Playing poker during the week??
I am a recreational player that really enjoys Holdem. The problem I have is that my days off are Wednesday and Thursday and the nearest games are 3 hours away. I do take an occasional weekend off and try my best to make it to a card room, but that rarely happens. Being that most recreational players play poker at the casino on Friday and Saturday nights I feel that's my best bet to win some money. The casino I play at will have 2 games going during the week and around 10 during the weekends. I've never played during the week but I'm assuming it will be full of nits/regs trying to hit the bad beat. Would I be better off waiting for a weekend off to play or just play weekly during my days off? Any advice would help.
Depends on the room and the region. When I was playing mostly in the Midwest back in the Pliocene era, Thursday was good action because that's when a lot of people got paid. Just gotta step in it and see, man.
Try it. You might find the game has just enough players who are looking to let off some steam after a day's work.
This really just depends how good you are relative to your competitors. You may as well try it and see how it goes. If the games are nitty (you might be surprised, as long as you go after 6pm), then keep going. If not then stick to weekends....or hire Benton to improve your game ;) (kidding i don't think he shares his secret sauce)
I'd probably stay overnight on my days off a couple of times to get a better feel for the place on the weekdays. I would hope there is more than one card venue.
This is very dependent on region. I played a poker room in Florida recently and it was DEAD on a Friday night. Since retirees make up a big portion of the room, they aren't used to the way the rest of the world is (blowing off steam when the work week finally ends). Also, apparently there was some big promotion in that room on Wednesdays, such that Wednesday nights were the busiest, on average, in that room.
Also, I have found good games going most nights in almost every room I have ever played. It is true that many rooms can be rather dead and nitty during the morning and early afternoon hours. But after 5:00 PM, when the working stiffs get off their shifts, things often start to heat up. Like several others before me, I'd encourage you to take a long look at what the action is like in your local rooms on your days off. See if the night shifts on your days off are juicy enough for your liking.