Just a few minutes at a time.

So, I have a new job, mostly centered around my home, and with no cell phone (yet) will find myself (I think) at home sitting waiting for the phone to ring, at which point I expect to have to jump and run.

This will obviously screw with my 'all tourneys all the time' poker playing routine.

SO! I want to know your observations and thoughts about playing for just a few minutes multiple times a day at the ring games.

I have not traditionally been a ring guy, losing fish probably, but see the need to expand my horizons.........

So you are asking that.... You know you are a fish at ring games and really don't care for them but that's all you have time to play (and not very long at that), but.....wait, what the heck are you asking here?!?!

If you are looking to get better at something (anything imo) doing it for very little time or effort will not make you better.

I guess I'm just still confused why you would even bother.

I reckon you will stay a fish if you only play a couple minutes a day. At that rate I would just give up

Ring games are easy.

Play after work?

Or hop on ring games, play solid, and stay on as long as you can/leave when you must.

I have found it tuff to play without some kind of time line becasue you are not concentrating on what you need to. When one is at the table, it is your job to make good decisions and you are "Game handicapped" without some kind of time limit. Getting in there just to get in and not concentrating on what is important is bad news my poker friend. Try the tony stuff after work. Good luck with your endevors.

In about 3 very short weeks I will be beginning college. I'm paying my way through by working full time evenings and weekends and I know I'll never be able to play poker effectively with these time constraints.

My only free evening will be Friday and I have no illusions about being able to play poker for a profit. My response to this realization is to practice my tournament poker with freerolls. I won't be concerned about winning but working on card reads, icm, m and other fundamentals.

Playing for your money on a ring game with an expectation of losing will not help you learn to win imdo.

$2.20 HU SnG, you will kill those dj, they don't take a lot of time to play and if you must leave all of a sudden you are not losing much.


dj is far from a fish, and if he refers to himself as a fish, that fish would be a shark.

Couldnt you get an extention cord and bring your phone to your computer DJ?

Freerolls are a form of poker in name only. They have little comparison to a regular game until you weed out 90% of the field. 'Working on reads' is very tough until the very late stages of the game. IMO, you'd be better off pony'ing up $50 and play $1 to $2 MTT's or even SNG's so you can learn something.

Freerolls have their place, but in learning anything in depth about the game is not it.

Oh I recognize that which is why I won't concern myself with where I place. It's more for practicing the math of poker so to speak.

When I only have short periods to play, I personally prefer 5nl Rush. High hand rate, no bothersome need to "learn" your opponents, quick easy decisions, can jump in and out of the game at any time. Can't go wrong there if you are expecting to have to run to the phone at any moment.

Another thing to try might be the 300 chip Super Turbo SNG's. These are great as well in that you don't really need to learn your opponents as it is essentially a push/fold game. Great if you are not fully paying attention. These are usually over in less than half an hour and give pretty good bang for the buck if you play $3 and up (lower rake %).

There have been many times when I've had time constraints and have chosen to play ring games because I won't know if I'll have enough time for a sng. I'm actually considering doing this again when I can't play full MTT's cuz I'm running like shyt in SNG's and it's beginning to piss me of in a big way.
My suggestion > start off on really small stakes.. ie. 5 nl.. or 10nl. I've found even only getting to play for 15mins. isn't so bad at all and have often done well in a quick 15min. sessioin. (I also used to play short bursts like this alot quite awhile ago,... sit down on a couple of tables for 15 or 20 mins. & call it quits).

I dont know what kind of job you have, and how much constraint it will put on your day. You could be a delivery guy, a deputy sheriff, a medic, a hit-man (I hope not...lol), so its hard to imagine exactly what your days-weeks-months look like. I have this happen to me as well, (fone rings and I gotta go NOW) but not often enough to hurt. Do you have any idea how things may pan out or do you need to do this job a few weeks before you really know whats comin at ya? If you are like on call 24/7 then its usually only for a set amount of time, then you have your set time off. So you may need to plan your main playing around that. I dont like turbo sngs so much, but thats always an option. As zorba said, HU as well. Or as PO said above, try the small stake FR. Ive seen enough of you here to figure you to be a player with an edge and an idea of what hes doing. You one of the players here whos advice I always welcome. So I guess you know what to do, and I cant offer you any of my experience since I am only SnGs. But my main question is how long will you be in the situation of needing to leave at a moments notice?

