Motivate me to put in hours

[DavidC]

Between 10am Wednesday, and 10am Monday, Eastern Time, I'd like to play at least 35 hours of poker, preferably online.

This is barring things like internet/computer dying, my house catching fire, or a relative dying, me going to the hospital, etc.

However, if I have no legitimate excuse (and really legitimate), I want to put in the hours (35).

The first 10 people that reply to this thread, if I don't hit that goal, get $25 transferred to their party accounts.

--Dave.

[SlantNGo]

I personally don't like this strategy, but hey, if it works for you... and if it doesn't... I like money /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[TomBrooks]

Hi David,
It's good to set a goal. Try imagining the result you want to achieve. And imagine the benefits you will enjoy when you acomplish what you set out to do. Good luck. Tom

[bottomset]

free money

[istewart]

Good luck. I am trying to do the same. Sans throwing away my bankroll /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[cold_cash]

Quit being a pussy and play some cards.

Consider yourself motivated, cold_cash style.

[DocMartin]

git r done.

[atarom]

i think you should go out and do something else.

[Vote4Pedro]

nice...i'll bump this everyday for motivational purposes

I like this idea ^_^

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
nice...i'll bump this everyday for motivational purposes

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll bump significant milestones... please don't take it upon yourself, otherwise people will get upset with me.

[milesdyson]

dont do it.

[hemstock]

If you don't feel like playing then don't.
But if you like making money then sit down and play 8 hours per day.

DavidC, I sweeten the deal a little bit, I've been meaning to clear the absolute bonus (5k hands) this week and have played 200 hands. I did just get an apartment yesterday. But if I don't clear my absolute bonus by next Wednesday morning, I'll give you $25.
Hopefully that will motivate me, rn: I do use coupons when buying groceries.

[ThaHero]

Do you like making money?

Do you like playing poker?

If the answer to both of those questions is no, well, I dunno what to tell ya.

[shant]

I think people who qualify for the money should have 3000+ posts at least. So, count me in for $25.

[Griovejas]

How's it going so far?

[DavidC]

Hmmm.... shoot. Good point re: post count.

Sorry, but the two guys that got in with the small post counts (I consider the guy with 750 to have been here long enough to take my money. /images/graemlins/smile.gif ) stay.

Anyways, the 10 are filled.

---

GoT did this a while ago with a time delay rather than a headcount, and gave me the idea. He paid out a bit more I think too, but he makes more money, so...

To the guy who is doing the absolute bonus: let me know how that goes. I tried a pokerroom bonus and found the table conditions to be horrible. You can read about it at Internet Bonuses forum, if you're so inclined. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks for the encouragement, guys.

And good luck, Yossalah!

[AdamL]

I don't get why this motivates you, because if I were in your shoes, I would just say I had done the 35 hours no matter what. And knowing I could do that, I would be in the position of just not having to do the 35 hours.

So, yeah... Uh... I'm on a motorcycle? /images/graemlins/mad.gif

THe full rings are horrible, the 6max isn't bad a lot of loose passives and easy to read tight people. At 4:20 the plrs/flop was %60 average. It will only be 6max from here on, should clear a lot faster too.

[USDaniels]

http://www.unclesharky.com/images/officespace_lumbergh.jpg

Hi DavidC, what's happening. Ahh, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and play poker tomorrow...so if you could just make sure that you're playing by nine, that would be great, mmmkay?

Oh, I almost forgot. I'm gonna need you to go ahead and play poker on Sunday too. We lost some big hands this week and we really need to sort of catch up. Thanks.

[Highn]

Good luck with that goal!

Thats probably my favorite scene from Office Space, brilliant.

[thesharpie]

Like a crypto skin minus the poker. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Reqtech]

Why force yourself to play poker if you don't want to play? Either "put in your hours" or don't.

This is why I don't think I could ever try and go pro...treating poker like it's a job would take away a lot of my enjoyment /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[DavidC]

Wednesday:

First day, 8.5 hours. Playing from about 2p est to 6p est was a tough time of the day, in the evenings it cleared up nicely. In the early morning (6a est thurs) it seemed to be a lagfest, but I was really tired and lost a lot of money in 22 minutes, so I'm going to bed.

Not sure how many hands I played, but about 1600 I guess. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

On the day, I think I've been tearing it up... actually, what the hell, poker tracker tells me:

1794 hands, 2.72bb/100. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've found that during the day, due to the frustration of being against better players and having a hard time table-selecting, I tilt a bit, and that costs a crazy amount of money. This is something I'm going to have to work on.

Take care, guys.
--Dave.

----

Anyone else that wants to post their progress on weekly goals, including that dude that's trying to clear his bonus, go for it!

Didn't play much today, got in about 500 hands. Still learning a bit about 6max but up another 20BB today.

[DavidC]

OMFG...

I posted this on Thursday morning, thinking that I was posting it on Wednesday morning. This is evidenced by me posting my wednesday results on Friday, which were actually my thursday results.

So the hours that I have posted in my location represent those starting on Thursday at 10am... pretty good so far, though, I'm ahead of schedule.

----------------

So, the first bet stated "wednesday 10a-Monday 10a".

But it never stated what particular wednesday this deal started on.

I'm not sure how many hours I put in on this wednesday.

So there's three options as to how the bet can continue forward:

It could start next weds to the mon aft that.

It could go thurs to tues (which would involve me playing monday night rockfest. /images/graemlins/frown.gif ).

