Poker: When To Stop Playing

• Author: Tom Kearns
• Filed under: Casinos
• Date: Feb 7,2010

We have all rued the day when we overstayed our welcome at those losing rounds of poker. In hindsight, it is easy to see that we should have walked away hours earlier. The problem is, if we did that, we would always be tormented by that jackpot that was just around the corner, awaiting a few more hands. But no, we stay and lose right down to that last grim deal. To make matters worse, since we have no idea why we put up with this torture in the first place, we go back and do it again and again.

It is crucial to be able to stay or leave based on a logical analysis of the situation, not an emotional impulse. If logically you have matters to attend to – liking picking up your wife and kids or attending work – you must be able to leave immediately. Sometimes a desperate hope for by now certainly imminent better luck is so strong that you miss dates and business appointments. But, the longer you stay overdue, the worse you play, because you know you are supposed to be elsewhere and that possibly your are ruining your life and career.

Poker is meant to be entertaining. If you are not having fun, that’s as good as reason as any to walk away early before the game becomes a tragedy of poor play and an even poorer frame of mind. A lot of players begin the game of poker for recreational purposes. If the game becomes overwhelming and they cannot leave, but neither can they play a decent game, it ceases to be recreation. They may be staying out of a sort of guilt, doing penance by playing badly and losing. They stay on and on suffering greater losses with every new deal, instead of taking their medicine with maturity, maintaining their good nature and understanding that it is just a game after all.

To overcome such pitfalls, the source of the problem must be discovered, and that can be done by the realization that the problem has nothing to do with the game intrinsically. If you insist on performing a pointless activity of self-torture that you cannot possibly enjoy but neither can you get up and walk away from, you have a problem. If you are not staying at the table for the poker, then you are deluding yourself and avoiding what is really troubling you.

In this case, whatever it is that you are avoiding, it is likely that it manifests itself in other activities as well. Shifting your focus may help to realize the source of the original problem. Rather than stupidly pondering why you have again stayed that fatal extra hour half-playing a doomed game, try to observe yourself in your other activities. You may discover that things which seemed completely unrelated to your poker plight have surprising connections to your inability to leave the game in time.

It may be anything really, from dissatisfaction with your work or career to a general inability to deal with loss. Once you discover the connection, it will be easier to decide how to stop playing poker.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives NoiQ Rakeback as well as Minted Rakeback.

categories: holdem,hold’em,poker,card games,games,gambling,recreation,sport