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There is a REASON why she wants him to play less poker.

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Yes. And that reason is that she is a woman.

Maybe our hero here is neglecting his girlfriend and maybe he isn't. If he is, then he needs to correct his behavior immediately. But for all practical purposes, this is completely irrelevant to how he needs to deal with the demand that he stop playing so much poker.

The relationship advice you read in books like Men Are From Mars; Women Are From Venus is not useful in every situation. Sure, we'd all like to work things out through communication and understanding, but quite honestly there are things women will do simply because they are women. Making ever escalating demands on your time is one of them, and no amount of communication will stop this in the long term.

Poker is very important to our hero, therefore his right to spend time playing it should be defended with relentless zeal. There must be no compromise ever.

Perhaps his woman is really trying to communicate something else with her demand that he quit playing. It doesn't matter. She needs to know that our hero will not allow his interests to be used as relationship bargaining chips and that every complaint about time playing poker will be crushed mercilessly.

My advice on this stands with one addition: If you truly feel that your girlfriend's demands have been brought on by your neglect of her then you still need to draw the line and make no compromise. After you have put out this fire, however, proceed to shower your girlfriend with the attention and quality time she is seeking, but NEVER acknowlege that her demand for you to stop playing poker had anything to do with your change in behavior.