Hey guys, I don't know if many others suffer with this but I always find myself in a pretty nitty state of mind when I win big in a short period of time. Everytime I start to play a cash game session and run hot for the first 300 hands or so and win like 4 or 5 buy ins, I instantly decide to call it a night even though I wanted to grind like 2 or 3k hands. I feel like I just want to "lock" those earnings for the day. I also know that it's a pretty stupid thinking since it also prevents me from winning more and having like a +10bi day plus the VPP's. I just can't get rid of this mindset, can someone help me? Is there any good book that talks about such thing?

Thanks in advance guys! Cheers.

One problem is thinking of it as "your" money just because you ran from the tables with it. If you win 2 buyins, and both hands were 80% to win, 20% of your profits isn't really yours. You lucked out in order to get it. That said, locking those earnings is giving yourself a false sense of your profit margins.

Personally when I'm running hot, I'll continue until I lose. I'll even finish a session on that loss, even if I won 17 in a row before that. The more games I play, the more consistent my stats are going to be. If I win 5 games, bink $300 in an hour, I'm not a $300/hr player, or even a $300/day player. If I play 150 games, and my profit is $300, I know the sample size is going to make my results more true.

Really though, I don't even really care about day-to-day results that much. I care about being up for the month, because once I play 1000+ games, luck isn't going to play a role in my profits. Part of wanting to leave the tables to "lock" winnings is also related to fear. You may want to explore why you fear staying longer. Do you play poorly after you start winning? Do you tilt? Do you spew buyins trying to keep your bankroll at that new level, even if part of that bankroll is luck related?

As always, Mental Game of Poker will help you a ton. GL

Yea I'm afraid that's the case here. Not fear of the other players or anything, specially because I'm really confident in my game when I'm playing my best. When I start a session and while I keep my focus at 100%, I usually handle myself pretty well, regardless of my opponents skill level. But then, when I quickly win a couple of buyins, it feels like I'm scared to lose it due to some sick coolers / beats and it stops me to keep making the correct decisions. Whereas, when I lose some buyins pretty fast, I tend to keep playing until I recovered it all (and surprisingly still playing my A-game).

I guess my problem has a lot to do with the "cashier syndrome" as I keep checking my cashier in the middle of my sessions to see how good/bad I'm doing and when I see I've done good enough I usually quit for the day, preventing myself from doing even better.

Try not to look at the cashier, the results are misleading anyway. I think most sites give you an option to block your cashier number don't they? Something to look into at least.

Stars is great, you can block seeing the cashier on the HUSNG rematch screen, and on other clients the $ figure is in the bottom of the lobby, clearly visible for the roaming eye

I think it'll greatly help to stop looking at it, at least during sessions. It will make losses hurt more and you might play worse knowing that you're down, and if you're winning like you say suddenly closing the computer and going out seems much more enticing.

I do exactly the same stuff, keep playing when down and instastop if I win. I play cashgame (dunno what you play) and I just started looking how I run in my HUD (yes it's better to not look at all) and if I make a quick win I just restart my HEM. Kind of stupid trick, but works out.

I was about to make a new threead because im in the same position as you, i want to like "lock" those earnings, if i won 3 or 4 buy ins at the very beginning, then i stop playing and get back to play the next day, even i had planned to play at least 2k of hands, happens to me too....

have you improved on that in these last days?

I also look at the cashier while playing... too bad too...

any advice anyone? Thanks.