Learn Texas Holdem

Question: I play 1-2 NL Holdem at a local card room a couple of times a week. I have been playing well and leaving a winner approximately 3 out of 4 times I play. I buy in for $300.00 and have been leaving when I am either up $300 or lose my original buy in. I typically play on average 3-5 hours a session. My question is kind of vague but I wonder if maybe my play could net me more (i.e. $600) if I stuck it out a few hours longer. However, I risk losing my sure winnings if I do that. I feel that I can beat the game I play in most nights. Do you have any suggestions on how to decide when to quit while being up or keep playing with the hopes of winning more.

Sean

Answer: I try to keep my sessions to around 8 hours or less. The main reason is that the quality of my play goes down after a long time. The tendency is to not be as patient, stop paying attention as much, and making more marginal calls. If I'm approaching my 8 hour session time, say if it is at hour 6 or 7 and I'm reasonably up, I may just take off and stop playing.

For example, let's say I'm up a rake or two rakes at the limit I'm playing and it is 9pm and I was only planning on playing till 11pm, I might just pick up and go. I do this because I like to create momentum and clock wins. Stringing a number of wins together has value other than just the money. Success breeds success. Many poker authors don't believe in leaving when you are ahead since they say you can play your next hand now, or when you come back, it makes no difference when you play it. I disagree because poker isn't just math; there are a lot of other variables in the mix.

Confidence and positive thinking are important aspects of winning and both are boosted when you string wins. I would prefer to guarantee a two rack day and leave 2 hours early, than try to squeeze out another couple pots and lose part of it back. I'm not trying to hit huge wins, just consistent nice wins. Another factor to keep in mind is pace. It is easy to burn out if you play too much. If you play for a living, it is important to have a pace that promotes your A game whenever you play. When you sit there for 12 or 14 hours, it makes it really hard to play well again for a couple days.

There are times when I do pull marathon sessions. I'll sit there and play as long as I can keep my eyes open when there are really bad players at the table. When you get to higher limits, game selection becomes important. When you have one player there feeding the table with deep pockets, it is a good idea to get as much time in as possible (even if it means you may lose some of what you already won back). I would recommend that you take a similar approach to session length: gauge your session length on how sharp you feel and then play only really long sessions when the games are juicy. I can't say whether or not you can play well for over 5 hours.

If you can play well for 8 hours, I would. I guess it also depends on how close you live to the nearest cardroom. The farther away you live, the longer I would recommend you play per session and the longer you take off in between sessions.