Why does having limited time to play throw me off?

llleisure · #1 05-01-2007, 07:36 PM

Yesterday I had the chance to play poker but had only about an hour to play and I couldn't do it. I just knew if I sat down and played, I would have the fact of having to leave in an hour hanging over my head and it'd bug me the whole time. I feel like if I have a time constraint - at least a short one - over my head then I can't play properly.

I don't know that this is a terrible problem to have - and at least I'm aware of it - but I am sort of curious why I feel this way. If I sit for a game, I really want to have the option of playing as long (or as short) as I like. I will sometimes only play a short session but knowing that it MUST be a short session throws me off.

swingdoc · #2 05-01-2007, 09:24 PM

1. The possibility of impatience, everyone wants to actually get to play several hands whenever they sit down to play poker. I've had many, many days where I fold for an hour straight in B&M. Several times I've multi-tabled for 30 min straight without a playable hand. It can feel like wasting time if you get no playable hands, so you get impatient, etc.

2. You're looking at poker as discreet sessions instead of one long career. You want each session to be profitable instead of looking at it as making $x/100hands ON AVERAGE.

Anyway, nothing wrong with what you're doing, it will definitely cut down on hands played over a year or a lifetime, but maybe that's a good thing.

llleisure · #3 05-02-2007, 06:10 AM

You know what, point #2 seems obvious but I hadn't thought of it that way. As you said maybe nothing wrong, but if I see a chance at a short session thinking of it in a more meta-game way would make me feel differently. I may have to try approaching it that way.

Thanks for the feedback - sometimes something totally obvious isn't. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]