8/23/2010--Results for week of 8/15-8/21

HOURS
Administrative 2.50
Study 5.75
Play 27.25
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TOTAL HOURS 37.25

PROFIT AND LOSS (Week)
Beginning bankroll, 8/15 $82.73
Ending bankroll, 8/21 $77.92
-$4.81

Given what was going on, I'm actually very happy (relieved might be a better word) with those results, both the hours and the money. I spent the week shifting my work hours, so that I could prepare to get up earlier and play the $1 tournaments that have large fields a good structure. Those tournaments only go off three times daily, at 0600, 0700, and 1100.

To get on my new schedule, I got up roughly an hour earlier every day. The problem is that my body didn't want to make that change, and most of the week I didn't go to bed until sometime between 0400 and 0800. At one point I played some poker, got 4 hours sleep, set my alarm to get up an hour earlier than the day before (which allowed me two hours sleep), got up, and played poker again.

I'm amazed that I got in as many hours as I did, and lost as little money as I did, while spending much of the week either struggling to stay awake, or trying to fall asleep. But eventually it worked. I woke up at 6 A.M today after a decent night's sleep, got some breakfast, and played in the 7 A.M. $1 MTT. I got a small cash out of it, finishing 203 of 2,964. (An MTT usually pays roughly the top 10% of the field.)

This is definitely not a permanent situation. In general, poker is a nights and weekends job. In fact, the hours for live tournaments where I live run from around 1500 to 0000. But for now, to find the $1 online tournaments with large fields and good structures, I have to become a morning person.