play and study time

 A few months ago I bought two new poker books online. After a few weeks I noticed a distinct lack of progress in reading them.

I find it's very hard to read in the evening after work. by the time I get home I'm tired from work and there are always a hundred things to do at the apartment. so even when I attempt poker reading I've found it hard to focus and effectively cover much ground. worthwhile poker books aren't easy reading. they require a lot of thought and concentration. I buy poker books for information and concepts that I don't already know, or have not fully articulated and grasped.

so what to do? after a while an idea came to me. read during break time at work. this has turned out pretty well. at lunch time now for the last few weeks I've gone to my car to cover a few pages a day of the first book. I find during the day I'm much fresher and more alert and able to really think about what I'm reading. also it's a well defined time and place for poker reading with no distraction. finally I'm making steady progress and looking forward to finishing this book.

speaking of play time. I realized recently I haven't played a hand online in several months. ouch. Life happens I guess and poker will always be an enjoyable hobby that I can only spend what time is available for it on. online play just got dropped on the floor. but it is on my radar screen to resurface online, perhaps in some new form.

on the live scene. I still enjoy playing $1/$2 NL at the local card room. for a few months I attempted an experiment of playing on Thursdays pretty much every week, then on Friday/Saturdays when possible. that experiment ended unsuccessfully. the Thursday game has more regulars and is tougher than the weekend game and I lost money playing in it. so back to playing the softer Friday/Saturday live scene which I realized suits me fine. I play around 2-3 times a month now live.

there are more interesting things going on in poker for me just around the corner that I'm really excited about. I'm looking forward to posting these developments here.