WHEN DO YOU STOP PLAYING A POKER SESSION?

devonfish5

After reading a few recent posts on the forum about players losing x(large) amounts of buy-ins in a session,
and myself having experienced the same thing too,i was wondering if anyone has any thoughts as to the best way of avoiding this from happening in the future?

can we stop this from happening? or is it simply 'all part of the game'
will we always have winning and losing sessions,be that large or small?
is there any way we can control those awful losing sessions that happen?
does a number or buy-ins 'stop loss' really work?
if so, how many buy-ins should we give ourselves per session?

which leads me on to the question...

When do you stop playing a poker session?...

after a certain amount of time,ie;1-2 hours?
do you prefer longer or shorter sessions?
when you can't keep your eyes open any more?
11pm?
midnight?
when you've won/lost x number or buy-ins?
do you ever 'book the win?' and have an early night.
when you're hungry?
etc.

also, to finish...How many tables do you play?
             
is it important? maybe not,just curious.
what do you think is your optimal number?

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dev

Lambert180

I play 6tables and I do think it's important to the question because more tables = potentially bigger swings in the short term. Like you'd have to be VERY unlucky to be playing 1 table of cash and get stacked 3 times in 30 mins, load up 10 tables and that could/will easily happen, depending on how aggro you are.

Personally I think we should only stop if the game gets worse i.e. it was full of 'fish', they got stacked, left and we're now sat on a table full of people where we feel we've now become the worst player on the table or one of them.

OR

cos we're playing badly/tilting.

The other obvious reasons are just like tired, need food, gotta go out, got other stuff that needs doing etc etc, but poker wise I don't think we should leave just because we're running bad if we're still playing good. Imagine we were just continually running a race over and over with someone, we have 88 and they have A4 and we get 100xBB in pre every time and they're happy to continue with this, should the fact we've lost 3 in a row stop us from getting it in again 88 v A4?

liamboi11

I personally like shorter sessions like 1 or 2 hours 4-6tabling because thats when I feel I play my best after that a start getting even more spewy than I normally am.

reasons for stopping

-stop when feel there is no value at table no point playin in 4/5 handed game full of nit regs.

-tilting really bad which then leads me to playing awful.

-tired,hungry,bored or just not in the right frame of mind prob should just not started playing in 1st place but we prob all done it in the past.

-lost all my bankroll

-mrs is nipping my head to do some houswork no point arguing just get it done and come back when she`s happy lol.

GELDY

i do think stoploss has a place here

do we always recognise when we are playing bad?

sometimes we think when we lost it was standard - but no it was poor play

having a stoploss forces time-out, that can then be used to analyse, or to chill, whatever

i agree if we can be totally confident that we are losing due to variance and we are on a table of fish then one might want to override that

but generally i think it is a smart move

calcalfold

IMO - in order of importance

1) Tilt or early signs
2) Lack of vlaue (might be possible to change table rather than end session)
3) Tiredness
4) Distractions
5) Need to go to bed to get x hours sleep

IDONKCALLU

i normally stop playing a session if i feel tired or i am just clicking buttons without much thought process i think before u sit down at a table if ya running good or bad u should say im gonna spend 2 hrs then leave the table or u end up playing longer and all ya profit u have made in the 1st 2hrs can lose by a mistake by being tired etc or splashing around

calcalfold

"-mrs is nipping my head to do some houswork no point arguing just get it done and come back when she`s happy lol."

There may be a work around for the other reasons
I stated

But this can never be resolved until you have done what she wants!

devonfish5

In Response to Re: WHEN DO YOU STOP PLAYING A POKER SESSION?:

i do think stoploss has a place here do we always recognise when we are playing bad? sometimes we think when we lost it was standard - but no it was poor play having a stoploss forces time-out, that can then be used to analyse, or to chill, whatever i agree if we can be totally confident that we are losing due to variance and we are on a table of fish then one might want to override that but generally i think it is a smart move
Posted by GELDY

interesting Geldy...

do we go down the route of using stop loss then?
if so,how many buy-ins?  I would say somewhere between 3-5 sounds more than enough.

unknown_username

I think the stop/loss strat is the wrong thing to be doing if your a well rolled and competent winning player.

