I've been mulling this over for a while and am ready to throw it out there for discussion:

Here is the range of advice you get on when to leave the table:


  1. Keep sessions short, say 60-90 minutes, so they can't get a fix on you;
  2. Keep your sessions short and leave after showing your top bet so they can't get a fix on you;
  3. If your game is +EV play as long as you can - leaving early whether up or down fails to maximize EV;
  4. Leave once you've lost X% of your session BR - this allows the joints to record your losses and that helps even out your W/L record, making you look more normal (The corollary of this is don't spend hours grinding back up from a lost session as you need to let the joint win sometimes - you'll take them in the long term)
  5. Leave when you are approaching a choke point in terms of dollars won;
  6. Leave before they throw you out if you can see it coming;
  7. Don't leave until they throw you out!
  8. Never leave when you're up just because you're up (i.e. better to keep playing the +EV game even though it means you might lose back all the units you've piled up in the short term (as an aside, there is a famous quote in The Art of Cross Examination (F. Wellman - a great read) in which he says "When you hit oil, quit drilling!"... this is a bit counter-intuitive (pardon the pun))) when you consider some other advice. Or you could keep winning. In the short run, no one really knows!
  9. Nothing wrong with camping out so long as you learn what the man tolerates (this is a variation of "play a winning, but polite spread, if you want longevity, for example, at your local restaurant.)
  10. Many lists have ten items. I can't think of any more, but I'm confident this crew will increase the list. Oooooh!...Leave when you're tired because its not AP to play at less than optimal mental power! Feel free to keep going...


Obviously, the list is a bit glib and many of those exits are driven by circumstances. My question is really about #8 which has been discussed before. Leaving aside playing at some theoretical shop where no one ever gets backed off or counter-measured, in the real world, in a shop you intend to return to, once you're approaching a win that is 3-4-5 x your buy-in, even if it happens fast, isn't it really ok to say "thanks for the money - see you next time!" and slip away? Given that its impossible to know whether you will continue to win or lose any session, can you really know that walking away at a pre-set point is capping wins overall? Isn't there some psychological benefit to walking away up (Yes, yes, yes...true APs are robots, but deep down, even robots have feelings)?