Playing a little everday vs playing 2-3times a week.
Dave/Team Canuck:
Do you prefer playing a little bit everyday or 2-3 sessions a week?
The reason I am asking this is because I like to drive 45min to Brantford (from London) to play 5-10. I played 10 sessions in two weeks in late November followed by 5 sessions over the past two weeks.
I found that if I played everyday I didn't enjoy the game. I would become bored & play rags. I won $$ the first 3 sessions, broke even on the middle 3, and got hammered the last 4 sessions.
The last 2 weeks I played 5x and played 6-10hr sessions. I found that my concentration levels were very high and I had 4 very profitable sessions.
Was I mistaken to think that the pros or players like yourselves play everyday? Or do you also take a day or two off to regroup mentally?
P.S. I only play online (Limit Tournaments) once or twice a week.
Do you prefer playing a little bit everyday or 2-3 sessions a week?
The reason I am asking this is because I like to drive 45min to Brantford (from London) to play 5-10. I played 10 sessions in two weeks in late November followed by 5 sessions over the past two weeks.
I found that if I played everyday I didn't enjoy the game. I would become bored & play rags. I won $$ the first 3 sessions, broke even on the middle 3, and got hammered the last 4 sessions.
The last 2 weeks I played 5x and played 6-10hr sessions. I found that my concentration levels were very high and I had 4 very profitable sessions.
Was I mistaken to think that the pros or players like yourselves play everyday? Or do you also take a day or two off to regroup mentally?
P.S. I only play online (Limit Tournaments) once or twice a week.
Comments
If I'm having a bad run, and don't feel like playing I don't, there's plenty of other crap I could be doing besides poker, and a mental break of even a few days works wonders.
Personally, I couldn't imagine doing 5 sessions a week at the B&M (hell 5 sessions a month would be a lot for me). I don't know where I'd find the time since you're committing 1.5 hours driving time per trip (more in the winter if the weather's crap). I guess if I didn't have a job it would be doable though...
I play, on average over the year, about three hours a day. This number is skewed a little high by a few instensive poker trips per year in which I play A LOT of poker.
Typically, over the course of a week I play about two hours a day. I will play for about an hour in the afternoon, before my kids are home from school, and about an hour in the mid/late evening after my kids are in bed. On Friday or Saturday nights I may play a little longer since I don't have to get up at 5:00 am on Sat/Sun (join me every Friday for Get Dave's $ at 11:30 pm EST). So, I play very few multi-table tournament online since I rarely have that big a block of time.
So, poker works around life for me. Would I play more if I could? A little bit, but not a lot. I don't enjoy playing for a solid 8 hour stretch either live or online. And, for this reason I REALLY like online since I can jump in and play for 15 minutes and jump out.
What is my experience with the quality of my game based on length of session? Shorter session are definately better. I can maintain a pretty high degree of focus for ring game poker for about two hours and then it starts to wane. I can last longer in tournament because, frankly, I find them more fun and engaging.
If I lost my job tomorrow and had to depend on poker for all my income, what would I do? Get up with my kids and get them off to school. Play for a couple of hours. Spend lunch with my kids and then do something good for myself -- run or go to the gym. Play for a couple of hours. Prepare supper for my family and spend the evening with my wife and kids. Play for two hours after the kids were in bed. And, I woudl play some of the longer tournaments on the weekend, which I don't do know.
I'm not sure this answers your question, but I hope it helps.