I would say the minute you start thinking, "Just need to win another x" you should quit. We don't sit at the table with any goal beyond making good decisions and the minute you are focussing more on something else, you should leave and come back another day.

Another time to stop would be when you think "Oooo, I've won x, that'll buy me y." If that's your mindset, you'll try and protect the money and make mistakes so quit!

Finally, if you feel yourself getting angry or tilted or wanting to gamble or you get coolered (your post makes it seem like you react like this to coolers/failed bluffs), get the f*** outta Dodge! No reason to sit there spewing when you could go home with a nice win, have a rest, and go back another day fresh and ready to play well.

     Thanks for your response, Tom. It seems apparent that their is a leak in my mental game. Every session I try to keep a good balance between the theoretical and psychological aspects of the game. When one of those gears become stuck, the other tries to fix it.

     i.e., donks check-calling me the whole way without proper odds to profitably improve only to be saved by the river on a 2 outer. Very anti-theoretical play, so I kick in my psychological game to beat them. On the flip side, I am the favorite with the best hand and get bluffed at with a massive over-bet, forcing me to fold. Theoretically, it would be horrendous to commit a large portion of your stack to guesswork.

     So where does the balance come in?

Sounds like you are being results oriented, which is something that is extremely hard to get over as a novice player. I think the easiest way is to try and imagine the chips as score keeper, almost as points. Once they go on the table they are simply pieces of the chess match. If you are able to realize this it should help your game and your mindset a lot more with handling money.

That being said be completely prepared to lose all respect for money, and soon find yourself not caring what you lose money on.

Tom's post is spot on. Your only focus should be to make correct decisions. It sounds to me that after 3-6 hours you should try to take a break, what I find helps me is going to the gym for a couple hours and getting something to eat then coming back feeling refreshed and ready to play.

If you want to be a better poker player you have to get to know yourself, test yourself start noticing how long it takes until you begin to lose focus and try to push that more and more. When you do lose focus take a break! Long lunch, nap, or watch a movie and just relax for a few hours and come back fresh.

stop playing live poker ldo

Try to eliminate tilt and frustration completely from your game. Bad beats and coolers are part of the game, letting your emotions get involved will be detrimental to your success. Maybe try setting a time limit on your sessions and leave after x amount of hours whether up or down. Hope this helps.

I agree wholeheartedly with all of the above. Except ibey's advice to quit playing live. If your struggling with this issue playing live you'll be much worse off playing online. LOL I know exactly what your dealing with brother. I suffer the same predicament from time to time. When your winning and running everyone over at the table you eventually start pushing the envelope just a tad to far., and you try to push it even further making "slick/cute" plays (as i would put it) instead of sound ones. What's helped me was to set a cap on my winnings and a floor to my loses. My personal "play regulations" are- CAP: tripling my starting stack, FLOOR: losing half of my starting stack, and SESSION TIME: 2 to 3 hours. Keep your own play reg's like the Commandments and you'll star in fewer and fewer of these episodes. I still find myself starring as the lead role in one every now and again. IDK, I guess ya just can't keep yourself from indulging in a bad habit sometimes I guess. LOL