Not worth playing, unless you can give it your full attention. I learned that the hard way....trying to play while you are distracted=losing. I play my very best when I set aside some quiet time to focus on poker exclusively.

I don't think there's anything wrong with messing around at microstakes for a short session. If you use PT3 or HEM eventually you'll build up a database of the cash players so you can get a quick read on the table. I usually try for 30 minutes minimum, but that's just me. The Rush poker suggestion is good if you can handle the emotional/bankroll swings of Rush.
Good luck, post results, I'm interested to see how this goes.

Try the very low ring games, 0.01/0.02 or 0.02/0.05. Those are easy to beat and you don´t risk much. But play abc-poker, no fancy stuff. Cashgames are nice, you can leave and sit down - whenever you want.

Pretty sure dj is gonna keep doing the hit-man stuff until he gets caught, but, he says he normally just takes his weapons rather than his puter when he is preparin to hit someone. Go figure.

This might be helpfu
l http://www.cardschat.com/f57/special...u-want-145419/

For ring games you really need reads on players. Playing 1-2 orbits at a time you just won't be able to get very good reads. It is also bad since you should be waiting for your BB. If you just hop in, you'll end up paying more in blinds than you would normally, reducing your win rate.

You could short stack I suppose, to make the reads less necessary. This too will reduce your winrate though.

Read that more than a few times and for me? nada......

How about just slowly transfering chunks of your bankroll to me and forget the hassle of playing ring games when you cant commit to a decent session.

Play some Rush on FTP when you have the time.

Multi tabling chews up to much time trying to cycle in and out of the tables if you're as time limited as i think.

Knocking off the academy challenges can be done in as little as 10 minutes for example playing 100-150 hand sessions.

Rush poker is alot of fun. Impossible to get a read most of the time, and you are often dealing with all in situations, but they are a blast. I have been able to make it to the final table a few times, and they are quick which is handy.

I was referring to Rush cash. I have not played a Rush tournament yet.

PT2 can't do it but the HUD from PT3 has been invaluable. Easy reads

I have seriously considered this.....

Than I just hit myself in the head with a sledge hammer. Got over it real quick.

Hit and run works fine for me... easier if u have HUD numbers on players so stick to smaller sites (also fishier) where u can collect stats fast...

I still suck at ring but am not bleeding out any more, actually getting better!

as I see it your work is usually to respond quickly and not for long time, instead of you I would find friend/player that you consider him as a good MTT player as you, and in those kind of situation he/she will step in the game instead of you and after that you will split the profits. or that kind of things are illegal? LOL

Ring games and rush tend to consume my profits, good luck if you give it a go

LOL it is against TOS u will get banned LOL

Basically I am in a similar situation. I'm retired and a widower and my 2 kids live away so I have many things to do around the house and running errands everyday. Since I love to play and have to be careful in that I need to know when to play and when to do errands. Have to be very careful though as I have a tendacy to get involved in the play and let the errands get behind. The good thing about the ring games though is that you can get out at any time. In Sit & Go's if something comes up you must really have to leave the game, it hurts. I've hade to go all in, all in, all in just to get finished so I can handle my personal things. Good luck.

Don't do that, just get up and blind out!

Last time I played in a FTP Daily Dollar satellite I had to get up and go do something so I just left the screen up and sat out...came back to find out I made 3rd place (Which was basically just a refund of the FTP's, but still!)

Have you tried cracking 6max Super Turbos? They literally take 10-15 minutes max, 1st and 2nd pay. The only thing is that they have terrible variance despite horrible play, so BRM needs to be super tight and followed perfectly. But if you're a good player, I think you could turn a profit... I've played them up to the 10 dollar level, no real difference in skill level from the lowest to 10 dollars. 5 dollar level is the softest imo.