Balancing Life/Poker and Current times


How do you balance poker and life? This topic comes up so often with poker players, I see posts on forums regarding how much time to spend playing. Also things like the games are best on the weekends, but I hate missing time to spend with my friends and go out. If you are not interested in this and just in what is going on in my life now you can scroll down some.
It's a real tough thing to deal with if you are a successful player. Right now I am playing in the mid-stakes limit games, so between 8/16-15/30 are my main games, occasionally some mixed shots at 30/60 when the games are good. On my average day I would estimate I am making about $300. However, on the weekends the games are full of many more fish and I would guess I am making close to $500/day.
So is it worth the extra $200 to stay in for a night and pass up spending time with friends? How much does that money mean to you? How much do your friends mean to you? Being a college student, it is very nice to have the money to do what I want, and not have many worries.
The answer to this question is very gray for most people, it can really depend on what is most important in your own life. For myself the answer is easy. I want to savor all the time I have at Penn State, I want to make friendships that will stay with me for my whole life. So for me the answer is simple, I play poker whenever I have free time and nothing is going on. I make sure I get my school work done first and keep my grades going strong. I also never play when I have the chance to go and hang out with friends. A quote I really like from Doyle Brunson that I cannot recall exactly, "If you have anything else that you would rather be doing, then don't sit down at a table."
In all, I enjoy playing/learning the game. I would like nothing more than to keep progressing and make lots of money and become one of the better players in the game. And with hard work I can achieve that, it may take a little longer if I don't spend all my time trying to achieve it, but that is fine with me. My friends, family, and life are more important to me than the money.
Whats going on in my life now?
Some of my best friends came up for the weekend to celebrate State Patty's Day and my friend Jeff's 22nd birthday. I always have a real fun time when anyone visits, especially because I don't get to see them that much. I am also taking an internship in Charlotte, NC this summer so I will miss everyone alot so I want to spend as much time hanging with them now as I can. Back to State Patty's Day, it is more or less a made up Penn State day where we push Saint Patty's Day to whatever day suits the students best to party all day long and have a sick time. So it got moved to this past Saturday, needless to say I had an awesome time. I went strong all day and lasted all night (that's what she said), and didn't pass out at all like some of my friends which I will let remain anonymous.
Spring Break 08' in Cancun is on the horizon, coming up this next Sunday. The time is going by slow as it is approaching since I check out weather.com every day to see the temperature always hovering about 60 degrees warmer than Penn State. It should be the trip of a life time going with 11 real good friends. I will post some pics/trip report when I get back. For now good luck at the tables.

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