Hello everyone,

I was looking to hear some insight from others on how to train yourself to leave the casino? I've been up money twice this past week and I have ended up losing it because I either stayed longer than I should have or played bad because I was tired.

I've tried setting timers to leave after a certain point but sometimes I don't have the willpower to leave if I'm in a winning game. Yesterday I was up $100 with a $300 stack and ended up losing $200 at the very end in a bad line that I took that maybe I could have gotten away from in retrospect.

Look for key indicators of fatigue or a mental shift. Are you having trouble following the action? Did you make a decision that, in retrospect, made no sense? Are you playing more timid than usual (or more reckless)? Are you showing signs of being quick to anger or frustrate? Are you having trouble calculating equity? Do you find your attention wandering? Are you drunk? Are you falling asleep?

Also look for external factors. Is this table full of loose, novice players or nitty regs? Do they have a read on you or are targeting you? Is the energy at the table very negative?

If you are playing poker for fun, it is perfectly legit to get to a certain win level and then quit to book a win, or a loss limit to avoid losing or much money. If you are playing poker over the long haul and to make money, you ignore hand outcomes and stay as long as you have a beneficial situation (a good table, and your mental state and game are sufficiently sharp).

One thing that does help, though, is to leave the table every hour or two. Get some fresh air, get the blood pumping, and get a chance to reflect on how you are playing. Sometimes, sitting at the table, you get so steamed and are playing awful, and you don't even see it until ou step back.

I truly believe it becomes easier if you know that you'll have another opportunity to play soon, i.e. you know of and live near the games. If you don't get many opportunities to play, you try to make the most of the few hours you have. This leads to staying longer than you would have otherwise and making poor decisions.

The times in my life when I have played my best poker were when I've lived near games and could go on a whim and at my leisure. For instance, until recently I had a ten-minute commute to the NH charity rooms and was cleaning up. Now I live closer to Boston where there are no public rooms.

At first it felt like I had to squeeze out every second of poker I could on the rare occasion that I found a game in the city, but now that I've grown my network in this area I feel more relaxed and play better because I know there won't be a six-week lull after each game. Another time in my life I lived 16 minutes from the Vegas strip. Same deal.

That's not really helpful if you don't live near games, but I am wondering if I hit the nail. When you leave a game, what is the earliest you typically know you can play again? Do you think that affects you?

This is a good thing so long as you're still making good decisions and profiting, though it sounds like you're making decisions you otherwise wouldn't have.

albedoa...... This is so familiar to me. I live in a NO casino state. I mostly play home games friendly and some underground rooms. We have very nice rooms in Indiana and Ohio but they are 1 to 1 &1/2 hours one way. So my casino trips are NOT often enough. When I do go I always stay way too long , but I just can't make myself get up most of the time. This usually results in very minor wins or small to large losses due to all the factors you mention. Still it remains a treat to go to the rooms and match my skills (such as they are) with strangers now and then. I just have to live with this or move closer which is not likely. I have no answer to this. Sounds like the OP is closer to games.

The answer is....Self Discipline. Self denial is one of the hardest things to do. And if you have no willpower, then you have no chance.

Set limits.

1. Time, I'm going to leave in x hours
2. Loss, I'm going to leave after 1 or 2 buy ins, no more.
3. Win, I'm going to leave at x dollars up, usually double a buy in.

When I'm running bad for a while I'll leave after even a $50 win just to try and turn things around.

Actually I like the "stop-win" idea. I've tried the other two as well.

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The good news that creating the discipline to get up from the table is a desirable trait for a poker player. The bad news is there is no "simple, stupid" trick to do so. I would treat it just like if you had the habit of calling down hands because they might be a winner. You're going to have to break yourself of the habit.

I'd start with setting a limit on how long you are going to play. Decide it will be 4 hours or whatever. When 4 hours go by, get up from the table immediately. Don't wait until you're the BB. After a while, you'll have the habit of getting up when you mean to do so.

Once I got good at the discipline about leaving while still ahead, my profits soared (compared to before that point, anyway). As someone else pointed out, this is much easier to deal with mentally if you know you can come back soon / often, as opposed to a scenario where you rarely play and have to 'make the most of the time you have' there.

Yeah I guess I felt that way yesterday as there was a fish who bought in 4 times directly to my right and his money was going into my pile. I also got pretty good at reading him as well. and that is partially the reason I stayed longer.

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I mildly disagree. The simple trick is to practice it before you need it. Like first responders will intentionally light a building on fire so the first time they have to run into a building on fire isn't the real thing. Or swimmers will swim with a "drag suit" to make their workouts tougher and aerodynamic Speedos to real competitions.

But yeah, there's no easy solution.

The odds all even out. So if you run hot and "hit and run" after a massive pot. Your next session could be a tedious one where you are card dead and sit and fold or see flops and miss. It's one big long game, you just have to learn to not to be a donkey when you are running hot or cold.

I got this one guys. Don't be a degen , your whole life is poker , save your A game for another time, I'll see you on the felt.

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Pick a max number of hours you'll play and set an alarm on your phone. There's Android apps like "Alarmy" and "I can't wake up" that will make you solve math or word problems to turn it off so you can't ignore it like a regular alarm. Might want to turn the volume down as it would likely annoy the heck out of other players.

