When to get up..

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post and I'm going to write about something that's been bothering me lately. I've been playing poker since I was a kid. Always had a knack for the game. Now I'm almost thirty. In my early twenty's I dabbled in online poker at fulltilt and when the sites shutdown I stopped playing. Well about six months ago I started playing again at my local casino. The past six months I've played a lot of poker. I've also started playing online again. I've been reading and studying at various poker sites and I've gotten serious about the game.

So .. here is my question / concern. I play 1/2 no limit at my local casinos. There has been a few times where I bought in for $200 and after a few hours play I'm sitting on $700 to $900. But I wind up sitting there another four or five hours and my stack dwindles down to nothing.The most recent time this happened was this past weekend. I went Sunday and played around 3pm and a few hours later I'm up close to $1000. I left the table after a few players got up and went ate. I came back about an hour later and in two hours lost everything in front of me. The cards seemed to completely turn against me. I lost one hand with a straight beaten by a flush to a guy who had been bluffing all night so I thought I had him made. Another hand I flopped a set and lost to a straight where a guy called my preflop raise with 4, 7 and makes his straight on the river. Then to top it off I had pocket A's and went all in and lost to three sevens. I maybe played one or two other hands so I was playing tight.

Now I'm aware of tilting either way. Happy tilt, angry tilt. I'm aware of my emotions at the table. I didn't come back to the table Sunday after dinner and think I was king and could do whatever I want. The cards literally stopped coming my way. The times this happened to me before this it was a little different. I made bad calls and lost big pots but what I've been asking myself and I'm asking you guys is.....

Should I be getting up after I double up or triple up my stack?? I'm aware that I shouldn't get up after I get a big pot off someone. I would never do that, but if I've trippled up or doubled up and even if it's only been a couple hours and I have the time to sit there another four hours should I just leave?? I'm beginning to think it's like playing against the casino. Time is against you and the longer I'm there the worst my odds are.

Now there has maybe been one or two times where I lost a lot of my winnings due to a bad call that I made. I can accept that, but more often that not it seems my stack dwindles down to nothing after I've doubled or tripled up. So I guess I should leave when I'm up like this or sit there and only play the best of hands, high pocket pairs, and AK, and only play when I hit the flop. I feel like this is whats stopping me from taking the next step. Maybe I'm not playing my hands right after I've doubled up. Maybe it was all luck at first. What are your thoughts and advice??

yup 200 to 1k in 2 hours ..yup i would say that after dinner you go home ......

i would also say that the players at that time of day fit into your play and maybe later afternoon you are getting a different kind of player....another thing to remember in all things that moderation is key( set time /win stop place...take your dinner ....if you choose to continue start over with 200......so if you do blow it you are going home with 600 dollars ahead(nothing to complain about).
future success!

I think you play too much hours, so you are getting tired and start to make mistakes and loose your patience

after dinner why do you have to go back with your entire bankroll? Could you not go back and start from 200?

im only amateur player and i play online but for mee ,if more time i spend playing the worst i get.
Evenings and nights are the worst 4 mee. Thats because im tired.
But if the cards wont come then who knows whats the problem. Mybee you are tyred too and become impatient.

I just get up when I feel I'm not playing good, or feel that I have not had a good hand for years, and get anxious, or when I'm tired, or when I have lost too much

I guess mentally I could start over with $200 but your not allowed to take money off the table and keep playing. So then yea, I guess I just have to be strong enough to get up if I go down the amount I started with originally. As far as the competition goes... I would say thats not much of a factor. I usually dont start playing until 7 or 8pm. This weekend my wife and I were staying at the casino hotel and Sunday was our last night. That's why it was so hard to get up since I didn't have to "drive home".

However, I do think the best approach from here on out would be to get up if I go down the amount I started with. I will remember that next time. I'm torn between whether I play to many hours. I would say on average I play for about six hours. I wouldn't think that's to many hours compared to many people.

I'ts funny really because I think playing online is more grueling that playing live poker. I played in a $25 buy in MTT the other night, $8000 guarantee, and five hours into the tournament I was hurting lol. 1100 players joined and I finished in 36th placed. I was short stacked going into the next round after a break and made a bad call which put me out. I like playing online but nothing beats a live game to me.

I've struggled with this issue quite a bit too. Theoretically, if you consistently make profitable decisions, more volume = more profit. But I'm aware of how mentally devastating it can be to lose all your session profit from a couple bad beats.

I don't think it'd be too profitable to limit your winnings more so than your losses. For instance, if you bring $400 to the casino that you are willing to put on the table you shouldn't automatically leave if you win $150. I think the best way to go would be to "cap" your profit to match what you've got on the table OR leave after predetermined time. If you buy in for $200, lose $100, and reload to $200 (total: $300), you should leave if you ever build your stack to $600 ($300 profit) OR after 8 hours of play - which ever comes first. Obviously it doesn't have to be 8 hours, but you should know when you sit down when you plan to leave.

It's not really a proven system, just an idea I've got. But I'd imagine it would work well for any winning player.

When you double up your BI

Is it time to leave that table to protect your profit and rebuy in? Or is it better to take advantage of that size of cash stack?

I think you should play exactly as long as can stay concenrated and brisk. Then the equation stating that more volume = more profit will be in effect.
When you start yawning, thinking about absolutely unrelevant things and so on, then it's a high time to leave the table, if you like your bankroll.
Another possibility is to apply "hit and run" but then you won't be very popular in the casino I guess.

Play a certain amount of hours everyday. Playing too much can hurt your game. When you get up that much, just stop playing. Then start a new game another day.

you should always have a stop-loss and stop-win it will help control tilt and help save money

Stay as long as you're killing the table, or if it is still optimal to play.

A recipe for disaster is when we leave right away if we were winning quite something in a short span of time but will stay longer hours chasing our loses.

Correct me if I am wrong, one problem I think you have is that - You say you make your $200 to $900 in a few hours. And then it dwindles to $500. Maybe you kept on thinking that extra $400 profit you once had not realizing that you're still up by $300. Half full Half empty kind of thing. So you kept chasing (that) till you get broke.

Another thing is that, we have tendencies where we play looser when we are winning. That we play all those kind of crappy hands, in crappy positions and so on..

I leave the table if I made two big mistakes. Or if I'm starting to tilt.

I wouldn't like playing 500bb deep with other good players in the game in the first place. If they were all fish, that's a different story.

IMO, unless you are one of the top 2 players at the table, bigger stacks hurt you once they get bigger than 100bb.

I actually think it is the hours just make a set schedule on how long you going to play a set schedule that is suitable of you playing your AAA game Maybe about 3 to5 hours should be good i am not a live player but, i play around 12to16 hours a day and even 36 sometimes.