to slave to when the games are good. therefore my sleep schedule is completely out of whack. i get to sleep when i come home and just try to get a good nights/days rest whenever i get to bed (sometimes 2am - sometimes 10am). its tough, but as long as you get your sleep, you should be ok. i would advise against sleeping pills as they should not be necassary and can do more harm than good. just try to get good sleep and play when your body is ready. enjoy. -mj

Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule
 

I've always been an insane grinder for a poker pro. For the past 18 months I've probaly averaged 35 hours a week (8-9 tabling) when I'm at home (I play the tournament circuit some). For the past month though, I've been playing 2-3 45 minute to two hour sessions every day while 4-7 tabling (depending on the games) and in my down time I don't do a whole lot of anything (Chill with friends, read, watch tv, go to the gym/spa). This new schedule has me feeling like I'm playing MUCH better, learning a lot more and so far my hourly rate is 3-4X what it has been while giving me a lot more free time and making me feel better in general (not as brunt out after sessions etc.).

I know conventional wisdom says play hours not results but I feel due to the high speed intensity of online poker my play (and a lot of my friends) deteraties dramatically after only an hour of play (while multitabling). Just something to think about as you try to play more and more hours.

Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule
 

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Once I get up a certain amount for the month to where at least my bills are payed I tend to get a bit lax on the discipline though and start letting my schedule slip or taking days off and that type of thing. Any of you guys have that problem too?

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Quit looking at your monthly results to try to minimize your focusing on having your bills covered. There are probably dozens of ways to do this--the simplest of which could just involve changing how you keep your results and records.


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What I really seem to have a problem with though is when I stay up late the night before or can't sleep and slowly start waking up later and later. Eventually I will start waking up at 3-4 pm at which point I will try and fix my schedule by staying up as long as possible. Then it can REALLY get screwed for at least a couple days (like waking up at 8 pm).

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This is the nature of humans. There have been experiments run where people who were deprived of clocks and other cues to time of day naturally gravitated to 26- or 27-hour days rather than 24-hour days.

Using medications for sleep is generally a very bad idea--particularly if you are making financial decisions, as you obviously are.

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Right now there are two ways I see to fix it. Start using an alarm clock and really forcing myself to keep a decent schedule.

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This sure seems like the best approach to me. While you are having trouble sleeping, it is a good idea to "force" yourself to go to bed at the same time every night. It is also a good idea to fix your schedule such that you don't go directly from playing to bed. Give yourself a couple of hours to wind down first.