Please help me choose a time of the day to play

[Fishing2do]

I'm wondering what is the best time for me to play, it is very important for me as it determines a big part of my day/life. I've basically got 3 blocks of 5hrs per day that I can play poker, and I got to choose 2 of them.
I'm mostly interested in playing a high volume of games (12+ tables/hr) at FTP, currently $11.. aiming for the $55.

These are my choices:
My Time; NY, Chicago, LA&LV
7AM-12AM; 1am-6am, 12pm-05am, 11pm-04am
5PM-10PM; 11am-4pm, 10am-3pm, 8am-1pm
11PM-04AM; 5pm-22pm, 4pm-21pm, 2pm-19pm

Recently I've been doing the night shift. But when I get to 4am either my motivation is gone or my focus. Obviously this is working against me, but I'm not good at waking up early either… (choice 1)
In light of my other job, I would be best of playing 7am-12am & 5pm-10pm. But according to my stats, based on ~200 tourneys / time-period I'm by far the worst @ the 5pm-10pm sessions.

So I'd like to know your opinion to make my decision a little bit easier, because as you can see it has a big impact on my life. And also it's not like I can easily switch between the 'blocks of 5hr' as I need time to adjust.

When, in your experience, are the games The Softest & The Most Plenty full?
Which times would you choose?

Thanks a lot for your opinion.

[Daleroxxu]

just play whenever you feel like it and there aren't too many regs loading up sets.

if you want to work in rigid shifts get a real job.

[sence25]

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just play whenever you feel like it and there aren't too many regs loading up sets.

if you want to work in rigid shifts get a real job.

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<3

[sixfour]

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I'm mostly interested in playing a high volume of games (12+ tables/hr) at FTP, currently $11.. aiming for the $55.

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If you're good, any time other than mornings EST. If not, mornings EST

[Tantalus747]

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based on ~200 tourneys

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You want to 12 table $55s and think this is an adequate smaple size?

[CheeseMoney]

200 tourneys is what much of STT calls Sunday.

[eurythmech]

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based on ~200 tourneys

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You want to 12 table $55s and think this is an adequate smaple size?

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I think 12 tables/h != 12 tables at a time.

[jukofyork]

If you have your tournaments in a PGSQL PT DB, then you can use this SQL query (see here for main thread):

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>SELECT
date_part('hour', tourney.tourney_start) as play_time,
count(*) as tot_tourney,
sum(amt_won-(actual_buy_in + actual_fee + rebuy_amt + addon_amt)) as total_profit,
round(cast(avg(100*((amt_won-(actual_buy_in + actual_fee + rebuy_amt + addon_amt))/(actual_buy_in + actual_fee + rebuy_amt + addon_amt))) as numeric),1) as roi,
round(cast(avg( CASE WHEN amt_won &gt; 0 THEN 100 ELSE 0 END ) as numeric),1) as itm,
round(cast(avg(place_of_finish)as numeric),1) as avg_finish,
round(cast(avg( CASE WHEN place_of_finish = 1 THEN 100 ELSE 0 END ) as numeric),1) as first_place,
round(cast(avg( CASE WHEN place_of_finish = 2 THEN 100 ELSE 0 END ) as numeric),1) as second_place,
round(cast(avg( CASE WHEN place_of_finish = 3 THEN 100 ELSE 0 END ) as numeric),1) as third_place
FROM tourney_summary, tourney
WHERE tourney.tourney_id = tourney_summary.tourney_id
AND tourney_summary.player_id = 11
AND ( round(cast(tourney.buy_in as numeric),2) IN (11.00) )
GROUP BY play_time
ORDER BY play_time</pre><hr />

You might also need to convert the times to your local timezone. For example I have to convert mine to GMT using: "date_part('hour', tourney.tourney_start AT TIME ZONE INTERVAL '+05:00') as play_time" rather than "date_part('hour', tourney.tourney_start) as play_time".

You can omit the line "AND ( round(cast(tourney.buy_in as numeric),2) IN (11.00) )" to have it work with all levels of SNGs in your DB, or change the "11.00" to filter based on another level.

Finally, you will have to work out what your "player_id" is in the DB. For me it is 11 (ie: "AND tourney_summary.player_id = 11"), but yours will be different. It can be found by opening PT's tournament statistics window and then double clicking the "Limit/Blinds" header row (right below where it says "S P G Limit/Blind Structure Summary:"). PT will then display the SQL query it uses to create those columns and if you scroll to the bottom of the query you will see "(tourney_game_players.player_id = XX)", where XX is your "player_id" which needs to be substituted into the query above.

You'll need a ton of data to get sensible results though. I ran mine on over 20,000 SNGs and the only solid conclusion I could draw was that playing between 3pm GMT and 1am GMT was about 2.5x more profitable than playing between 1am GMT and 3pm GMT.

Juk [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[DevinLake]

If I were you, I'd play 5pm-10pm your time, but switch to Party Poker. That is your peak time and party's peak time.

Basically it is best to play during a sites peak hours. why not play on a european site that has the same hours as you?

I personally like party because it allows me to play like 1pm-6pm.

[MonkeyButler]

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I'm mostly interested in playing a high volume of games (12+ tables/hr) at FTP, currently $11.. aiming for the $55.

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If you're good, any time other than mornings EST. If not, mornings EST

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Why do you say any time OTHER than mornings? Competition very strong mornings EST or are you just saying there aren't as many going on?