When to quit?

[moto67e]

Hey guys, I play 4 times a week at a B&M near my house and usually win between 100 to 400 dollars a day. Of course there are days when I lose, but I can average about 700 a week.
This is my dilemma, there are days when I go in and double up right away in the first hour and a half or so( I play 300nl) and usually I leave. My reasoning is I'm there to make money not play for hours, not to drink or socialize,so once I'm up I just bail. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing by leaving, or if I should stay and try to triple up or more. Last week I played 5 days for a total of 14 hours and won 1600.

I have had a tendency in the past to get up 300 then lose a 100 or so and then lose even more trying to get back that 100. Which is stupid, because I'm still up 200.

So what do you guys think is the best way to go about this?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[Baby Mantis]

a lot of people would say it is bad to quit while you are winning. There are psychological factors when you are winning that boost your self confidence and help you play better. Sometimes your opponents will fear you more when you are winning as well.

So I would suggest to continue playing if you double up quick to increase your BR even more.

Creating stop-wins is not so good cause it will cut into your profits.

stop-losses are good, say you double up in the first half-hour. Say you are going to quit if you drop down to just 200 in profit or whatever so that way you don't try to chase your losses to catch up.

[Peleus]

I suppose the question to ask yourself is how did you double up straight away? Was there a loose fish that was blowing his money on tilt? Did you outplay someone? Or did you hit that 2 outer on the river and stack someone you shouldn't have.

If the answer is the fish, then why would you want to leave the game? Seems like money is to be had, and you're just killing yourself by not staying. Yeah you might have the money you wanted to earn today, but you have the chance of making your week's worth of money.

On the other hand if you got lucky, and your outclassed on the table at the time, you probably should walk away.

I would stay if I could beat the game and have an edge.
I should leave if I can't beat the game and have no edge.

That should be your main question when thinking about leaving, very few other factors (imo) should come into it.

[Albert Moulton]

Quit when you feel like you're not playing your best. Either because your tired, or you took a few beats, or whatever. If you are in top shape at a table with generally weaker players, then leaving just because you're ahead seems silly.

Get to know what your own limits are and what puts you toward tilting. If it's 6 hours of play, then quit at 5. If it's taking a really bad beat, then take a break or stop after the beat. Etc.

[moto67e]

Thanks for the advice everyone. The level I play at is the one of the higher levels at the casino. That said, today I was completely card dead, and didn't play a hand for 2 hours. So I get AQo in mp and raise to 30(the blinds are 3-5), because this table was so loose. I got 4 callers, wtf doesn't anybody notice the tight guy.lol. So what I usually do is play tight and play big hand, big pot poker. It's pretty boring sometimes but pays off.

[Manomanman]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey guys, I play 4 times a week at a B&M near my house and usually win between 100 to 400 dollars a day. Of course there are days when I lose, but I can average about 700 a week.
This is my dilemma, there are days when I go in and double up right away in the first hour and a half or so( I play 300nl) and usually I leave. My reasoning is I'm there to make money not play for hours, not to drink or socialize,so once I'm up I just bail. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing by leaving, or if I should stay and try to triple up or more. Last week I played 5 days for a total of 14 hours and won 1600.

I have had a tendency in the past to get up 300 then lose a 100 or so and then lose even more trying to get back that 100. Which is stupid, because I'm still up 200.

So what do you guys think is the best way to go about this?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...e=0#Post5927809

If you are positive tilting when you're "up", then quitting when you double up is a +EV move.

[moto67e]

That was a great post, thanks for the link, I will use a lot of the advice from it. I used to tilt bad, but have tried hard to control it.

I don't have a problem with playing marginal hands once I get a stack, it's usually a problem with being results orientated after the session when I have a 50 to 100 down tick and thinking to myself, man I should have left earlier.

I guess as long as I'm booking winning sessions I should just keep going with what's working.But I can't help but think I should be staying longer when I'm winning.

Again thanks for all the advice.

[Acein8ter]

I say if your running well, continue playing and make some money while you can. You will eventually run into downside variance in which you will have a 'few' loosing streaks in a row, its unavoidable with this game.

[Bad Beat Maker]

Set a point to lose, never stop when the game is soft though and you're winning (per Greenstein.)

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
Set a point to lose, never stop when the game is soft though and you're winning (per Greenstein.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Greenstein is far better at poker (and far more mentally disciplined) than most of us will ever be, and at any rate stop losses in general run counter to that whole argument.

The way I see it, there are four reasons why a winning player should leave a poker game:

1) A real-life emergency which must be dealt with immediately.

2) You're broke.

3) You are not enjoying yourself at the table (this is for recreational players; a pro obviously doesn't have the luxury of only playing when he's having fun).

4) For whatever the reason, you no longer hold an edge in the game.

The fourth reason is the one we're talking about here. As mentioned above, there is such a thing as positive tilting (I call it "reverse tilt"). If you've already logged what you consider to be a big win and are likely to step away from your best game because of it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with leaving the game. Again, unless you're a pro, you don't have to play.

However, you also need to ask yourself if getting up is really the best thing. Even playing more conservatively than you usually do, you might still hold a significant edge in the game. And it's also very possible that, while your head is swimming at that moment, it'll clear up and you'll be back into your zone the instant you find yourself looking at another flop.