When to leave the game...???

[TresDeuce]

I had this problem.

The answers I have found are:

1. Play with a bigger bankroll.

People base bankroll requirements on risk of ruin, i.e if you are playing 10/20 nl with 80-100k you're very unlikely to go broke if you can step down when you lose 10-15 buy ins, assuming youre a winning player.

However the emotional connection with the money is different.

+5 or -5 buy ins is basically a breakeven day.

If you are happy/excited about winning 6k, and unhappy/disappointed about losing 6k, at 2knl, for example you are playing above your bankroll, not in terms of financial risk, but in emotional terms, as everyday will be a rollercoaster of emotions, often making you play worse, or pass up +ev situations in your case.

2. Do NOT look at pokertracker/account balance throughout the session/day/week.

This is pretty hard, and I cannot do it for more than a day, but only loading the HH into PT after a session AND NOT PLAYING AGAIN IF YOU'RE DOWN BUT HAVE DECIDED TO QUIT can definitely help these kind of problems.

Hope these can help, and am interested in hearing others thoughts on this problem.

EDIT: To address the actual question, you should only leave when you are -EV, obv. This does not have to mean the rest of the table has an edge on you, it can also mean when you're tired, tilting or generally not in the mindframe to play optimally, as you're not when youre considering booking a win. All other times you shoudl play.

"Once you are thinking about quitting, you have already quit"

Random quote I heard somewhere.