Lately I've been playing 8-12 hrs but i noticed that variance and a very aggro style of play had me punting buy-in after buy-in. Now what helps me be profitable in the game is when i set a specific amount of money i want to obtain and when i have 3-4 times my buy in and have played at least 3-6 hrs a day i can cash out and work on building my BR day by day slowly but surely. I want to quote Doug Polk "there is always going to be game & you can always grind tomorrow". It's better for my play and career that i set small stepping stones instead of trying to jump from one end of the spectrum to the other. My BR is pretty short but i can invest 50% and which would be like two buy- ins in a 1/2 NL game. GL to all at the tables - Ultimate Grinder Signing out

While your specific "goal" seems ok because it's rather unlikely to occur most days and contains some time component, win goals are generally not optimal. They cause you to leave great games earlier and stay in bad games longer.

It feels great to put a winning night in the book. And it sucks putting in a loss. Sometimes ill wait a few days after a bad night before I put it in the log, because I hate seeing the red. But your poker career is really just one big session.

Your poker career is one huge graph, that hopefully is going up. But the graph does not care where we draw the lines. The graph does not care when you call it a night. Tmrw, the graph picks up right where it left off.

But tmrw, we might not have an edge. Tmrw, the table might be twice as tough. Tmrw could be all sharks and no donkeys.

One of the key ways to keep our graphs on the incline is to be at the right table. So if you find yourself at a table full of idiots, don't leave just to book the "W." It could be a while before the next time you find such a table.

We all want to make money, right? Is it easier to make money when we are the best player at the table, or the 4th best player at the table? Try to spend the majority of your hours at tables where you have an edge, and good results will follow.

I used to think the same way you are but it's an illusion, my friend. My sessions now end when the table dries up, or my fatigue kicks in, and I'm no longer playing my A game. Or when i go broke haha. Good luck to you; hope this helps.


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You know this isn't the the first time I've seen this. I am still a newer player but I have to disagree.

Booking the win is needed sometimes. Lately I've been on a downswing and I'll usually get on a heater right when I sit down at a new table and I'm still unknown. I won't make very much because my opponents will respect me being a new face at the table. However, once they see I'm more of tight straightforward player they'll loosen up and I'll start getting card dead and lose a big pot to a cooler spot.

If you're up after 30 minutes and want to book the win, I say book it. Even a $60 win at 1/2 is pretty significant considering rake.

Looks like a recipe for chasing losses op.

Set a planned curfew. At that time take a short break. Evaluate your play and the game. If your play is good and the game is above avg play longer. If the game is avg or below or your play is slipping or you are tilted, rack up.

I will add that if you are up multiple buy ins at curfew time it's an above avg win. If it's quitting time and we have a nice win there is nothing wrong with booking it even if the game is a little above avg. But if the game is very good and our motivation for playing is mostly for profit, we have to "consider the overtime when it's offered." Assumption no we have the fortitude to continue to play well when playing extended hours.

Btw if the game is really bad there is nothing wrong with racking up early or not sitting in the first place.

Imo


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If that works for you then go for it.

I would guess that if a goal works for you but time to play doesn't there is something else going on. It may be winners tilt when you are ahead or chasing loses when your behind or something as trivial as you don't play well when you are tired. But go with a strategy that works while you are trying to figure out why longer sessions are a problem.

The flip side of this story is the real problem. Grinding all night in a bad game just to make back some early losses because you really want to end the session up money is a recipe for nightmare sessions.

If you play at your best and the game is a good game, I guess you'll be fine and OK. I cannot see anything wrong in having goals to specific amount of money as long as the game stays good. But you got to pay attention to the days when you lose and keep playing just to get even. Now, if the game is still good obviously you stay but what about if the game has changed and you're blinded by the fact you got in the hole? How you handle that?


What I suspect it's going on in your mind id this:
You’re asking a very important question. People get confused between two concepts (Money Management and Bankroll Management). What you’re doing is money management.

