GREAT FIRST HOUR: QUIT or PLAY

[applej25]

Yeah you got me, I'm six years old and thought it would be funny if I put a poll up here and created other aliases and voted for quit. Even though everyone agrees poker is just one big session anyway which means really niether continuing or quitting is wrong. The only reason continuing is probably better (which I completely understand) is because the game is a good one. But really? How hard is it to find a good game?

[fyodor]

I thought this was about playing the slots so I voted for quit.

[naphand]

[ QUOTE ]
poker is just one big session anyway which means really niether continuing or quitting is wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure, and "we are all going to die someday so it might as well be today".

Re-read your own lines. If you are a winning player, you win at a certain BB/100 hands. Stopping early may make your win rate look good for a while but it won't make any difference in the long run. What will happen is you will quit tables that would keep paying you off, and stay on tables that you are losing on. You end up with more small wins and more big losses. This thinking is a losers view.

Playing poker (as a winning player) is about putting in the hours (at a certain win rate). If you stop early after a win, sure you made money for the day. YOU MADE LESS MONEY. Even if you played on and lost half of that (so you are only up 10BB) or you won a few BB more over the next 4 hours YOU WIN BY PLAYING NOT QUITTING.

Think about it.

You might think you got paid for your 4 hours poker, so you can quit. You didn't. Stop being delusional. If you cannot work it out, you have to work harder on your thinking. It's not immediately obvious to a player with little experience, especially if you are playing scared (which this thinking is). The reasons we make a play are because it works in the long run, not necessarily because it works NOW.

[Topflight]

20 BB!!!

What a rush.

[climber]

I know the right answer--it doesn't matter.

Independent events...yadda yadda yadda

Just like I know bad beats can't last forever and I have sneaking suspicion I'm a winning player, its still hard to believe sometimes. For me that is one of the most enjoyable parts of poker--the way it challenges the weaknesses in your character. Will you believe what you believe to be true true or give into fear. i once heard fear called False Evidence Appearing Real.

I'm posting this because last night i went on a 60BB rush--kept playing--money in the bank go to bed early. THat kind of thinking. I slogged on for another couple hours and ended up 20BB. Still not bad. But frustrating.

My problem is I get a few swings going my way and start thinking i'm all that. I'm new enough to poker that my "A" game still takes me a lot of focus and concentration.

I vote for making your decision to quit or stay based on an honest evaluation of your current state of mind/focus. Are you actually playing you "A" game? If not pack it in and win another day. If so great! Continue to take the fish to school.

[Cleveland Guy]

20BBs is a great first hour?

I will admit it's a very good, and above average one, but I'm guessing for every +20BB hour I have, there is a -20BB hour lurking around the corner.

now a +50BB/hr, that I would call GREAT!

[Paul2432]

I answered "continue" but the real answer to this question, which everyone seems to have missed is to do whatever you had planned to do before you started playing. If you had only planned on only playing an hour then quit, if you planned on playing more than an hour, keep playing.

Paul

[MarkL444]

im sure this has been said many times already somewhere in this thread (which i didnt read), but this question is absurd