Break or keep going

[PoBoy321]

Recently, I've been completely card dead. Rarely see any decent hands pre-flop, never connect with the flop when I do have good hands, or when I do have a good hand, people catch their gutshots on the river and I pay them off. Now, I'm sure that this has been covered in here a thousand times, but I tried searching and couldn't find any specific threads, so I'll just ask it. Should I take a break or just keeping going, grinding out 3 tables for a few hours a day? I feel like I should take a break just so that I don't constantly feel like I'm going to lose, but at the same time, I feel like if I don't keep playing and just grinding it out, I'll eventually find myself in a spot where I just can't build up the courage to sit back down at a table.

So should I take a break or just keep going?

[Germane]

Take a break, man. There's no point getting all worked up about this game. It'll always be here. Go play some piano. Or smoke some hash. You can't go wrong with hash, man.

Just kidding about the hash. Take a break though. I am! It feels good. Of course winter sucks so you better find a good hobby or sport you enjoy. Always take a break when the game just isn't worth it. This is not basketball where missing a day or week or month of training will have any negative effect. Getting your mind straightened out is actually good for you.

You gotta love that. Poker is one of the few activities where a lack of practice can actually help you.

You could argue that resting for 48 hours as a weightlifter or taking a 15 minute study break for every hour of studying is the same principle, but with poker you can take a break for up to months and still be doing yourself a favor! Keep that in mind and good luck.

[Dan Mezick]

What you do to adjust is a function of your bankroll.

If the amount of money you can lose in a poker-day is more than a reasonable percentage of your total bankroll (say, 20%) then drop down in stakes. Otherwise, you invite risk-of-ruin (busting out)

If you can lose a max of 20% a day, 5 bad days in a row means you're done.

For rational players running bad from time to time is expected. Tempting 'risk of ruin' is not.

The only way to grind it out is to have policies in place that virtually guarantee you cannot go broke, based on your bankroll, stakes and edge.

Do you know your long-term-data-validated, current edge in the games you play?

Do you know how many bad days in a row are likely? Do you know the max number of losing days in a row you have experienced in the past at these stakes?

PokerTracker can be useful in helping you determine your actual edge.

"If you don't know what your edge is, you don't have one."
-Jack Schwager