Money management in most people’s minds means quitting simply because of how you are doing that day, or continuing to play simply because of how you are doing that day. In other words, you are in a game and you have won or lost x number of bets so you quit, only to come back tomorrow. Well, that is a silly concept because it is all one game. If you are a serious poker player, you are playing by the week, by the month, not by the day. And if you for instance are in a very good game, you don’t quit simply because of how you are doing. You quit because the game has gotten worse, you quit because you are tired. These are all proper reasons but not because I am going badly, I’m getting bad cards that day, because I’ve lost a certain amount, or because I’ve won a certain amount. This is simply incorrect. This is not my opinion, this is simply incorrect.

If you will play in a game where you have the advantage, the more you play, the more you will eventually win. If you play in a game where you have the disadvantage, the more you play the more you will eventually lose. There’s no way of getting around that. If there was such a thing as getting around having an advantage simply by money management, you could go to the crap table and win by money management. In other words by quitting at the right time but you cannot do that. Money management is a completely spurious idea as far as when you quit or when you don’t quit. The only thing that matters when you are gambling is to gamble when the odds are in your favor, when you are the best player, when you figure to win. And when you are in that situation play as long as you can. When you are not in that situation quit at the first opportunity.

That’s really all there is to say. Bankroll management as far as having enough money and number of units/chips – that’s different. But money management – no.

I agree with ImAllInNow that being over eager to recoup losses is a recipe for dissaster. More likely than not you will not playing your A game and calling it a day seems a much more sensible option.

However, I also believe that there are times to leave a great game. Apart from common reasons like fatigue and tilt, another thing that one may wish to consider is his confidence in playing with very large stacks. As an example, I, as a relatively new player tend to perform sub-optimally once I have more than 300bb and I find goal-setting to be occasionally useful, despite being an ultimately sub-optimal strategy.

Well, yes ..., If you feel that way, what you can do is put your name on the list by calling the poker front desk by your cellular while still playing. Put your name down. Continue playing for another half an hour. Take your chips. Cash them out and hang around for another half hour outside poker room. When time comes up ask for a specific table. Avoid the table from where you just left 1/2 before. Stay there and only look to play AA/KK and AKs. Fold all the rest. After another 1/2 of nut paddling ask for a table change and go back into your old good game with a short stack. Or some other combination of this idea. There are so many way to con the system that you can build a winning strategy just using some constructive imagination.

I get that. I feel anxious myself playing a big stack sometimes. If you're not looking move up in skill level and are happy with where you're at in poker then the strategy you propose is good. But the only way you're gonna get more comfortable playing a large stack is to play a large stack, preferably when you have a good image (you just won a bunch of pots).

This is an extremely scummy thing to do akin to sneaking chips off the table. I hope most poker rooms would not allow this. If anything at least don't go to the same table you were just at. You will get some extremely angry looks from people if you manage to pull this off.

Mike Caro pointed out the fallacy of putting a limit on how much to win in a session years ago. He pointed out that our results are more of a matter of which table we sit than our skill than we like to admit. If we are winning, the odds are strong it is because it is a good table for us. So if we pick up 2 or 3 buy after an hour or two, we leave for the day. At a tough table, we are more likely to stay for your 10-12 hour session. It should be clear this will have a negative effect on your hourly because you're spending more time at tough tables than at easy tables.

While I understand the argument about booking a win, it is a bit like the beginning player that is only going to play 88+, AK. Sure, you're not likely to hurt yourself badly. But you're leaving a lot of money on the table. It is leak you want to eventually resolve, not leave in place.

Ha, ha.., LOL. I'm trying to help our pardner how to get into the game without quitting for good the lucrative game. Not scummy at all. I'm coming at the same table from a table change after one hour. I'm back into the old good game. The only thing I'm doing is play some hands between while waiting.

You know, my grandfather was an egg farmer. I used to candle eggs at his farm.
Do you know what that is? - You hold an egg up to the light of a candle and you look for imperfections.

The first time I did it he told me to put all the eggs that were cracked or flawed into a bucket for the bakery. And, he came back an hour later... and there were 300 eggs in the bakery bucket. He asked me what the hell I was doing (LOL) - but I found a flaw in every single one of them.

You know, thin places in the shell and, fine hairline cracks. You look closely enough...you'll find everything has a weak spot...where it can break, sooner or later.

If you look even closer, you can find the chincherinchees in this passage.