I use this to wake up and it's very effective. You set the difficulty for the problems and it could take 20 seconds or several minutes depending how hard you make it, but the point is you can't just ignore it and go back to playing. "I can't wake up" even has a feature where you can't power off your phone while it's on.

Probably similar iOS apps. I think it could help you until you get the discipline to leave at a certain point.

And I disagree with the idea you should leave while you're ahead (unless you're a losing player). Think of poker cash games as one long session. If during a week, it makes no difference if you're up 500 Sunday, down 200 Tuesday, break even Wednesday, up 300 Thursday, down 250 Friday, up 300 Friday, up 50 Saturday. You're up 700 for the week no matter how you chop up those "sessions."

Set a certain time to leave, and abide by that rule, regardless of how juicy the game is or how stuck you are. There is always another poker game tomorrow.

Doing that and ignoring the rules you set is a huge leak. Set the time, and when it hits, play until the blinds come around and rack up. You'll actually feel great as you leave the casino, and your winrate will go up accordingly.

There isn't a trick to making you do this. You need to realize this is a leak and it's costing you money. If that doesn't get you to change, you're going to struggle as a poker player.

The posts here are a bit mild compared to similar threads in the past IMO. There are 'pit-falls' to any system you may try to put together, but the consensus is that you do need to have some sort of system in place.

Time ... I struggle leaving a table if I hit a rush early. I'm a reg and no one likes someone to 'cash-n-dash' but you are there for 'you', not the game, so if you're comfortable with your win then take it! Don't feel obligated to put in 'your shift' ... the wife might even think you came home because you missed her and not because you busted!!

Good Table ... As a reg, not a rec, you are supposed to play as long as the table 'dictates' that you stay. If the spew/fish/big stacks rack up and the nits are left behind, you leave .. no matter what time it is.

OP .. was your 'bad read' against the guy on your right or someone else? If you are only staying to snap off a couple of players then develop the game to avoid playing big pots against the rest ... sort of a tournament mode.

A Number ... Playing to a number is a tough one .. What if you are $11 short? I've done this before, needing $11 to get to $X00 or similar and then try to steal a pot to do it ... and lose. Then you start to chase .. and then you are rebuying. Now if you 'suddenly' count your stack and it's 'a number' or bigger than you think, then certainly rack up and celebrate at the bar, not the table.

Playing bad ... This is the toughest one to overcome IMO. As we've seen in previous threads, most players (recs and regs) will stay too long when playing bad and leave too early when playing well or the table is ripe. Certainly if you go into 'scared money syndrome' you need to leave. But recognizing subtle changes in your approach to the table can be hard to do .. and then you bleed down.

Like most of the things in poker ... It depends. Only you can determine what's important and what you are trying to get 'out of ' the game ... profit/enjoyment? GL

Stand up, exit the casino.

Seriously though, give yourself a stop-loss and a stop-win. Bring only enough cash to play until your stop-loss.

There is a trick though, which I already mentioned. Before you go, decide how many hours you will play. Set a difficult puzzle alarm on your phone to go off after X hours. Then enter the casino. When the alarm goes off, you will have to leave the table to deal with turning it off. It should be much easier to leave after this, as your mind must stop dealing with poker while you solve math problems, spatial puzzles, geography quizzes, and/or whatever you set the app to. You can make it take 5 - 10 minutes if you have to.

I use these to wake up as I sleep super heavy, and they are very effective. I don't see why they wouldn't work to get you away from something after X amount of time.

if you're only losing a couple hundred but having fun, who cares? This isn't a job that you should expect to come home with money every time you play (even for professionals). Now, if you were over shooting your stop-loss, then you would have a problem. Just have fun!

Yeah man. Love when I'm in the middle of a big hand and my ****ing puzzle alarm goes off.

My problem too. My record was a 20 hour session where I ended up winning $100 in 1/2. I was up $400, then I made a $400 mistake when I misread the flop. Hahaha such an idiot.

Easy to say when you play for fun. I play for money. I suck at self control and will have to fix that asap.

Some people are actually competitive. Nobody who got any good at anything ever had this attitude towards it.

Jesus...

How likely are you to be in a big hand when it goes off, particularly given you know the time it will go off in advance? Even if worried about that, there are easy solutions: set the volume to low enough you can hear it but not high enough to bother the other players; or, wear earbuds in one ear, and remove it if you just so happen to be in a big hand. The point is there are easy ways to make this work but you just jump straight to the worst case scenario, which is still better than routinely playing until you're fatigued and/or tilted.

This is the only constructive solution I've seen offered here other than the usual "have self control" or "set some arbitrary limit that will only work if you have self control" platitudes.

It can help the OP if he wants it to. Anyway, I've made my suggestion, and OP can regard or disregard as he chooses, so I'm done with this thread.

Get up and start walking, easy. Don't really know a trick to help, you might try reading MGOP by Tendler, it's about tilt but is broad in that definition, so may help.

I walk on 3 controls:

1. Time I planned to leave. Only staying later if game turns amazing and I'm winning, otherwise lock it up.

2. Stop loss. I take cash and don't reload.

3. Getting tired. I caught myself misreading the board once, due to being tired, I racked up shortly afterwards.

If you can reliably anticipate and beat an alarm then you don't need an alarm. I was referring to the puzzle lock aspect: