Wilma Poker

When to end your poker session? This is the topic of much debate and recommendations in online poker forums. Everyone has his own method more or less effective and no one really agrees. One thing is for sure, when to end your poker session is one of these things that are not exactly poker strategy but that are important to optimize your bankroll.

Should you leave after losing 10 stacks in a ring game? Once you are tired or when the whale is gone? For me this is not what matters. Whether the fish is no longer on the menu is irrelevant. Similarly for getting tired, this is just a consequence of poor time management.

Remember that online poker is just a game, and it is not worth getting emotional after taking a bad beat. You must strike the right balance between concentration and emotions. The key is to leave the session when your fear of losing becomes more important than your pleasure from winning. Without fun, the game becomes boring and at the first error, you will feel guilty for not having stopped earlier. How many times did we curse ourselves for not having stopped the session on time, as we ended up losing all our profit of the day.

Whenever this feeling of guilt starts to rise in you, think about the two following ideas:

1) Do not consider the amount of money acquired as being yours while you are still playing. Your stack including your profits so far at the table is money to be invested. And like all investments, there is a risk attached to them and you can lose your entire investment.

2) You’ve gained confidence in yourself after winning money, and you are not playing your A game anymore. Poker is like a ski race at full speed where thinking about the record-breaking pace you just achieved is distracting and instead you should focus on your skis and trying to reach the finish as quickly as possible. In poker it is the same, you should not think about money that you have won or lose so far in the session. Otherwise it will affect your decisions, which will often turn out to be poor.

In summary basing your decision for quitting a session on a set of predefined rules related to time or profit is not conducive to your poker success. It is better to play without such constraints and to leave the session when you start to be afraid of losing everything, and the desire for win fades.

A session can not be tied solely to time or profitability constraints, simply because they do not take into account your mood or state of mind. So rather than turning into a robot, follow your feelings. When you feel that you are not enjoying the game, just go. Or if you are through a long session but you feel that you are doing great and that you could even win more money, just stay.