Wednesday, January 07, 2009

When you do play online poker?

Just a quick thought. If poker really is exploding across the country, helping sites like PokerStars grow despite the obvious downturn of U.S. customers, why are we all continuing to play when it's likely more U.S. customers will be playing?
Shouldn't we take advantage of all that new fish across the seas?
The reasons are pretty clear, of course. We can't play poker at work (well, I could at one point, but that was before half our newspaper staff was chopped and I'm actually busy now). So we have to play at night. And a lot of us can't play in the early morning hours, and if we do, usually beer is the reason why.
But is anyone else with me on this? Are there times when the waters might be fishy instead of the increasing number of sharks that swim at U.S. hours? I'm still winning, but I do fear that eventually I'll be next, maybe as soon as the end of this year. So if I played at 6:45 a.m. before I went to work, would that be better?
What do you all think?

9 comments:

Memphis MOJO said...

You're right about one thing: the games online are tougher now. I have to play at night, too, but I've dropped down in levels ($5 MTT etc.).

Sorry to hear about your Grandfather.

Mondogarage said...

Well, I think you present an interesting idea, but one to which I see a couple of potential reasons it may not be the optimal play.

First, you're probably just waking up at that time, and thus, it's probably more difficult to become intensely focused. You could probably manage a couple tables of ABC.

Second, if you do find yourself at a particularly juicy table, the opportunity to stay and clean up, causing problems with late arrivals at work, is a potential water hazard. Nobody likes to leave winnable money behind.

Finally, even at that time of day, it's still noon or barely after, in Europe. You might catch some drunk Asians, but the fishiest Euro donks are probably not online at that time in volume.

Anyway, just a few things to consider. I do think your idea has merit, though.

OhCaptain said...

I've been noticing much softer games on weekend mornings. I tend to wake up clear headed on a lot of weekend mornings. OhCountess is a nurse and works every other weekend. I've got to be prepared or the kids will eat me alive.

kurokitty said...

When I wake up at 10 a.m. Eastern I notice the games usually are pretty good on Poker Stars.

At the same time, the "sharks" swim where the fish are. You have to think that the U.S. market still provides the greatest volume of players, and proportion of fish.

Gnome said...

I find that the NL games are usually pretty awful in the mornings. I know PokerStars is broadening into foreign markets, but I wonder how many Europeans/Russians/Asians choose to play on sites that cater to their regions rather than on a mostly American site like PokerStars.

StB said...

I rather play Rock Band that poker right now.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. They're all good.

Gnome said...

I may have been completely wrong. The games are filled with Euro players now, at 5 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Pacific.

Unknown said...

that might be a good one but like Mondogarage said we have other things to do that to play. My poker brains works well at night when all i need to think is the game and not the whole day of work, family and house matters.

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