System to overcome my MASSIVE late night tilt.

[kismet]

As I detailed in an earlier post my biggest leak comes in the form of burning off a ton of my winnings late in a session. I haven't isolated the cause of the blowup yet. I suspect a combination of better late night players, my concentration slipping, and a tendancy to start playing looser when I get a huge stack of chips. Early in sessions I feel good about my wins, as I scoop huge pots I should have never won just because I make great plays. I also "feel good" about my losses because I am focused well enough to realize that I did make a +EV play. Then there comes some point where I all of a sudden have half my hard earned stack left and have NO idea why. In an effort to recoup losses I think I blow the rest recklessly. So, as of late I have came up with a little fail-safe for myself, and I must say it is working great. I take my buyin and set a "win goal" around 3x what I started with. Once I hit my "win goal" I put into play my system for when to cash out. That system is to cash out if I lose more then %25 of my biggest stack. For example if I start with $30 I set my goal at $100. If I bust out I don't buy in and go home for the day. If I hit $100 then I put my cashout system into play. For $100 I'd cash out if I dipped to $75. As you can see this system allows me a chance to keep winning if conditions are good but puts a safeguard if they turn bad and I don't realize it. For example the other night I turned $0 into a $500 stack by winning the daily "freeroll" and going on a tear with the free chips. At $500 my cashout limit was $375, I think it kept me playing with more focus thinking I only had $125 to work with instead of the whole stack. There was also a mental plus in thinking I was leaving with $375 profit no matter what. I do understand I might be leaving when the table is profitable, but I am oviously lacking in judging this for myself. So I am kinda leaving the choice up to a system based on a math trick, until I feel comfortable making the choice for myself again. I am putting this in writing to make it more concrete, but I would also appriciate any opinions. Any similar systems that you guys use would also be great to hear about!

[djack]

money management is "an extremely silly subject."

[Dov]

I think your system is fine, but you need to realize and remember that it is just a band aid.

I recently started a practice recommended by John Vorhaus in one of his books that has helped me to move my game to the next level.

Basically, I keep a notebook with me at the table and write down every new emotion as it comes up - with a time stamp.

This allows me to have a record of what really happens to me during a session and to see certain emotional patterns. I now know that when I feel a certain way, I need to either curb it now, or go home b/c the last 3 times I felt like this, XYZ happened and decimated my bankroll. In addition, I am focused on my own game and decisions for the whole session. As soon as I'm off of my A game, I take a break, If I can't get it back, I'm done.

If I keep playing, I write it in the book. That way I can look back at it over and over and see what a dumbass I was, and how I got to that point. The cards don't matter, BTW. All that matters is your level of control.

This little thing has really helped me to figure out solutions for similar problems to the ones you are dealing with. You have to be honest, though and thorough.

Hope this helps.

G/L

[kismet]

Thank you Dov, I ralize this is only a band-aid, but it is much needed to control some serious bleeding! It is helping be become aware of what I am doing at the moment I start racking off %25 of my winnings. Tonight I started making some loose calls that I wouldn't have made short stacks, including a couple weak omaha starting hands, and a Holdem JT offsuit in EP for a raise (from a guy who raises everything, but still bad JUST calling when it is a clear fold or raise). I also noticed my emotions were a mix of bored with my weak starting hands and flustered with a couple guys capping every other hand preflop. These are the exact things I'm guessing I should write down in the log. It sounds like a great idea to try! Thanks!