To keep playing or call it a day.......

[utmt40]

Being a winning player isn't only about playing good cards it's also about making good decisions. And there is one important decision you face every time you sit down in a cash game: Should I quit, or should I keep playing?

When should you keep playing?

I see so many players playing short hours when they're winning, and long hours when they're losing. It should be the other way around.

When you are winning in the game, at least a few of the other players must be losing. And when your opponents are losing, they often aren't playing their best. But you are.

When you're winning, other players fear you; you have a good table image. And when you have a good table image, you can get away with things that you can't seem to when you're losing. For one thing, you can bluff more. Usually a losing player is scared to get involved with a winning player, so it's easier for you to pick up pots. You can represent more hands than you actually have because your opponents believe you're hitting every flop.

The only time to quit when you're winning is when you are tired, or when you start playing badly.

When should you call it a day?

Many players can't seem to quit when they are losing. You have to remember that there will always be another poker game -- if not tomorrow, then the day after, or the week after. I like to think of poker as one continuous game going on for my whole career. So, if I'm losing more than 30 big bets in the game, I usually quit.

There are a couple of reasons I do this: For one, if I lose a ton of money in one day, I don't feel so hot the next day. That means if I go in to play the next day, I might not be able to play my best game. I might actually have to take a few days off to get my head straight. Another reason is that when I'm losing more than 30 bets, I might not be playing that well. I might think I'm playing my "A" game, but in reality, I'm probably not. You can't be as objective about your play when you're losing. After all, we are not robots; we're just human beings.

-Jennifer Harman

[Mathemagician]

Interesting thoughts. I do disagree about not leaving when winning. I recently promoted myself up to a new level (earned the BR at the lower level) and have played two short sessions at the higher level so far. One was about 40 hands. Flopped a set, turned quads and stacked 2 players. The other was about 60 hands, and I more than doubled my full buy-in. In both cases, I was very excited and could feel myself getting a bit too excited. Knowing that this is a very, very dangerous form of tilt that no amount of table image is going to overcome, I pulled the plug on both sessions. This gives me 2 good sessions at the new level to build on and preserves the "windfall" increase in my BR for times when I'm at the top of my game. To me, this just seems like common sense.

M

[-Skeme-]

That falls into not playing your best. This article is great.

[texasholdemnut]

Couldn't agree more, staying and trying to get your money back is a huge mistake. You need to cut your losses and get it back another day when your game is better, the table is better, or your just hitting flops a little better.

[Ghazban]

This is a good article but there are issues involved with capped buyin no-limit games that aren't in its scope. For instance, recall the 50xBB games on Party from a few months ago. There were a lot of people in that game who played decently on 50xBB but couldn't play well with deeper money (they'd overplay TPTK and hands of that nature and lose their entire stack to a flopped set or small two pair). For these people, ending a session directly after doubling up would be far better than continuing. I see similar issues in live capped no-limit games (particularly the 1/2 at Foxwoods with a $100 max buyin). People will have a good run of cards and build up a stack only to lose it all in one hand by not knowing when to get away from their hand. If these people left when they were winning, they wouldn't be faced with those situations they didn't know how to handle. Another variety of player is the guy who is afraid to play a big pot against another big stack. This guy should also leave as he's giving anybody with a lot of chips free license to push him around.

[PinkSteel]

Good thoughts.

Good traders use a "rolling stop-loss" to protect their gains; maybe it's applicable here. The basic idea is that, no matter how much you gain on a particular trade (read: at a particular table), you don't let yourself fall back further than a set amount. So maybe I say to myself, one full buy-in at a table is it, and then I have to move on. So even if I triple up, if I subsequently slide back to just doubled up, it's time to quit the table.

A stop-loss is an artificial limit, and arguments will be made that experts and pros rely on judgement rather than artificial limits. But even the pros -- in both trading and poker -- know that judgement is sometimes impaired, and we make and follow hard rules to protect ourselves in those times.

[Mathemagician]

[ QUOTE ]
That falls into not playing your best. This article is great.

[/ QUOTE ]You are, of course, correct.

M

[BZ_Zorro]

Well said.

After winning a lot or losing for a while I always go into super tight mode, PF only AQs+, QQ+, and limp only 88+. Then I only play very strong hands on flop. When I start getting back into a normal rhythm I loosen up. Otherwise I lose touch with the game and start playing stupid poker.

Don't know if others have the same issues but it works for me.

[subzero]

Another one:
The 30-Bet Rule [click]

[subzero]

Then there's the article from this site that has a different view click.