My biggest leak by far in my game is not even related to how I play poker itself. ... it's the damn slots and table games on the site.

What do you do to keep the devil away?

Best advice I can give:
Find the responsible gaming options in the poker client, and either set limits, or exclude yourself from those games entirely.

Variance in poker will always be like slots. Even when you have skill and advantage there will be losing streaks.

good points both, thanks

It's much much much easier to completely deny yourself from touching any of those games than to try to set limits.

So don't let yourself play for €10 or for an hour or w/e.
Just decide that you're not touching them and stick with it!

There are tons of YouTube videos on how to build discipline, go watch some.

Poker is about playing intelligently and with discipline to make +EV decisions.

Table games and slots are almost always -EV

When you recognize that you are no longer playing poker, and are instead gambling, and can't stop, you need a serious adjustment. Many talented poker players have met financial ruin from sliding into gambling addicitons (either at table game, or at the poker table).

Try simple tactics first, to see if you have a gambling problem. On certain sessions, or maybe for a certain time, just plan ahead of time to not play table games. Just don't do it.

If you are unable to stay away, or if you suffer psychological withdrawl symptoms from not playing table games, then recognize that you have a problem. Reach out to available resources on gambling addicting. If that seems too aggressive at first, look into reading books on addictions, specifically gambling addiction.

You should also look into learning more about how your brain works, specifically with regard to gambling. Two books that I found useful were Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, and The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler.

Now, I can recognize, both from actions on the table and off the table, when I am mentally fragile and vulnerable to tilting or spewing. It actually manifests both behaviorally, as well as physically (I can feel a certain pressure in my brain, and my body has certain tensions that I recognize as a transition from cognitive thinking to emotionally driven thinking). I know when I am in those states, I am more apt to make poor decisions, so I adjust accordingly (either by playing very ABC, by engaging in exercises to calm my mind, or by leaving).

When you do an activity because you are addicted to the emotional highs and lows, you will eventually escalate that activity to larger and larger scales in order to get the same high. Stop this cycle as soon as you can, otherwise it will burn you up.

I've always looked at slots and table games as throwing money down the toilet. Sure, we've all had a buddy stick $20 in a machine and hit $200+ but it's just such a waste. So if you like money, stay away and stop the degen thinking of "oh if I just hit once it'll be worth it".

Yup, but then they don't quit and lose it all anyway