How many hours a week are you playing?

Why will you play more if you bink a tourney if you don’t need the money from poker?

I am very happy with my simple life, I don’t need anything, but I’m on a budget. I’m not a rich man. I show up for the circuit and play the seniors. If I cash, I play another event - if I don’t, then I wait for the next circuit.

So you can see that if I win one, I’ll play all the events. When I get to a point where I can put in the volume, I think I’ll be unstoppable.

It’s probably hard for the young to understand living on a pension. I had the most fun coaching football - no regrets - It kept me young, strong, and healthy. I helped a lot of young men find their way, but I never made much money.

I had the opportunity to sell real estate and make millions, but I decided to do what I love. Coming up with strategies to beat my opponents. Teaching a man step by step to tackle a ball carrier - playing racketball at lunch everyday - motivate motivate motivate

So, yeah now poker strategy is my thing and I set my goals high, but I will never jeopardize the good life that I lead. I was a very successful coach & someday soon, I will be a very successful poker player.

Life’s struggles are behind me. I probably love studying poker more than I like playing and that costs nothing. It’s kinda weird how you don’t need a lot of money to be happy. You probably still won’t get it, but being happy & healthy in your old age is a superpower.

I play poker seriously as a source of income and I average something like 30 hrs/week. During a big series I might put in many more hours though.

I used to worry more about trying to force myself to put in volume, but I think something like the Pareto principle applies (the theory that 80% of results come from 20% of outputs).

Make sure to play during the high value times when the games are best. If you're in a cash game on a random Wednesday afternoon and the game is horrible, it's reasonable to just leave.

Freecard, your posts brought me a lot of comfort. Especially after I was slightly crushed by the opening post. 18 hours with family commitments? I play 10 hours and both my kids have left home.

So thanks for reminding me that you can just play steadily and still have fun. And I'm glad you feel life's struggles are behind you: sounds like you haven't met diabetes and cataracts yet.

I have been averaging 11 hrs per week since the start of 2024. Between 2000-2023, I probably played a total of 100 hrs.

As a result of my increased poker play, I have worked less (I'm self-employed), but unfortunately that means I have missed out on earning my higher hourly pay from my job.

Averaging 11 hrs a week is actually a lot, given that I have had a few months were I played very little. I have a wife, teens, and a dog, as well as exercise hobbies, so this level of participation in poker means it is a very big presence in my life.

I'm feeling just a bit subdued about poker because despite all my energy and time put into poker, I still regularly make mistakes, mostly by underfolding. My win rate seems to be steady at 10-11 BB/hr in live $5/$5 NL, which I know is considered good. But it feels like I am stuck, I can't seem to get it higher.

Not sure if I should take a break from poker... or instead, step up to exclusively play the mandatory $10 straddle game in my poker room - maybe that will bring more excitement? The only other larger game in my room is a $20 straddle deep stack, which is too big for me.

I think I got it.

So you want to play poker, but you don't to miss quality time with family and friends and miss out on optimizing your work life.

What if you cut your poker to 2 four hour days during the week and take off weekends?

Maybe like Friday for 4 hours and Sunday for 4 hours?

About improving your game, your rate sounds pretty good. I agree trying to excel at too many things at once is pretty much impossible.

It can also be draining
This can come down to figuring out what your values are and your goals.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like your saying, I want to lose weight, but I also want to eat at Dunkin Donuts 3 days a week. 3 days a week of having donuts isn't aligned with losing weight. This is obviously an analogy. This is what happens when you're not really aligned with your goals and your values and you're hesitating, unsure what you're doing playing those days of poker.

I can provide a few suggestions here I'll ask a few questions you can do this if you're interested?

What are your top 5 values?

Top 3 personal goals? 90 day

10 to 11 hours per week can be a lot. I've been this exact situation.

Another option is to play one day per week only. Like Saturdays or Friday nights. Or to play every other week.

Friday nights could be an idea. The games would be good and you still have the rest of your weekend off. For me, sometimes when I'm only playing poker part time, I'll try at least play Friday and Saturday night. But for sure, if I had only one day, I would pick Saturdays. That seems like the most profitable day. Even if I only get in there late at night for a 4 hours. Also i aim to get out there Friday nights as well. This can also help optimize win rates if that's when the games are peaking where you're at. It's possible playing 6 hours on Saturday night is more profitable than 11 hours Tuesday night and Monday night combined obv.

