When to Leave the Poker Table
Some of us find it very hard to get up and walk away from the poker table, but there are many circumstances when this is just what we should be doing. Being a good poker player means that when it is time to leave you go, even if you don't want to. The whole purpose of playing poker is to make money, so if the table you are at is stopping you from doing that then you need to leave the table immediately, before you begin to lose in earnest.
Fatigue
Playing poker is an intense psychological game that takes tremendous exertion and concentration to play, and there is no doubt that a long session of playing poker will leave you drained. Just look around the table at the end of a long day of playing and you will not see the same level of energy that you started with. Keeping track of the cards, hands, people as well as your own thoughts and feelings will keep you on your toes all day long.
When you start to get tired you cannot play as well as when you are not tired. There are sometimes when it is good to play through fatigue and win even when you are tired. For many people however, this isn't an option.
Before you can play through fatigue you must learn how to play through fatigue. It takes a lot of learning and experience before you become a pro poker player that can play through fatigue.
After a while you will find that the exhaustion is pushed to the back of your mind and you can continue with your entire focus on the game, but before that can happen you will need to know when it's time to call it quits.
This is the time when you must get up and leave the table. Even if you aren't ready to be done playing yet, just get up and take a break. You would be amazed what a meal break will do for you. At very least just go eat some food and take an hour long break. That will give your mind a chance to rest and you will be much better when you come back.
Tilt
Another very good reason to get up and leave a table is because of tilt. When you get a bad beat and go on tilt you will start doing thoughtless things and you won't think clearly. Even some of the best players go on tilt, but the ones that truly have this game mastered do not let it affect their game.
It takes a lot of practice to get over tilt. Once you get the idea that the game of poker consists of winners and losers, and it is inevitable that sometimes you will be on the losing end you will become a seasoned, well-rounded player.
Until you start to accept tilt, you must be able to get up and leave a table when you feel yourself get heated. Unless you manage to get lucky, there is nothing good that could come from being on tilt. Just get up, walk away and come back after you have cooled down. Playing at that state of mind is going to mess everything up for you. If you are thinking about what happened in the last hand or 100 hands ago, you cannot put your focus towards what is going on now.
There is no tried and true formula for any poker player to know when they should leave the table, but if you are telling yourself "just one more hand" then you are already telling yourself it is time to leave, and should take your own advice before it starts to cost you.