I'm Still "Available Man"

I realize now that the Available Man problem has not gone away.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I became the one available to be a caregiver to my mother-in-law because I was the one in the family that "doesn't have a job."  I will never let someone say that to me unchallenged again and I am no longer a caregiver, but the problem persists.

I have two family members that might need that kind of help at some point, possibly soon. I know that at some point I will be asked to do more than my share.  It's not that they will want to take advantage of me.  The problem is that some point someone will be needed and I will be called because John and Jane Doe are "at work," It already happened once, when the family members who were "at work" were much closer to a family member that needed a ride to the hospital than I was. I've thought about this a lot, and I'm still not sure how to handle it.

I will agree to be part of any caregiver rotation just as I was with my mother-in-law.  But I won't let my job be messed with.  Poker is just like any other job in that very few people get rich doing it part-time.  I will insist that my job be treated with as much consideration that of any other family member.

To a lesser extent, this happens at home.  If something has to happen during "normal work hours" my wife has employers that expect her to cover the scheduled hours.  If I plan to be at my computer playing online poker in the afternoon and she plans to be working on her computer at home at the same time, I will have to be the one to change my plans if a 2 P.M. appointment has to be handled, My wife has no choice, that's just the way it is.

I've thought about this a lot, and there are some things I can do.  When I play a live tournament, which can take six hours or more, I always have my phone turned off.  I'm thinking about doing the same thing when I play or study at home.  I don't want to be disturbed when I'm playing for a $1,000 first prize at my local poker room, and I need to treat playing at home (or studying so I can make that money) the same way.

Online prizes of a thousand or more are available online more that you might think, in fact, as I have mentioned on this blog, most tournament pros don't make their money from a a lot of small cashes.  A large part of their income comes from a few large cashes.  How big the potential cashes are depends on the amount of the buy-in and the number of players. For example, a $5 online tournament with 800 players would have a first prize of about a thousand dollars.  The math is simple:

$5 X 800 players = $4,000 prize pool.  First place usually gets about 25% of the prize money.

Some online tournaments with thousands of players can run for eight hours or even longer--and that's part of the problem.  I don't have scheduled hours.  When a tournament ends, I might study, or play another one, or watch TV.  My tournaments can be online or live, in a poker room two miles from my house, or in another city.  Some of my live tournaments start at 1500, others start at 1800 or 1900.  Online tournaments are available 24 hours a day.  I don't care when I play, but I'm making some changes to get my work week up to 50 hours a week.

Tournament selection drives my schedule, and it's crucial that I carefully decide what, where and when to play.  Among the things I might consider when choosing a tournament is:

Will I be rested enough to play at the scheduled starting time?
What percentage of my poker bankroll does it cost to enter?
How big will the prize pool be?
What is the level of competition?
What are the incidental costs such as travel, food and drink?

I consider those things every single day before I start my work day.  I don't have anything like a regular schedule that I can put on a piece of paper so everyone knows when I'm not available.  I need to be free to choose my tournaments on a day--by-day basis if necessary.  I am for the most part free to do that.  But that very freedom can make others think that I'm available on demand--and therin lies the problem.