hello everybody ,

i m jean-philippe from France , i play poker since two months after studying the game for a long time following the advise of my best friend of the time ( " never play for money when you begin")

so i watched videos , read books , took notes and was just thinking about poker generally in my free time.

i started grinding the nl2 and went from 25 euros to 70 in a few hours.

i was playing on four tables and was feeling great , was feeling allright when i had a bad beat and kept focusing.

right now i have 100 euros on my account and im in nl5 ( four tables). but here is the problem:


i cant play long sessions , whenever i have a bad beat i quit and when im running good i quit too. i know these are big mistakes but i would like you to tell me where it comes from . (i have a salary outside poker so i dont depend on my results to eat )

can you help me correcting that leak ?

nice day to you

Sound like you're doing fine.
Quitting when you are winning is kinda bad though.. when you are winning it usually means you find yourself in a profitable situation (lots of bad players at your tables etc), so you should continue playing.
Quitting when you are losing isn't as bad but your goal should be to play well regardless of the results. I usually continue playing until I notice I am making bad decisions or I lose 4 buyins.

Bon jour Jean-Phillipe! Welcome to the forums

Quitting when you get affected by a bad beat (assuming it does affect you) is a great way of approaching the game. The best thing you can do when you feel a bit of tilt coming on is STOP PLAYING. Now that can be for 10 mins, an hour or the rest of the day depending on what works for you.

You need to completely ignore the $$$ you win or lose and think in terms of EV. Immediate results are irrelevant in poker.

Also please note that if you play long enough you will run worse than you think is possible - so be ready for it. Best way to do that is, again, to think in terms of EV and not actual money won/lost.

Bonne chance!

thanks people!

i m going to play five hours today regardless of the instant results and quitting after losing four buy ins in case things go wrong.

good luck to you

One of the hardest things in poker is to separate results from play. Sometimes the cards fall against you, and sometimes you feel like you can't miss. What you want to do is keep playing when you're playing better than the rest of the table whether you're up or down.

There's nothing wrong with taking a break if you feel like the game is affecting your head. The tables aren't going anywhere, so go have a coffee, a smoke, whatever to take your mind off it and sit back down.

The only way you'll learn to deal with it is by doing it over and over again. Get used to the fact that bad beats happen x% of the time. Better that you're doing that without going crazy at the tables and losing your money.

hello everybody ,

my problem has vanished totally.

i guess i needed to just put some efforts on it thats all ( a few patrik antonius' interviews and my confidence was there again ) now im just really happy to wake up everyday thanks to poker .

very confortable at nl5 now , like previously on nl 2 . i play one hour and make a pause each time.

went from 100 to 150 in a few hours . when i have 300 i move up to nl10.

grind good guys and have fun at the tables .

thx again!

Just make sure you are not too happy with good results. Be happy because you play well not because of results otherwise you will be devastated when you have loosing sessions.

yes thanks i will keep that in mind

have a nice day and thanks for answering

I personally find the zoom 'build the biggest stack' reg meta-game amusing. If I could offer one piece of advice for new grinders: get comfortable with playing deep stacked 200bb+ poker.

hello everyone ,


im still grinding the nl5 in France .... .. .. ..

but as i was feeling comfortable with my game i met a new issue

before i was for example raising any two suited cards and it worked for me ( thinking my opponents were very bad and also not a single time meeting a higher flush)

but as my bankroll grows little by little i see myself limping the gap suited connectors now , which i was raising before .

am i scared money without being aware of it ? is my game just developping ?

thanks for all the answers in advance

from 25 to 70 in a few hours at nl2 ???
that sounds unreal mate

when i said a few hours i meant 35 hours , a couple of days sorry for my english

best way is to say to yourself: "im gonna play for 2 hours" or "im gonna play 500 hands at least" and stick to that goal no matter what result is. quitting on tilt is good though

ok thanks NaZz68 im sure its gonna help me ( finally) do my volume cause one hour poker thirty minutes pause is not the best way to do it


have a nice day

Just try to loose track of time with good music or something. Keep hydrated and eat something during break.
You should take breaks as long you feel you need them, but half an hour seems too large as a standard to me. Just use a timer at 1h and sit out, do a Walk around or something and start olaying again once your back. Takes me 5-10mins and I'm still in my poker zone while Breaking longer makes me Think About other things. If I'm af a fishy table I just take a break to stand up refill water eat something and be back before the fish leave

thanks man,

what about bankroll managment ?

daniel cates , one of the famous poker player who plays a lot online says not to underestimate variance and that 40 buy in should be necessary .

the french forums ( french people are really bad poker players) say 20 buy ins .

i think im gonna go for 30 buy ins to grind nl10.

i get sick of nl5 and feel like its so little money

thanks for your answers

Quitting when you tilt is only a short term solution. It's the right thing to do, of course, but figuring out why you tilt and how to stop it happening in the first place is important. I've recently started concentrating on staying focused more than my play and so far it's helping me play better for longer. Prevention is better than cure, and all that.