Taking a Break Mid-Tournament

obviously everyone can have life happen during tournaments, so i'm curious if you have a set strategy when it does. as an example, tournament is running longer than you thought and you have to put the baby to bed, fix dinner, take the dogs for a walk, pick up friend at the hospital, or any number of things that could take you away for a half hour or hour. do you take extra risks right before your break in order to double or do you play normal and take your chances? do you try to time your break with the actual break, H4H, etc? how many hands per minute do you assume when calculating how fast your might blind out?

It really depends on the situation I'm in at that point and the duration of the break. If it 15-20 minutes I won't do anything in particular. If it's longer and I'm not in a good situation, I might try to take some risks to double up right before, but I won't do anything too stupid either if I don't get anything.

If you can time it to happen during the 5 minutes break of the hour, then do it, 5 minutes less away of the table can make a significant difference sometimes.

That said, if you can avoid breaks, it's better, but stuff can happen.

It sounds like your wife has you on a tight schedule.

If you're playing from a PC it's nice to have pokerstars on devices as well so you can logout on PC and login on a handheld device if you have to go do something mundane.

I would not enter a tournament if I knew I would have to take a 30 min or longer break mid tournament. You have no idea of what your stack might be at that point.

I've been trying to play when I actually have free time cause I used to play more often but then I would have to leave a lot of tourneys part way through. But yes if I know I am going to be gone so that when I get back my stack is super small then I will play risky right before I go. Why not. You have a better chance of placing when you get back.

Taking a break??? I am away from my pc for 1 min and I always see folded AA. Story of every online poker player

To be honest I always play whenever I know that I don't have to do something else!!

I mean, this really makes the difference between a professional (or semi) poker player, who does that for a living and can afford to sit at the tables for hours and hours.
Amateurs, usually don't have that luxury, as life tends to happen around them

If you are playing poker mainly for fun, then taking a break here and there and losing blinds is nothing to get upset about. On the other hand, if you really want to put effort into playing good, then you should take into consideration that a tournament can take several hours to finish and plan out the day around poker, instead of the other way around.

take a break

Better to take a break than run the risk of crashing out or loosing a larger portion of your stack.
The great aspect of online tournaments is if you have a large stack then a break can be taken when ever you want so my advice is always take it if you feel the need as you will probably regret not doing so. Trust your instinct.

I never play if I don't have enough time to finish the tournaments I start. If it's going to be close I just play cash games or shorter single table tournaments.

IF something comes up where I have to leave I will just sit out and hope my ghost makes it to the money.

Usually if its something that I have to leave the house my mind will not be worried about the tournaments though.

Poker is a time consuming adventure, especially tournaments so you need to be mindful of that if you have other responsibilities.

all or nothing and afk , or play on mobile)

I would make sure I was playing on a laptop if things could take my focus off the game. I would carry the laptop with me and make sure to play optimal poker. If you know that this still wouldn't be possible then you shouldn't invest in a tournament that you possibly can't finish. If its something unexpected and urgent then I walk away

It's hard for me to take a break during game. If i really have to leave house then i play on my phone. And if even it's not possible, well...what to do, can do nothing, so i just continue game when i can..if game is not over, ofc.

I would rather keep the momentum flowing. I do notice when I have to leave for a few minutes if my stack is good enough, I see that I haven't lost much. As one member stated I did come back after having a feeling and running to my machine to see AA go by. lol But that time I would have lost to two all ins. So sometimes it is good to not flop a set of AA's. lol
My daughter works close by and I pick her up from work at 9:15, so if you see me sitting out at that time in our free rolls. that is what is up.

I prefer not to register at any tourney if I know that I have to go for some time;Only if Iwas automatcaly registered by satelite;So I try to do something such as be inactive and pray to be on the table when I come back.