Lose track of time playing poker but not other games?

sat down at a table at 3:30pm. i blinked and now it's 7pm. What?!

the same thing happens with video poker. i sit there banging away at the buttons not noticing how fast time is flying by.
but not at craps or e-Craps, or blackjack.

my stop limit for poker, craps/e-Craps, and bj is double my buy-in.
for vp, it's getting a royal or up 1/2 a royal ($500 at $0.25), whichever comes first.

Why dont i notice time while playing poker/vp but i do at other games?

Quote: 100xOdds

sat down at a table at 3:30pm. i blinked and now it's 7pm. What?!

the same thing happens with video poker. i sit there banging away at the buttons not noticing how fast time is flying by.
but not at craps or e-Craps, or blackjack.

my stop limit for poker, craps/e-Craps, and bj is double my buy-in.
for vp, it's getting a royal or up 1/2 a royal ($500 at $0.25), whichever comes first.

Why dont i notice time while playing poker/vp but i do at other games?

I have two suggestions, let me know if either are right:

1.) Due to your stop win for VP, there's really not as much for you to pay attention to with regards to BR, you either hit the Royal, or you hit a few very good pays...or you don't. With the other games, perhaps you notice the time because you pay attention to where you are at in chips, and decide whether or not you want to take a shot at the double-up when you get close by betting more than you normally would.

2.) Video Poker is quite mechanical, and un-like every other game you mentioned, there's no break in the action...other than by design. Dice get passed, bets are made, dealers/players have to act in BJ, players must act in Poker, cards need shuffled...so there's simply more periods of slight lulls in there in which you are inclined to check the time.

With VP you dictate the pace, so you simply become more absorbed in the game, doesn't necessarily mean you like it more. I have this happen all the time anytime I am doing something that is largely mechanical and repetitive, lose track of time.

EDIT: I see, same thing with Poker. Paying attention to other players at all times, you must be good, so no real lulls there, either.

Mission146,

for craps/bj/vp, sounds like a good explanation.
there's luls in craps and bj (cards shuffled by hand), but no luls in vp.

for poker, no i'm not good. just play $1/$2. but i like seeing how the action goes down on all streets even if i folded preflop.
and unlike craps/bj, theres only like a few seconds before the next hand is dealt thx to an auto shuffler for the 2nd deck.

hm.. now that i'm thinking about it, i dont remember ever playing bj where they used continuous shuffle.
i wonder if i lose track of time there also??

edit:
probably wont lose track of time w/continuous shuffle bj.
unlike poker, i probably wont care what others are doing in bj. theres nothing to be learned by them hitting or staying. all the strategy for bj fits into a little piece of paper.
poker, on the other hand, has many styles of play. and i'm always watching to improve my game.

I agree with your perspective on Poker, and just because you play small doesn't mean you fail to play well. If you're not good now, you'll certainly become good just by doing what you are doing, learning to play against other players well is every bit as much about what you do after folding as it is what you do when you are in the pot, particularly if playing NL or in a tournament.

I lose track of time whenever I find something to take my full attention. While games are the most common cause, it happens with other things. Books, for example, and more recently even podcasts. Sometimes even work grabs me like that (though that's rare what with all the interruptions common in an office).

One thing that might help, if this is a concern for you, is to arrange for an interruption. Set an alarm or a timer on your cell phone, for example. That way you will at elast look away from the game.

Relax your vigilance for watching for Tells and you can start losing money. At other games you can relax for awhile and mentally rejoin the game and ask "What's Trump" or look at the Puck or something.

At work, I lose track of time almost every afternoon. At 4pm, I say to myself. "OK, time to do one more thing and then get out of here!" And then I look at my watch and it's 7pm. Son of a B!!

I would venture to guess you don't lose track of time at table games because you constantly see the rotation of employees.
In video poker or slots, its just you and the machine, no distractions.

For whatever reason, I feel like time goes quite slow when I gamble most of the time. Live poker especially since I started playing poker online. Considering I feel this way with gambling, I'm a bit surprised I like gambling as much as I do.

having to pay time every half hour makes it very easy to keep track of the time in poker

Quote: sodawater

having to pay time every half hour makes it very easy to keep track of the time in poker

I assume that the OP is at a table that is raked. He did say $1/$2. Generally, only higher limit games use seat rental rather than rake.

When I play poker, I try to remember to get up just to stretch my legs every time there's a dealer change. I still tend to forget and suddenly it's been hours and I feel like the Tin Man before Dorothy oiled him.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I still tend to forget and suddenly it's been hours and I feel like the Tin Man before Dorothy oiled him.

Yeah, I definitely don't do this enough.