Grinder

Clicking buttons for a living [Part-2/n]

Link to Part-1.

In this section, I’ll look at an average day in the life of an online poker grinder.

As I end up going to bed usually around 5 am, I don’t wake up before 12. The importance of sleeping well is under-rated in most professions, but for a poker player it’s even more important. My phone is usually switched off while I sleep, as anyway the only people who would want to reach out before noon are telemarketers and insurance sellers. They can wait.

I wake up, have some tea and go through the morning news. Most of this is non-poker related. Initially begin with the Indian Express and The Economic Times, and then move on to the digital world with The Ken, Finshots and some Substack subscriptions.

Lunch is usually the only meal I get to enjoy in peace. Post that I end up taking an hour long nap on most days (except Sundays which are a completely different schedule). I am finally fully awake around 3 pm or so, and to get myself in the zone, usually end up playing a couple of games of chess. After this, I spend 2-3 hours studying some of the tricky spots from the previous day, or maybe watch some new poker strategy videos (there is a lot of content out there!)

I realized 5 months into this lifestyle that fitness is absolutely key to make this sustainable. So around 6 pm is when I would either go out for an hour long run, or lift some weights at home. Initially this was only to improve physical fitness, but with time I realized that the positive impact running and lifting has on mental fitness is immense. A cold shower after this workout and I am ready to get to work.

On most days, I end up grinding till about 3 am or so. Tournaments offer a paltry 5 minute break every hour, so I would stuff something down around 930 pm (Not being able to enjoy dinner is one of my primary complaints against this lifestyle). There is no defined end point, it really depends on when you bust out from the last tournament you are playing. Tournament players make more money the deeper they are in a tournament, so a long day at work is usually a happy day at work, unlike most professions!

I am typically very hungry after the grind, so I make a nice sandwich, play another game of chess to cool down, and then end up reading or watching something for an hour or longer before going to bed around 5.

A side-note on Sundays

The above schedule is valid only for weekdays. Sundays are when the entire poker world goes berserk – there are tons of tournaments to grind across Indian and international websites. Roughly 50% of the weekly action happens on one single day – Sunday.

Because Sundays are primed to be super-hectic, I usually take Saturdays off and try to go to bed around 3 am. If I am lucky, I get an uninterrupted 8 hour sleep. After sorting out the morning rituals and a shower, I am set to grind as early as 1230 pm. A Sunday session typically lasts around 18 hours (sometimes longer), so it is not before 7 am on Monday that I go to bed.

Grinding for 18 hours is mentally super taxing, you are making roughly 800 decisions every hour, with only a 5 minute break. It is super important to be able to play in the zone for such a long period. Importance of sleep, a good diet and a fitness regimen therefore cannot be overstated.

This concludes the second part in this series, in the next section I am planning to write about how to actually get better at the game.