Leave a cash game table

One more new topic tonight - this one varies for me and I haven't quite figured out when to leave a cash game table. This is mainly for online play since there aren't any casinos around where I live.

I find that when I'm above my buy-in, I feel the pull to stay at the table even though the better thing to is to leave. And then on the flip side, when I'm down, I want to stay at the table since I want to avoid a losing session. Now, I should note that my decision to stay/leave a table is not based on how much I've won/lost but on how good of a read I have on my opponents.

Is this a good strategy? Are there any other deciding factors?

I'd say you've got it right on the money. Your winnings/losses should really have no affect on when you leave the game.

If you're playing your best game and outplaying the table, your chipstack should not take you away from such a juicy opportunity.

Setting time restrictions or win/loss restrictions is just that. Restrictive. You're simply restricting yourself from playing your best game and taking full advantage of the opportunities that present themselves to you.

Players may tell themselves that they'll leave when they double-up. But when they sit down at the table, everyone else is playing so transparently it's like they've got glass-backed cards. You're doubled up 9 hands later, and now it's time to go. But you didn't drive all that way to play for ten minutes. And why leave all that easy money laying on the table? It's yours for the taking. Even if it's an online game, much easier to leave and find a different game to get into, what if that next game is a table full of tricky veteran grinders? It's good practice, but you're probably not going to make nearly as much as you would have at the soft game.

Keep an eye out when you play for the signals that it's time to leave the table. You should be looking within yourself for these signals, never at your chips or the clock. I look for those minor, almost unnoticeable little tilts to tell me when it's time to go. When I start losing concentration, I'll leave. When it becomes tough to remember what my opponents have been up to, I'll leave. I also leave if I notice myself beginning to stray from my gameplan, such as inexplicably playing mediocre hands or getting involved out of position, or going from an aggressive (winning) style to more of a calling station. If I find myself getting sleepy, groggy, hungry, grumpy, or in any way bored or uncomfortable, then I know it's time to go, or at least to take a nice long break.

If i am bleeding badly, and it's a tough crowd on the table, that's my cue to leave.
I mostly like sitting for 5hrs + live. But I don't have a real cardroom near to play. The damned dogtrack's card room takes $5 in rake for $100 buy-in/1/2 BB ... so that game is not optimal for me to play in.

I really dont like to play the ring games online, but say charity poker or casino poker room, i usually rock. Everytime i play online at a ring game, it usually busts me, or instance, i made a mistake on absolute poker, I just won a big tourney which paid me a little over 1,500, so i took it a a big game, i think it was 15/30 NL not sure, but either way i ended up getting AcAd, flop was 9h 5h As, this guy bets like 400.00 so i pushed thinking hell yeah im about to make a mint off of this guy, he calls and flips over Ah Kh my heart sunk right there... i just knew the heart was coming which it did, so i went from having over 1,500 bucks from a 50.00 deposit to the big ZERO. I know this could have been avoided if i would have left myself with a safety net and played smaller stakes, but it was just so wierd my first time ever playing something like that and i get smashed. oh well c'est la vie ... so needless to say i dont really play to many ring games online anymore, i try to stick with tourneys. GL

The Big Donk wrote:I'd say you've got it right on the money. Your winnings/losses should really have no affect on when you leave the game.

If you're playing your best game and outplaying the table, your chipstack should not take you away from such a juicy opportunity.

Keep an eye out when you play for the signals that it's time to leave the table. You should be looking within yourself for these signals, never at your chips or the clock. I look for those minor, almost unnoticeable little tilts to tell me when it's time to go. When I start losing concentration, I'll leave. When it becomes tough to remember what my opponents have been up to, I'll leave. I also leave if I notice myself beginning to stray from my gameplan, such as inexplicably playing mediocre hands or getting involved out of position, or going from an aggressive (winning) style to more of a calling station. If I find myself getting sleepy, groggy, hungry, grumpy, or in any way bored or uncomfortable, then I know it's time to go, or at least to take a nice long break.

couldn't have put that one better ... ignoring those little signs has cost me well into the thousands just this year. all too often i could feel the storm coming and steered right into it ... i'm a negative example of just what t.b.d.'s referring to ...

i allway loser for the frist hand even i has KK in pocket lol