[OnTheButton]

Not to be axiomatic, but you should leave the moment you think you should leave.

Don't second guess your heart and brain. Nothing says "that rush is gonna come tonight, or tomorrow..."

I've said all my life, "Why is it that most gamblers know when to leave when they have lost X amount of money, but can't seem to leave when they have won X amount of money?"

I live by the 1:1:3 rule for my poker table winnings and losses.

Say I sit down with $100. I lose that $100, I stop. Take a break, go eat, smoke, walk, think. I'll allow myself one more sit down with my set amount of money (in this case $100) for that night. That's it. Done. Fin. In this case, $200 total.

However if I win $300 (or more) at any point in time, (in the first or second sit down) I'm also out. Grab my cash and go. If it was the first sit down, I've tripled up. Not bad. If it's during my second sit down, then I've gotten back my first lost $100, and made $100. Happy to make it out in one piece.

If you are playing just to play, get a free money account on P*s. If you are playing for money, realize that if you keep chasing bad money with worse money thinking "this has got to be the time" you may have a problem with gambling.

Funny anecdote:

About 15 years ago, I'm in Vegas on a business trip. Mid-week winter. The town is empty. I saddle up to a $5 Black Jack table at about 3am with $100. I'm playing heads-up with the dealer and there are 2 or 3 other tables with dealers just standing there, so I'm praying that no shemp comes and sits at my table, when I wanted to play only against the dealer.

He shuffles the decks and loads them into the shoe. We start playing. I have a very good Black Jack system of progressive betting and bet building with winning streaks, when those streaks come. We play one entire 6 deck shoe, and I've got a little over $700 infront of me.

As he stops to shuffle the decks at the end of the shoe, I ask him for a color up, tip him $25 and stand up to leave.

The dealer looks at me with my tip chip still in his hand and says: "Thanks for the tip, but you really just made my night by leaving."

I made some comment back to him like, "Why? Are they going to demote you to the Pai-Gow tables for giving me this money?"

He says to me, "No, you made my night because you sat down, played well, and you are taking your money and leaving with it. That is the way it is supposed to be done, and trust me, I can count on one hand in the 25 years I've been doing this, the amount of people that do what you are doing now. Have a great night."