First hand tonight at 300-500NL. I win $640. I was too embarrassed to get up although I wanted to. I played another hour...won an additional $16 dollars. For me, I'm a big believer in getting up and leaving. If there are some terrible players I will stick around, but my overriding concern is having a good winning experience. If that takes 5 minutes or 1 hour all the better. I drive home feeling good.

About an hour and a half into my session last night I got up about the same, about 680, and I had the same impulse. Hit the road. I stuck around for about an hour breaking even during that time. Would have won the last three hands if I gambled. Played one too tight probably, checking a nut flush draw on the flop, getting blown out on the turn by a bet and a raise, would have made the nut flush on river. PLO, betting that flush draw with nothing else on the come means I'm all good with shipping right here.

At the extreme range of leaving as soon as winning significant amount thing, poker is almost acting as a medicine, a tonic, a mood enhancer for life. It probably indicates not enough of better sources for that sense of wellbeing, but, hey, it beats drugs and alcohol etc. for self-medicating.

Friday I went to my reg room. I love the 2/5 feeder table bc it is always juicy, so I played 1/2 until they launched the must move game. I was up $1100 in an hour and was next to move to the main game where the pros play each other 3 days a week. I packed up and went home. I was happy to log in a good win and have dinner at home.

Where?

The key is to be constantly evaluating game conditions. Your desire to walk away might be a subconscious understanding that game conditions have changed, and that a few of the loose passive fish have been replaced by deeper stacked aggro opponents. OTOH you may just be trying to lock up a win, which is not really possible unless you never play again. When game conditions are optimal you want to play as long as you can. If game conditions are poor, then you should quit.

If you are an EV computer. If you are a human being, there are plenty of other factors in play.

Was thinking this is a rife subject perhaps for poker psych coaches. When we have an aversion to risk or are using wins as a mood tonic to the point that we habitually leave when ahead even in very juicy spots, or are averse to risking chips already won ... obviously it hurts our game. It's good for win % for damn sure, but is not good for profitability.

I knew a very rich horsewoman who, even when she got wealthy after early years in financial duress, would only bet $2 across on her horses. I laughed out loud when she told me, not meaning to. She said, "I don't like losing." So with this personality trait, hating losing or overvaluing winning emotionally, it seems rife for investigation of a psych coach, not a strat coach. If he's saying things about strategy and aggression without addressing this issue, it ain't working. Human beings are behaving animals, not computer edge machines. Now, a player who has a style of becoming a edge machine, will often kind of whiff on what's in play here ... just as they do with tilt dynamics.

It seems a ripe issue for psych coaches ... the psychological bankroll thing. I'm not a risk taker by nature, so the risk involved in playing NL or PLO is not something that comes naturally or easily ... and much as the OP says especially when I'm ahead.

I've sort of dealt with the creating a higher win % by starting in 1-2 or 1-3 NL. This gets my legs under me and gets me into the swing of risk, you might say. Then I step up to either 2-5 NL or PLO. That's kind of a three level approach, so that if any of the three go well you have an overall winning session. Or if say the first or second level goes well, no need to move up. You've got your win already. I don't know. I didn't consciously design this, but I sure do it.

Playing under your bankroll because of the psychological bankroll issue has a lot of aspects to it. For instance, playing in the smaller games, you might be perceived as tight, yet fully capable of shedding the nitty thing for stacks in very unexpected ways by the competition. It can work well.

But the psychological bankroll subject is quite in play for many.

Something I started late in my career only recently was having a dedicated account for poker. Don't touch it for anything else. I even experimented with only depositing on wins but not withdrawing the losses, thus immortalizing every win ... and just sort of chalking losses up to entertainment tax. That's quite a trick in getting around the aversion to risk/losses/downswings. Then at the end of the year I might do something different with the money, but running thru the year I've immortalized the wins ... seems cool.

Funny that I tend to spend much more freely when I lose, and hoard when I win. Hmm.

One should strive for the reverse, that is, leaving a session early when down, and prolonging a session when up. This is of course, emotionally uncomfortable to do, but it’s the one thing that can make even a mediocre card player a long term winner.

I recently counted and found out that I finish around 55% of my sessions in the negative, but I have been able to build a $500 br to $5,000 in three months doing this, because I prolong my winning sessions.

Of course you don’t want to go on forever if you’re winning since then health factors-fatigue, long term sustainable enthusiasm become lower, and game conditions could change, so having a time limit is probably also smart.

Anybody have any "psychological bankroll" coaches or writers they recommend? I feel kind of ripe for it. Kairos type of thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Poker-Ps...2C1033&sr=8-20

I had that book. Downsized at last move and got rid of about 80% of a lifetime of books. I'm skeptical. What does he say on the subject?

this! a couple of friends were doing a little study about session length, taking breaks, etc. and guess what. the wr is definetly higher in the first 2 hours you play. then you should take at least half an hour break, or do something in between and join again after a few hours. i almost guarantee you that this will boost your wr..

and dont forget about a solid warm up routine for each session (mine: coldshower min 3 min, 5-10min mediation and then 15-30 min "light studying" (preferable playing with GTO Solver)

give it a try

There is some science to a portion of what you're saying. A cold shower increases blood flow to the brain, which in turn, helps you think clearly.

how we can improve our focus and concentration in poker tournaments what u guys do?

Be well-rested, exercise regularly, and eat healthily. Baring that, take lots of drugs.

It's a huge leak. Sometimes if you are playing on a Sunday night games are amazing and that obviously means that you are a lot more likely to be winning and should keep playing.

Other times for example on a Monday morning games will be awful. All the fish will be at work and it will be more likely that you are losing.

Ideally you should keep playing as long as you can when you are winning and cut your sessions short when you are losing.

A good way is to set a stop loss for the day.

If you lose 2 buy ins. Quit for the day.

And if you are winning keep playing as long as you can until you get tired.

For the first time ever, probably, I was thinking while at the table about the amount of buy-ins I had behind me in the modest games I usually play in. This instead of the overly conservative style of protecting chips (especially while ahead). It's worth considering as a factor that those of us who came up playing while the games were almost exclusively limit, it was easy then to "manage" not blowing back a good win, because it couldn't happen in a hand or two. As no-limit and pot limit took over, this strat of "I'll only lose back so much" was a fail. Too conservative play from emotional attachment to winning in a given session became a big issue. Hmm.