I only leave in the following circumstances:

1) I bust completely, meaning I've exhausted my three buy in daily bankroll
2) I win an abnormally large hand (Triple up with like 4 people all in)
3) I lose an abnormally large hand (lose 2 buys in or so at once)
4) I 'get back to even' after having been either ahead or behind all day.
5) I win or lose a hand I had no business continuing in. Example: A10ss in late position to a preflop raise of 15 in a 2/2, 100 max game, one more caller in the blinds. Flop comes A Ks J. Check around to turn of 9s. Blind checks, dude to my right open shoves all in. I instantly called his 150 dollar bet, damn near screaming 'I call' , blind folds. A river. He tells me your ace is good, and so it was. I racked up and left a couple hands later. No business calling there.

My reasons for leaving are psychological. I know that my mind will be so far thrown off after these scenarios that I need to leave. I am one of those people who kind of 'has to leave a winner' to validate me as a poker player. That's kinda why I have to have rules in place to govern when I leave.

I think the biggest leak in my poker game over my entire playing life is that I've done what Mike Caro calls "manufactured winning streaks". I am not a type A, gambly person. I don't play slots or black jack/anything other than poker. I play because I enjoy games of strategy and I think i have an edge. I really don't like the feeling of risking money. I used to brag because I went to the casino that's an hour from my home 6 times in a row and won all six sessions. That is largely because once I turned my $200 buy in into a $400 stack I would leave thinking "not a bad days pay". So i recorded six +200ish wins in a row. That might seem OK but it really isn't. There is probably a reason I was winning right? So basically I left six games where i had a virtually proven +EV only to continue my "one big session" many times since where i don't have any solid evidence I have an edge. I've won some and lost some since then and I'm still a winning player, but when I think back about the times during that "streak" when I won a couple hundered dollars in a couple hours and got up and left, it makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I wonder what my bankroll would look like if I had sat in in those games for full 8 hour sessions. Yeah, in any particular session i may have lost money but it's nearly certain that I would have more money now if i had not been such a PX&&y and tried to keep my streak going.

Yeah, I won six in a row, maybe if I played those sessions out I would have lost on one or two occassions but I very likely could have walked out 1 or 2grand ahead if I'd stayed and played every time.

This is a huge emotional barrier that I know i have to overcome if i ever want to be a true professional. I think this one leak "leaving when your ahead but staying when you're behind" has probably stopped more good players from earning a living at poker or at least being life long winners than any other leak.

If you are serious about playing poker and have aspirations to make it a living you simply must get past this. If you consistently "quit while you're ahead" but keep playing when you are behind then you will be losing SOOO much equity over the long haul. If you're a really good player, verging on great even, I think this leak alone could cause you take you from a life long winning to a life long losing player.

The old gambling addage "quit while you're ahead" is probably the most damaging advice you could be given regarding poker.
In games of strict chance, like craps or whatever, you will kill yourself by setting a stop loss but no stop win amount. In poker it is exactly the opposite.

Play as long as you can win you are winning;
you probably have an edge
you have a good table image
you feel confident
you have chips to play with
and you will NEVER take the money off in a big way if you restrict your winnings to a certain amount.

I am still struggling to get this irrational emotion under control and I would urge anyone else still doing this to try and stop it.

First off I think you should try to grow and evolve as a person enough to get past your psychological reasons for quitting when you maybe shouldn't (I know, easier said than done). I also wanted to say that I actually don't see why that was such a bad call. You had to think "my hand may be good right now" and if not i am drawing to half the deck, that's not bad. You had top pair, a nut flush draw, and a belly buster straight draw. Mostly your opponents won't be conservative on the flop with a made straight but then stick it all in on the turn after no one showed any real strength. It seems much more likely he was trying to protect top pair or he was on a stone cold bluff or maybe he picked up a draw. For sure I would have suspected a bluff or semi bluff, at worst he's maybe trying to protect two pair. If you're beat by a better ace you have a ton of outs and even if you're beat by a straight you've got nine wins and a couple chops. VS two pair you're far from dead with any ace, any spade, any queen, and maybe any ten. Add in the fact that his line suggests a bluff and it's a sketchy call to make. If you had a good read on youre villain I think the call was more than defensible, I think it was a GREAT call..IF you made it for the right reasons.

