The question is - 'When to quit' ?

[VitoT]

We all know that better to quit early when you are losing, and continue to play longer while you are winning.
All the succesfull players talking about this like the best recipe for maximizing your profits.
for example : many gives themselfs a limit of 3 buy-in lose on 1 session. but when u decide to quit while you are winning ?
many times I find my self up like 3-4 buy-ins and just can't keep winning, and ending the session up only 3 buy-ins or maybe even less.
In the other way, i see a winning streak by players who gets up like 10-12 buy-ins in a session, and it seems nothing can't stop them that time, even if they are playing bad.
But me, when i'm up many times like 3-4 buy-ins, early in the session, and all seems like going my way, i just start having bad beats and it becomes very frustrating.
So where are your limts, and how you see it ?

[KingGeedorah]

wait until u get unstuck

[BigPoppa]

In theory, I have a stoploss of 3 buyins and otherwise will play as long as I'd planned to play. In practice, I will often quit if I get ahead 3-4 buyins quickly and will play until the end of time to get unstuck if I lose right away.

It's not what I should do, but it's what happens.

[Havok]

Good post. I think you have to re evaluate how you are playing before you quit, or keep playing. If you've been taking a lot of bad beats. It's good to take a break if you feel you are getting frustrated. The reason, is out of frustration comes bad poker, and bad calls which loses you more money, and gets you even more frustrated. Before you know it the one or two buy ins your down becomes 4 or 5.
If on the other hand your up 3 or 4 buy ins and running good. Keep playing until you get tired, and feel your play might suffer.

[Lordy]

I set a hands goal, usually I aim for 1k or 2k hands in a session depending on how much time I have. I very rarely quit before reaching that goal. I do much longer sessions when I'm stuck and have nothing else to do.

The longest sessions are the ones with a 5+ BI downswing where I try to get unstuck... I guess that's bad, but I can't really motivate myself to play 6 hours straight when I'm up.

[VitoT]

but when you are up, don't you talk yourself to quit on some point ? cause if you are up like 3-5 buy-ins, and have lost 1-2 buy-ins, it can be treated like you down 1-2 buy-ins on a new session..i think that the abillity of quiting while you are up is not less important then you are down.

[aislephive]

[ QUOTE ]
but when you are up, don't you talk yourself to quit on some point ? cause if you are up like 3-5 buy-ins, and have lost 1-2 buy-ins, it can be treated like you down 1-2 buy-ins on a new session..i think that the abillity of quiting while you are up is not less important then you are down.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quitting while up isn't smart poker.

[Etats360]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
but when you are up, don't you talk yourself to quit on some point ? cause if you are up like 3-5 buy-ins, and have lost 1-2 buy-ins, it can be treated like you down 1-2 buy-ins on a new session..i think that the abillity of quiting while you are up is not less important then you are down.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quitting while up isn't smart poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. If you are up at a table at any time, in theory, you are more likely to be +EV than -EV at the table. If you are down at a table, you are more likely to be -EV at the table than +EV. Thus, if you tell yourself "I am going to quit when I'm up X buyins, and I'm going to play as long as it takes to get to X buyins," you will in theory spend much more time/hands at bad tables than at good tables.

You should stop when it's no longer profitable to continue playing, keeping in mind any other non-poker things you have to do (School, work, etc.). There is no rule of thumb for everyone to stop playing, as everyone plays different over X aount of hours. You shuold find a comfort zone for youself in how long to play. Some factors to consider when deciding how long to play:

a)How prone you are to tilting
b)How many tables you are playing
c)How tired you are BEFORE you start playing
d)How long it takes for you to go from your A game to your B game, from your B game to your C game, etc.
E)How good the tables are relative to your skill. You have have to be able to judge if you are +EV in a game if you are playing your A game, but not if you are playing your B game
F)Variance. How small of an edge are you willing to take?

[VitoT]

you right about that you more likely to rise on a table you are up on, then go down, and it works the opposite direction, when you down at a table. i'm not really sure why it is happening, cause after all, if you are playing the same level of players on couple different tables, the mathematics and the variance should be the same.
I'll like to hear your opnions of why it is happening...

also about the reply said that it is not smart poker to quit while you are up, so if you lost 2 buy-ins out of the 4 you were up, so you going all the way to get even ? and then what ?

And about the abillity to gen into really big stacks, as 5+ buy-ins.. i'm not sure why i almost never get to there, i'm multi-tabling, and may sit on 4 different tables with 2-3 buy-ins, but i almost never sit on one table with 5+ buy-ins. it's not a very big problem for me, cause i can end up a whole straight week winning 3-5 buy-ins a day, but it is question i ask myself a lot : "why my rush don't getting long on one table?"
Does some of you guys facing the same thing ? if yes, do you think about it ? how you taking this ?

thanks for all the responses.

[Marwan]

I'd like to get to the point where I just clock in at a certain time and clock out at a certain time, regardless of how many buy-ins up or down.. regardless if there's a drooler still on the table.. That way I can just play my best poker in that time frame and move on.. the game is too consuming otherwise, I can spend eons trying to get unstuck and it just takes a toll on the way I feel after a while... a planned out schedule of when to start and quit, divided up into blocks of time that aren't too long to ensure you're playing well and get break periods seems like the best approach. Easier said than done.