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Best Time Of Day To Play Online Poker?

A more practical post today - actually an excerpt from the $16 Per Hour Blueprint. Debates about which is the best time of day to play online poker are pretty common, so I went through a day and using a mix of logic and experience from the tables, asssessed what you might expect to see...

Getting the most profits from the tables involves balancing the maximum number of tables with the minimum amount of winning opponents. This chapter addresses the best times to play for those of you fortunate enough to have a choice. Many of us have work or college commitments during the day which restricts play to evenings and weekends. Let us go through the best times to play, for both Europe and Canada / South America-based players. 

I’ll base times on GMT and Eastern Time as these are two ‘standards’ which should be known to most readers – counting with a 5 hour difference between them.  

0700 – 12:00 GMT (0200-0700 ET). You will have the late night grinders from the US continent, but relatively few games running. I always see these ‘dead shift’ games as soft on poker sites with a global reach – however you might need to play at more than one site to have the volume of soft games you’d like (unless you play at the biggest sites already). 

12:00 to 17:00 GMT (0700 to 1200 ET): Not the best time of day for grinding, you’ll have some pros waking up in the Americas, and the EU students / pro grinders will be up and beginning their sessions. At this time you see an increased volume of games, but will need to be more selective in the tables you choose – avoid those with more than 3 known pros. 

17:00 – 19:00 GMT (12:00 to 14:00 ET): The ‘home from work’ crowd in Europe, more volume and proportionally fewer grinders. More US grinders are now coming online to balance a little, though you should find the games profitable during these hours. 

19:00 to 23:00 GMT (14:00 to 18:00 ET): Peak grinding time! Sure, there will be a lot of part-time grinders online, but these are very profitable hours simply because the EU recreational players are starting to be combined with the US continent ‘home from work’ types towards the end of the shift. Get as many games in as possible! 

23:00 to 02:00 GMT (18:00 to 21:00 ET). Again this is a profitable period, separated it from the entry above as this is peak recreational time on the American continents, combined with the ‘back from the bars’ in Europe. You will see some crazy things at the tables during this shift. 

02:00 to 07:00 GMT: (21:00 to 02:00 ET). Getting quieter, the late night Americas players still online, though this will include a lot of student grinder types who do not have to get up in the mornings! Games less juicy and volumes declining, still better than the ‘dead shift’ though. 

This is a rough overview for weekdays, we should make a special mention for Friday nights! After a tough week in the office, Fridays are when people like to let off a little steam – and lose some money at the tables. You will find the recreational peaks very juicy indeed, and the ‘home from the bars’ crazier than usual. Saturdays can be quiet during the day especially, while Sundays are the busiest of all, with many players from all around the world straying to the poker tables on those lazy Sunday afternoons! Of course, even the best times at a site full of pro grinders will not be equal to the tough hours at a fishy site... finding the fishy tables is so important that I created a widget especially to find them... it is called the Fish-O-Meter and can be found here. This is just a single article from my acclaimed 4-part 'Blueprint' course... read the preview here for more information on how you can grab yourself a decent hourly rate!

GL at those tables, Mark

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