When to leave the game...???

[duck_butter]

Hello,

I play High Stakes NL and have found myself get into some frustrating situations lately. I will sit down to a game and find myself up 2,000 - 5,000 within the course of a couple hours. Inevitably I will continue to play (feeling great), and then I will hit a couple big coolers or a really bad run of cards and end up walking away from the session down or even. Mind you, I AM NOT tilting at all. That is one very solid aspect of my game, that I never let swings and losses cause me to play foolishly.

Last night I started a session up quite a bit, but then after two hours the game turned FANTASTIC. It had several HUGE live ones who were donating tons of money to the table. Although my initial instinct before they sat down was to leave with my winnings, there was NO WAY I could bring myself to leave this game. So I stayed and played for the next 5 hours and got about the coldest run of cards I can ever remember having. The fish just kept re-buying. EVERY OTHER decent player at the table had stacks of thousands in winnings that was literally gift wrapped for them by a few big donators. I ended up losing my initial winnings for the night and then some by the time the game broke.

I vaguely remember reading something I think Sklansky once wrote about, if its a good game and you're a favorite, stay in it and don't leave, even if you have to prop your eyelids up with toothpicks.

So I need some advice, I have been rather frustrated (not just from last nights game, but from a consistent pattern lately of winning pretty big, but then staying and taking a big downswing).

WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO LEAVE THE GAME? I just feel weird leaving a game "Just To Secure My Winnings" when I feel like I am often one of the better players at the table. So I stay and play, but this many times (especially lately) leads to regret by the end of the night. I would particularly like to hear some input from other HSNL players, although all input is of course welcome and appreciated.

[aaokwitme]

Well I don't play allot of HS, but I have played HS (I did ok but the stress was not worth it to me). Anyway, I said this before and got allot of angry replies; hit and run was always my game in HS, and it worked well online. I think you are live here but I would still leave when I hit my goal. So set a goal and leave when you hit it.
If you sit at the table with all your winnings you become a target and everyone try’s to double up of you and draw at you (thinking you will call there over bet when they hit). And I would never play short in HS no matter how many fish. you said yourself some guys where feeding and had big stacks, how can you feed on them fish with good players having big stacks?

[Mike]

I play little nl and that is $1 - 2. I do know there are tables I can not win on easily. I absolutely hemorrhage on overly passive tables. Because the game is so dynamic, perhaps your playing style changes the table personality into your worst type of table after a few hours?

[2handed]

Sklanksy is right that you shouldn't leave a game where you are an obvious and significant favorite unless there is a very good reason. That said there is nothing wrong with playing short sessions and booking wins, but over time you are going to make the most money by playing the best games for the most time. One thing I have noticed is that it is foolish to leave the games where it is easy to quickly double up in and then stay and chase your losses in tougher games when you cant meet your "goal." Leaving a game when you start to get deep because you are afraid of the other deep stacks means that you either dont have an adequate bankroll for the limit or that you are outclassed, or both.

Playing a little overrolled for games will be beneficial to most people that suffer from anxiety when they get ahead quickly since you won't as easily develop an attachment to the money that they just won. I think the real goal here is trying to remain emotionally detached from the money in front of you so you can focus in on making the best play.

[recallme]

I have one question at first, are you losing big pots against these Villains or do you just run cold as hell?

I think you are just not playing your B game,but your C game, because you are tired/annoyed of playing.
I think there`s a reason you wanna stop playing and that`s most likelyone of the above ones.

[AJackson]

I have some trouble believing a winning HSNL player is asking this question.

You're playing well and the games turns juicy, but you're thinking that you maybe should leave to 'book' a win? Sometimes bad stuff is going to happen an you'll give back a win, but to leave a game like that is burning money.

You should stop playing when you have something else you need to do or you're not playing a good enough game to win.

I know it sucks to give back a win, but if it's all cold cards and bad beats, you can't worry about it. The game is about the long term and those types of situations will always even out for the winning player. I just think of cold decks and suck outs as deferred winnings.

[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.

[Humble Pie]

[ QUOTE ]
WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO LEAVE THE GAME?

[/ QUOTE ]

"When the money's gone, it's time to move on."
-Lester Murphy