Best time of day to play poker

Poker players are not distributed uniformly accross times zones. So there are better times to play than others.

In your opinion, what are the best (most profitable) times to play poker online?



Please express your answers in GMT time so that we can easily compare. Here Time - Current time around the World and standard time zones map of the world is a map of the time zones.

GMT = LocalTime - TimezoneOffset

For example, to convert EST to GMT, we see that
TimezoneOffset = -5 hours for EST.

So to convert 5pm EST to GMT,

GMT = 5pm - (-5 hours) = 5pm + 5 hours = 10pm

Well, I would have to say that it is going to be sometime around 11pm Pacific - just because most of the East Coast is asleep or tired. You have California players to deal with - but they are all too stoned with that medical marijuana!!

JB

omg some1 ban dj12s avatar please, i cant do that math atm, i am est, but can say i try 2 win no matter what the time but find tables are slow 2 fill at my fav site beginning around midnight

I think, first of all, the toughest days are the weekends. I don't know why, but that's what I've seen. Secondly, I think a good time is around 2-4 ET because for a lot of people that is REALLY late in the day and they're not playing their best. I'm somewhat fortunate in that I'm in Alaska, so that's only 10-12 pm for me.

Well, for many of you guys this is going to be about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot, becuase the site whee I currently play is predominately Eoropean players and excludes USA citizens. However, I would say between 21.00 and 23.30 GMT.

As ashamed as I am to admit it, my fellw countrymen (British) are fond of a beer or nine, but don't know when they have had too much and play pretty damn crap when intoxicated!

Due to historical laws (when in the recent past it was illegal to sell alcohol outside of certain hours) it is between those times when the most alcohol is consumed!

Boltneck

This post is ridiculous. There is always someone available and willing to be your huckleberry! Looking for a best time to consume competitors is like saying Dr J is a medical Dr!

While some of what you say is true, I'm afraid this post is not AT ALL ridiculous. There ARE better times of day than others, and it's definately worth consideration if you want to seriously play poker. Some of us do, so please don't say posts like this are ridiculous.

This post is NOT ridiculous! There is a point and their are times that are better to play than others.

In my time of playing online play I have noticed the following (Note I love in EST):

8:00am - 4:00pm EST - Semi Serious players, bored people playing for fun at work...Not as many people playing.

4:00pm - 8:00am EST - A WHOLE lot of players, and a whole lot of DONKS. I do notice more pro's and serious players at this time as well. Obviously I would say for the fact that everybody around this time is off work and home for the evening. The later the time (around 8:00pm and on) there are more players. The feilds are bigger the players range from donks to really good players.

Thats just what I notice from playing at work and after work.

for some reason i have no idea why but i have found that i have lost more money in the morning rather than any other time ...i do not know why and cant come up for a reason...i played on Full Tit when i noticed this and i am in PA so eastern time here

Well according to my pokertracker data:

My average is 12.15 BB/100

midnight - 2am EST: 1.38 BB/100 - 1435 hands

10 - noon EST: 17.4 BB/100 - 1264 hands

noon - 2 EST: 18.33 BB/100 - 648 hands

2 - 4pm EST: 26.68 BB/100 - 725 hands

4 - 6pm EST: 12.52 BB/100 - 767 hands

6 - 8pm EST: 33.88 BB/100 - 923 hands

8 - 10pm EST: 11.98 BB/100 - 4,636 hands

10-midnight EST: 6.94 BB/100 - 2,919 hands

I've played 0 hands from 4 - 8am. The time to avoid is 8 - 10am, I have a BB/100 of -107.19 (16 hands ) and -60.94 BB/100 from 2 - 4am with 112 hands.

Obviously some of these results could be simply due to variance, but it seems I make my big money in the early evening. Note that this is at the low limit NLHE tables (mostly 5/10c), not sure how it'd be different at higher limits where there are more serious players.

oh btw this is pokerstars.

I think poker site has a ton to do with it as well. When Cryptologic was still available to us in the US, playing in the evening was very tough. But go in the AM and you get all the drunk Europeans--which is where this site is more popular anyways (skins of Crypto anyway).

There's my 2 cents to go no where with

Sorry, fellow CCers, but I am ROFL at this thread.

OP clearly said:

and even provided instructions and a link to help you do so.

All but one failed.

Late Friday and Sat night...lots of people playing intoxicated. Not kidding. Ive seen really good players blow off lots of money playing very poorly because they were under the influence.

For me I tend to win more during the week between 6pm and 11pm. And I tend to lose more at the weekends between 11am and 5pm. The latter could be down to hangovers and football/soccer on tv!!

