how many hours do you average per year or per month?

[bmovers]

I don't do AP play full time, but I do do it on a regular basis.
I am just curious as to how much time others have put into this over the months and years.

I started nearly 2 and a half years ago, and my current total is at 1,940 hours. This works out to roughly 70 hours per month or 16 hours per week. I treat it as a part time job with flexible hours and has been a fairly decent chunk of my income since I started. I have never gone more than 3 weeks without playing since I first started. I keep excellent records, and only count the time spent actively counting and playing. I usually play 2 hands, and assume an average of 80 hands/hour.

My total time playing in the past 2 1/2 years breaks down approximately as follows:

• 300 hours in Vegas. I have been to Vegas 4 times total, all within the span of 1 year. Those 4 trips were quite long and I averaged 8-9 hours per day. That of course does not include the time walking or driving from 1 place to the next.
• 1000 hours in a certain dying east coast resort town. Mostly long weekends, in which I also try to average 8-9 hours per day.
• 600 hours in local stores. this is mostly on weekdays when I go to 1-2 different places each day.

NOT counting Vegas, I have been to 25 different casinos, all of which are within 3 hours of where I live. Of course almost half of them are in 1 town.

[ZeeBabar]

I don't do AP play full time, but I do do it on a regular basis.
I am just curious as to how much time others have put into this over the months and years.

I started nearly 2 and a half years ago, and my current total is at 1,940 hours. This works out to roughly 70 hours per month or 16 hours per week. I treat it as a part time job with flexible hours and has been a fairly decent chunk of my income since I started. I have never gone more than 3 weeks without playing since I first started. I keep excellent records, and only count the time spent actively counting and playing. I usually play 2 hands, and assume an average of 80 hands/hour.

My total time playing in the past 2 1/2 years breaks down approximately as follows:

• 300 hours in Vegas. I have been to Vegas 4 times total, all within the span of 1 year. Those 4 trips were quite long and I averaged 8-9 hours per day. That of course does not include the time walking or driving from 1 place to the next.
• 1000 hours in a certain dying east coast resort town. Mostly long weekends, in which I also try to average 8-9 hours per day.
• 600 hours in local stores. this is mostly on weekdays when I go to 1-2 different places each day.

NOT counting Vegas, I have been to 25 different casinos, all of which are within 3 hours of where I live. Of course almost half of them are in 1 town.

I am a part-timer as well, do about 7 hours per week average with may be two weekends where I do 10+ hours a day, each year. I would guess that would be about 375 hours a year. I do not have many casinos nearby.

[KJ]

Hours are really very problematic. Are you counting strictly playing time, from the time you sit down at a table until you get up? Are you counting from the time you walk into a casino until you leave? Does scouting time count towards this number? Players that wong into games a lot, probably spend as much time standing back counting while not playing as they do playing.

And then there is the problems with game conditions. Player A plays 250 hours in the evenings and on weekends when tables are crowded (50 rounds per hour). Player B, playing the same stakes, plays 250 hours late at night/early morning and plays mostly heads up where he gets 300-400 rounds per hour with a decent dealer. I just don't see time as a very uniform measure of anything.

[Fiestastation]

For some reason, I have a really difficult time nailing down a number for how much time I spend playing. I guess part of it is because I generally use my cell phone to keep track of time, and part of it is just kind of a laziness on my part. Do you guys simply note the time you sit down and the time you get up? Do you keep that as part of your records?

[moses]

Hours are really very problematic.

And then there is the problems with game conditions. Player A plays 250 hours in the evenings and on weekends when tables are crowded (50 rounds per hour). Player B, playing the same stakes, plays 250 hours late at night/early morning and plays mostly heads up where he gets 300-400 rounds per hour with a decent dealer. I just don't see time as a very uniform measure of anything.

Player B must be smokin.

[redthetiger]

Last year I went to Reno/Vegas several times on long weekends and such but I've barely played at all the last four or five months other than one local trip. I took a long international trip (saw lots of CSM's in my travels & didn't play any BJ, haha) and then a new job has taken up my time. Thinking about starting up again at some point, late fall or early next year, but things have been so hectic that I'm taking a break for now.

