Playing Time vs. Study Time - my situation - Please Help

I work 40-50hrs a week at my regular job. My wife and I have scheduled (loosely) 20hr/week for me to play poker. I currently average more income per month playing poker (with RB) than I do at my job. I play an average of 4 table at a time, sometimes more, sometimes less. I Average only .55BB/100. So the question is, what percentage of the time should I be playing and what percentage should I be reading & 2+2ing? The more I study the quicker my BB/100 should go up, at the expense of losing playing time & RB. If i study very little my income will stay more steady and the bankroll grows. I have to become a better player eventually, because those are the goals I have for myself, but where is the balance of playing time & study time? Anyone have, or used to have, a similar situation? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

What limits do you play? How many hands do you have?
I would say the first thing to do is cut down to two tables for a while and really concentrate on your decisions/player reads/etc if you're only winning at 0.55BB/100. Experience/practice is very important in the learning process, and I have a feeling your not getting as much from this as you should due to how many tables you're playing (you may also be playing too high limits based on your skill level, or just be running bad). Other than that I would say spend about 2/3 of your time playing, and 1/3 of your time studying 2+2/reading/going over hands/etc. Also try not to get burnt out from too much work - 70 hours between work and poker is a lot - maybe that's affecting your play as well. Good Luck! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I play 3/6. I have 110,000 in poker tracker probably around 900,000-1,000,000 career. (I'm in the royal flush club on Empire so I get a free 100 every month in addition to reload bonuses on a few party skins - just some income numbers I left out of the original post).

Thanks for the reply

[Jaquen H'gar]

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I play 3/6...I make .55 bb/100...
Thanks for the reply

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This equals $3.30 per 100 hands. I don't see how any advantage player could win less than 1.0 bb/100 at 2/4 on Empire. That's $4.00 per 100 hands or 21% increase in profit. Would the fall off in rakeback in dropping from 3/6 down to 2/4 eat up this extra profit?

On another note, you make more in playing poker than your regular job? If I recall your numbers, 20 hours per week at around 200 hands per hour (you said sometimes 4x games, sometimes not). 4000 hands per week, 18000 hands per month, 99 big bets per month, $594 per month, rakeback at a guess of $40 per 1000 total hands, VIP bonus of $100 per month, Reload bonus of $100-200 per month. All this equals $1565 per month if my math is correct (math isn't my strong point) or $18,780 for the year.

So you make less than $18k a year in your 40 hour/week job? I'm not poking fun, I'm just clarifying. If this is the case, don't work on improving your poker, work on finding a higher paying job. Why not spend the extra 20 hours a week learning a new skill or trade or some type of degree that would then pay a lot more? I'm guessing 20 hours a week of night classes could put you through law school or get you a CPA. That, or quit your job and play poker. You could have the same salary on 20 hours/week less of work.

[pyroponic]

Are you getting the monthly $200 VIP Empire bonus (I think it's ongoing until the end of the year). That bonus is sweet =)

I'm averaging about 35,000 hands/month....Averaging 4 tables is not straight from PT...It's more of a guess as I often play 6-7 for several hours at a time. The 20hrs/week is not very strict, I probably go over a bit. I never had a RB deal on 2/4 but I know just from trying to clear bonuses that # of hands raked is substantially less. I'm pretty sure going back to 2-4 would be negative on the overall income.

Thanks for the comments and any else you migfht offer.

What is this bonus? Are you breakin' balls? Do you have a link where I could learn more about it?

Thanks

[SCfuji]

never heard of this bonus. wtf.

[Aceshigh7]

Don't worry so much about "studying". The vast majority of your "studying" should be at the table. Too many people try to book learn this game and it is definitely not making them as good of players as they should be.

[Jaquen H'gar]

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I'm averaging about 35,000 hands/month....

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My apologies. I was off by a factor of two in your hands per month. That invalidates most of my points.

I would put Miller's SSH by the toilet and reread it once a month until you can quote the whole book. This shouldn't take away from your playing time.