Manufacturing Wins

This evening, I played about 50 hands at a $100nl table and left while up about $50. This amount, coupled with a rakeback payment of $40, puts me in the black to the tune of $290 for the first week of the year. Now while it's obviously good to be in profit there is no doubt that I'm suffering from the disease of "manufacturing wins."

In his book Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice, Mike Caro writes that you shouldn't "manufacture a win streak by quitting with small wins" especially "when the game is good." The reason, he maintains, is that although you may bank small wins, this can be offset by "notable big losses and you'll just cost yourself profit." Now in my experience, this is absolutely true. Many was the time last year when I would back out of a game while in profit and leave simply because being in profit was a good feeling and I didn't want to blow the lot.

This is NOT an optimum strategy. I'll just quote Caro's final paragraph on his section entitled Beware Of Manufactured Streaks:

"Worse, you'll tend to invest most of your hours in the worst games, when you're losing and struggling to get your money back. And you'll take hours off from the best games, whenever you quit with small wins that extend your streak, instead of staying for a big payday."

So there it is. Poker has to be considered as one long session regardless of how you stand in each individual session. You stay particularly when the game is good and you're playing your "A" game; you leave when the game is tough and the opponents have put you off your "A" game. Simples, as they say. Unfortunately, in my "Top 10 Poker Books" post I neglected to include Caro's book under the "General Strategy" section. This was a book I bought in Providence, Rhode Island when I visited the good old USA in 2009 and when I made three visits to Foxwoods so it has a special place. The style and layout is reminiscent of Arnold Snyder's Poker Tournament Formula (well, it's the same publisher) - and it's definitely worth a look: