[revots33]

there's a more productive use of your time than playing poker?

For the past week I decided to take a break from the game. This was not due to a downswing - it was because I felt like I was playing too much. I figured that I'd been averaging 3-4 hours a night, 6 nights a week. That's a large percentage of my waking hours spent pushing virtual chips around a table. I rationalized this by the fact that I was winning. So how could it possibly be wasted time?

In the past week off from poker, I went to visit my neices and nephews, took my wife to the movies and dinner, went out hiking and took some photographs, and finally got around to reading "1984". These are all the types of things that poker was crowding out of my life.

I still enjoy playing and plan to keep my hobby. But I'm going to limit myself to 3 nights a week, even if that means I'll have less income. Poker is a great game but taking a break helped me realize how many other things are important as well.

If there's anyone out there who feels like they might be spending too much time on poker, I think it's a good experiment to take a week off and see what happens. You might remember some of the other things you found fun, before you discovered poker. For me, I hope it will help make my life more balanced, and my time spent playing poker more enjoyable.