Teach me when to quit a live session

[PokerJans]

Since this forum is filled with a ton of regular live players I thought this would be a good place to ask for some advice.

One of my main problems this summer has been quiting any given session when I am either up or down.

Obviously if the game is good you should want to continue playing but there are some sessions where I find myself just losing the rest of my rack or whatever even though I am not running well. Clearly this is just wrong even when the game is great, you are playing well, but just running bad. Should I just accept a 25BB loss instead of a 15BB loss even though it is clear that I will lose 10BB more often than I will make a come back?

When I am winning I typically just keep playing until I lose a pot or two and then decide that I should just book it for the sake of booking a win even though I might still feel fresh and general game conditions suggest I should keep playing. I just absolutely hate the idea of going on a nice rush on the onset for like 35BBs and the potentially losing it all back. But of course this also prevents me from huge winning session.

One thing I have been considering is maybe setting a predetermined amount of time that I will play before I start any given session. Say for example 5 hours or something.

So tell me, how do you quit good?

Looking for all sorts of general advice and comments.

Thanks

[StrictlyStrategy]

I stop playing when:

I am very tired.
or
I am very frustrated AND I know it's going to affect my play.
or
The game is too tough.


I just got back from AC, made 120BB in about 30 hours of play. --Don't be afraid to keep playing. Ever.

I never care if I'm stuck 60BB or up 100, if I'm too tired it's time to sleep.(Unless the game is way above average then I'll usually try and put a few extra hours in)

[Hyperrrprank]

I've got a shorter attention span than most. I need to quit when I stop paying attention to hands I'm not in, when I start counting my chips and figuring out how far up or how far down I am, or when I just plain get bored and wonder what's going out outside the small world of the casino. It's different for everyone, but if you're not in top form for whatever reason, including worry about losing your winnings, call it a day. That said, if you can manage those worries before hand and extend your time spent at good tables it'll pay off. Personally, I stopped counting my chips and it extended my endurance by an hour or two, since I'm not thinking about what I'm going to log.

[KenProspero]

The short answer -- play for as long as you think it's profitable.

My answer -- whenever I lose 30bb, I quit.
If I'm tired, I quit.
If I win -- say $200 and I lose back $100, I quit (this is clearly dependent on what limit I'm playing at).
Oh, and if the waitress says -- I'm sorry you're not sober enough to get another drink -- I quit (JK)

[fishyak]

Your decision should never be based on how you are running.

I set a loss limit (hard) and a time limit (softer) for the evening before I sit down. To me, the issues are:

1) Am I playing well? If not, go home. I can be playing well and losing if my cards suck. That's OK.
2) Is it a good table and do I have good position?
3) Are there fish present?

2) & 3) interconnect, but if the table appears to have the potential for profit, I like to stay until 1) tells me its time to go.

Just over 2 weeks ago, I was up 55BB @ 4/8 and there were still fish and a well positioned maniac, but I was too tired after a Friday @ work and 9 hrs. at the table. It was time to go.

Running should NOT enter into the equation.

[James.]

i quit when i'm not playing well anymore. this might be because i'm tilting due to loss(which i've really learned to control), on winner's tilt, or just boredom tilt.

don't set a stop/loss, stop/win amount. it's theoretically -EV. as long as you're playing well(with an edge) in a good game, it is profitable to continue. when that ceases, you can stop.

[Frond]

For me I find when I start to lose focus I like to call it a night. If I stop counting the # of bets going in the pot, who is in the hand, positon all the basics etc, I like to stop. At that point I am not playing my best and just there looking at my cards and very unfocused. Usually it means being tired so that is the bet time for me to quit.

[Xhad]

If you are a favorite in the game you are a favorite to make money no matter how much you are up or down.

I have had sessions where I lost like 20BB in one hour and it just got worse. I've also had sessions where I dropped that much and then slowly worked my way back up over the course of the night. In one session I dropped something like 40BB and ended up coming back and leaving up over 50BB, but that was an extreme circumstance.

I did recently leave after I turned a 10BB win into a 3BB loss, but that was because of a series of bad beats that I knew was about to put me on tilt.

[ QUOTE ]
When I am winning I typically just keep playing until I lose a pot or two and then decide that I should just book it for the sake of booking a win even though I might still feel fresh and general game conditions suggest I should keep playing. I just absolutely hate the idea of going on a nice rush on the onset for like 35BBs and the potentially losing it all back.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is -EV. I can't tell you that it's wrong because the emotional pain may be worth avoiding for 2-4 BB or whatever you're missing in expectation by doing this on a given day and that's a personal decision.

While I never quit for this reason, I did do the opposite; I used to play a lot of live, and then after I was done I would go to a coffee shop down the street from where I lived (mostly because a lot of students from the nearby university hung out there). Some days I would decide that trying to get even was worth more to me than ogling chicks, and that's no one's decision but my own. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Sarcastic7]

don't ever set a limit on how much u should win. the only "limit" should have is you are playing so well that u have half the money on the table, then u should leave.

However, if you feel the game slipping away, especially if you really feel you will lose if you stay then of course you should leave. Remember though, no matter how well you may be playing and regardless of your current table image, each time a player leaves the table and a new one arrives the table will change.

Bottom line, if u really are pondering deeply whether to leave a table or not, u should leave. If your in acasino you can always change tables too.

[StrictlyStrategy]

[ QUOTE ]
Your decision should never be based on how you are running.
I set a loss limit

[/ QUOTE ]

lollll


Oh and I wasn't bragging in my first post either. I've lost 70BB taking a shot at 20 because the game was so insanely good. ONE [censored] TIME CAN I PLEASE HOLD UP PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE [censored]