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  #1  
Old 08-18-2007, 02:13 AM
PunchyPlay PunchyPlay is offline
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Default poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

Just hoping to get some feedback on what all of you do to get a decent amount of hours in each month. When I talk about times in this post I'm talking about PST just so you know.

I do this for a living so I tend to try to have a schedule where I'm playing anywhere from 8 am - 5 PM depending on when I wake up. Usually I'll just try to get 5-6 hours in and then call it a day. I try to play every day but inevitably start taking days off. What sort of schedules do you guys try to keep if any?

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?

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).

Problem I have with all this is I try not to play when I'm tired first off. Secondly when you wake up at 4 pm and want to do anything for the day you have to do it right away before stores close etc. So if I want to hang with friends/see a movie I have to do all that first. Then I get back and it's like 10 pm and if I want to play poker I have to play until 4-5am or something. Personally I've always hated "working" past midnight and I tend to think the games are worse as well so what usually happens is I just start slacking off until my schedule gets back to normal and I have this huge dead time of 12am-8am.

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. Also possibly looking into sleep aids and that type of thing so I can get the rest I need. If I stay up late the night before wake up with the alarm clock and just take that day off instead of sleeping in so your schedule resets.

The other way is to just up my discipline and get my hours in regardless of what time it is.

What are your guys experience in all this stuff?
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  #2  
Old 08-18-2007, 12:46 PM
Flip-Flop Flip-Flop is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

I assume you are talking about online poker?
You should clarify this in your post.
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  #3  
Old 08-18-2007, 01:40 PM
sdfsdf sdfsdf is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

im like that too. i sleep like 2 hours later every day. sucks but i can't do anything about unless i take a lot of pills which i dont want to do. my schedule is based on when i wake up and when i eat. when i wake up i write down the time. if it's been 12 hours since i woke then i wont start a session because i play worse tired. after eating i have a 3-4 hour window before i get hungry again. i try to put in a session after every meal and usually play 3 a day.
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  #4  
Old 08-18-2007, 02:05 PM
PunchyPlay PunchyPlay is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

Yeah sorry I'm talking about online poker, multitabling. I do 8 tables of 6 max, back when I did full ring I found putting in more hours easier. I'm sure doing more hours when playing 4 tables or less is easier as well.
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  #5  
Old 08-18-2007, 02:07 PM
PunchyPlay PunchyPlay is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

[ QUOTE ]
im like that too. i sleep like 2 hours later every day. sucks but i can't do anything about unless i take a lot of pills which i dont want to do. my schedule is based on when i wake up and when i eat. when i wake up i write down the time. if it's been 12 hours since i woke then i wont start a session because i play worse tired. after eating i have a 3-4 hour window before i get hungry again. i try to put in a session after every meal and usually play 3 a day.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly like me. I do 2-3 sesions per day and plan my breaks for when I'm going to be hungry.
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  #6  
Old 08-18-2007, 06:17 PM
blackasthma blackasthma is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

What about when you're way stuck and the bills aren't paid?
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  #7  
Old 08-18-2007, 11:41 PM
PunchyPlay PunchyPlay is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

That's like the only time I will put in a good amount of hours, when I'm trying to bust through some losing streak or if money is really tight. As soon as I get to a comfortable spot in my finances the motivation disappears. I think I will actually keep a good schedule because of the motivation to play if I'm in some losing streak, I won't allow myself to sleep in or totally screw my schedule. As soon as it starts going good though I'll start to let my schedule slip. I guess that kinda answers my question I suppose, need to keep my discipline in and force myself to keep a good schedule.

