A Piece of the Pie

I watched an interview with a successful no-name professional poker player the other day on the internet. He talked about a number of things, including his poker goals, how he does game selection, and how he continuously works on improving his play. It was all interesting, but the thing that jumped out at me the most was his distribution of time spent playing poker versus doing other, non-playing poker work. For every hour he plays, he said, he puts at least one hour into studying the game. He spends time with a private coach. He reads poker books and forums. He watches poker training videos. He writes about poker. He meets with a fellow poker pro friend to discuss hands and techniques. He watches other people play online.... In other words, he spends at least as much time working off the table as he does actually playing poker.

This got me thinking about my own game and distribution of poker time. I'm what you might call a busy fellow, so managing my time is critical. I have a more-than-full-time job. I travel for work. I'm writing a non-fiction book that's due in June at the publisher. I have a family and house and in-laws and pets to attend to. I'm teaching myself how to play the guitar. I walk a couple of miles daily. I try to work out a few times a week. I hike in the desert weekly with my wife. I'm restoring a car. Etcetera.

Oh, and I play poker, too. A lot of poker, actually. I spend between 15-25 hours a week either playing the game, reading about it, watching it on TV, or discussing it with friends. The reasons I play are many, but a key part of the passion I have is the desire to get better. I enjoy working out the why's and what's of poker as much as the actual playing.

Or do I?

After watching the interview of the poker player I asked myself how much time I actually spend off the table, working on my game. I thought I knew the answer, but, being the nerdy engineer that I am, I decided to keep track of my time for a week and then put the numbers into a spreadsheet to see how I actually spend my 15-25 hours of "poker" time. What I discovered was a bit alarming. Here's what I found:

My poker week can be roughly broken down into 9 basic areas. They are: (1) Playing NL Cash Games; (2) Playing Single Table SnGs; (3) Playing MTTs; (4) Attending Weekly Poker Discussion Group; (5) Reading Poker Books and/or Reading Poker Forums; (6) Watching Poker Instructional Videos; (7) Writing About Poker On This Blog; (8) Watching Poker On TV; and (9) Playing Heads-Up Poker Matches (a recent addition to my game). Now, there may be other things that I do that relate to poker, but these are the main things that I captured this past week while paying attention to my habits.

For the week, I spent a little over 21 hours in total on the game of poker. Here's how the numbers broke down:

1) Playing NL Cash Games. This week was pretty typical in this regard. I spent the majority of my time at $10NL, both full ring and (another new addition) 6Max. I also played a little $25NL, but only a few hands. I played fairly well overall, but I could have been more serious and played more "perfect poker" than I did. Time spent on this: 11.9 hours.

2) Playing Single Table SnGs. I played a a handful of 9-handed $5 games and basically broke even. I also played a 1800pt token game, but busted out on a bad beat in fifth place. Overall, I felt like I was just "dabbling" in SnGs this week; i.e., not taking it seriously. Time: 2.6 hours

3) Playing MTTs. This is a bit misleading, as the MTT that I played is the WRGPT "Glaciers" poker by email tournament. The game is in its practice round, and, like the previous two categories, I didn't take it very seriously. Got all my money in with trip fives, even though I knew the other player could have had me beat. I won the hand, but this is not the best way to play the game. Even if it's the practice round. Time: 0.17 hours.

4) Poker Discussion Group. I attended my Wednesday lunch-hour poker discussion group meeting. While it was a good meeting, I didn't prepare any material or give it much thought prior to, or after the meeting. Time: 1.5 hours.

5) Reading Books, Forums. I surfed the forums a little this week, and I dusted off Harrington's Cash Game book (Vol. 1) and read a little of it most mornings. I didn't take notes or seriously study any of the material, but at least I was reading. Time: 1.6 hours.

6)Poker Instructional Videos. I watched part of one of my Grinderschool cash game videos, but then got distracted by a phone call and never finished it. Time: 0.2 hours.

7)Blog Posting. Besides this post, I wrote another one earlier in the week. Of all the things poker-related I did this week, writing about it was the most focused. Time:1 hour.

8)Televised Poker. I watched some of the WSOP episodes on ESPN. I didn't really try to learn anything while watching; I just watched for entertainment purposes only. Time: 2.1 hours.

9) Heads Up. Per persistent advice from the Guru, I finally started this week trying to play a daily $2 heads up tournament. The one game I got in was short and sweet, but it didn't really tax my brain too much. 0.04 hours.

Okay, that's the breakdown. See a pattern in any of this? I sure do. I'm not taking the game as seriously as I should be. I'm playing poker, but I'm not working on my game. Aside from writing this blog and (maybe) the heads-up match I played, I wasn't 100% focused the rest of the time. And, just as telling, I spent the vast majority of my time playing, not improving. Here's a graphical breakdown of my time spent on poker this week:
Wow. Seventy percent of my time I'm playing the game. This leaves just 30% to get better, but of that 30 percent I'm wasting a third of it on just watching poker on TV. This means I've got a ratio of 3.5:1 of playing to actually studying/improving. In other words, I clearly just want to play, despite telling myself and others that dissecting, understanding, and "getting better" is why I'm into poker. Worse, if I break down a typical session of actual table time, I get this out-of-whack distribution:
Ugh. I absolutely know that preparation and post-mortems are important, but for some reason I've gotten away from doing those things on any kind of regular basis. Note, too, that I don't have "record keeping" even mentioned anywhere... because I've nearly stopped doing that, too. Let me repeat: ugh. No wonder my game has stagnated recently. No wonder I'm barely breaking even. I'm simply not working on my game nearly enough. Something has to change...

... so I've given this all some thought. I think the first thing necessary is put the chips down and step away from the table. Regroup and refocus. Take a day or two off and put together a real poker plan. Poker should be fun, true, but for me it's more fun when I'm winning than breaking even, which means I need to evaluate where I'm going astray and what I could be doing better. In other words, I need to spend more time working on my game, and less actually playing it.

To begin this exercise of tuning back up my game, I think I need to start with some time management planning. Instead of the fubar shown in the previous two charts, a better distribution of hours is needed. Maybe something more like this:
And this:
The differences in the charts aren't huge, but they're significant. More time prepping, learning, studying, improving off the tables, should lead to more money won and, just as importantly, more growth and satisfaction with the game.

I'll let you know how the retooling of the Bug goes. As they say, the first step to getting better is admitting you've got a problem. Well, I've got a problem.

All-in for now...
-Bug