Should I stay or should I go?

When I play poker, it's easy to lose track of time. Unless I am getting beat up pretty bad, I usually want to keep playing (when I'm losing a lot, I want to stay then, too, but that's called 'tilt').

So, when should you leave the game? The short answer is, if you can beat the game, the longer you play the more money you can make.

But, One-Eyed Jack has a simple rule that whenever the following set of circumstances happen all at once, he picks up his checks and heads for the cage.
1) It’s 7:30, and you told your wife you’d be home by 8:00.
2) The dealer is collecting ‘time’
3) You have to post the Big Blind
4) The three biggest fish in the game are all leaving, and the next three names on the board are tough players
5) You’re ahead or behind $20.

When all 5 of these things are going on at the same time, it’s see ya later, baby! Why?
1) If you have someplace you need to be, be there. Poker’s hard enough to play when you’re focused. You’re giving up a lot of focus looking at your watch wondering if your wife is going to kick your butt.
2) In the heat of the game, it’s tough to sit back and check out the field you’re up against. You get a little break when they collect the time. That’s when I like to decide if I am going to play for another ½ hour or hit the door. When I pay my time, unless something odd happens, I like to play the full ½. If the time collection in your game is $5 every ½ hour, and you see on average 25 hands per ½ hour, you pay $0.20 per hand. I like to get my full value.
3) Nobody likes to post the blinds. But, in a full game, once you’ve posted your blinds you get to see the next 8 hands for ‘free.’ I like to play all those free hands. Unless I plan to stay long enough to play those free hands, I don’t want to pay the blinds. If you’re playing $10 – 20, you’ll pay $15 in blinds per ‘lap’ (ten hands). That averages out to $1.50 per hand if you play them all. I like to get my full value.
4) Be aware of how a change in the lineup of players might take you from favorite to underdog. When the 3 worst players are replaced by 3 strong players, you might now be taking the worst of it.
5) Walking ahead or behind $20 can feel like kissing your sister, and the temptation might be to play another lap, catch one hand, and either walk a winner or a bigger winner. But, more likely, you’ll push a mediocre holding with this mindset, and either turn a small win into a loss, or a small loss into a big loss. Poker is a game of small edges, and those $20 wins add up. If you want to go for the big short-term score, buy a scratch ticket.

So if I have to pay my time AND post the big blind AND I have someplace I need to be AND the fish are all leaving the game AND strong players are being seated AND my stack is treading water (neither up nor down much), I’m putting on my coat.

Please note that this entry was originally posted at my other site, www.pokerflashcards.com, which is the home site for Poker Flash Cards for Texas Hold 'Em.