[AgentSq]

I have a similar problem and have come up with why, for me anyway.

If you imagine an emotional scale that runs from -10 (the worst you have ever felt playing poker) to +10 (the best you have felt).

So you start playing at Emotion = 0 and an hour or two later you are up 3 buyins at which point Emotion =4.

If you continue to play for 2 hours assume that you will win another 3 buyins 50% of the time, stay level 20% of the time and lose the 3 buyins 30% of the time. Winning another 3 buyins will raise your Emotion to 6, staying level will reduce Emotion to 3 and losing what you won will reduce your emotion to -3.

So your emotional EV is 50% * 6 + 20% * 3 + 30% * (-3) = 2.7

Hence even though you are +EV to win money you are -EV on the Emotional scale (since 2.7 is less than 4). This is why I struggle to play because the money I stand to win is not worth as much to me emotionally as the money I stand to lose.

You say that you stop playing when you are 3 buyins down which I would guess means that you find that acceptable, maybe -2 on the scale, but losing 6 buyins would be alot worse, maybe -7.

Of course this is backward thinking, but it happens because emotions work in the short term and don't place a proper value on the prospect of winning or losing.

An example of this for me is breaking even for the day having been down 5 buyins rates at about a 5, but breakeven having been up 5 buyins is more like a -5.

Unfortunately I don't have a solution. I have found that understanding the problem helps together with not keeping track of results. Having a target of hour played per week also helps me.

Hope this helps.