These times are GMT as requested by OP.

reply to this post ..... I have noticed on weekends about 4-5am green mtn time(midnight-1am.est for me) The games are easier,more relaxed,better placings. during the week it's about 3am.gmt(10pm.est.or so for me) or so is same way usually. I placed for tickets better at these times,as well as cash tourneys sng's or ring sides..... I think it's due to a later time of night,players either tired,wanting to unwind,relax,or perhaps had a few nips as well

if you dont make profit then you would have to play the time where you lost the least





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the weekends are definately tougher, more people on the sites. i think the best time to play is between noon and 4pm est. most people r still at work and there are less people to contend with.

That's OK. Time zones can be confusing.


There are great responses so far. I will wait for a while longer to get more responses and I will summarize so that an overall consensus can emerge(if it does). I will then convert the time zones and post the results expressed in several popular time zones.

Haven't got a great deal of stats to back it up, but for me Saturday-Sunday afternoons (local time) feel pretty good.

That'd make it around 5:00am GMT, or some time just after midnight Friday-Saturday in the US. I interpret this to mean that the majority of European players are in bed, and we're left with a lot of tired and/or drunk people Stateside

Morning through midafternoon are the times you are going to see the most predictable players. (1pm-7pmGMT)(8am-2pmEST). These are the people who play everyday. After 7pm (2pmEST) you are getting the kids home from school. This is the time you will see bigger swings in playing levels with 10pm (5pm EST) being the mad time. This is when you have school kids and a lot of people starting to come home from work. It's the start of Night of the Living Donks.

The weekend evenings are drunken free for alls. I don't play Saturday nights most times because the play is just so awful that you will go crazy trying to make sense of play. I think that after Saturday night play is when you get the most "Online Poker Is Rigged" threads, or I'm not playing online again posts.

bubba i miss your avatar

Most "pros" I would think / say play during the day time, around the same time most people work.

Ok, I wanted to do one for Thanksgiving. How about this one?

Well full-time pros would probably be playing at any hour. In terms of part-time pros (basically people who make a decent profit but it's not their primary income, perhaps a few CCers), I would think they'd want to play when the most fish were there. So I'm thinking whatever time of day has the most fish would also have the most sharks, assuming they actually do enough research to figure this out. I just play whenever I have free time lol.

Easiest for me is 08h00 - 16h00, weekdays.
Weekend are noticably more difficult, but 08h00-12h00 is best.

My original contribution to this thread was largely based on gut-reaction and anecdotal evidence. However, particularly in view of Zachvac's comments, I've been given it a little more thought and attempted to apply a degree of logic to the question.

The first thing that I would say is that (for most people) I would suggest that the question is irrelevant. I do not mean that as a criticism of the question as table select is important, and therefore so to should when to play be important. However, how many people have that much choice when they play?

Many (most?) people will sleep for 7 hours, spend 10 hours on employment related issues (getting to work, working, getting home etc) and other family commitments. They will have other interests away from poker, and they are NOT going to postpone the big football game because it coincides with the most profitable poker playing time!

For those who do not need to work (or for whom poker IS their work) they will probably play significantly more anyway, so will play at the 'good' times and the 'bad' times. So, eventually to the logic.

The better players will almost certainly in most cases be the players who play most often. Some may argue with this, and there may be some exceptions, but I suspect it will generally be the case. Now, whether players are "better player" because they play more often, or whether players play more often because they are "better players"! is a whole different argument!

So, if you accept that the good players play more often, the busiest times on a poker site will be when the less frequent players play. Taking this (admittedly arguable) logic a step further, there will be a greater percentage of poor plays at the tables when they are at their busiest. So, to get a pretty decent steer on the the best times to play, all you need to do is find the times of day when there is the most traffic - so just look at the CC poker room reviews.

Well, I'm off to get my tin hat now for protection against the missiles that will be heading in my direction following this dubious logic.

Boltneck.

dubious logic better than none at all.

I have been ill, but it sems to me there are more predators overnight.

I'll revise me statement now, to past supper time in the U.S. EST = 5:30-6 pm

converting to gmt won't tell you when the most profitable time for ME to play is, so for ME it is 9pm est. 2 am I guess. Either way it's only more convenient for those in GMT if we all convert.

It doesn't matter what time or day you play, just look for people that have 2 am to 4 am in their countries.
I.E. lets say you play in Houston at 7pm, so you will look for people from Europe most of them will be between 2 am and 5 am playing very tired.

Good luck at the tables

How much have you played online poker and what games are you playing? There is a BIG difference on the tables at different times.. ie. anytime on the weekends and you will find ALOT of bad players.

My preference.... weekends >> play the cash tables (but I avoid SNG's & Low buyin MTT's (maybe playing only something like the DoubleDeuce on Fulltilt if I satellite into it for $6,.... SNG tables at the stakes I play at are filled with donkeys on the weekends.. .some say this is great.. but in reality I find there are just too many of them on the table at one time and the game is a bit ridiculous (<<<< flame this comment if you will but it is my experience and find I can play much more profitably when there are a few decent players on the tables in a SNG).