Originally posted by Schnitzelfisch
Interesting comparison. From my experience, 8 hours of "work" for a usual day-time job consists of maybe 2-3 hours of focused work per day. The rest is breaks, meetings, checking e-mails, talking to other people, lunch...
I'm curious what you guys think - is it really realistic to compare an activity like poker where you pretty much want to be (and need to be) 100% focused to something that isn't quite similar to that in terms of focus and required thinking?
I personally haven't found any people who would be able to put 8h of focused work in on a daily basis consistently over a long-term period. Usually even the people at the top level both in poker in business can get in about 6h of highly concentrated work a day (excluding breaks) on a long-term basis.
Also: If you would actually be able to play 8h a day (even with breaks included), when would you work on your game? How much time would that take you? Additional 3 hours? Then we're at 11 hours. You also need to eat, shower... How much free time do you really have left?
I'm really curious to hear about your thoughts and experiences in this area 
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I was telling all this to a student in our coaching and staking program without reading your post
6 hours grinding poker 25 days a month is much different then grinding some desk office job or anything else really. Now the most important thing for us SNG grinders or anybody who multitables in poker is obviously how good is our auto pilot skill. In my case, I can comfortably play 12+ tables on 15s 6 max, have short or long sessions grind 6+ hours a day and always expect to be breakeven at minimum
How do I know this ? Simply I played over 20k tourneys on Stars since June 10th and this is more then enough games to be pretty sure about my skill.
What am I trying to say here? Well I am not having hard time breaking even playing 12+ tables and I can do this while watching tv shows listening to music etc. The real challenge for me would be to increase ROI to 5% and maintain it for long period of time (goal/challenge for next year) but I can't do it right now cause I am facing huge volume challenge + I coach people in our coaching/staking program + other life stuff
The way I plan to deal with this challenge next year is to decrease number of hours I grind (so say from 6 to 4 and a half) but use that difference to work on the game (analyze all the regs, write notes on all the plays, exploit each one appropriately, fix all my leaks that need fixing etc). This approach will surely provide me with better ROI and hourly in future.
I am telling you all this that for us, poker players, there is a lot of auto pilot going on and what we do outside of the tables (working on the game) improves our auto pilot therefore makes it easier to multitable more and play longer periods of time.
Its no problem to play 8 hours a day, problem is do you really want to do it? What kind of life do you have outside of poker if you are grinding 8 hours? Are you studying besides the grind or just grinding?
I strongly believe that even with 8 hours of grinding + working on the game it is possible to maintain "normal" lifestyle. Take 6-8 hours to sleep, meals 1 hour, grind 8 , working on the game 1 hour, work out 1 hour , family-friends - loved ones the rest - it is definitely doable! You just need to have excellent time management skills and people around you need to respect it and follow it with you.
As I said I don't plan to grind 8 hours a day from January , my goal will be more working on the game (increasing my ROI) , but still playing respectable amount of games (3k minimum). I will increase hours if I feel need for more money but I have also learned to live humble life while in coaching and staking program so even with 3k+$ a month I will not go insane spending but rather travel couple of times a year and save up for investing.
Hope my story helped with this case study of a sort. In some things I agree with you, in others I don't but I respect what you are doing here and already read 1 book you recommended a while back (7 habits of very successful people) - now reading Dale Carnegie book you suggested!
other people to like 5 mins per few hours (at least they predend that they are working because they sit near computer).
) and work 37.5 hours a week plus a couple of Saturdays a month plus occasional overtime. I work shifts, 6am - 2pm and 2pm - 10pm so can sometimes be tricky to work in my poker. I think I have a kind of system worked out now. My work tilts me beyond belief so can have a seriously negative effect on my play when on the late shift.
