Quote Originally Posted by spoonitnow
As a student I'm able to play a lot of poker and I manipulate my playing schedule and my life schedule so that they cooperate well. For people who have full time jobs and a family and are trying to come up in the poker ranks from scratch, please don't neglect your family trying to be like my crazy country ass. Instead, gradually work on your game a few hours a week and let your online bankroll build by itself. Trust me, with the help of the players here and a little bit of work on your own part, you'll have a profitable hobby in a relatively short amount of time. I did it working 50+ hours a week when the drive to work was around an hour and I knew approximately jack squat about poker, and if I can do it, surely anyone can.
Nice post, spoon. I'm a father of three small kids: twin 3.5 yr-olds and a 1 yr-old. I play while I'm "putting the twins to bed." They listen a CD for 45 - 60 minutes, and demand a drink of water, another trip to the potty... I play poker, and I'm good at the multi-table sit-out clicks.

But here's my main point - I don't watch TV. Ever. I have work, family and my hobbies: running, poker, woodworking, rock climbing, reading. I really think that there are lots of wasted hours in most folks' day. Most of my friends watch 2 -3 hours of TV per day NOT including weekends - that's Mon - Fri. I use that time to be with my kids and to enjoy my hobbies.

I get in 20+ hours of poker on good weeks, more like 10+ hours when I'm putting shelves in a closet or making something in my wood shop. That's while working 50+ hours per week, making a decent salary, and spending dozens of hours of quality time with the kids, eating dinner with the family, giving the kids their baths, reading them stories, taking them to the zoo or basketball games.

My advice is to clear your schedule for one month, and see how many hands you can crank through (using Spoon's +15 min suggestions for increasing your grinding prowess). Once you know the limits, both of your win rate and your endurance, pick and choose how many hours you'd like to commit and when they should happen.

My grinding rate is likely to yield shots at both NL25 and NL50 this year. I'll be lucky if, one year from now, I'm thinking of NL100. But I will also have a great year of spending time with the fam, kickin' ass at work and doing my other hobbies.

My goals are different than spoon's, who I believe aspires to be a professional poker player. I aspire to be a recreational poker player who buys really cool electronic gizmos and power tools he couldn't otherwise afford with the proceeds. But the key to both of us getting where we want to go in '08 is the same: play more hands, get better at poker.

Thanks again Spoon. Read whole post. Thought it was awesome.