When to leave the game...

I'm new here but I've been following this forum for a while (Google search results often bring me to CardsChat).

I've been focusing more on my NL cash game and I find that at some point I'm doing good at a table but eventually after a while I either start spewing chips or I get caught in a nasty suckout that kills my stack or wipes it out. I've read a lot about tips on how long to play and when to leave and I've devised my own thing to try out based on some tips. I'd love some feedback on it:

Time: Always set session length upon sitting down at some tables. I can join new tables after leaving a table but when the time is up the time is up. I know some pros did/do this such as Negreanu.

Stack sizes:

Always leave a table if my stack is less than half my buy in. (Concept of minimizing losses....Chan is said to do this) I figure psychologically I feel like I'm only losing "some" rather than a whole buy in and with rake back that loss is even further minimized.

If at any point my stack is more than double my buy in I make a note of it and leave when either the session ends or when my stack drops to 1.5 buy ins to ensure I still leave with some profit.

If at any point my stack is more than 3x my buy in I make a note of it and leave when either the session ends or when my stack drops to 2 buy ins (doubled) to ensure some profit.

If its 4x or more I leave as soon as I fold.

I've been playing online off and on for a few years and I've found I sometimes run real good only to not get out and end up losing my profit or my whole stack. I don't like hitting and running and frankly it seems that doing so runs counter to staying when its good and leaving when its bad. I figure with these guidelines I ensure at least some profit when I'm running good but ensure I stay around to potentially make more.

Any feedback, personal tips, and comments are appreciated!

You should be either playing with the mininum buyin for the tables or the max. Playing half stacked is just generally awkward.

I will generally not leave a "good" table unless I have more than 10% of my roll on the table (which never happens, because that would be over 10 buyins), if the fish are there donating then keep taking it.

Hey TenBob,

Thanks for the feedback. I always buy in for the max at a table. For a while I was doing the "top off" thing if my stack dropped to half but it seemed like often times this would lead to losing that and my stack eventually. Psychologically i feel better it seems if I leave with a small loss and find another table to buy in full at, if that makes sense.

I agree with the 10% and leave...at higher levels. I'm trying to leave right away if my stack is 4x or more my buy in...at low levels I figure this is rarely happening and when it does I need to leave before i get half of it sucked out.

I have a lot of situations that have prompted me to really consider an "exit strategy." Usually these situations have me betting hard to protect flopped trips only to have them reraised all in with a fish showing a miracle card draw which results in them getting their miracle card. Every so often I find myself making a bad call and getting that miracle card myself but most of the time I'm on the receiving end of a brutal suck out. I find these situations occur often towards the end of a session or when I've stacked up double or more. Finding a way to get out before getting wiped out i think is useful.

Also FREEMAN!!!

Your stack shouldn't ever get to half a buy in, you should do your best to keep it at 100bb, set the auto-rebuy option to keep you at 100bb if you're playing online. The deeper the stacks, the more edge you have (the game becomes more complex and there is more room for error, and you're presumably making fewer errors than your opponents) and the rake is a smaller factor since it's smaller relative to the stacks.

Leaving because you now have 200bb in front of you makes some sense if you're bad at deep stack play, but still, you should basically always be better at it than your opponents. The only reasons I can see for leaving because your stack is too deep is if you go on "positive tilt" (i.e. playing stupidly because you think you're better than you are), or if it's too big relative to your bankroll.

I think overall you need to not be as attached as it sounds like you are to your individual buy ins, you can be absolutely crushing a game and lose a dozen buy ins to variance alone, variance is huge. You should also understand that ending sessions up doesn't count for much, it's the net result over all of the sessions you ever play that matters. Cashing out at a certain point to book a win doesn't alter your end results.

Also, be careful with some of the pro advice out there. A lot of it is... questionable. I have no doubt that Negreanu and Chan could both talk circles around anyone here, but a lot of the information that they actually make available is almost comical, whether that's intentional or just that the reliability gets lost in translation from pro to the masses, I don't know.

Oh and, when to actually leave.

99% of the time when I change table it's because of one of these:
Players on my left are too loose.
The players on my left have me covered and the players on my right have significantly shorter stacks than me.
The table has become less fishy than other available tables.
I have lost a few buy ins on one table, then I'll trust that there's a decent chance there's some variable I haven't noticed (someone figured out how to exploit something I'm doing or some weird table dynamics, or I've got a read that's not as good as I think it is).

And by "pros" I don't think pokerkid implied tenbob. But he's correct; a lot of pro advice applies better to pro or semi-pro or at least serious recreational levels of play.

Like Tenbob says, playing with half a stack is awkward, unless all your opponents at the table have similar stack sizes in which case it doesn't matter as much. Or, only the players better than you have deeper stacks in which case you can protect yourself by only having a stack the size of the bad players, but that's a little situation-specific.

To me the big reason to leave a table is if something is not good or right. It could be something that is easy to explain like aggressive players to my left, too many short stacks, not enough bad players, ect, but sometimes it's more difficult to pinpoint, like I'm card dead and decent players seem to be taking turns pressuring my marginal hands, or I have a sense that I'm off my game somehow and not making the best plays that I'm capable of making.

Otherwise it's time/boredom restrictions or the table breaks up that takes me away.

It kind of took an "ah ha" moment for me to realize the weight and validity of this advice. I often scoffed at the vagueness of "tips" that said when to leave is when something feels different or changes.

But I realized in my own play there are subtle nuances that indicate it is time to leave a table. They aren't always obvious but its almost like a feeling. I might start getting bored or cards might stop coming. I might be getting called down by an Ace high or small pair and my bluff fails. The table might change with players coming and going.

Thanks for the feedback, it really made me think.

i always leave when i double up my stack..unless the tables hot

i tend to buyin with the minimum stacksize.

i leave wen i loose my buyin or before the next blinds after i trippleup.

play mostly low/micro tables but it let me make a decent profit there

I don't think you should let your stack drop below 100bb (assuming you play BSS). If you don't auto-rebuy and just quit when you have less than 50bb, it probably means you have been playing the hand with something like 60bb in your stack, which is disadvantageous. Even if you auto-rebuy and lose 50bb, it's not a reason to leave the table. Just rebuy and continue playing.

Your decision on whether or not to leave a table should depend on whether your opponents are good enough to make your play there unprofitable. Also, if you have more big blinds than you feel comfortable playing with (e.g. you have tripled up and there's one or two guys with ~250bb stacks), you can leave the table and look for another one. If you're afraid to lose your winnings at every table, you're playing with scared money, and that influences your play in a negative way.