Hi all, I'm trying to understand what is the general philosophy behind the planning of the day.
I think the most general approach is to do xx hours / xx hands a day, including a stop-loss of xx bb; but my point is, should you cut your day shorter if reach what you would define a good enough profit (example set a 3-5 stake as stop-profit).
I have 2 example:

*myself yesterday - I started playing poker about 4-5 weeks ago, now playing micro on Ignition Zone to build up my BR, and I know that at my level I can play focused for 2 session of 1 to 1-1/2 hour a day (around 500 hands split in 2 session); yesterday i was +300 bb on my first session at around 30-45 minutes in, but decided to keep the session going to the length I originally planned. At the end of 1,5 hours I had some bad runs and ended up the session just even from an initial +300bb profit; on my second session for the day I was +400 bb at around 20 minutes in and decided to end it then not to risk to lose my profit.

*A guy on Twitch playing NL200 - when I started watching he was around +6 stacks in profit, but at the end of the session he lost 3 stacks and ended up the day with +4,5 stacks profit (from an initial +6, it's still a $300+ dollar).

My point is, what should be your priority for the day or session, smashing more hands as possible, or ending with the highest profit possible?

Should you keep the session to the time / hands you planned, or you should plan of cutting short if have enough profit the same way you would cut short for a stop loss?

Profit is no more important that hands in a tracker database?

Targets are a dumb idea used exclusively by call centre managers and people thinking they're chasing promotions that have been obsolete for years. Play when you want to play for as long as you feel you're playing well, the only real goals should be to have fun and get better

Have a goal of playing x amount of hands at x limit or x amount of tournaments at x buyin if you play tournies.

Having a written down goal of this will give you the plan and maybe give you the discipline to actually play alot of poker. If I would only play and study when i felt like it I would never actually do either.

I'd rather sit on the couch and eat pototo chips and donuts while watching the news or play blackjack than grind poker or exercise.

Lots of pros actually hate turning up to the cardroom to play poker. Lots of players hate playing online as well because its like working in a factory. I hate online cash but I got to play it because I wanna get good at poker and that takes effort.

Take the effort set a goal and actually try and complete your goal. That will give you dopamine rather than the short burst of dopamine you get when you jerk off or eat chocolate or sum ****.

figured out how much i could play in both hands and time, before it became nightmarish or resulted in brain mush/ tilt / - ev

then tried to hit slightly below that goal every day,

with 6m i think thats what you gotta do , just put in the volume.

Hu sessions can go from 5 mins to all night,/if bad players r sitting. gotta chase the action when its there..

after several years i think its more of a feeling, and when you get burn out taking some weekends helps/ becomes necessary IMO


lool nice

Play as much time as you are concentrated and focused: it is very good if you keep session exactly as long as planned previously (hours). More hands is more money (if you are good) on long run. For example: +0BB/100. Variance Downswings and variance upswings are part of a game (there is nothing u can do about it).

I never do any plans that are related to profit.

Yeah sure, profit is the most important. But profit comes out of playing hands. And not other way around.

Search this site .. there are quite a few threads of the same query. General rule ...

... If you are playing well and the game has value, then keep playing ... otherwise move on to a different table or quit for the day.

Playing well BUT running bad can happen at the same time. Being objective about your own play is a very large task in poker.

There are days where you can choose to push yourself to see how your mind and body react, but make sure you are mentally aware when you are doing this so you can sense any changes in your play. GL