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Cash game strategy session length

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Friday December, 4th 2009 by fullhouse

Determining how long a session should be is one of the biggest struggles for most cash game players. The odd thing about session length is that there are generally two different types of players. A player will either play far too long or they will have extremely short sessions, neither of which is optimal. The best strategy for session length is to play for the entirety of the time where you are at your peak levels of performance. Figuring out when you are playing your best can be a challenge, however. There are some general rules that will make deciding whether to quit or continue playing pretty easy. If you are on tilt, for example, you will certainly not be playing your best and would be better off taking a break. Some players will experience drop offs in the quality of their play when they are down even just a few big blinds. Tilt is a major issue that is very difficult to deal with, but most problems plaguing players in regards to session length are pretty easy fixes. Your goal as a poker player should be to maximize your profitability, and one of the major ways that this can be done is through proper time management.

When to quit

The indicators for when to quit are generally easy to spot. If you know that you are tilting it is a guarantee that you are not playing your best. If you feel that you are tilting but still playing your best then you are not truly tilting. Tilt is not necessarily a rage of anger induced by a huge pot that you lost. Tilt can take many forms, from subtle tiredness to the aforementioned fits of rage. The most common forms of tilt are the hardest to notice because they will often slowly crippled your stack whereas the obvious forms of tilt take major chunks at a time. Some examples of hard to notice tilt would include tiredness, hunger and thirst, sickness, and the influence of alcohol or another substance. If you are experiencing any of these issues off the poker tables it is very likely that they will also plague you on the poker table. The remedy to these small forms of tilt is a simple break from the game until the issues are gone.

When to keep playing

It is much easier for most poker players to continue playing when they are down in a session. The drive to win back the money that they lost will be enough to keep them going for extended periods of time. The problem with playing more when you are down is the simple fact that you are unlikely to be playing in a proper or profitable mindset. If you are playing to win back money it means that you have lost money. If you lost money it is possible that you weren’t playing your best which then of course means that you might not be playing any better now. The ideal time to extend session length is when you are winning. Winning begets winning and it is much easier to build profits upon profits than it is to build profits upon losses. Players will often take the opposite approach and quit while they are ahead. This “I better book my winnings and call it a day” mentality is great for casino games but terrible for poker.