If I win over 100 BB in a short period of time, I have no problem calling it quits. If I were to stay, sure, I could possibly win more. But I play best when I have between 100 and 200 BB, and I keep my variance down. A smart thing to do would be to pick up, take a short break, and buy back in for 100 BB, but a lot of times I just book the win and go do something else. This keeps me balanced, and it keeps me fresh. I always seem to play worse after a few hours, so now I just keep my sessions short. This style works for me, as I've been winning 13 BB/hr for the past 2,000 hrs.

When I used to play live often there was 2 times that came to mind were I convinced myself to leave after a half day.
One I bought a new hot-tub for the basement. Should have stayed had I known all the costs involved elec and what not.
The other I went straight to the store and bought a killer pool table delivery and setup.

Still do not regret either.

leave only when you feel tired or you arent playing well anymore. If you feel like playing a long session and you are doing good, go for it. Ive been trying to do 8 hours lately regardless of where im at.

If you're at a profitable table and you're play is superior to everyone elses, you don't leave. Stay there as long as you can, until you're too tired to play or w/e. Part of poker is variance. You're going to lose bad hands. Just because you lose a lot of money on one hand doesn't mean to walk away. As long as you know you can outplya the table, hustle it for as long as you can.

On the flip side, if you sit down at a bad table where everyone is better than you, or you just can't seem to outplay everyone else, find another table.

I just posted a response to a similar question on bankroll management.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...errerid=313194

Please let me know what you guys think.

Cheers,

S

If I get deep quickly I am never leaving in under 6 hours cus when I have a winning image and I get deep this is where I excel ! The times when I get to over 400bb deep is when im at my absolute best. The only real exception to this is if I have 2 or more people that I perceive as good as me or better who are also very deep, thats happened a few times especially if I won big pots where I got it in bad then I SHOULD leave.

I only take 2 buy ins to the casino cus I can go on crazy tilt and although this is much more under control than a couple of years ago Its much more likely to happen after the second buy in, when this happens I will have a total disregard for money (once I blew through my entire 40 buy in bankroll in a day lol). So its an essential rule for me right now, I hope in the future I can improve on this.

There was a cash game grinder back in Fallsview (Canada) who told me he just clocks in and out at the same time each day. Just like a factory job, in at 4pm, out at 2am, 5 nights a week. Maybe that works too?

Cheers,

S

That's the best approach. But with experience you should be able to recognize when you're playing well or the game is better than avg and stay a little longer. And if he recognizes he's off, tilting or the game is bad he can cut a session a little shorter.

I got sucked into slots after hitting 3 jackpots in 20min I never liked or played slots I always new it was for suckers but that rush of winning a jackpot and making quick money I was not only hooked but became a sucker all the money I won playing poker and slots i lost it all in under a month and for almost an entire year I was chasing the money and that well the '' high '' you get from hitting a jackpot or winning $900 in under 20min was so addicting there would be months i didn't even see the poker room or if i was playing poker my mind would be on making a huge score playing slots so i would either stop playing and loose all my money at the slots or cause my mind was on slots i would make the worst plays ever n lose all my money playing poker.

I lost a total of $32k playing slots $14k was what I won in slots in under a 54hr period. Needless to say the casino tries every possiable thing to get me to play slots even giving me $100 free play a week. But I decided not to be a sucker and never play slots again but it is like an addict saying I'm never going to drink or whatever again I had relapse's an got to the point that i had to pay someone to come to the casino with me to make sure that i only play poker and nothing else and that has been working and its been over 9month's since I played slots and I'm slowly but surely making my money back.

So if that's something you have to do then do it, it is so worth it!!

We're assuming the poker player has positive expectation in the game. Slots have negative expectation for everyone, so you should not play them at all. (Unless you realize you'll lose but enjoy paying for the entertainment)

Way to results oriented. Set a time before you sit down of when you are going to leave and leave at that time no matter what. If your -30 on the session thats it you leave.

To resutls oriented?? If you aren't worried about results of your gambling, then burn the money.

To the OP - leave when you are at your optimal concentration, once it drops, so will your stack.