Poker,family And A Job

[r23y 2]

I love to play cards any place anytime but I have a family and a full time job how do I balance between all of them.I get limited time to play and don't think I am going to get any better if I don't get more time to play.

[jmbreslin 0]

I love to play cards any place anytime but I have a family and a full time job how do I balance between all of them.I get limited time to play and don't think I am going to get any better if I don't get more time to play.

Priorities, man. If you allow poker to interfere with your job and your time with your family, you might have a problem. Seriously.

[outsider13 0]

Priorities, man. If you allow poker to interfere with your job and your time with your family, you might have a problem. Seriously.

This ^^I have wife, 3 kids, and a pretty good job. I used to think that I could be a good poker player. I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have the time to put in and have settled on just playing poker for fun. You can still be good at poker though with limited time. What sucks though is that it's hard to build a bankroll. Play games that don't require a big time investment. That's pretty much why I play SNGs now, but cash games are also good. Avoid MTTs.

[r23y 2]

that is my main problem not building a bank roll.I love to play mtt but I will try and play more sng's thank you

[jmbreslin 0]

I have wife, 3 kids, and a pretty good job. I used to think that I could be a good poker player. I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have the time to put in and have settled on just playing poker for fun. You can still be good at poker though with limited time. What sucks though is that it's hard to build a bankroll. Play games that don't require a big time investment. That's pretty much why I play SNGs now, but cash games are also good. Avoid MTTs.

Same here, except I have 2 not 3 kids. Two young, demanding kids. I would love to be able to play MTTs but it just doesn't fit into my life right now. I have come to accept that poker is a hobby, not an obsession, and I will have to fit poker into my life, not fit my life into poker. I used to play SnGs but now play cash NLHE, usuallly 1-2 hrs in the evening after the kids are in bed. Do I wish I could play more? Of course, but I'm not about to sacrifice my job or my relationship with my wife and children to do so.

[gt9550 0]

Same here, except I have 2 not 3 kids. Two young, demanding kids. I would love to be able to play MTTs but it just doesn't fit into my life right now. I have come to accept that poker is a hobby, not an obsession, and I will have to fit poker into my life, not fit my life into poker. I used to play SnGs but now play cash NLHE, usuallly 1-2 hrs in the evening after the kids are in bed. Do I wish I could play more? Of course, but I'm not about to sacrifice my job or my relationship with my wife and children to do so.

I like this statement. Pretty profound and I think a great way to look at it! Very nice.

[antistuff 0]

family >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> job >>>>>>>>poker

[r23y 2]

thank you all

[aucu 3]

Sounds like me, 3 kids, high pressure job with lots of travel, poker well when I can (mostly airport hotels) and not that much, like to play the mixed games, much more fun for the time I have.

[Fade2241 0]

family >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> job >>>>>>>>poker

+1

[NLH2020 0]

Its all about priorities. Do your best to keep splitting time, and it may seem like you never have enough time for poker but that might be a good thing. I think you'll find that the more balanced a life you can have the better. Your poker game may not grow as quickly as you'd like, but life isn't all about poker. I've had similar situations in my life, and I've found that I enjoy poker alot more when I don't have quite as much time to play -- I look forward to it more, I focus better, and if I have a bad session theres other stuff to fall back on! I say keep doing what you're doing.

[Jambot 0]

One thing to avoid, and something I didn't get the balance right with for a long time, is playing above your limits or too high a volume when you do get a chance to actually play if you have limited poker time. I slipped into this and it was like I was playing above my level and in tournaments I'd never usually consider, purely to try and make up for time I hadn't been able to play when doing life stuff. This was very bad. Not only did I start to lose larger sums of bankroll than I should, I also found myself resenting the people who were taking up my time and 'causing me to have to play this way'. Utter nonsense obviously, but at the time it made me a grumpy bugger.You will probably find that if you just play a few MTTs every now and again and find happiness in your family outside of that time, you will focus a lot more, feel fresh and ready for tournaments, and be a lot more relaxed, comfortable and happy in them.

[pokerfan19 0]

Priorities, man. If you allow poker to interfere with your job and your time with your family, you might have a problem. Seriously.

