Online Poker - When to Play?

This question may sound a bit odd, since one of the characteristics that defines online poker, and provides advantage over live games, is the fact that you can play anytime. Just login to your favourite poker room at 3 am in the morning, and you will find hundreds of tables filled with players from all over the world. So, is it relevant to ask “is there a better time to play?”. The answer – yes, it is, because there are indeed better hours to join the tables:


-First and most important, the weekend. It is not a coincidence that the biggest online poker tournaments are held at the weekend, usually Sunday. In the weekends, most people who have regular jobs have more time to play, and because of that, you can find much more amateur poker players at the tables, especially on Sunday;


-Late in the evening – you will be up against players that are or have been drinking or playing all day long and are no longer playing at their best;


- Middle of the night - when players are no longer wide awake. Be aware of what countries play at the site you are playing on. EST midnight is not midnight for a player from Sweden, if you want to take advantage of that particular player then you need to plan your session time accordingly.


-Early in the morning - you catch a lot of players at the end of an all-night session or a very long session and are now trying to either build on their session and make some more profit or trying to win back losses from a poor session.

[PunksterBrew]

I think probably the weekend is the best time to play as more fish are probably lurking about. Those that play in the weekdays are more likely to make their living playing poker, and the simple fact that they do play on the weekdays means they probably have more hours put in than the weekend only players, thus are more experiences. As far as at what time to play, I don't think it matters. Poker is very global, you got foreigners up in different time zones, and even if you're playing Americans late night, don't just assume they've been up for all that time.

The question is not, "what time to play when opponents are the weakest?" but rather "what time to play when you are the strongest?" Food for thought

[arjonius]

The decision when to play is seldom is ever uni-dimensional where one factor is the sole consideration or significantly outweighs all others. As noted, playing when you're on top of your game can make a huge difference. So can various other factors such as table selection. If you're a winning player overall at a particular level, there are basically always good tables out there. Sometimes it takes more effort to find them.