Become a World-Class Quitter
We all know that quitting sessions when tired or tilted is good.
I’m not here to tell you what you already know. I’m here to offer a new perspective and tools to achieve what you recognize you should, but often don't.
Let’s be honest:
For most of us, quitting poker sessions when we “should” can be really hard.
We all know that we should eat healthy foods. Yet, most of us struggle to eat as well as we would like to.
I’m someone who’s struggled with the discipline to quit (and to eat well, but that’s not why we’re here), which is why I’m a great person to tell you how I’ve improved in spite of it.
When a super fit person tells you, “You just do it no matter how you feel,” they’re not wrong, but that isn’t enough to change many of us.
Reality
A number of you are not living in reality. If you haven’t read my post on performance, I URGE you to stop reading this now and go read it first.
Seriously. Don’t read on until you’ve read that. It’s pointless.
The first step is accepting reality – your skill level and abilities do not equal your performance.
The next step is preparing for reality.
Know Thyself
Being more realistic about how we view our edges, as I covered last week, is only half of the battle.
We now need to prepare ourselves to make better decisions at the table.
First things first, let’s audit ourselves.
1)Identify your bias
Do you tend to play longer sessions when losing?
(This is most people, but it might not be you.)
Do you tend to play longer sessions no matter what?
(This is me!)
Do you want to quit after you’re up a couple of buy-ins?
Whatever your emotional leak,
the first step is seeing it.
2) Identify your warning signs
We don’t always realize that we’re in a diminished state at the table. Many people don’t even stop to consider it.
What are some things that you tend to do when you’re playing a little bit too long, or tilted?
You can use these as alerts to wake you up and get you thinking about your current mental and emotional state.
Some common ones:
Playing faster
Forgetting the action
Autopiloting
Feeling angry
Getting hungry
These can be anything you can use as a trigger, not to “snap out of it and play better,” but to snap out of it and re-evaluate whether or not you should continue playing.
Your Personal Rulebook
Right now, as you sit and read this, are you tilted? Are you exhausted?
If the answers are yes, now’s not the time to create your rulebook.
If the answers are no, then now is the perfect time to make decisions for your future self – your tired, tilted, or otherwise compromised self at the poker table.
You know your biases. You know your warning signs.
Use both of these to create some rules to protect you from your future self.
On page 21 of my e-book, “Poker Mindset Strategy,” which you’ve already received if you’re a subscriber, I go over some of these rules and the reasons behind creating them.
Next, beginning on Page 26, I share a valuable lesson on quitting that I was taught by a mentor, Tommy Angelo.
Rather than simply repeating myself (it’s free, if you haven’t gotten yours yet), I’ll share some more detail on using the above insights to create your own rulebook.
Default Rules & Trigger Rules
Default rules are simple:
Quit anytime I’m down 10 buy-ins
Take a short break every 3 buy-ins I lose
Take a short break every 2 hours
Re-evaluate the game I’m in every 2 hours
Trigger rules are based on you catching yourself displaying one of your warning signs. For example:
When I notice I start playing too fast, I’ll take a 15-minute break and evaluate whether or not I should keep playing.
In the past, I would make the wrong adjustment here.
I’d catch myself playing too fast, and think, “Okay, Phil. Slow down,” and I would play more slowly for a while.
This isn’t the way!
Fast play may have caused a couple of extra mistakes, but making myself consciously play slower was wasting time and mental bandwidth to fix the wrong thing.
The fast play wasn’t my problem -
it was a symptom of my problem.
My problem is that I was tired or tilted. And being tired or tilted comes with a whole host of other symptoms!
What I should have done, rather than slow down my play, was take a break.
During that break, I could’ve evaluated whether or not this game was worth me continuing to play in, given my diminished state.
If I thought it was, I could’ve utilized one of the boosts I talked about in last week’s post.
If I thought it wasn’t, the decision is easy: Quit!
There’s Always Tomorrow
Whether or not the same exact game will be running tomorrow, the opportunity will be there again eventually.
If you accept that your performance combined with your skill is what creates your edge and that your performance will diminish during long and/or frustrating sessions, or on days you’re upset or under-rested, then it will hopefully become easier to make better quitting decisions.
Accept reality.
Audit yourself.
Create a rulebook.
Look out for triggers.
Follow your rules.
May the best quitter win.
