[Voltaire]

I discovered this phenomena many years ago. At first I thought it was an anomaly, but as the years went by the pattern was the same: my worst days were Saturdays. Sometimes Fridays and Sundays were also bad. The problem with Saturdays I eventually realized was that the Saturday games were the toughest to play. Why?

The amateurs that play on Saturdays are the best amateurs. These guys have waited all week to play. They are full of energy and creativity. Monday through Friday they are actually working. Sundays they have family responsibilities. They tend to be a little looser than your weekday rock. They tend to be optimistic and will take another card off. They tend to make plays, some good, some not so good. Semi-loose games develop requiring a different strategy from the usual tight weekday games. Such an environment is full of opportunities and therefore you have the best pros playing as well.

Consequently the games are tough, and routine play will not get the money. The players are harder to read because they are all so different. From MP you raise the guy on your right with pocket tens. You get three trailers and the BB, and then the guy on your left reraises. Two trailers call and the button suddenly caps. Does he have a big pocket pair, AKs or is he just having fun? There is so much money in the pot that when the flop comes Q75 rainbow and the guy on your right bets, you decide you can't just fold and you obviously can't just call, so you pop it. Everybody calls. The turn is the ten of hearts to go with the Q of hearts on board and the guy on your right leads. You pop it again and finally lose one of the trailers, but the button makes it three bets and while the BB folds, the guy on your right calls. What do they have? The river is the eight of hearts and you have a sinking feeling.