Wednesday, April 04, 2007


Decisions decisions....


I got to the end of the month, and though I had made another tidy profit, increased my average earn and feel my game is still strong, yet I was still disappointed: I had put in only 25 hours play over 31 days. I feel that this is simply not enough. Poker is too lucrative and too much fun for me to dedicate such a paltry amount of my time, and if I ever want to play 'seriously', it isn't really helping me out.
Firstly, playing such a small number of hours will not 'prove' that I can maintain an average with enough accuracy as the sample period is far too small. I would really prefer to be playing 50 a month, and then look at how I do over a 6 month period before I am comfortable saying I am an X$ph player.
Secondly, even though I admit to spending the greater part of my days thinking about poker (thanks to Fuel55, slb159 and the SPGnome [among others] for helping reduce my work productivity), I know that the divide between theory and practice is vast. The skills and concepts I read and learn about have to be practiced like any skill, and without repetition can never be truly effective. I think a split of 3:1 practice to learning is optimal for me, some more gifted people may prefer 10:1, but then again some people may well find they need the opposite.
The only problem with wanting to play more is of course that the rest of my life would invariably suffer to some extent. I would see less of my girlfriend, who I'm extremely happy with and can't see often enough already. I wouldn't be able to do as many other activities, such as my kungfu training and with the advent of summer: getting back into running and rollerblading. I wouldn't have as much time for friends/family. When I play poker, I like to focus, and will try and screen all else from my mind (as it's just too feeble to multi-table and chew gum at the same time). So when I finish playing, it's usually late, the time for exercise has passed and the only person I can call is my girlfriend to say goodnight if she's not already asleep. Guess it's just not a social activity for someone with a 9-5 job.
So again I'm having to compromise between a game I love, and a life I love. Guess all I can really do is continue trying to find a balance, and if that means that I have to only play 25 hours some months then that has to be endured. Hopefully however my life will settle down and I'll get into a routine where I spend at least 2 nights a week at home able to play, and also get one longer session in each weekend. Obviously I'd like to be playing every night of the week, maybe missing work a few days, and taking over my girlfriends laptop whenever I visit. It's a bit selfish and one-dimensional, but then hey, what's a degenerate gambler to do?

2 comments:

Fuel55 said...

A fews hours a week is fine if you use it productively. I for one spend 1/10 of the time as some these folks and still figure out a lot and improve. Imagine what we could do if we played 40-60 hours a week!

SubZero said...

Very true, but I still wish that I could cram more 'experience' into the times I do play. For example came into a weird new situation on a 2-4 table when I was playing last night, guy made it $48 to go preflop from UTG! Never seen anyone do this, and he actually had AA. I thought his hand was weak because of the overbet, but it gave me plenty of food for thought afterwards (when his hand was revealed!).