Poker Time Management

What have you done if you are in a tournament that obviously have a couple hours or more left and you have to do something that pulls you from the computer. I play on a laptop, so I've tried cooking dinner with my laptop or even changing diapers but it has proved to lead to poor decisions in the game play and I often go out when trying to multitask. Just curious as to what others may do..

Set aside the time to be free from start to finish, if not you are cheating yourself out of a possible win. Being distracted from the game doesn't help with anything, and if going to be playing mtt's most people will know approximately how long it takes and have that time set aside to focus on the game.

I have cooked supper before while playing a single tourny, but never fun running back and forth or clicking fold in between chopping onions lol.

You should never participate in a long tourney that you know youll have to something beforehand. Every hand is crucial.
Try to look for tourneys that are short and those times that youre free all throughout.

Don't start a tournament if you don't have time to see it through to the end.

If you don't have 3 -5 hours playing poker then don't reg for a tourney as a lot of tourneys run for that long.

I am lucky not to have a life or commitments so its is okay for me to reg for these tourneys, if I am in a tourney and start to get hungry I will just wait and cook when I am busto or I TID. I sulk when I give myself a headache for doing this, but it shows my dedication to the game I love

This is one of the reasons I don't play many MTTs. They are just too time consuming. I'd rather play SnGs or Cash where it's easy to run out a set and then take a break to take care of real life things.

Teach the baby to play while you're changing their diapers?

I don't play many long tourneys for this exact reason. If I can't dedicate that many hours (providing, of course, I do good) I don't play.

While it's generally good advice not to start a tournament unless you've set aside enough time to go deep, there are times when something comes up. I've tried using my laptop (I use my desktop a fair bit more) and also sitting out for a few minutes at a time. The latter isn't to bad if you don't have to do it repeatedly and if your stack can stand it, but neither is good.

Also, while I rarely play the huge MTTs, when I do, I'm not about to set aside 12 or more hours on the chance I'll last that long. If I ever do, I'll wing it.

It's happened me a few times where something pressing has come up and I've a very heatlhy stack with only a few left. A couple of times I played super loose to try get a nice stack before I left to blind off.

and the idea is to play trying to concentrate not do anything at once, if listening to music, or surf the internet but maybe near the computer. ever hear is not recommended even eat while playing, but good for taste there is nothing written.

If i have 6 hours i play Tournaments otherwise i just play cash games

This is very common. Sometimes we enter tournaments, for various reasons, we are obliged to act differently. That ends hurry causing wrong moves. So they often prefer to play turbo SnG's where not require much time. For tournaments, you need teer assured of a great time availability.

I'm an expert at this!! Everyone can talk all they want about how you shouldn't play if you might have an interruption. Well, I like playing MTTs, and I play all the time when my husband might decided he wants my help with something, or go out for awhile. My worst habit is I play freerolls at work, and customers can interrupt at any time. I will also multi-task quite a bit and do things like cooking while playing.

If you're trying to multi-task, rule number 1 is let your time bank run out instead of sitting yourself out. That extra time makes a big difference in how many hands you miss. Rule number 2 is tighten up. Don't try and play marginal situations that need your full attention. They are sure to turn into losing situations if you multi-task. By still trying to play while doing something distracting, your main goal is to avoid missing solid +ev situations such as your big pocket pairs. And by folding more hands, you have more time to finish whatever extra task you are trying to complete, getting your full attention back to the game sooner.

Yeah. This Is an important issue for me. With the invention of the 3.5 hour late registration, it has become more and more difficult to manage playing an MTT. I have 3 kids and a wife so it becomes almost impossible to play without distractions these days.

My solution to this is one day a week I will go to Barnes and Nobles and hang out in the café playing poker. It is very relaxing sipping coffee and playing there. Plus I get out of the house and meet a lot of regulars that go there also. I have become friendly with the café associates and it turns out to be a nice peaceful getaway.

I tend to have better results too