Exactly. My friends dad is at the casinos playing poker daily now... even quit his job to do it. Sometimes you have to put the stuff you enjoy on hold in life.

[hblask 1]

I went through this exact same thing -- a wife, three kids, and a job, and I was still playing something like 100 hours per month. It doesn't work -- all three areas suffer. So I quit poker for a year or two, got all the priorities straight, and am enjoying playing more than I ever did before, and winning more regularly. I still don't play a ton of hours, but when I do, the results are good and I'm focused and ready.I should note that my wife has been supportive through all of this, and is now encouraging me to play more because she knows I'm good at it and can make money. Without that support, I'd probably not play, it just wouldn't be worth it.

[CaneBrain 95]

I have played a total of 5 hours of poker since I got my job last month. When the bar exam is over with, I am sure I will play a bit more on the weekends. But, I have just made peace with the fact that my serious poker days are over for now.I definitely miss having time for MTTs (my best game) but I am enjoying reading through some SNG tips and gettin ready to start playing SNGs seriously in August.

[meservery 0]

Do not play 6 Max PLO with an infant asleep in your arms.That is all.

[jmbreslin 0]

Do not play 6 Max PLO with an infant asleep in your arms.That is all.

LOL, yeah. My first experiment with online poker was when my son was first born 4 years ago. I made a small deposit on Tilt and tried to play during my 10pm-12am try-to-get-him-to-sleep shift. A little hard to focus when you're running back and forth between the computer and the crib trying to settle a newborn baby. Went broke and didn't try again for 2 years.

[banksa 0]

yea now that my son is two he sleeps all night so i can play for a few hours each night

[coug2828 8]

I have played a total of 5 hours of poker since I got my job last month. When the bar exam is over with, I am sure I will play a bit more on the weekends. But, I have just made peace with the fact that my serious poker days are over for now.I definitely miss having time for MTTs (my best game) but I am enjoying reading through some SNG tips and gettin ready to start playing SNGs seriously in August.

where are you getting your sng tips?

[GeneralGeeWhiz 0]

that is my main problem not building a bank roll.I love to play mtt but I will try and play more sng's thank you

thank you all

[meservery 0]

LOL, yeah. My first experiment with online poker was when my son was first born 4 years ago. I made a small deposit on Tilt and tried to play during my 10pm-12am try-to-get-him-to-sleep shift. A little hard to focus when you're running back and forth between the computer and the crib trying to settle a newborn baby. Went broke and didn't try again for 2 years.

Seriously.My son never ever slept. Like not until 8 or 9 months did he sleep through the night. I used to get up with him every morning usually between 4-6 A.M. I would walk him around a bit and then put him in his swing.Normally I would take this opportunity to grind some $5 SNGs on FT and 7.50 Step 1s on Stars. I think I burned through his future college fund on those fukking Step 1s with nothing to show for it.

[bdc30 0]

Some very solid posts here.I found myself in a similar situation to many of you this spring. I was playing hunl on a stake deal for a fellow s7s member and the pressure of putting in hands just ended up to be too much for me. I have a full time gig (sometimes working 60hrs/week) as well as a wife and two kids. For probably 6-8 months, I burned up almost every spare moment I had trying to grind hands. It wasn't pressure put on me by the backer, it was moreso my own desire to show him solid results and half decent volume for the amount of trust he'd put in me, not to mention that coaching was part of the deal, so he was sacrificing his own time as well.By May I'd burned out. I noticed my temper was short, especially with poker, but I'm sure with my family as well. It was cutting down on the amount of time I spent with the kids actually going outside of the house and doing things with them. Putting in hands was a hassle. I wasn't playing well, and as a result I wasn't winning.Thankfully, I had made enough in the previous months to at least make it worthwhile to my backer, so I shipped him back his cut and we agreed to put things on hold. I'm greatly appreciative to have a backer that was understanding of my situation, and hope to resume playing and learning with him when the time is right.Halfway through the summer, I can easily say that I made the right decision. Do I miss poker at times, of course. I have a couple bucks left on the site that I like to play some low limit hu from time to time when I feel the itch. As others have said, make sure you have your priorities in order. In the grand scheme of things, poker is just a game.

[melaskins 0]

Good thread.+1 for Everyone.