"The Rhythms of Poker: When the Music's Over"
By Kyle Swanson

Once you've got your poker groove on and are having a good night at the table, sooner or later the thought will arise: it's time to boogie on home. But how to be sure the music is over? This is an art in itself, and worthy of long-term study.

The right time to quit a game has no doubt been discussed for as long as cards have been flying. There are many schools of thought on the matter, and the one that tends to be given the most credence says simply that if the game is good, keep playing. If it's not, don't. The basic premise is certainly sound: when you're a clear favorite in a game, it's a "good" game, and good games aren't always easy to find. Now that the poker boom has widened the arena considerably, however, there are pretty damn good games in a lot of places, especially online. Let's look at live games first.

A real (read: live) poker game is a beautiful thing. It is especially good if it's a private home game full of friends, and is not being raped... sorry, raked. The conviviality is high, the laughter flows, pots get built with seeming disregard to pot odds, and everyone has fun, even the regular losers. If they didn't, they wouldn't keep coming back, but they do. This is the one type of game where, if you're winning and certainly if you're winning big, your exit may be limited to the end of the game. This can only be avoided by stating at the evening's start, "Boys, I've got to leave at 11." If you're stuck at 11, everyone will commiserate and be unlikely to mention your scheduled departure if you decide to play on, but if you're way up and really do want or need to leave, you've got an alibi. If you're winning and decide not to leave, once again it will probably go unmentioned, as everyone will be trying to get their cash back from you. If you're running so good it's surreal, on the other hand, you may be reminded of your early morning flight to Lower Slobovia. That's when you know you're in the groove!

Which brings up one of the toughest feats for most of us pokeristos: leaving a good game while winning. In fact, it sometimes seems the second most difficult thing in poker to do, the first of course being leaving a good game while losing.

As mentioned, many pros feel that leaving a game in which you are a clear favorite is a cardinal poker sin. The reasoning goes that to maximize your expectancy you should grind it out until all the money at the table is in front of you, or until the game breaks, preferably both simultaneously. Experience will teach that this is not a good move all or even most of the time, for many reasons.

This raises my favorite poker question yet again, the one that you need to ask yourself regularly: why am I playing poker? If the main reason is to make money, then by all means grind away and try to beat the game (some think money is the only reason to play, to which I say, you're missing at least half the fun). If you're amongst friends and they all demand a chance to win their money back, then you are probably doing the right thing---though if you play only for money you probably won't be in many friendly games. In a casino the wise move can often be staying until the game breaks or gets bad; some fish can only swim so long, and a shark must feed when he can. I for one would rather be a fun-loving dolphin than an insatiable shark, but to each his own. Online, there is almost always another game going, so it becomes all about finding and playing in only good games, and knowing when to say when; online games are there 24/7, which is both their blessing and curse.

Some guys play poker because they have no other life, and need to prove to themselves and the world (so their semi-logic goes) that if they are a good poker player, then they are a success as a person. Every poker room in the world seems to have a few would-be Hellmuths, mean-spirited geeks who love to announce how great they are as they take down another pot, though these fellows tend to be so corpulent they can barely reach the pot (just an observation formed over many years---so many of these wankers seem to have beards and/or be blobs---do your own research and see if you don't agree). These folks need to "crush" all opponents to prove their own self-worth, slim though it may be, and are a joy to beat; when you draw out on them on the river try not to smile and say, "One less Happy Meal for you, Blubba." These are also great guys to play when they're tilting, as they refuse to believe that their skills are ever less than 100%, especially at night's end when their egos can't accept that everyone loses sometimes.

Which leads to a very handy rule of thumb for leaving a game, whether winner or loser. If you make even one egregious play that you scratch your head over a minute later, seriously consider leaving. If you're up, book the win. If you're down, take the loss. Easier said than done, but experience will show that as soon as your game goes off the track, it rarely comes back. Your ego tells you otherwise, but that's why your ego is the biggest threat to your bankroll.

Should you leave a "good" game, even if you think you can beat it while playing at half your best? Most will say no, emphatically. I must disagree with the herd on this one. It's a bad idea to get used to playing at less than your best; it soon becomes a habit that will get you killed in normal and tough games. The only overlay you can really count on over time is your skill. If you never give that overlay away, and choose games wisely, you will win consistently, and will always leave feeling that you did your best. This is an extremely important consideration that will eventually teach you exactly what is luck and what is skill.

If I leave a game knowing I played my best, I feel good, win or loss. The variance of luck will wash out over time. All you can ever ask of yourself is your best, and if you are a real player, you will study your game and know what your best is and what you need to do to make it even better. To leave almost every poker game feeling good about your performance is to be a winner, no matter how the chips fell. In time, they will usually fall in your pocket. And your brain and your game will keep growing.

A major benefit of playing poker is the mental exercise (like crosswords, it's probably good at slowing senility). As a young chess player I used to call chess pieces "mental barbells"; the more I lifted them, the smarter I got. Poker can do the same, but the gambling aspect brings your adrenal system into play on a much higher, and lower, level. This gambling instinct can easily and quickly fog your judgment so that you have no idea how good the game is; all you know is that you're stuck and must get unstuck.

It has always amazed me how completely engrossed I can get in a poker game, especially when stuck. It seems that if I don't get back to even, life as I know it will be over. You've been there too, admit it. It's strange, ain't it? Then suddenly the game is over, and as you walk out into the real world you realize that the sun will come up after all, that it was just a poker game, and that you can win the money back next time. Yes, Virginia, there IS another game after this one! (And no, that fat guy with the beard is not Santa.) Much of the appeal of poker is exactly that sort of all-encompassing fascination/fixation/obsession/addiction (pick two or more). That appeal must be understood on a deep personal level if one wants to be a long-term winner.

When stuck like that you have NO conception of what your best game is anymore. You will tell yourself anything as long as it gives you a chance to win back your money. Hence, you will lose even more. The fact is that winners tend to win, and losers tend to lose. That's why they say to keep playing a game you are beating, and it's why I say you absolutely must have a stop-loss point in mind before you sit down to play.

What should that amount of money be? I've thought about this question for years, taking notes on hundreds and hundreds of sessions. I watched myself play my best, and my worst, and noticed how winning and losing affected my play. I noticed how much I tended to lose when I was playing badly but running normally as opposed to how much I'd drop when playing well but running bad, and so on. I observed how luck changed my strategies, for better and for worse. I spent many hours stuck in many games and asking myself what the hell I was still doing here when I'd promised myself I would leave after losing even one more hand...many losing hands later.

After all this self-inflicted joy and misery ("poker" is actually Latin for "exhilarated masochism", a little-known fact), I finally came up with what I feel is an almost perfect rule for quitting a game when you're losing. This rule has probably saved me more money than any other poker strategy I know.

We'll look at that rule next column.