Making out a playing schedule...

[stillbr]

This is focused towards semi-pro/pro poker players.

Who makes themselves out a "work" schedule to help get hours in? Do you think this helps you?

I play semi-professionaly I guess. I am a student and this is my only source of income. Currently I've had to drop back down to 2-4 because of some dumb things. I'm sure many of you saw my post about it. When my playing bankroll was round 6k I didnt really play that much. I spent time at 3-6, 5-10 and occasionally 10-20. I played very little yet it was enough to sustain my lifestyle. Usually I played only about 10K hands a month. I'm now trying to get back into playing more. I would like to get my roll back up to around 10k before making regular cashouts again. The problem is I'm having trouble making myslef put in the hours, and think I would benifit from having a strict playing schedule. For example this past week I only played around 2k hands.

Experiance?/Comments?/Thoughts?

I know it is as simple as making myself do it, however I would like to see what people have to say.

Whatever you need to do to get yourself to play more do it. If you are bad at time management, motivation, etc then this is a good idea. You should find something small that you like and reward yourself it for your short term goals. Giving yourself something to work for everyday might help.

[tongni]

As a fellow student, I think that a playing schedule is not a good idea. It can often lead to you playing when you are tired, distracted, or especially while tilted. It's hard to balance playing your best with adhering to a certain preplanned block of time set aside for poker. Figure out how many hours you need to log for the month, then try to use each week to get a quarter of the way there. Having some flexibility is a good thing as well. I find that my friends who say "oh, this weekend I'm going to play poker 72 hours straight" end up playing 2 hours and playing an hour of party blackjack while drinking. Just remember, when you are bored you should fire up Party. Also sleeping less helps a lot too, if you sleep 10-12 hours a day because you are bored, sleeping 8 and deciding you will play poker when bored helps alot too.

[SoftcoreRevolt]

A schedule is a very bad thing. Just put up a sign on your desk that says "Is this table still full of donks? Then why are you leaving?"

[Maulik]

many pros, become pros, so they can work at their leisure.

do just that, play at your convenience.

[JeanieJ]

This works for some people but it doesn't work for a lot of full time players.

To the OP:

You go to school. Which makes setting a schedule hard. Like others said it might not be a good idea for you. Play when you need to. Set a goal for the week (hands wise). Try to set it a little high, that way you can work to get there. After awhile poker loses interest. You don't want to play as much as you did your first few months of playing to pay the bills. You're going to have to force yourself to play, but make sure you're forcing yourself to play under the correct situations.

Games are always better at certain times of the day. Play then. Don't play when you're overly tired. This can be a killer. You know these things, I'm sure. Don't let yourself quit. If you want this bad enough you'll work enough to make ends meet.

A lot depends on your goals. Do you want to move up limits? Or are you just playing to make enough to pay for what you need?

[danzasmack]

Im in my senior year of school. I spent the summer working very hard at my job, and at poker. I read 2+2 every day. Started from .5/1 and ended the summer playing 10/20 full ring. Then the whole party plit happened. Between school, work, fraternity, and hanging out i can not get myself to sit and play. It's something i enjoy a great deal, and most of the time i sit down to play and end up just having someone swing by and i leave in the middle of the session because they wanna watch a movie or just chill.

NOBODY thinks it's good to make a schedule? I think that if i do decide to sit down and play I should try and tell myself I am going to play for at least an hour or 2.

Anyway have a similar situation?

[obsidian]

I am also a student using poker to support myself (in addition to not aquiring anymore student loans). I couldn't imagine giving myself a schedule to follow. One of the benefits of poker is schedule flexibility. Just play when you feel like it. If you feel your aren't playing enough just put poker on a higher priority than other things like TV or games.

[GoblinMason (Craig)]

Instead set a hand goal for the month. That way you can still play when you feel like it, but will (hopefully) make an effort to stay on track.

Sounds like you're just getting bored. Last time that happened to me I decided to bone up on a new game, in my case Omaha which I had never seriously put any time into. The key is to stay engaged - the rest will follow...