I have this issue that's pretty huge in my eyes.

When I'm losing, I don't really care, I can just keep playing.
I think I'm still playing decently, probably not my A game, but should be my B game at least.
If it goes on for too long I do tilt, but I think I know when to quit when I tilt.

The real issue is, when I'm winning and playing my A game, at a certain point I'm afraid to continue playing because I couldn't handle losing my winnings again.


Today is a great example of this.
I'm trying to play at least 1k hands every day.

I'm now at 700 hands for today and I'm +$6.52, which is 3.25 buy-ins for my stake, 2NL.
I'm running hot as hell for 44BB / 100 today, even crazier my all-in adjusted BB / 100 is at 78, so I've already had some beats.

Now the issue is, I'm too afraid to continue playing, because I don't think I could handle losing my winnings for today.


When I'm losing slightly or winning slightly I don't care about this at all, even if I lose 1 or 2 buy-ins I can just keep playing.
But once I'm up 2 or 3 buy-ins, I just get scared to continue playing.

This is even worse when I play live. Since that's for real money.

Once the day is over it's all fine again.

I realize this makes no sense, if I continue to play tomorrow and lose it's exactly the same as if I'd lose that money today, but it just feels so wrong.


How do I fix this?
How do I work on this?
Is this as big an issue as I suspect it is, or is it normal & fine?


I've been trying to just continue playing when I'm running good, but it's hard!

Had the exact same issue when I was playing part time

I noticed that when you play a lot every day this easily goes away
It goes like this:
I ran hot and won a lot today
I can quit now and be done for the day
But what is the point if I'm gonna play tomorrow and I can lose it all tomorrow same way I can today... so you continue playing

Yeah :P
I realize it's the same, but it feels different!

It's getting better by playing more though, but still a big issue for me.
Maybe it's just because I haven't had a good day in a long time

I do take brakes every hour or every 1,5h. I take 5-10min brake and then start like "new session" and I dont really think anymore what happened hour ago. Im trying to focus to do my best again this hour and then take brake. Then same again until I stop playing for the day. Works for me. Decided to reply cuz I had very similar feelings earlier.

Hmm maybe I should just leave PT4 to track the last 100 hands and not the entire day, that might help, if I can stop myself from looking at it.

i always do this and it gives me some big suprises at the end of the day.

Also good tip is to keep PT4 showing always like ur yearly graph for example. Then you can see how minimal impact your bad run has in the bigger picture and you understand there is no reason to tilt. Same thing when you run hot.

target yourself a number of hands for each session or day and stick to it.

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This is most likely due to the fact you are not used to running good or winning. it is very stressfull to constantly break even or be a slightly losing player. it does not really matter if you lose because of run bad or lack of skill. So when you have a session like this you feel comfortable and good with the result and since you expect to lose it again should you keep playing, you rather wnat to quit. That kind of feeling will most likely go away when you start to win more overall.

Don't track your winrate during the session.

For me it helps to have a month goal. Like 30k hands and positive wr. So 1k hands becomes not that important after all.

Hmm, my mind kinda auto-tracks my winrate while playing.
It's pretty obvious that I'm winning or losing after a few big pots.

I do try to play at least 1k hands / day, more if I feel like it and have the time.
But like today, I stopped at 700 and just can't bring myself to play anymore.

That´s totally fine. you should not play if you dont want to play. It might also help if you set a very specific goal for your session or day that has nothing to do with a number of hands or the amount of BB won/lost …

I.E. why do you want to play 1000 hands per day. i assume because you want to either improve and think the more you play the more you improve or you want to built a bankroll and think the more you play the more money you make. The thing is, that if you have these goals in your mindset you can actually "fail" at them. You could lose or you could not manage to play that 1000 Hands. and when you fail you get annoyed or tilted or whatever.

So what if you play a session with a specific goal of improving in your game.
i.e. you say you want to focus and improve this session on BVB SRP. maybe you will play 100 hands maybe 500. maybe you will win maybe you will lose but all that does not really matter because your goal is to play and study that spot. and at the end of the day you will be a better poker player.