When to quit a poker session

Quite often poker players ask the question “when should you quit a session of poker?”. This can be a tough question to answer, and to give an accurate answer is not easy when it is really is very much player dependant. Every player has varying degrees of tilt, discipline, focus, etc. Some players can stay focused for really long sessions while other players start playing their B game after playing for 1 hour.

There really is no one size fits all answer when it comes to knowing when you should quit a poker session. You know yourself better then anyone else does, so it’s extremely important that you listen to what your mind and body are telling you. Use good judgment to decide when quitting a poker session is the best thing to do.

When ever you are playing online poker, you should always be taking regular breaks at least every hour or so. Sit out for a few minutes, get something to eat or drink, freshen yourself up, and if you still like playing some more poker you have had a short break, get back to it.

You should never decide to quit a poker session just because you’re up or down a certain number of buy-ins. Quite often I will hear fellow poker players say they quit a poker session because they quickly won two buy-ins and didn’t want to lose their profits. This is a really bad attitude to have and can actually be -EV to your game. The winning session could become a really big winning session if only they continued to play with the fish.

By playing at a table where you have an edge over your opponents, you would be potentially losing a lot of money by quitting the game. You should view poker as being one huge session, not lots of smaller sessions. Your decision to stay in a game should be based on if you think you’re profitable in that particular game for as long as you have the correct mindset and focus to remain profitable.

If you have quickly lost two buy-ins and you can feel yourself going on tilt, then by all means quit the poker session immediately, as you will undoubtedly donk off more buy-ins because you are playing emotional poker. But, if your mindset and level of focus are fine, then you should not leave the same and continue playing poker until this changes, especially if you have fish at the table.

All in all, when to quit a poker session is a personal choice and different for every player. By quitting when you cans see that you have lost your focus, you gain an edge over your opponents because many players lack the discipline to know when to quit. If you are better then your opponents in identifying when to quit a poker session, then it’s going to be a very profitable strategy, as most players will play on tilt and chase their losses.

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