What do you do after a big win on a ring table?

Ok. Let's say you sit down at a ring table. You win some here, lose some there. After an hour a playing and a great pot you just won, you tripled what you started with when you first sat down on the table. My question is, what do you do after a big pot? Please sleect the options above and reply below to explain why?

I have this bad habit of playing too long...whether I am winning or losing. If I am winning, I think I am invincible and just keep playing. And if I am losing, I think I have to play until I get my money back.

Okay, neither of these are recommended strategies.

As of yesterday (like any good addict, it's one day at a time) I have decided to limit my play to one hour a day. (In addition to poker, there are family, work and other reasons for this decision.) I set a timer for one hour and I am going to quit NO MATTER where I am. I can quit sooner, but I CAN NOT play more than one hour....winning or losing. We will see how this goes.

Well, I voted before I read your scenario, T. I originally voted for the 2nd to last choice, but given the scenario you gave (playing for an hour, tripled buy-in) I would get up and leave...most of the time..

When I win a big pot (hasn't happened yet). I would probably leave the table.

When it happens, I'll let you know what I REALLY do.

Depends how big of a pot and who's at the table...

i guess it depends...
if the player i won the pot against is a big fish who is making very loose plays, i'll stay and play as long as i can. You're supposed to play when the game is most profitable, right?
One of Caro's quotes in SS2 was that "Why didn't you quit while you were ahead?" is the stupidest question in poker. Why? because if i was ahead alot, that meant that the poker was very profitable at that time. Why would i quit?? Of course the quote implies that you ended up losing money, but that's probably because of a bad beat or a bad call on your part...
Anyways generally i play the same strategy (or try to) when at ring games and don't switch it up depending on my stack size, so i'd keep playing as long as i had planned to - tripling up doesn't factor in to when i'd leave.

I leave and start another table with the buy-in that I normally start with. That way I bank what I just won. That is part of my bankroll management. Double what you start with and then you leave. You get a bulls eye on you by people at the table and they want their money back, so I don't let them suck it back out.

I didn't answer the poll because the correct option was not there.

option e.
If the table is still beatable keep playing. if the table is not beatable leave.
Stack size should have no bearing on whether you stay or leave.

Edit to add: Chuck T already said this. +Rep for you coming up.

lol fish
hahah! beat you to it!

Okay, now I can answer more accurately to this question. I would keep playing. Based on the excellent answers of ChuckT and Fish I thought about it and they were right. Why leave if you're winning?

So I bought in to the .2/.5 game on PS for $4.00 I'm up to $14.00 now. I had a pretty good run so I didn't want to interrupt me by leaving.

Jim

If you know the money is there to be taken - play on and take it.

If you have played for ages and just hit the big pot - cash in, take a breather, then consider your options.

If you have hit a pot that has gotten you back to square one - decide if the tables dynamics have changed (has easy money arrived? or are you playing better now? or in a run of cards?)

Then decide which is best.

Remember its often a lot easier to lose a big pot than win one



IanT

Wow it really depends on the table and conditions at the table. I remember building up to over $150 on 25MAX on Stars a few months back, but i didnt leave until the table broke. If I remember there was one total donk that lost something silly like 5 full buy-in's, and every one was just sitting there waiting for their turn.

Generally if the table is loose and there is lots of action i will stay around, but if i find that im at a very tight aggressive table with over 1/3 of the chips in play, its time to get out of dodge, fast.

Quote for emphasis (qfe). This is exactly the logic that we should all take.

On the other side, I was at a micro table with someone with a large stack would go all-in almost every hand. He was catching the most amazing cards and the person who kept calling him was starting to tilt and throw moeny around. I stayed patient and when I was dealt A-K suited I called the all-in, two others followed. I ended up hitting my A's and I ended up quadrupling my money and got the hell off the table.

I've been at a table like this...everyone waiting like starving dogs for the prey to grow weak.

I was at a table where a player was making in the most ridiculous calls...playing very loose/passive, but hitting some amazing outs. He busted another player with a 2-outer on the river and the other player began hassling the fish and wouldn't stop. Myself and another player complimented the fish on his ability to make the call and hang in there. We pointed out that he had more than double the money of everyone at the table and he was playing wonderfully....but this other idiot just wouldn't stop hassling him. Well, you know it, after about 6-8 more hands, the fish left.