You should just be looking at every day as one long running session and have the faith in yourself to beat the game over that amount of time and not be stopping just because you have lost x amount of buyins.

If you set yourself a stop/loss of say 3-5 buyins and you play 4 sessions during which time on all sessions you start badly and endup 3 buyins down you would then be guaranteeing yourself to be 12 buyins down when if you had just played on in those sessions you may well have turned things around and actually be winning.

If your playing all the time just look at it as one long road mate and you wont go far wrong doing that and the big winning sessions will always pay for the losing ones as long as your doing things right.

unknown_username

In Response to Re: WHEN DO YOU STOP PLAYING A POKER SESSION?:

IMO - in order of importance 1) Tilt or early signs 2) Lack of vlaue (might be possible to change table rather than end session) 3) Tiredness 4) Distractions 5) Need to go to bed to get x hours sleep
Posted by calcalfold

Calcal has got it just about spot on here imo

hhyftrftdr

I'd never get going if I called it a day after losing 3 buy ins! #slowstarter

Donttelmum

I don't stop but rather wake up with my head on the keyboard!

devonfish5

ty guys for all your input.

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dev

GELDY

In Response to Re: WHEN DO YOU STOP PLAYING A POKER SESSION?:

as long as your doing things right.
Posted by _ARAZI_

i think this is the key point

as a rec player i don´t think we will always being doing things right, and hence a stoploss provides a way of getting away from an unrecognised tilt/bad play situation

for you pro grinders out there then sure, you know your play and hopefully can avoid that situation

for live cash then 3-5 bi makes sense - nearer three if it just doesn´t seem to be working that evening - nearer five if you´re feeling good but getting coolered

online multi-tabling - no idea

GELDY

In Response to Re: WHEN DO YOU STOP PLAYING A POKER SESSION?:

I don't stop but rather wake up with my head on the keyboard!
Posted by Donttelmum

just lol

i know live cash players like this - just without the keyboard

devonfish5

I would say my normal day time sessions last about 1-3 hrs
evening sessions generally longer 1-7+ hrs,depending on how i'm feeling/doing.
as a rule I tend to go down money wise at the start for some reason,don't know if it's the same for others?
usually play until I've won or lost enough,and call it a night.
not used stop losses,as yet.
just started to play some timed sessions.

playing dym,s I play the £3 level and my optimum number of tables is 9-12 I would say.
comfortable playing 15-18,but easier playing less for long periods like 4-5 hrs+
playing cash this year,mainly nl10. optimum number of tables probably 2
most happy playing 2-4
have played 9 a few times and lost big like 10 buy-ins one time.

my reasons for stopping are...
                                           when I've had enough
                                           when I've lost and feel it's not my night,no matter what I do.
                                         when i'm tired
                                        when I've won and fancy an early night and 'book the win'
                                       got to stop..going in town,shopping etc.
                                       when I need a poo.
                                      when i'm hungry
                                     if there are too many reg's about,and I can't go to 'value town'
                                     think that's it.

going to have to give the idea of using buy-in stop loss some more thought.
it is an area of poker that interests me atm. 


dev

Unknown

I usually stop when I run out of money

rancid

When I feel like it

if your playing cash, take regular 5 min tea breaks or w/e - helps you re focus and gather your thoughts

setting a stop loss is crazy if your rolled, it will dictate how long you play for
I can start a session and be down 3-4 bins within 30 minutes - so I can only play for 30 minutes
Just short term thinking, just shaking hands with varaince and saying your won I am going home

sighcall

In Response to Re: WHEN DO YOU STOP PLAYING A POKER SESSION?:

When I feel like it if your playing cash, take regular 5 min tea breaks or w/e - helps you re focus and gather your thoughts setting a stop loss is crazy if your rolled, it will dictate how long you play for I can start a session and be down 3-4 bins within 30 minutes - so I can only play for 30 minutes Just short term thinking, just shaking hands with varaince and saying your won I am going home
Posted by rancid

Never thourght of this, good idea!

I usually play well for 40 mins or so then lose conactration so this might help!