UK2U

One thing that people should consider, especially if they have limited time, is when the best time to play poker is. Very few people have the time, the patience, or the desire to play poker all day every day. Most of us just play it some in our free time, have some fun, and hopefully make some money. So the question is what is the best time to play in order to maximize the making of the money.

The two things that need to be considered for this are if there is a game available, and how people tend to play at different times. Now in general, a game being available isn’t generally an issue. Unless you are playing at one of the smallest or newest sites there are almost always games going on. Large sites such as Party poker never have less than 10 or 20 thousand people on them, so availability really isn’t an issue.

So the real question is, how people are playing. Through the use of poker tracker, and my own observations, I have noticed what you might expect. Late night games are generally looser, wilder, with most hands being won at the showdown. As a college student, my schedule is pretty free so I have played at a variety of times. Sitting down at tables during a week day it is generally hard to find a table with more than 25% of the people seeing the flop, and often the table is even tighter than that. Also during the day there are much less calls, pot sized bets will often take the hand, and you don’t have to show down as frequently.

At night, and especially Friday and Saturday nights, everything changes. Presumably this is because many of the nighttime players just got off work and they want to kick back and have some fun, not sit there and fold every hand. Also presumably on the weekends, many of them are drunk. Because of this, at night, it is not unusual to sit at a table that has 35 or 40% of the players putting in money to see the flop. Throwing in the big blind that means almost every flop has 5 people in it, and sometimes this is a low estimate. Additionally it is much harder to get people out of a pot, flush and straight draws are chased until the bitter end, and top pair hands are never thrown away.

As a result, if you have a limited time to play poker I recommend doing it in the evening when most people are getting home from work and finishing dinner. The play will be looser and your hands will be paid off more. This situation is ideal and very profitable. However you need to know that with all the callers people will suck out on you more frequently and your bankroll has to be prepared to handle it. If you are playing these games be very aggressive with premium hands preflop, you will get callers, so get the money in when the getting is good. Additionally you should be much more reluctant to bluff hands; you aren’t going to get people out.

If you are playing in the day try to steal pots more frequently. If people are willing to throw away their blinds they might as well throw them your way, and if people aren’t willing to stay in and defend a pot, so much the better for you.