Hey everyone,
Curious how you all decide when to end a cash game session.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, sometimes I quit when I’m up a few buy-ins just to lock it in, other times I keep going if I’m playing well and focused. But then there are those sessions where I stick around too long chasing losses or playing while i'm tired… and yeah, that usually ends how you’d expect.
So what’s your approach?
Do you set a stop-loss or win goal? Or just go by feel?
Any signs that tell you “okay, time to pack it up” like tilt creeping in, getting bored, or starting to play on autopilot?
This is one of those questions every poker player should ask themselves, whether they play cash or tournaments. When is it time to quit?
First, we need to know when it's time to start playing. To get the most out of the game, even if it's just for fun, you need a clean, organized space. You shouldn't be hungry, thirsty, or worried about some other issue. I've been talking about this a lot in my posts—the issue of addiction. We shouldn't play because we're addicted or because we have nothing better to do. Poker is a high-adrenaline game; it's not like turning on the PS5 and casually zoning out with The Last of Us.
Poker demands concentration. So, when you decide to play on a Saturday night, but you've got the TV on for sports, you're grabbing a beer, and you're constantly checking your phone, you're not really playing poker. In that situation, poker is just one more distraction among many, something you're doing because you're bored.
We shouldn't play when we're tired, bored, worried, angry, or thinking about anything other than poker.
Those are the reasons for starting to play. Now, man, let's talk about the reasons for stopping. You stop playing when you hit a situation commonly known as 'tilt.' The problem is, a lot of players wait until they're completely on tilt to stop, and by then it's way too late.
Tilt starts the moment you're at the table and begin feeling anxious or tired. That's when you should stop. Or when you start complaining to yourself that "the villain always hits their card," "I think the game is rigged," "I'm just unlucky," or any other thought that has nothing to do with what you need to do in that exact moment. When we sit down at a poker table, we know for a fact that we can lose. So why do we get mad when we do? It's because of other internal and external factors that are irritating us, and it all starts with those first signs of fatigue and boredom.
Rule number 1: If you're starting to feel tired or bored,
STOP PLAYING IMMEDIATELY.
There's another really interesting thing about tilt that comes from playing for results, and man, it's a bad idea whether the results are good or bad. Let's talk about negative tilt first: that's when we lose 1, 2, 3
hands where we were ahead and we start complaining or thinking we're unlucky, just because the villain hit their 4 or 2 outer on the river. We know this is gonna happen! The important thing isn't the result, it's the process of playing correctly. It's the process of getting into favourable situations where what really matters is that at the moment of the shove, we were 60, 70, 90% ahead of our opponent. If he hit the very few outs he had, good for him, because what matters isn't the immediate result, but the fact that we played correctly. That's negative tilt, and its root is tied to us expecting certain results instead of being focused on the process. And why weren't we focused on the process? Because we were distracted, tired, bored, irritated, etc.
Another factor people don't consider as much is positive tilt. This happens when we start winning a bunch of hands and we get all excited, our heart rate speeds up, and at the same time we think we should stop playing to protect our winrate. Again, we're focused on the result and not the process. If we're playing well, feeling calm, thinking logically, making correct decisions, and we're well-rested, there's no reason to leave the table, because we're executing the process well. I like to insist on this and I'll repeat it: forget the results. Results, both positive and negative, don't define who you are as a player, how much you've studied, or how dedicated you are.
The moment you start focusing on the process, you'll realize that an essential element of the game is self-control. You will only start playing poker when you have total control of your external and internal situation, and you will only stop playing when you're tired, bored, or starting to get irritated (or because you had previously planned to only play a 1 or 2-hour session).
Don't play out of addiction! Poker is not a PlayStation 5. Playing addictively leads to frustration, resentment, angst, and even more serious psychological issues. Don't overplay. Plan sessions of a maximum 1 or 2 hours, and after that, go rest, review hands, go out with your girlfriend, do anything except play poker. Cash games aren't like tournaments where you're forced to sit for hours on end. We play less, and in this case, what's important is the quality and not the quantity of hands played.
Hope this helps, man. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Big hugs
