You just can't make a hand. Your nut flush draw never connects. An open-ender and the board pairs. Lots of small pairs that you get to see a flop with and not a set in hours. You bought into a $2/$5 blind No Limit Hold'em game for $500 and are down to your last $220 without ever really winning a hand. Frustration level: high. Quality of your play: probably not nearly as high as your frustration.What next? There are really two viable options for most players, and often neither is chosen. Option #1: Cash up, take your small loss of around half-a-buy-in, and call it a night. Option #2: Buy back up to an amount you are comfortable having in front of you, regroup, and play your best.
Now, let's see what usually happens. We have all been there, sitting with fewer chips in front of us than we usually have and not really wanting to buy any more into a game we aren't doing well in. So what happens? That last $220 goes down the tubes, sometimes as a bad beat or in a good spot that didn't work out, but more often in a situation where the money would not have gone in had we had more in front of us and could have played more appropriately. And a fair amount of the time, it just gets spewed off.
This is a huge leak for most players. Winning players can add to their win rates significantly by minimizing their losing sessions, while losing and breakeven players can keep more of their cash in their pockets by avoiding dusting off of the last of their chips in cash games. If you aren't willing to buy back into a game, that’s a prudent decision, but the unwillingness to take the chips you still have home with you is a big mistake.
In the live cash games I frequent, I see this all the time, and it gets compounded time and again. Say a player buys in for $500 in a $5/$10 No Limit game, which is a fairly short buy-in, but somewhat standard. He gets down to $180 and instead of adding on and getting back to playing his style, he is playing with under 20 big blinds and has made little to no adjustment to his strategy.
Say the guy goes a few orbits calling to see a few flops and is down to $140. Then, he ends up all-in in a pot where he knows he is in bad shape, but "doesn't have enough to fold." Busto, just like he thought. End of the line, right? Nope, he might get another $500 out. Wash, rinse, and repeat, except now the game is a little bigger and the stacks start to grow over time.
Now, our player is stuck in the game, not playing great and pressing a little bit. He calls a few raises pre-flop and tries to buy a pot here and there, but never really gets anything going and finds himself in the same spot yet again.
Over the course of the night, it is not uncommon to see four or five players run through this scenario several times each. Every now and then, one of them will hit a hot streak and run his stack up, but more often than not, they just keep dusting them off and their play gets continually worse as they get more and more frustrated with their situation.
When I catch myself doing this, I have made a personal rule: as soon as I feel short, I tell myself, "buy chips or cash up." Then, I quickly analyze my play and the game, and if I am not feeling good about getting deeper in the game, then it is time to go home.Most of the time, I am willing to get in deeper and a funny thing happens: just having more chips in front of me often causes me to get back to playing my best and be a little more upbeat about the game. If I bought in for $1,000 and get down to $600, I feel like I am on my way to losing a buy-in. If I add on another $1,000, I am sitting with $1,600 and the $400 that is missing just doesn't seem like all that much. I also have the chips to continue putting pressure on my opponents.
Money you don't lose is just the same as money you win. It spends the same and counts towards your bottom line the same. Mentally, it feels different, but if you can prevent yourself from ending your losing sessions by getting felted, you will find it adds up over time. It can also keep you from bleeding buy-ins one at a time into a game that, had you just stacked up a little sooner, could have turned out differently.
Court Harrington has worked on the business side of the poker industry in roles including tournament reporting for PocketFives, radio hosting for PokerRoad Radio, coaching for the WSOP Academy, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities. He also plays regularly in cash games and the occasional tournament. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at PokerRoadCourt@gmail.com.