[Intermediate]

Given many of us are part time players it's hard to attach a meaning to, and make comparisons between, the time spent in what could be anything from a part-time job to pure vacation recreation. Sounds like the OP considers his activity more like a part time job, so in that context, you would have to count all the time from when you leave your house to when you return, which would include commuting, scouting, backcounting, etc. not just your time physically at the tables. Additionally you would have to count all the time practicing at home, studying, reading, etc.

In the end, the factor that generates the income is the EV that you put down, which is based on the opportunities you find and how many rounds you play in those conditions. I suppose you could measure (and compare) your "productivity"if you divided your EV for a period by the total hours you spent searching for and playing those conditions.

[bmovers]

Hours are really very problematic. Are you counting strictly playing time, from the time you sit down at a table until you get up? Are you counting from the time you walk into a casino until you leave? Does scouting time count towards this number? Players that wong into games a lot, probably spend as much time standing back counting while not playing as they do playing.

And then there is the problems with game conditions. Player A plays 250 hours in the evenings and on weekends when tables are crowded (50 rounds per hour). Player B, playing the same stakes, plays 250 hours late at night/early morning and plays mostly heads up where he gets 300-400 rounds per hour with a decent dealer. I just don't see time as a very uniform measure of anything.

As I said in my post, I count all hours spent counting and playing. Scouting time, no.

My 80 hands / hour is my AVERAGE. It's not an exact science, but it is a fairly accurate average. If I know that to be accurate, I can also know that I have played roughly 155,000 hands total given my # of hours.

[bmovers]

Given many of us are part time players it's hard to attach a meaning to, and make comparisons between, the time spent in what could be anything from a part-time job to pure vacation recreation. Sounds like the OP considers his activity more like a part time job, so in that context, you would have to count all the time from when you leave your house to when you return, which would include commuting, scouting, backcounting, etc. not just your time physically at the tables. Additionally you would have to count all the time practicing at home, studying, reading, etc.

In the end, the factor that generates the income is the EV that you put down, which is based on the opportunities you find and how many rounds you play in those conditions. I suppose you could measure (and compare) your "productivity"if you divided your EV for a period by the total hours you spent searching for and playing those conditions.

I don't include all the time from when I leave my house until I return for the same reason that a person that commutes to work daily does not include that time as hours worked.
I also don't include the 3 hour round trip drive for my long weekends. I don't factor in the cost and time of plane tickets for my occasional Vegas trips. I figure all the free food plus tons of other gifts I have received via casino promotions more than make up for these costs.

I do include all time spent counting, and playing. That of course means that I DO include time spent back counting.

[moses]

As I said in my post, I count all hours spent counting and playing. Scouting time, no.

My 80 hands / hour is my AVERAGE. It's not an exact science, but it is a fairly accurate average. If I know that to be accurate, I can also know that I have played roughly 155,000 hands total given my # of hours.

I figure 100 hands per hour and track the number of hands played instead of time at the table. So 10,000 hands or 100 hours per month is doable, but an extremely lofty goal when seeking quality vs quantity. A profit of $2,000 in a month or over the course of 10,000 hands is a winrate of $20 per hour.

[Three]

About 80,000-100,000 rounds a year.

[ZenKinG]

Hours are really very problematic. Are you counting strictly playing time, from the time you sit down at a table until you get up? Are you counting from the time you walk into a casino until you leave? Does scouting time count towards this number? Players that wong into games a lot, probably spend as much time standing back counting while not playing as they do playing.

And then there is the problems with game conditions. Player A plays 250 hours in the evenings and on weekends when tables are crowded (50 rounds per hour). Player B, playing the same stakes, plays 250 hours late at night/early morning and plays mostly heads up where he gets 300-400 rounds per hour with a decent dealer. I just don't see time as a very uniform measure of anything.

Is that supposed to be bad? Hands observed while backcounting count towards N0, so you're not wasting any time and it's as if you're playing. Maybe I misinterpreted what you said, but you seem to imply that these are hours wasted, which is certainly not the case.

[Three]

Maybe I misinterpreted what you said,

I nominate this for understatement of the month.