It could go from this current wednesday to the coming monday, and I'd have to dig through pokertracker (3xdb: poker room, paradise, party) to try to figure out how many hours I put in. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

I suppose it could go Thurs-Mon, also, with the total hours being 28 instead of 35, too...

I'm not sure.

----------------

God damnit. This is an honest mistake. FWIW, I've been motivated to put in the hours.

So I'm not sure what to do... do I put a poll up to determine the best course of action, do I ask the guys involved (first 10) to give me their opinion, or do I make it next weds-mon?

I'm really sorry about this.

One thing that I do know is that going through my friggin DBs to figure out how much time I've put in will take time, and I'm not going to bother doing it until tuesday, if we stick to the original agreement (edit: and if I DO get curious and check, there's no way I'm telling you guys how much it is until you've made the decision.)

--Dave.

[TomBrooks]

[ QUOTE ]
do I ask the guys involved (first 10) to give me their opinion,

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm one of the first ten. I'm not sure what the deal is, but I will vote to let you start over or restart with similar goal. i.e. not hold your timekeeping mistake as a failure.

hey... also one of the first ten, but your explanation sorta confused me. Why not just shove the "week" forward to when you do have records from? I.E. If you started on a thurs, but made the deal from Wedn-tues, just make it from thurs-wedn? Am I being too simple? O_o

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
hey... also one of the first ten, but your explanation sorta confused me. Why not just shove the "week" forward to when you do have records from? I.E. If you started on a thurs, but made the deal from Wedn-tues, just make it from thurs-wedn? Am I being too simple? O_o

[/ QUOTE ]

The main reason that I don't want to do this is that it would involve me playing on a Monday, which is -EV compared to other activities on that day, like playing blackjack or studying poker. It's not generally part of my work-week.

I'm not willing to play on monday, so if we start on thurs, then the deal is thurs-sun (playing, ending monday 10am), and I guess 28 hours.

I have given you guys the option of doing next weds or even this weds, so I'll wait for a bit more input before making the decision.

Next wednesday sounds good for me, but it's not totally up to me...

Jees', it's a good thing I'm not a lawyer or something, or our entire economy would be screwwed up by now. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

FWIW, I feel pretty good about playing poker right now. I'm killing the 2/4 game! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[DavidC]

Update: Day #2 (Friday? Whoah...)
---------

I guess the contest is moved to next week.

I put in a bunch of hours today, bringing the 2-day total to I think 17hrs 8min... half a day ahead of the game.

As it turns out, I put in 6hrs 3min on wednesday, at party (not sure about other sites), so that would bring me up to 23 hrs, and make it very possible for me to make the original goal regardless.

There's no way in hell I'm playing on monday though, unless it's with you guys at a 0.5/1 table.

Today: 1910 hands, 4.53bb/100! It's nice to hit the flops. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Going to read some of the Chronicles of Narnia and go to bed... I'm really looking forward to the movie coming out this winter!

Take care, guys, and thanks for being so understanding.

--Dave.

[DavidC]

Day #3 (Not good...)
----

I put in 5hrs 50min today... below my goal. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

That brings me to 22hrs 58min... not for the contest but for personal glory and such...

I got proper-[censored] today, though... losing about 3bb/100 over 1k hands at LHE, and winning a fair bit at NLHE (for a change up I played single table with my buddy for a while, did fairly well but it's just variance).

It's tough to motivate yourself to play when you're not killing the game.

Something funny...

Once a buddy of mine compared the cost of an item to how much he was making per hour. I'd done poorly on the day.

Assuming that the item was $20, he made $10/hr and I lost $40/hr over the course of the day:

Him: "Wow, I just paid two hours of work for this thing."

Me: "Jees', I could afford it, but I'd have to take a half-hour off work."

[DocMartin]

Maybe planning out a routine would make this easier.

Its all about goal setting. The goals have to be organized, concrete, measureable, difficult yet attainable.

Schedule some poker, some time for eating, some time for breaks, some time for sitting on your ass, some time for sleeping, some time for human contact or whatever else you want to do with your day.

24hrs, figure out what you are doing with all of them. Reward yourself when you hit milestones along the way. Porn, ice cream, a movie, good food, buy yourself a treat, whatever. Easier to acheive a goal when you stick to a plan.

[DavidC]

Hey guys!

1) I'm really good at planning a routine, but I fall down on execution. But to those of you who've suggested that that's the way to go, I'm pretty sure you're right and I appreciate the advice.

This week's been kinda good so far. I had a setback where my sleeping schedule was screwwed up for family reasons, and that's made putting in hours quite difficult, as whne you get to that super-over-tired phase, you can't go to bed, nor can you profitably play poker!

As of this writing I have 2 hours left in the goal/bet, and 8 hours left in the deadline, but considering the effort that I've put in, I'm a little disappointed that I'm not already at 40. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

Since Aug 31st:

7388 hands, and about twice my normal winrate. Lovely! The waters of variance run deep. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

I'll update my location when I'm finished.

I hope Yossalah managed to clear the bonus that he was working on.

Thank you for your encouragement, guys.

Due to the weekend, I'm going to try to put in a bunch of hours today also... clear up the empire bonus, and take Tuesday to relax / do some studying / insult the history of music with my fiddlings on a guitar. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Now's this going, by the way?

*motivates*
*motivates*
*motivates*
*motivates*


.. is it working?