Feels So Good

So, what have you all been doing with your newfound free time that you might otherwise have spent playing online poker?

As I mentioned last week, online poker was far from all positive for me, and in fact I think there is a very strong argument that the net effect on my life was somewhat negative overall. And this despite me winning a modest amount of dough from poker tournaments over the past five years -- nothing earth-shattering by any stretch, but a solid profit nonetheless to show for my efforts. And given the dubious benefit to me from having played as much online poker as I did over the past several years, I have been determined to spend the time that I would have spent playing online poker, doing something more productive for my life than that particular endeavor has been. To that end, I've been to the gym every weekend night and one weekday night as well already since the DOJ's actions a week and a half ago, which is definitely more than I had been going prior to last Friday. I've even been helping clean up around the house in the evenings far more than I ever have before. But you know what I've been doing far and away the most during those late-night hours that used to be spent wiling away the hours in front of my laptop screen?

Sleeping.

That's right -- I've been fucking sleeping. And it's been awesome. I mean, I was a 4-hours-a-night guy basically for what, the past five years-plus straight of my life? And now, suddenly, you know what? If I'm tired and falling asleep in my comfy "daddy chair" in the family room at 9:15, do I fight through it, find myself asleep and timed out a few times over an hour, go run and chug some coke or scarf down some chips or something to wake myself up, and force myself to power through it until my body wakes up as usually does happen if I fight the sleepiness hard enough? No. Now when I'm feeling sleepy and literally snoozing in my chair, I go to fucking sleep. No matter when the 50-50 starts, or how many chips I have amassed with still 500 runners left in the 35k guaranteed. Suddenly, these days when I'm tired in the nighttime after a long day of work, I drag my ass up to bed and I go to fucking sleep.

And doubling one's nightly sleeptime on a whim like this is vastly underrated, let me tell you.