When To Leave..?

[joe808]

I was playing at a $5 min table with 1-10 spread for about 4 hours. Bought in 300, and was up $400. It was getting late, but i tried winning a little more. I stayed for another hour, but lost all my winnings, my 300, AND another $1,000! I was playing too long to buy in more, and I was overall frustrated. When is the right time to leave, of course I wished I left when I was up but...

 

[JohnCrover]

You want to play as long as you can get away with. That means if you're on a tear and up a relatively large amount you want to leave because anyone winning big is going to be watched. On the flip side, if you're losing you can push it more because big losers aren't very intimidating but if you're down a large amount and start to crawl back to even or close to even I would call it a session and take a walk so you have a loss booked for the books.
It's really a matter of opinion, some people advocate pushing it hard when you're losing because you can get away with it while others say booking losses is good to show the casino that they can beat you. In my opinion though, push it while you're losing and take a walk when you're up a good amount.

 

[JJP]

Joe808,

Were you playing for four hours nonstop? I personally like to take a break after an hour or so. Just easier to stay mentally fresh. Do you have a loss limit? If not, you may want to get one. I know we are all supposed to behave like robots, but we aren't; we are human and feel losses, whether its from a playing mistake or just a bad sequence of cards. I think in any form of gambling, if you feel frustration set in, the best thing to do is leave. Frustration generally does not lead to better decision making.

 

[Hell'nBack]

Impossible to sleep soundly after a big loss.

 

[joe808]

Joe808,

Were you playing for four hours nonstop? I personally like to take a break after an hour or so. Just easier to stay mentally fresh. Do you have a loss limit? If not, you may want to get one. I know we are all supposed to behave like robots, but we aren't; we are human and feel losses, whether its from a playing mistake or just a bad sequence of cards. I think in any form of gambling, if you feel frustration set in, the best thing to do is leave. Frustration generally does not lead to better decision making.

Yes nonstop, minus some bathroom breaks. And my loss limit would be $1000, but I couldn't win a hand to save my life. Losing my winning from all that work PLUS the other $1000 was just frustrating. USUALLY, I leave when I'm up about $300, because that always seem to be where I end up at. But then I started winning even more so I guess I got a little greedy, but lost it all. And after a loss like this, it discourages me to go back and try to get it back. It may not seem like a lot to most, but it is for me.

 

[Abigail Quarles]

I guess you need to control yourself and don't let the greed consume you. You have to stay focus and know you should leave when you win enough or when you lose enough.

 

[JohnCrover]

The fact is that you don't know if you would have lost $1,000 or won $1,000 if you had kept playing. For all we know you could have won $1,000 this time and next time you played a short session and only lost $200 but if you kept playing you would have lost more. Get it? We just can't see the future. Hein sight is 20/20 so if you knew you were going to lose if you stayed you regret staying, which is happening right now but the thing is that you just don't know. You can't see the future. The only way to guarantee your success is to play many many many hours and by playing longer you got closer to that guarantee, assuming you're not a magician who can see the future.

 

[DSchles]

Hein sight?? Really????

Don

 

[JohnCrover]

Hein sight?? Really????

Don

It's not my fault I never applied myself in school and got bad grades.

 

[JJP]

Hein sight?? Really????

Don

I think its German for hole carding. Lol

 

[JJP]

Yes nonstop, minus some bathroom breaks. And my loss limit would be $1000, but I couldn't win a hand to save my life. Losing my winning from all that work PLUS the other $1000 was just frustrating. USUALLY, I leave when I'm up about $300, because that always seem to be where I end up at. But then I started winning even more so I guess I got a little greedy, but lost it all. And after a loss like this, it discourages me to go back and try to get it back. It may not seem like a lot to most, but it is for me.

The psychological impact of gambling tends to be neglected, but cannot be ignored. A good rule of thumb: whatever your loss amount was, its OK to be angry and/or depressed about it for the rest of that day. But by the next day, you've gotta turn the page and forget it. We never want to be chasing previous losses or it will impact our decisions. And if it still bothering you, you probably did over bet your limits. Stay away from the casino until you are in a better frame of mind.

 

[JohnCrover]

When is it time to leave with regard to heat?

That's something you have to learn as you go along IMO but it's probably not good to have long dialogues with pit bosses asking them if you were counting cards correctly.
1)Don't draw any unwanted attention

 

[BoSox]

On the flip side, if you're losing you can push it more because big losers aren't very intimidating

Who pushes more when losing? I say a few degenerate gamblers who have more money than brains, or possibly a card counter who may shortly learn that his/her welcome mat is over.

It's really a matter of opinion, some people advocate pushing it hard when you're losing because you can get away with it while others say booking losses is good to show the casino that they can beat you. In my opinion, though, push it while you're losing and take a walk when you're up a good amount.

When playing a session it does not matter to the casino if you are ahead or behind at the moment, but it does matter when you are placing your big bets. What better time for some sick ass pit person to throw you out than when you are behind a good sum? This is the best time to do it, and it was all the card- counters fault as he/she more than likely extended the time played in the session giving the casino more evaluation time.

 

[JohnCrover]

I adamantly disagree. I can use a real world example : I was playing BJ and split 10's 4 times. I won all of them. The eye in sky says hmm. . That looks funny. Let's take another look at that. Backed off. If I had split to a stiff on every hand and lost like a bozo they would have been more inclined to say "hey look at that dummy LOL" then went back to looking at the guy who's winning big on their BJ 10 hand held game.
Edit: what I'm trying to say is that no one has ever hurt a casino's bottom line by losing big so they're more easily overlooked

 

[gronbog]

I disagree. It was the splitting of the tens that got their attention, not the result. Only two kinds of players split tens: idiots and counters. Do you really think they had you pegged as an idiot based on the rest of your play?

And yes. Casinos love to back you off when you're losing.

 

[BoSox]

Edit: what I'm trying to say is that no one has ever hurt a casino's bottom line by losing big so they're more easily overlooked

Going back to the first post in the thread, where Joe 808 had a $1700 dollar negative swing, from being $400 ahead to being $1300 down. We have no idea if Joe had $50 left in session money to play with or $10k plus, neither does the casino. As long as a player is still maintaining their spread and firing away why should he/she be ignored because of being behind in the session? Ask a hundred players or casinos what is the term losing big mean? You will not get a definitive answer by any stretch.

Now, a ploppy may likely say that they are playing with house money after being ahead saying 1k for example. A card counter in the same situation at the very least realizes that they are still playing with their own money. SO DOES THE CASINO every time they are either ahead or behind a player. The very last thing they want to see is some CC with some short-term meaningless loss turn it around and then exit with a nice win. Good skilled players with short-term losses do not get a free ride, there is no free rides period.

 

[hitthat16]

The only thing that matters is if you had the edge. Did you? Were you doing everything correctly and were you mentally fresh? If yes, then work on improving your edge and press on. If no, then absolutely work on improving your edge and press on.