Players who sit down at a table, get a little ahead, and magically have somewhere they have to be are generally given a hard time by the others at the table for being “hit and run” artists, but a lot of times, these players aren’t only hurting the game, they are also hurting themselves. For live games especially, the logistics of getting to a game and taking a seat at the table are somewhat involved. The drive and wait times can be significant and should be factored into the overall value of the game.

More importantly, though, most players leave at the totally wrong time, quitting games when they are winning and staying to the bitter end when they are stuck. Often at games that go to the wee hours of the morning, you hear comments like, “All the winners went home hours ago” or, “We wouldn’t still be here if we weren’t all stuck.” It’s less rare to hear in those situations, “Man, this game is so good, even though I’m up a bunch, there is no way I can leave.”

It makes intuitive sense that often when we are winning, we are playing at or near our best and when we are losing, we are more likely to make additional mistakes and go on tilt chasing our losses. Following this logic, as serious players, we should try to maximize the time we spend at the tables while playing our best (winning) and limit the time we play when we are more prone to making mistakes and not playing our best (losing).

Obviously, the luck element comes into play and you can be playing horribly and winning or playing top-notch and still getting killed. But, while those situations definitely happen, it also happens that when a player goes on a little bit of a bad run, they compound it by continuing to play longer than they should.

The area I see many solid players miss out on is the opportunity they leave behind at games when they get up and call it a day instead of stick around when they are hitting on all cylinders and really playing well.

There are a lot of elements that go into a hot streak. Luck is always going to play its part. Your feel for the table has a role along with your overall confidence level, which tends to go up when you are playing well, running well, and winning pots. The image the rest of the table has of you when you are hot is extremely exploitable and allows you to continue to pick up pot after pot that you may not be able to take down as easily on a normal day.

If you get to the point where you have more chips in front of you than you are comfortable with, then it becomes a bankroll issue, but short of that, avoid the standard mindset of getting up and finding a reason to head for the door. Instead, analyze your long-term goals and your current game to see if the situation is ripe to try to put up a big win instead of guaranteeing a small win.

Sometimes by hanging around, you will turn what could have been a winning session into a losing one, and this experience is probably why so many people are prone to leaving early when they get ahead. But, if you turn a $300 winning session into a $400 losing session one week, and the next week you take what would have only been a $300 winning session and hang around and end up winning $2,500, then over the two weeks, you are a big net winner by sticking around.

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 privately, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities. He also plays in cash games and tournaments. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at Court@CourtHarrington.com.