#11 My out-of-control schedule

There are always raging debates in the 2+2 poker forums about whether or not poker is a good career choice. That might seem strange, but in fact, many of the very successful players online, who make as much as $100 per hour or more, have a "regular" job and only play poker part-time.

There are many arguments for and against playing poker full-time, but one of the main arguments for being a full-time pro is that you control your own situation--you don't have a boss, you can set your own hours, etc. So far, that isn't working for me.

I understand that my time is not completely my own. I have a wife that wants to actually talk to me about something other than poker once in a while, I have cats that demand their share of attention (including flopping on the mouse pad if they don't get it). I have a son that may again need a ride to work from time to time, and I have grandchildren that are quite eager to help give the cats some attention.

But this week is particulary discouraging. The home office that I will be taking over currently has some computer equipment which belongs to my wife's employer. All I know is that they will be here either sometime this week, on one of two days, to pick up their computers.

That means I can't sleep during the day, nor can I be playing poker tournaments and being doing anything that required a lot of concentration, such as playing multiple tournaments or being heads-up. Since I don't know when they will be here, that's pretty limiting. Maybe I can single-table some satellites to the PokerStars Sunday 1/4 Million--all I have to do to win a ticket is finish in the top 15%, so I won't have to worry about being heads-up. And if there being here blows up that tournament, it's only $2.20 lost.

Well, at least I'll make it to church this week. Since I have to be on a day schedule anyway, I figured I might as well start getting up early. I'll be up for the hospital people when they come over, I'll be up for church, and we wanted to have the grandchilren over on Friday (my wife is off work) so we'll probably do that during the day too.