How Many Hours Do Poker Players Play?
How Many Hours Do Poker Players Play? The answer depends on the type of player you are. Beginners usually spend fewer hours at the table, while professional poker players often dedicate much more time to practice, tournaments, and online games to refine their skills and maximize their earnings.
In general, spending between 1 and 2 hours at a poker table is the most acceptable time. However, professional players spend between 2 and 8 hours taking short breaks during their poker sessions.
When determining the number of hours a poker player plays, there are several determining factors. Below, we take you through how determining the number of ways that you should play at a table works.
Determining the Number of Hours Poker Players Play
Below, we have gathered some of the important factors that determine the number of hours you should be playing poker.
1. The Length of Your Poker Session
One of the most important factors in determining how long you should be playing poker will be the number of poker tables that you want to play at. That’s because one of the games where you can play at more than one table will contribute to the number of hours you spend playing the game.
It is important to remember that someone who plays at one or two tables will spend fewer hours playing the game when compared to someone who plays at 20 tables at a time. Of course, you can only do this with online poker games, as it is difficult to do so at land-based poker tables.
2. Bankroll management
One of the other factors that can determine the number of hours you spend at the blackjack table is your bankroll. A minimal bankroll can mean you will play fewer hours at the more expensive tables. Alternatively, you can play for a while if you are playing low stakes.
When working out your blackjack budget, you should also take into consideration how much time you want to spend playing blackjack. Also, think about the type of tables you want to play at and how much each hand will cost you.
3. Playing Live Poker
The number of hours that you play live poker drastically varies from that of online play. One of the biggest advantages you have for online poker is that you can play more hands per hour. With a typical live poker game, you will get to play between 25 and 30 hands per hour.
With an online game, you can go from anything between 60 and 80 hands per hour to 75 and 100 hands per hour. Or if you’re playing fast-fold poker, these are about 200 to 250 hands per hour.
It is important to remember that live poker games take a bit longer as the cards are physically shuffled and dealt. Also, the sorting of chips and the settling of disputes are factors that can increase the amount of time spent at the table.
Number of Hours Professional Players Play
Being a professional poker player will require you to spend more hours every day at poker tables. You will be playing poker most of your days, but you will also need time to go over strategies and your gameplay. This initially means less social time, as crooked games tend to happen at odd hours and for long hours.
Professional poker player Daniel Negreanu once shared a foolproof plan to become a poker player, which included the number of hours you would need to spend to become a professional. In the blog, Daniel explained that if you had a goal of making $100,000 a year from poker, you would need to be playing about 5000 hours a year.
To break this down further, that would be 412 hours a month, over 100 hours a week. This is apart from the hours that you need to study the game to improve your skills. And then Daniel also suggested that for every 10 hours that you play, you should also have two hours of study time. This is about 14 hours a week of studying time, plus a rough estimate of 100 hours of game time.
As you can tell, this is taking up most of your days. So, creating a reachable goal will help you work towards being a professional while keeping up the little bit of social life you have left aside from poker tables.
Average Hours Poker Players Play
Below, we created a table that shows the number of hours that go into playing various poker games. We look at cash games, tournaments, turbo tournaments, and Sit and Go games. We estimate the duration of online and live poker games so that you have a better understanding of how many hours go into playing these games.
| Poker Game | Online Games | Live Games |
|---|---|---|
| Sit & Go | 45 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Cash game | 1-2 hours | 1-3 hours |
| Turbo tournament | 4-6 hours | 5-8 hours |
| Tournament with up to 1000 people | 8-10 hours | 8h up to a few days |
Play Poker Online
The best part about playing poker at web-based casino sites is that you won’t have to wait until a table has cleared for you to join a game. There are always running poker games that you can easily join and play for real money.
Of course, when you are playing at tournaments, you will need to adhere to the time frame that the casino site has set. With that, make sure you have put in the right number of hours learning the game’s mechanics, as well as strategies to help improve your odds.
With the casino that we recommend here at USPlayerCheck.com, you can expect to find real money and free poker games that you can use to practice your gameplay.