It's a big problem really, it's why I still play 1/2 even though I've played poker for like 4 years or something. I only did 900 hours last year for 50k and this year I've only done like 400 so far. That's why it's so important I figure out some way to push myself to have better discipline, it's the difference between me being a 1/2 player and a lot of my friends being 5/10+ players.
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  #8  
Old 08-19-2007, 03:48 AM
Pog0 Pog0 is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

be careful with the alarm clock idea, as in, don't deprive yourself of sleep. Playing tired is a very bad thing to do.
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  #9  
Old 08-19-2007, 09:35 AM
AlfilRey AlfilRey is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

Yeah, I have the same problem. I'm nocturnal by nature, so I will rarely find myself asleep before 1 or 2am, and although this in itself could be more or less ok (wake up at 10am the next day -- more or less civilised) the problem is some days you get distracted and it's 5am before you know it and you're still wide awake. The next day you're up at 2pm and the cycle continues and worsens.

It's an issue I haven't really "solved" yet for myself, so I won't give too much advice, but:

1. I find that usually when I stay up till really late, it's because I'm on the computer, even if I'm not playing poker. Perhaps consider doing activities that don't make you "hyper", such as reading. Personally I find that when I read at night, I quickly become drowsy and ready to go to sleep soon. You could also just force yourself, at a particular hour, to lie in bed with the lights off. It's boring as hell, but after 20-30 mins of this, you should fall asleep.

2. Going out at night presents a bigger problem, as you often won't have much of a choice but to arrive home at 3,4am or later. The next day is gonna be a mess. Unfortunately, you can't take the same approach as some 9-5 guys, and just put the alarm clock for 8am anyway and put in your hours, as more likely than not you will be putting in 6 or 7 hours of seriously -EV play if you're severely sleep deprived.

Suggestion for this problem:

You said you put in 900 hours last year. That's 17 hours every week. 9-5 = 8 hours a day. Of which you might say 6.5 hrs of actual play. Do this 5 days a week and you have 32.5 hours. That's almost twice as much as you put in last year. You can still go out friday evening with no concerns for a schedule, and saturday. If you wake up on Sunday at 3pm though, it's gonna be tough to be in bed at a reasonable hour for the Monday 9am start. Maybe delay the monday start by an hour, such that you "work" from 10am onwards. Consider that you need 8 hrs of sleep, and just realise that all you gotta do is be in bed for 2am. That's not so bad, even if you woke up very late. Just do things that day that tire you out a bit more. Go for a run, go for a swim, do some weights. A hardcore exercise session will make it easier to get to sleep the next day.

It's never gonna be easy to balance poker with a normal routine, and ultimately you're gonna need a heck of a lot of discipline. You just gotta consider what you prefer --- taking the convenient approach and remaining mediocre, or making sacrifices in order to achieve your potential and bring some structure into your life?

Your choice.
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  #10  
Old 08-19-2007, 10:10 AM
PunchyPlay PunchyPlay is offline
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Default Re: poker lifestyle questions, managing your schedule

Thanks for the advice AlfiRey, you explained all that very well.

After thinking about it for a while here's my plan for the future, hopefully I can stick with it.

Shoot for 5 days of work a week with 2 days off. So assume I only do 5 hours of poker the days I play thats 25 hours a week, 100 hours a month, 1200 hours a year (rough estimate). 5 hours would be the minimum I would play each day, most likely I'd do more, but even with just that it's a substantial increase (especially over this year). Actual hours for the year might vary depending on things like moving, vacations etc though.

Now if for whatever reason I can't get to sleep one night and I'm up late I can plan for the next day to be my day off. This way I can wake up tired (say 5-6 hours of sleep), stay up until 2 am and force my schedule back to normal quickly. One thing I haven't researched in regards to this is sleep aids like melatonin, those might help as well.

I think the key for all this is to just stay much more disciplined about it all. It will probably be rough at first as I've never been good at keeping a schedule but maybe with time it will settle into place naturally.

I think your advice on doing activities that relax you before sleep is also a great idea. Often I'd be getting ready for bed and turn on conan and end up laughing so hard I'm wide awake. Or I might play some intense game and the same thing happens.

I'm glad I made this thread, it's helpful to get all my thoughts written down like this.
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