How do I put in more hours/week. (Long/Introspective)

[Jeff W]

Over the past 8 weeks I have played 100 hours. I have averaged 12.5 hours/week. I do not have another job and I don't have any responsibilities. My hourly goal for each week has fluctuated from 20-25 hours, but I have probably met it only once or twice in that time period.

I'm looking for ideas on how I can consistently put in more hours. My short term goal is 25 hours/week. When I was at school, I was regularly putting in 30-50 hours a week while completing senior year for a physics degree. I know that I can competently play many more hours than I am.

Here are some ideas I have on how I can play more hours:

1. Use the tilt blocker program and setting Pokertracker to update once/minute.

The former to prevent me from knowing how much money I have at the tables and the latter to prevents me from looking through my results in PT without dealing with lag every minute. Both of these will make poker less stressful and I should have less reason to procrastinate.

2. Reduce the time I spend watching Television and web surfing with parental controls.

I'm not sure how to implement a fail-safe solution to this problem. My general idea is to lock myself out of watching television or surfing the web during certain hours of the day(20-21 hours/day). Anyone have specific ideas how I can accomplish this?

3. Maintain greater emotional control while playing through mindfulness.

I was making progress on this issue by using basic Zen mindfulness techniques. I need to get back to mindfulness and meditate daily to keep me centered.

4. Self-accountability through written records.

This worked moderately well for me in the past. Earlier this year, I kept a calendar on my dresser and mark down how many hands I played on a given day. I plan to resume this practice and I will evaluate how well I adhered to my regimen.

Thanks you for listening to my long, introspective post. I appreciate any advice you can provide. There is no better time than today to begin righting the ship.

[baronzeus]

I've done both 1 and 3 personally. 1 was done in combination with 3 for the beginning of August, This made me a far better player and increased my winrate drastically.

[shant]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Use the tilt blocker program and setting Pokertracker to update once/minute.

The former to prevent me from knowing how much money I have at the tables and the latter to prevents me from looking through my results in PT without dealing with lag every minute. Both of these will make poker less stressful and I should have less reason to procrastinate.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the second post today I've read of people checking their PT stats while they play. I had no idea people did this. I think you should do both Tiltblocker and the 1-2 min update, I do both. I'm about to be back to being unemployed and want to put in 20-25 hours per week also. Maybe we can set-up a challenge or some sort of thing to keep eachother in check?

[toss]

Sometimes the only way you can get yourself to play more hours is to just do it. This past week I averaged 10 hours a day 4-tabling... completely on autopilot... while watching TV... posting on 2+2... and reading The Intelligent Investor...

If I played 10 hours straight paying complete attention to the tables I'd go crazy.

[Sniper]

[ QUOTE ]
This past week I averaged 10 hours a day 4-tabling... completely on autopilot... while watching TV... posting on 2+2... and reading The Intelligent Investor...


[/ QUOTE ]

I will quote from King Yao's Weighing the Odds in Poker...

"If you are playing online poker as you read this, STOP. Either play the game or read the book. Don't do both at the same time!"

[fimbulwinter]

lately i've been doing 50-60 a week. a good way to do this is written records. the feeling of chalking up 11 hours in the book and xls file the doing the data analysis and financial moving at the end of the day is great.

fim

[krazyace5]

[ QUOTE ]
Sometimes the only way you can get yourself to play more hours is to just do it. This past week I averaged 10 hours a day 4-tabling... completely on autopilot... while watching TV... posting on 2+2... and reading The Intelligent Investor...

If I played 10 hours straight paying complete attention to the tables I'd go crazy.

[/ QUOTE ]

This may sound stupid but in April my winrate started suffering, I just thought I was going through a downswing, etc, etc. Anyway I was thinking about it last week and realized that was about the time I got my laptop and wireless router. I started playing in the living room instead of the computer room, watching tv and dealing with the kids, etc.

So this week it was back to no tv and alot more focusing
on my game while I am playing, so far this week is the best I have had in a few months and I am sticking to the computer room for now on.

Oh yeah, I also discovered the blackhole of 2+2, oot. Its kinda like having to slow down to see a car wreck. I quit wasting my time there and started spending more time in the strategy forums.

[Justin A]

I've recently started trying out your first suggestion and I like it. I don't need TiltBlocker because I'm always jumping around tables so much that I forget how well I'm doing anyway. I just use the little computer clock on the bottom right of the screen and tell myself I'm not allowed to look at results until a certain time x hours in the future.

For you Tilt Blocker users, does it tell you when you get low on chips and need to reload?

[MarkL444]

just buy in for 75-100BB

[shant]

[ QUOTE ]
For you Tilt Blocker users, does it tell you when you get low on chips and need to reload?

[/ QUOTE ]
No, but I buyin with 50BB and I've never been in a hand and ran out of chips.