This is something I've been struggling with for a while now, but as a quasi-successful 2/4-5/10 player, sometimes I feel like the opportunity cost of not playing poker for any given hour ends up pricing me out of doing other things that I either enjoy or know I should be doing. Things like playing guitar, going to the gym, even calling my family to catch up. At any given time, if you said to me "Asgrow13, I will pay you $X not to play guitar for the next hour, or not to go to the gym today" where $X is my hourly, I'd probably say "ok fine" but what this means is that I often find myself with an hour to spare and thinking well... I could go for a run, but if I sit and play poker I'm expected to make $X and that's worth more than going for a run to me.

I guess economics-wise this is fine because I'm making calculated tradeoffs and any given hour I'm happier knowing I'm expected to make $X playing poker than I would be going for a run and making nothing, but in the long-run I feel like I end up not working out enough, not playing much guitar which used to be my favorite hobby before I discovered poker, not catching up with friends and family enough etc. Don't get me wrong, I feel extremely lucky to be in a position where I make enough that this is something I need to think about, but I'm curious how others deal with this. I'm sure many of you (probably the majority of you) have higher hourly rates than I do, so how do you balance playing poker with sacrificing a bunch of money to do the other things that you enjoy?

i know the feeling - being out on a saturday night knowing if you're home the games are great. just put in enough volume when it matters, and the free time you have for yourself youll feel like you deserve. as well as pick non-peak hours to go out and live your life.

it's as simple as that.

your matter is not a matter of the game, but one of setting priorities. Do you want to go maximum profit, maximum fun or something in between ?

I, for my part, go out when i feel like doing so. I quit the most profitable sessions, if friends are calling to go out and have fun. I feel like this is improving my overall life quality.
Not everybody is like me though, so feel free to do what you think is best for you.

Just sounds to me like you haven't grown to hate poker yet. Once you do, you'll enjoy going to the gym and playing the guitar more than ever!

Life is not a matter of money

if you cant find a balance in life, you'll end up a miserable person that has missed out on some of the very best things life has to offer. fun with friends and family is much more important than poker in the long run, as is taking care of your body and feeling good about yourself. poker is great because it allows you the free time to enjoy these other parts of life. if you can strike a balance, i guarantee your poker game will actually benefit from it long-term. who cares how much money you make if you're not able to enjoy yourself? especially if youre young...these are the years most worth living. dont end up a miserable old mr scrooge

To me, this is one of the most widespread, dangerous common places you can find in 2+2.

wait whattt? clarify please

lol

then why do you bunhunt so hard? dont be a hypocrite....

So iyo, if someone spends any amount of time making money, then his or her life revolves around it?

bumhunters care more about things not money related than non-bumhunters. Thats why they try to maximize their poker hours by bumhunting

1. going to the gym regularly will make you feel so much better in general and play so much better when you do play that it really shouldn't fall below anything non-essential.

2. there are more variables in my utility function than $$$, and i imagine yours as well.

3. every good has decreasing marginal utility, so don't keep convincing yourself that you'd continuously rather be working than any other combination of things.

4. please consider long-run tradeoffs...

whats the point of having money if you neevr get to enjoy it.

I agree with Barewire here...

If you make $X/hr. at poker playing X/hrs. a week...if you doubled the amount of hrs, would you be able to maintain your hourly rate? Doubtful, highly doubtful.

If you go to the gym, spend time doing things you love and as a result are a happier person, will that help your mindset and make you play better poker ?? Most likely this answer is a resounding yes.

So now your happier, more clear headed, and are still playing "X" hrs of poker a week. I would imagine that putting in a few hrs. doing things you love will more than make up for itself and your hourly rate will increase as a result.

My conclusion is that doing what you love, given that it's not all day every day....will increase your win rate over time. NOT playing guitar, being with friends, and going to the gym will COST you money over the course of time. It's just like how a car works, it may be fast and fun now, but if you don't maintain it and give it fuel...it won't perform very well for very long.

there should always be times where spending that hour working out/going out/etc is actually worth more than X, where X is your hourly utility. if you balance your priorities properly, this happens way before you spend a month or two never having seen sunlight.

this applies for everyone no matter how successful and variance free their game is.


i mean, sure if you have an hourly of 200, and your roll is like 4k, go ahead and play your ass off because that's mad utility. but if your hourly is really 200, eventually your net worth grows to a point such that spending that hour making another 200 isn't as valuable as doing other things. your priorities in life will help you decide whether that net worth will be 20k or 120k or 1.2m.


besides, doens't it feel so balla? typing out this post didn't come cheap

Some good posts here, thanks for those who have responded. Will write a few more thoughts later on.

welcome to the online world

hello other Reef

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OP, there's only so much pokers you can play. Relax and enjoy life

only read the first paragraph but how is your life so unbalanced that you cant spare 2 hrs a day to do basic ****.

ur not some idiot 3 million hand breakeven rakeback pro are u?

I felt like OP when I was in school and had a ton of stuff on the go.

Once I started playing full time and the monotony set in, I quickly began longing to go to the gym, take the dog out, go out for dinner etc.

You'll get over it OP

I think I end up becomeing break even or losing player if I play too long sessions anyway.

buddah says:
What does it mean to have the money and be able to do what you want?

dunno if he said it in that words but it is his meaning.

Every grinder got that feeling, but why do you not give youself aworking target, like if you feel easily guilty, you are going to make 40h a week. THats average, a lot for a pokerplayer, so there is no need to feel guilty relaxing.

I think the real conundrum is playing on friday/saturday nights vs socializing and having fun. There are plenty of hours to grind other than this, but not grinding peak hours does sacrifice a lot of profit in the end.