Winning and losing sessions

[icheckcallu]

it took me 2 years to realize this. Before I would check my br every ten minutes and get upset whenever im down 1 buyin. this in turn make me play bad/nitty/scared money etcetc. Nowadays, I just play poker and make sure i keep putting pressure on my opponents. I almost never play my card anymore. Then again I dont talk my self into calling when I get caught bluffing.

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You are involved in a fanstasy that there is such a thing as more than one session. There is not. There is only one session. Sometimes it gets interrupted for sleep, or for other things. Then it continues. The players change, sometimes the venue, but it is all one long poker game.

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For many poker players, especially beginners but even experienced players, this may be the number two concept to grasp being right behind playing tighter.

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[deluz35]

While poker is an endless game, time is a relevant factor. I think the main value of setting stop-losses (like 4 BIs in a day) is that it is built-in tilt protection, regardless of whether you are playing bad or running bad.

As for quitting while ahead, this is a real psychological problem which must be overcome if you want to become a big winner. Definitely set stop-losses, but let your profits run. If you are winning, keep playing as long as you are playing well. The desire to "log a winning session" or a "winning day" is really about fear of losing.

These are all artificial frames that we employ to trick ourselves into feeling good or bad about the situation. More important are rules to not play when tired, etc. Know yourself well enough to set limits on losses, min and max hours for a session. This structure and discipline will make it easier to forget about the fluctuations in bankroll.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory

[Praxising]

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i don't agree that there's "only this one hand" at all.
the longer you sit at a table, the more "meta-game" stuff
should start coming into play, ( seeing betting patterns, etc... )

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I agree with you entirely - and there is still only one had. But what I mean by that is: your decision about whether to enter a pot, bet, check, fold, raise whatever, must be all about that hand. It isn't about wanting to win back money from a previous hand, or keep money you've won, or any other thing. It's all about what is going on right now in the dynamic system of the hand. (And, of course, to that moment you bring with you all the poker tools you possess, including whatever info you have gathered on opponents at table or whatever it might be, as you said.)

You sound like you are a pretty advanced thinker - maybe without knowing that. What you say is also what the book says - if you are playing well, you stay in the game, whether you are, at some random moment, winning or losing is just not relevant.