If you're a regular, a lot of poster here are supremely underestimating the massive advantages to being liked by the other players in your game. You'll get a ton more donations, fish/whales to sit with you among other advantages. Having a good reputation goes a long way.

By this logic you should never play again after you win a big pot. For most players who think this way, though, that would be the highest ev move.

You sound like one of the baccarat players who bets player because banker has hit 10 times in a row and "what are the odds banker hits for an 11th time in a row!" (The same odds it was the last 10 times it hit...)

That being said, if you honestly think this way then maybe it is a good idea to leave.

+1. Plus it's more fun to enjoy yourself while you play it's a win win situation.

Totally within the rules. At a casino no-one will really care (if they do then **** them), but in a home game with friends you should give some sort of orbit warning imo.

Baccarat is dealt from a shoe and is not a game of independent trials.

Hypothetical scenario:

You've spent 14 hours building your stack from 100BBs to 2100BBs (one buy in). You decide to play just one more hand and get dealt AA OTB. UTG covers you and open shoves. Everybody folds to you (assume the blinds will fold)...

Do you call or fold?

Remember: Poker is not played in a vacuum, and you're not a robot. The question I'm really asking (if it's not obvious) is, are you willing to throw away 14 hours of grinding - a series of careful and deliberate decisions that got you where you are - on a gamble (even one that's likely in your favor, and a coin-flip at worst), because "+EV yo"?

Sometimes, there are other external factors that play into a decision and make it the right one.

We're covered? I would have likely gotten up already with over a quarter of my bankroll as effective stacks.

He would have to flip up AA for me to fold.

I don't play to win sessions. I play to win money. All of our hard work doesn't go down the drain if we call and lose here. Our hard work got us to a point where we can get 2100BBs in as a massive favorite.

Every single time we put money in the pot it's a gamble unless we have the immortal nuts. Being afraid to gamble because you're up and have some obsession with holding on to your winnings is just bad poker.

Just last session I had been down 200BB, worked it up over 9 hours to where I was up 150BB, then with half an hour to go I flopped a FH vs. quads and lost 350BB.

It was no big deal. I still enjoyed the session and put in the hours.

Assuming you make 10 bbs an hour, you're throwing away 126 hours of grinding by folding.

Why would you decide to play one more hand if you're not going to accept being gifted 210 BB more than 75% of the time?

Because the open shove wasn't the situation that he was looking for, AA or not.

I think he's failing to remember that poker IS one long game contrived of making really good decisions based on capitalizing on edges(the better you are as a player, the smaller of the edge you'll be willing to sought after). Throwing away AA is actually throwing your fully thought out and calculated 14 hour session into the toilet.

There's playing to win, and then there's playing to win at all costs.

You can't tell me it's a sensible thing to do, "good poker" or otherwise, to meticulously grind out 14 hours and then throw it all up in the air on one hand. That, to me, is throwing away 14 hours into the toilet.

We both play for money, we both want to win, but you guys seem to be forgoing intelligent risk management blindly for pure +EV. I don't know much, but I know that that approach isn't the best idea.

It doesn't sound like No-Limit Holdem is the game for you buddy. If you aren't willing to call an all-in preflop with AA in a cash game for any amount then you should play limit where your loss in the hand is capped. I hope we sit at the same table at some point in the future though that would be ok with me

You're making 2 huge mistakes.

1) thinking your 14 hours of "meticulous grinding is why you're up 1800 when it's not. You didnt make 1800 dollars worth of +ev poker decisions.You just ran hot for 14 hours.

2)you're a huge favorite with aa not a slight one or a coin flip. If all you had was 2100 to your name and had bills to pay I could understand folding- but you shouldn't have been at the poker table to begin with under those circumstances. You're not throwing 14 hours away by calling as an 80 % fav.Youre throwing away 200+ hours away of good poker decisions by folding.


Great players can break even or even lose over hundreds of hours of hands. Worrying about being up or down over 14 hours is silly- and folding AA in this spot is burning over 1600 dollars for no reason.

You are forgoing intelligent risk management the moment you sit in a game where you can't afford to put 2100 bbs on an 80/20.

First of all, I'm not criticizing you for your approach. We all have levels of risk tolerance, and if you're comfortable with a decision like that, hey, it's your life and your money.

But the bolded is contradictory. Way better players than I have said to the effect that correct play in a cash game is to take every +EV situation that presents itself.

This isn't just +EV, it's almost as good as it ever gets +EV. If calling here isn't intelligent risk management, what is?

14 hours or not if it makes sense to you to fold to that bet with those stacks and those cards then you should fold there if it's your first session

If you have some serious issues with risk tolerance, and if you are mostly a recreational player, then you should rack up and leave when you get uncomfortable. It would not require 14 hour sessions for me LOL. Playing for fun , even often as a hobby is different from folks trying to grind out a living and needing to take advantage of each good situation as it comes up day after day.

If I am not willing to risk my stack with at most a 23% chance of losing, I tell the dealer to deal me out and I go looking for racks.

Only if I had some specific use (pay off a debt, buy something I really want, etc) for the 2000BB would I feel that way.

Quite.

This isn't flipping with only $10 of dead money in a $200 pot, this is going to be a 4200bb pot as at least a 77% favourite. Sounds a really stupid pot to turn down.

Intelligent risk management? You mean like seeing one more hand with a consequential portion of your liferoll on the table?

Sounds like you should have left three hands ago to me. After seeing your UTG hand before posting your BB.

Also this scenario seems completely unrealistic as anyone this concerned about locking up a win and not risking too much money would have cashed out long before getting to 2,100bb's. Make it like 300-500 bb's and it's a bit more plausible.

How many instances of all-in pre-flop are you going to get with 4200BBs when you have AA? If, realistically, it was the case that you would be regularly finding yourself in spots to be putting in 4200BB pre (or some ridiculously large stack) every time with AA, or if you sat down with 2000BB and got dealt AA, then yes, it'd be dumb NOT to call an all-in for that amount.

Yes, poker is all one big session, but you don't live forever and you "rebuy" every time you play again on a different day. I play recreationally and value my time invested. It factors into whether or not I'll risk a stack I built in one session (those are winnings). Everybody is saying this the wrong approach, but our goals in playing are different.

I don't think I'm going to understand your mindset because it is so alien to me.

It doesn't matter how often this kind of spot comes up, what has happened to get us to this spot or might happen in the future, as long as losing the money doesn't cause financial harm, in which case it was irresponsible to sit with so much money on the table. You have a choice between leaving with 2100BB 100%, or 4200BB 80% and 0BB 20%. The latter choice is worth $2520 at 1|2. You are honestly saying you would give up $2520 to lock up a win for one 14 hour session?

You are saying that every losing session you have is a waste of your time? How do you psychologically deal with all the losing sessions you inevitably have? If I thought like you I would have quit poker by now.

Even if you personally value the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you win, how can that possibly be worth $2520?

Why do you think the frequency that this spot occurs is relevant? There are loads of spots that don't come up often enough to ever be statistically significant by themselves, but when all of those rare spots are considered together they become relevant.

tbqh it sounds like you tried to parrot some sage advice about when it's appropriate to fold AA and are now too invested to concede that your example is not as good as the sage's.