The wheels on this thread are starting to wobble ...

A) You grind out a 12 hour session avoiding numerous traps and avoiding the urge to Hero call out of frustration ... A late rush gives you a 1x starting stack profit.

B) You run hot, make a huge Hero call .. You're up 6x BI in 2 hours but planned on playing 12 hours. Things change and a couple of coolers later you stomp out at 1.5x BI profit

C) You are getting stomped, down 3 BI but stay resolved. You fight your way back to break even and decide to clock out.

Who has more $$?

Who should feel better about their session?

Although we use $$ to track the progress of 'how' we are doing, the focus in all three cases should be on 'how' did we accumulate the chips and did we maximize our opportunities.

We all go through these moments ... learn from them and welcome to poker. GL

So much this.

Casinos make you play with chips for a reason. And that reason is good for good players and bad for bad players.

At the table, you should never think about what's in front of you as money. Sure, it BECOMES money, but it's not money. And if you start thinking about your bet as "half a month's rent" or "double my buyin," it affects the way you play. Your goal is to get all the little plastic disks from the table; there will be plenty of time for counting when the dealing's through.

There is a massive gap between thinking of it as "your money" and thinking of it in terms of rent units, though I agree that you should view your chips as a tool with which to win more money.

One of the biggest psychological pitfalls that a new player makes is winning and subsequently losing a large score in a single session, then cashing out a small profit so he can mentally register a "win". For instance, he'll go from $300 → $1,600 → $330 (to keep in proportion to OP's numbers) and book a $30 win, which is the technically correct entry for his ledger but a dangerous habit if he does it to replace the memory of the money on the table with the money he put in his pocket.

Now, if when recalling your session to others or yourself you say "I barely broke even but was up $1,300 at one point", then you've transcended. You've successfully separated the concepts of money on the table and money in your pocket, and you likely suffered that swing due to lol poker and not because you allowed yourself to lose what you convinced yourself wasn't real.

I agree this can be a pitfall for new players, but I think it's an underrated tool for experienced players.

Way too many 2p2ers think of themselves as infallible poker machines. Their identity gets wrapped up in their winrate, i.e., "I am a 10 bb/hr winner," and they blind themselves to reality.

Reality is that sometimes you need to book a win. 20 losing sessions in a row and your 21st goes down 2 buyins and then up 2.00001 buyins? Locking up the win and mentally breaking the losing streak has value.

Reality is that your winrate varies, and when you're tilted, you've already lost the capability of objectively evaluating yourself and your winrate is lower than you think it is. How many pros do you know who end up in some kind of death spiral late one night when they're playing at what they insist is the best game in months?

Reality is that good players often sit down and expect to win, thinking they can watch a movie or drink alcohol or push through a bad night's sleep with some coffee, when it's probably better to walk away.

And most damningly, I think the reality is that a lot of technically competent poker players will are doomed at being poker pros because they refuse to set stop losses or stop wins or walk away from good games because they (correctly) think those are things that n00bs do. These are definitely things that new players should get away from, but that doesn't mean they don't have value in a broader arsenal.

Def agree w/ a lot of what you said callipygian

People who I naively had a ton of respect for playing bigger (when I was playing 1/2) turned out to be mental game fish.

Constantly tilting when they lose and refusing to ever leave a game despite how blatantly unhappy they are/tilting because "its their job, its just variance".

Yes, it's correct that a true solid professional will play through variance tilt-free to maximize on their winnings. However, that is the VERY OPTIMAL scenario, not always the REALISTIC one. Part of being a winning pro is recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses. If you're cognizant of tilting, then you're best play is to leave -- and try to work on your mental game/stress away from the table, but you're not doing yourself any favors just hoping that you run-good during a stretch of mental fatigue.

We all experience tilt in different forms. I won't ever go on raging tilt, but I'll start to focus less and space out sometimes if I'm losing a lot -- which is a form of tilt, so I have no problem leaving and picking up on a "fresh" day. I also avoid playing if I'm tired.

