Drastic Measures

The last week or so of soul searching has led me to some interesting but also predictable conclusions. First and foremost, I do still enjoy playing poker for a living. That should be obvious. Second and almost as importantly, it is destroying my soul, spirit, and anything else you might consider an integral part of being a good and useful human being. So what am I going to do about it? I've put myself on a new schedule, starting today, which many in the poker world would deem completely insane. I am going to wake up at 5:30am (I tried 5:45 this morning, but that still wasn't early enough to beat traffic) and leave the house as quickly as possible. If my place of employment has a game going, I'll drive there to save it. If not, I'll drive to LA's friendliest, play 2-3 hours of whatever game I can get into (today was 60/120), then head over to work for my shift from 10-3. When my shift ends I will...go home. I will allow for up to 1 hour of OT after the shift, but that is all. I'm out of there by 4pm, no matter how good the game is.

But Jesse, that's insane! You'll never make it!

Yeah, you could be right, but I've done a schedule like this once before in my life, specifically when I worked at Oracle and was leaving the house around 6am, working out at the on campus gym, then getting to my desk around 8am. It was a wonderful schedule, because it allowed me to get home nice and early and actually enjoy my evenings, and also maximized my productivity. I hate to admit this, but I am inherently a morning person, and my brain function pretty much declines linearly throughout the day. So I should be able to play when I'm sharper, instead of logging OT hours at the end of the day when my brain is just a pile of mush. And most importantly I'll be spending time in the casinos during less hectic, less toxic, times. The people playing at 7am simply can't be that big of douche bags; they no longer have the required energy reserves available. I've played at that time of day only a few times in the past, but I've never been at a particularly hostile table.

So that's my plan, and I'm sticking to it. Obviously the primary concern is that Danielle doesn't get home from work until 8pm on good days, and I'm planning to go to bed by 10 at the latest, which still doesn't really get me enough sleep. But if I can manage to sleep enough, I really think this could be a valid answer to continuing to play full time.