NEVER SCARE OFF THE FISH! As another player said, if we were just patient, he could have put all our children through college.

Oh, wait, what was the topic? Oh, yeah, what ChuckT and Fish said...ditto.

Coryan, that makes me laugh only because it reminds me of something that was happening at the table I was reffering to above. The maniac was going all-in pre-flop and the tilter was calling him a fish after every beat!! How can you be a fish if you are pushing all-in before the flop???

At another table, I was playing against someone who wouldn't shut up and just trying to piss everyone off. He was obviously trying to get people annoyed with him so they would tilt and he would cash in on them. He kept coming after me because I was the big stack at the table. I couldn't buy a hand and if I made a small raise in the late position, he'd go all so I'd fold. He would call me a chicken, we'd battle back and forth and I just kept waiting for the oportune time to strike. He started with $15 and left with about $35 before I ever hit a hand. After he left, everyone who was still left at the table was mad at me because I scared him off!!! One person said, "Why did you scare him off? He was easy money!" That's why they were all drained calling his all-ins and most of them all bought back in at elast once. There was a purpose to this guy's strategy and it worked, he doubled up and left.

I agree with chuck and fish. If the game is still good and you feel you are playing well you need to maximize your profitablity. You need to stay and play your game. The thing you need to look out for is when you get the big stack and start to play the bigstack poker instead of your normal game. I think that's what happens to a lot of people who double or triple up. they think they are no longer playing with their "money" so it doesn't mean as much.
If the table is very tough and i've only won a couple good pots to get ahead or back to even i'll leave, the table is no longer profitable.

Depending on the table, sometimes this is optimum strategy.
SS2 has a brief blurb on it. Essentially, you are freerolling with their money.
This allows you to make some bigger calls then you'd like to.
I use this strategy quite frequently when I pick up a big stack.
Last night at the $2/4NL 5handed table:
Stacks as follows: Big stack: $800-1000
Me: $900-1000
Fish 1: $100-150
Fish 2: $75-100
Fish 3: $75-125
Standard PF raise was $14-20.
This cripples their FoldEquity, and if you had a strong draw, it minimized your loss factor.

Good table

Of course, if you joined short-stacked at a limit game, and you won like this then if you now have a decent stack for the stakes, then keep playing, otherwise count yourself lucky and leave... not so likely to triple your buy-in in one hand in Limit, though, so I'm presuming the question is mainly oriented towards either Pot Limit or No Limit, where you could lose all those winnings in one hand potentially.
Almost any time I decide I'm going to leave a table, I'll at least see the blinds round, so I can see whether I pick up a monster hand for free... but I figure most people deciding to leave would do that as a matter of course...
One factor for deciding whether I'm going to leave the table then is the amounts that the other players have left. If you have a lot more than the maximum buy-in for the table, and nobody else does, then you may as well cash out the excess, and re-buy back in, because you won't significantly reduce the amount you can win off the other players, and it gets some profit away from the table. On the other hand, if someone has a monster stack from getting really, really aggressive (and lucky), and you just pushed in with a really premium hand heads-up against them, then I may continue waiting for another top 5 hand to play against them, to see if I can use the extra chips to make a lot more profit (because the profit would clearly justify the risk).

i would stay as long as u expect to win at that table. i'll never leave a productive table, it wouldn't matter to me wether it took an hour or 2mins it is still a productive table. if then u start losin then u can leave but i couldn't make my mind up on just 1 pot. at least wait for a while and see what is happening to ure stack and go from there.

Me leaving a table is either tied to

a) There being better tables to play at, or
b) there being a non-poker committment to attend to (often something called "sleep" or "work")

Whether I'm winning or losing has little, in theory, to do with when I get up. I'll say this though: it's a lot nicer to leave when you've booked a win than a loss. I don't care who you are, or how well you've managed to detach your psyche from your game - it feels nicer to know that you're ahead when you leave a table. Whether or not you let that affect your decision is individual, but denying it is naïve.

For that reason, I've sometimes quit a few minutes sooner than I need to because I'm up, and I've also sometimes stayed a little while longer at a table full of fish when I'm down.