Learn from it, move on. I donked off my roll today. Won't do it again. Gotta start back at 1/2 now.

I walked into the casino countless times with intentions of only playing poker, and ended up blowing everything on table games before getting to poker room, I did get better about it but it still happens occasionally

same. "think about how much better you will play if youre already up $800 before you even start." this was actually my thought process

That is rough and I feel for you but hopefully you practiced good bankroll management and you did not go busto. What if you lost right off the bat and were at zero from your original buy in? It would have been the same result but now you have a VERY valuable lesson.

David Williams shared a VERY similar story on a podcast that I saw on YouTube recently and it is word for word what happened with you. Try to use it as a lesson learned and move on. It's easier said than done but you will not get that money back.

Treat the next session as a fresh session. Do not continue the mistakes of trying to win back $16K in the next few sessions or it will get worse.

Good luck out there.

Don't chase numbers.

"Quitting while you're ahead" is for losers and roulette players.

You should quit when any one of the following apply:
1) You're tired.
2) The game gets tough.
3) Losing would bother you.
4) You're not playing well.
5) You feel the need to win money back.

(5) being the biggest, most obvious sign of subtle tilt evar.

P.S., I think everyone has been through this at some point. All part of the learning process.

I think towards the beginning of your career "locking up a win" can have a lot of merit, though yes you'll need to learn to continue playing if you want to really get anywhere long-run wrt poker.

People are very unaware of how often they're playing their A+ game, A- game, B game, etc. , and when you're winning you're also likely to carry that "momentum" and stay focused to play your A+ game thus making your wins even bigger wins -- and also trying to figure out how to implement your A+ game even when you're not on a big heater

As someone who plays PLO as my game of choice, I think there are some missing factors here:

1. How you got your stack up (did you just run good or play good?)
2. The ungodly variance in this game (see point 1)

having read the hands you played you dont understand omaha, so probably shouldnt have gotten in the game in the first place.
and yes when you arent bankrolled for it and the best player you should cash out as when playing very big pots the cream comes to the top.

+25,000. Any player worth his salt has been in this position. Just try to forget about it and move on.

I find when I am up 3+ buy-ins I will start to tilt when I lose a big pot because in my head I am locking up the big win without realizing it and feel I need to win back the 100BBs I lost. Basically the EXACT situation you describe. I try to live by 2 rules to avoid this situation from happening to me again:

-When I get up a solid amount, feel myself getting exhausted, but want to keep playing I live by the rule "Next big pot I play I am done, win or lose." This rule I have an easy time following.

-If I have a fleeting thought of "I should get up..." then I FORCE myself to get up ASAP. This rule is much harder to follow for me.

poker is working on lots of small edges. so if how you are doing starts affecting how you play it is time to go home. simple as that if you like having money.

Guy joins 2p2, makes one very interesting post that most of us can relate to, in a relative fashion, and then goes MIA .

Hey everybody sorry to leave you hanging. I really appreciate the replies. This will be my last post. Hitting a brick wall at the end of massive downswing in the past two weeks, I've decided to call it quits. I literally just got done combing through my social media accounts and weeding out anything poker related. I've been on a rollercoaster since the summer/ fall of 2015 and I can't do this anymore. I've won and lost small fortunes and I've just lost enough to push me to my breaking point. I'm 28 years old, I've lost my entire 401K and a ton of money out of my personal bank accounts. I drove 3 hours Friday night to play some 5-5 Omaha. Had a nice 4,000 profit and then proceeded to sit too long and lose it all. I have two children (ages 4 & 1) that deserve more out of their father than the lump of pitiful crap that they have been getting lately and although I love playing poker and the community that surrounds it, I have to start prioritizing my life, if this is not permanent, it will absolutely be a long and righteous break that I need. Thanks everybody and GL with your future endeavors.

This is where you went wrong. The money that you lose no longer belongs to you. Try to get out of a results-oriented mindset and focus on making the right plays.

This is not a PLO issue, it's being a degenerate gambler. Get help.

Quit poker.

You mean as opposed to what he wrote 3 days ago that he was going to do?