Last night I was in a $5 SNG and doing pretty decently and my girlfriend was getting annoyed that I had been playing poker all day (ok, so I had), so I went all-in with a crap hand to bust on purpose. I didn't want her to be upset, and $5 was worth that.

How often do you find yourself busting on purpose to tend to some other aspect of your life? Has it cost you a lot of money? How do you in general balance poker against your personal life?

try cash games?

Play when you have the free time and no pressures. If you've got something to be doing later on and you don't think you'll have enough time. Either don't play or cancel your arrangements. It's pretty simple.

My personal way of dealing with it is playing a game suitable to my known schedule for the day. If I know I only have a couple of hours i'll fire up some cash game action. if I have 6+ hours i'll hit the MTT trail. Somewhere in between I have a low volume site where I can get in some shorter MTTs than the average stars one. It helps that in general I know exactly what I have to do each day and am able to plan around it.

My wife and kids just went to Bingo tonight. I hate Bingo and just spent 10 hours at work but she still wanted me to go with them. As politely as I could I declined explaining that I didn't feel like wasting my time there when I could be playing cards where I figure that I am the favorite to win. Now, I've been married for 11 years and my wife is very empathetic. I assume you are not so lucky. Most of friends don't get to do what they want when they want because their girlfriends are selfish and needy and dictate their every action. If your girl is like that, my recommendation is to dump her and enjoy your life. If she's not, I apologize.

Basically, there is no balancing if your girl wants your attention. You might be able to squeeze in a couple of hours of cards here and there but you will be frantically trying to overplay hands and rushing to get done in an attempt to make a few bucks before you have to get back to life. I say, either play poker or have a girlfriend. Or casually play in the few moments you have to yourself and forget about making any real income from it.

ouch...

Fortunately I have a great relationship with an understanding wife, so there are rarely any issues. Most guys have some kind of hobby or hobbies, and I think it's healthy and even necessary, so long as there's balance in their lives.
A lot of guys share their hobbies with their SO, and many times that's what brought them together, but be considerate of your gf.

If she's confident in your relationship there won't be much to worry about. Women crave attention, and as long as you're meeting her needs the way she needs her needs met, you'll be fine. Psycho chicks excluded, of course.

To answer your question, no I've never busted out of a tourney just to quit. I don't start if I'm unable to go the distance. Only you can determine what the proper balance is between poker and your personal life, and over time it may change toward more or less play time. Just wait until you have kids.

*hug gf lovingly*

I know I was a little calloused, but I just wanted to put things into perspective. I didn't want to sugar coat it and tell him there was some magical way to make it work out perfectly for him. He can still play poker, but probably not as much as he wants to. That is what leads me to the conclusion that he needs to decide to be a good boyfriend or to try to be a dedicated poker player. I don't know the particulars of his life, but from what he has told us I think I'm pretty close to guessing at how it is going to be for him.

LOL_girls

I've done this. Playing "micro stakes" SnG's, I don't even know how many times I've gotten phone calls from friends to go out or if I just felt like doing something else in the middle of it and said "It's just a buck" or "it's only 5 bucks" and just busted out or sat out. Every time I do it, I think about how much higher my ROI would be if I didn't do this. I realize I don't do this enough to impact it THAT much, but I do care about my sharkscope, as silly as it probably sounds to serious players, it's all I really have to motivate myself to keep playing well.

Cash games definitely seem like the answer here, you can play until you have other things to do and then just quit with no damage done. Just make sure you have plenty of time if you're going to play a MTT or SNG.
I've intentionally busted a few times, but I almost exclusively play cash games now in fairly short sessions, so its not really an issue.

cheers,
callmenuts26

I don't like that there's no end to the cash game. There's no "win" to strive for!


But I will play cash when I know I can't devote at least two hours to a session.

Not true.
Always striving to play your best and stack someone, usually targeting that fish that took your money with 94o or something.

Yea, *** cash, real men play tournies.

I've busted on purpose a few times. My girlfriend likes to come up from behind and start smacking my face with her chest. If I'm winning I try to end the game (obviously), but if I'm losing I usually just get mad and play worse. I need to stop that, or lock the door when I play.

Let me guess, your private parts are enormous.

ban this moran

I went to some poker room one time in the middle of the night leaving my girlfriend sleeping in bed. I gathered up all my cash (~$30k) and went to the only place in town that had high stakes games. I put my entire bankroll in one game and lost it all on full house vs full house. I was crushed. From there I had to bust some night shift and give up poker because my gf was super pissed. We were in law school at the time so I listened to her and buckled down. But when my best friend got out of prison he got me back into the game with his ****ty bankroll management and angle shooting getting us both into debt. My girlfriend found my gangsta roll in my pocket and left me because I lied to her. Never lie to your woman! Without getting into the details me and my buddy managed to climb out of debt (well me mostly) and we went our separate ways. I got back to 30k and headed to Vegas where I am now grinding it out and trying to win the WSOP. Did I ever mentioned I bluffed Johnnie f*** Chan?

So there, don't let poker ruin your relationships like I did and don't put your entire bankroll into 1 game. That's my sage advice.

happens... as people have stated play cash when u can't devote more time... profit :P

The punch till hand breaks thing was obviously a joke (or so I hope), chill out guys.

Cash is a good alternative. Another is to make sure you are ready to play before you do. Finally, there is something wrong if you need a goal to play well. Goals are all artificial constructs of the human mind. You can easily make up one for yourself for whatever you are doing.

My fiance is not into poker at all, so I try to not play when we'll be home together. Cash games is the best answer.

[QUOTE=Nostalgica;17432984]The punch till hand breaks thing was obviously a joke (or so I hope), chill out guys.
QUOTE]

This is not bbv, nor is this in line with the helpful tone the mods would like to see for the *beginner* forum. Ban the moran, imo.

Just be thankful your not married yet... It does get worse. I've sat out of plenty of tournaments even ones where I've gone deep so she can make me sit on the ****ing couch and watch teen mom or some BS. I enjoy playing, cash games are fun, but I love MTT's and I just simply don't get the time to play them as much as I want.