Monday, March 13, 2006

You know as well that there were plenty of times you wished you had left a game before you did. This whole article is about "not" pushing your luck when it’s starting to run dry. Most poker players have a little voice that tells them when they’re headed for a bad night. That little voice tells you: "Get out of this game; it has no future for you." There was a time I rarely listened to this voice. Over the years I learned to listen very carefully to that little voice. It has saved me a great deal of money, but I still don't listen to it 100% of the time. When I start to hear that warning, I start to evaluate the game I am in to see what is wrong with it. The important part is that I usually know before I evaluate the game, what's wrong with it and why I should move to another game, or leave altogether. The problem is that I get too comfortable, complacent, and too lazy to move. Here are some different ways to evaluate a question regarding games we should quit. QUESTION I just completed a 15-hour losing session playing 10/20 hold'em, losing 3 big bets per hour. I was exactly even after playing about 3 hours. I got back to even after taking a beating at the beginning of the game, and clawing my way back up. My gut feeling told me, or I should say it pretty much screamed at me in its subtle way to quit, go home, and get them another day. Of course I decided differently, and paid for it. Once you've become the main course for everyone at the table, you must tighten up considerably for a variety of reasons. The tendency to win back quickly what you have lost affects your starting hand requirements, and you start playing more hands than you normally would. You may also be on an emotional tilt as well, thereby affecting your decisions as the game continues on. This is a bad sign, and one of the first steps toward going on tilt. Here's something important to think about. By playing tighter than normal, you give someone else the chance to become fodder for the other piranhas. Get up and take a break that lasts at least until the button comes around a couple of times. There are times when even your attempt at trying to play tighter can also work against you. By taking a break and maybe taking a little walk, you will get a chance to simmer down. If you are really mentally on tilt, get up from the table, grab your chips, cash out and leave. Do something else for the day, something you enjoy as much or more than poker. Forget all that fairytale BS about wanting to play against good players, and the honor of the glorious professional poker player. Most of the successful players are predators out to exploit every weakness they can find. They want their opponents as live and as dumb as possible, up to a certain point of course. They want the proper mix of tight players and live ones. The bottom line is that poker is a game of control. If you have to have the skill to control the other players in the game better than they can control you, that's great. The problem is how can you control the game when everyone else is feasting off your plays no matter what you do? You are losing and not only do you know it, but so does the rest of the table. I don't care if you are the best player in the game, if you are running bad, even the poor players will start taking shots at you. Poker is one of the few games where the best player does not always win. The old saying, "Let your conscience be your guide," has a lot of merit. If everyone listened to and obeyed their conscience they most likely would not drink, smoke, overeat, do drugs, or stay in bad poker games. There are a lot of things we can have a problem controlling, but one of the easiest we can learn to control is getting our butts out of the chair in a game we can't seem to beat, and move to a better one. It's easy, just go to the floor and say, “I would like a transfer to another game." Is that simple? Yes it is, but do we do it all the time? No we don't. It might just boost your profit. It sure as heck can't hurt.