Is that helpful at all?

Top 3 professional goals? 90 day

I was thinking about your situation a little bit more.

My intuition was telling me that you could play Friday and Saturday nights for 6 hours per night, every other week.

You're getting a lot of rest in between your poker time and that also provides time to work on improving your game (studying), more family time, and time for your career.

Thank you,
Had to get real glasses after 55 & got used them faster than expected. Kinda disciplined about working out & wife won’t let me eat junk, so getting around pretty good, so far. I’m very empathetic with people struggling with their health.

I tell something else others may hate, but you might like. Another stress free part of my experience. The buy-in is $400, so that’s what I get from the cage. Then I put $250 in play & the rest in the pocket. Usually, I don’t go in the pocket, I win a little and people don’t realize cause now I just have a full buy-in.

If I get short, I chip up from my pocket and if I lose the entire $400 buy-in, I leave. It makes me cringe on here when people talk of going thru several buy-ins. I leave. Yesterday, I walked out with $947. It will take 3 separate really bad days to lose that back.

On here, some have the opinion I’m a nit. That’s far from the truth as I’m definitely making plays. It’s kinda risk free for me, cause I can only lose $400.

Your winrate is already excellent and you might be winning close to the maximum attainable in that game. If you sustained that winrate playing 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year you would be making six figures, which is excellent considering it's a $5 big blind game. Realistically you might have to move up to a bigger game to increase your win rate much more.

But yeah, cash games can get boring after a while. That's why I started playing tournaments.

I totally understand the struggle of balancing poker with travel and other responsibilities. For many people, playing sustainably really comes down to quality over quantity. In my experience, playing 30-35 hours per week is about the sweet spot to keep performance high without burning out. When I’ve tried pushing past that, like you mentioned, the quality of my sessions definitely dips.

On shorter trips, like 4-12 weeks, I tend to adjust the schedule to maintain consistency without overdoing it. It’s all about finding that balance where you’re playing your best poker without exhausting yourself.

If you ever need a break from poker and want to relax with some fun games, I highly recommend checking out Poki.io arcade games. They’re perfect for taking a short gaming break without needing to download anything!

https://bhasuanurag1.jimdofree.com/2025/07/28/why-poki-io-arcade-games-are-taking-over-the-web/

bhasuanurag1

Why Poki.io Arcade Games Are Taking Over the Web

Best of luck with your poker sessions!

I play on weekday mornings because that is when I can get away and no one misses me. If I started playing on Friday or Saturday nights, my wife would object.

I had a session yesterday that elucidated my current state, which is that I have been playing so much poker in the past two months (and not running great, just up a small amount), that it seems clear to me that I am not improving much. I still make the same sort of mistakes. Yes, I am a winning player in the long run, but poker was much more fun when I thought I could improve and thought I was improving. Now I have come to the conclusion that my celing is "very good player", but elite seems out of reach.

What's your study to play ratio? Hours played compared to Hours of study. Also, have you worked with a coach?

Considering you're playing live, you could have a ton of leaks in your game and still be winning.

I study about 1 hr for every 10 hrs played.
No, I haven’t worked with a coach. I have a couple people that I discuss hands in-depth with, but they aren’t always available.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maximum 10 hours, more than that I can't handle.

Top 5 values:

Intelligence
Being kind
Being helpful
Being healthy
Ability to improve or develop

Top 3 personal goals:
Lose 15lbs in 3 months (have lost 10 in the past 7 weeks)
Stay physically fit
Live according to my values

Professional goals:
Maintain the status quo in my career, for now
Maintain the ability to work into my late 70's

Interestingly, my job allows me engage with all my listed values. Maybe not so much with "being healthy", but it's definitely not unhealthy.
The way I currently am in the cardroom, I think playing poker only hits the first and the last item in my list.

The past 6 weeks, I've been averaging 15hrs of poker per week. Running better, 15BB/hr according to my tracker app. Playing better? I'm not sure, I still have paid people off on the river when I shouldn't, and I've punted away at least $1500 otherwise in the past 2 weeks that I can remember.

I do enjoy poker, but mainly only so when I win. When I lose (35% of the time), I often feel bored or annoyed. I feel like playing poker has become a habit for me. I just sort of default to going whenever I have the time. I have other options for my time that I used to do more, such as mountain biking, but now I choose poker.