Famous American poker pro Phil Galfond was recently musing on Twitter about a lesson he got from Tommy Angelo regarding quitting cash games. His tweet went viral with some of the poker world’s biggest stars – such as Daniel Negreanu or Joe Ingram – chiming in on the subject.
Last week Galfond tweeted this:
You've played 12hrs in a $1/$2nl game where you expect to earn $30/hr.
You're exhausted, but you're stuck $950 and you think, "I'll just play another half hour."
Why? You want to stick around for that $15 EV?@TheTommyAngelo taught me this valuable lesson 10yrs ago. #quitting
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) March 5, 2019
In the post, he gives his two cents about a question many poker players ask themselves, professionals and recreationals alike: when is it time to get up and leave a cash table? This is not something tournament players have to think about, they play until they can hold on to their last chip in their stack. Cash players, on the other hand, need to know when to quit a game.
The 3-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Galfond has quite some experience playing high stakes No-Limit Hold’em cash games. This is because he was a regular feature on the popular poker show on the Game Show Network, High Stakes Poker. On that program, he got to play against the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan and Eli Elezra.
Breaking Down Phil Galfond’s Tweet
Galfond’s tweet is counting on a very good win rate of $30/hour on $1/$2 stakes. Since in live poker there is on average around 30 hands played per hour that translates roughly to a 50 BB/100 hands win rate. That would be considered an absolute crusher’s stats in online poker.
In this made-up scenario, Galfond’s stuck $950 (more than four 100 BB starting stacks) after 12 hours of play. He argues he shouldn’t stick around for an extra half hour for $15 in EV since it wouldn’t make much of a difference for that session. However, professional cash game players sometimes like to point out that whether you win a given session is irrelevant, you need to think of your more long-term results. Galfond doesn’t really address this issue. Anyhow, he credits this idea to Tommy Angelo.
The post got a ton of engagement on Twitter. It’s rare to see a tweet about poker that has over 1,000 likes.
Daniel Negreanu and Joe Ingram Replies
Funny when I started playing $10-$20 limit sometimes I’d be up $1000 after two hours a guy would say “You are up a grand, how much do you want to win?”
I’d explain I’m up $86.44 which equates to a $43.22 win rate.
He didn’t get it. 😂
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) March 5, 2019
Kid Poker himself, Negreanu was the first big-name poker player to respond. He wrote a confusing message about his win rate in $10/$20 games. He may be alluding to the fact that sometimes at cash tables you see people with a lot of chips in front of them. You may assume they are big winners in the game. However, that is if you fail to take into consideration possible re-loads.
No, I want to stick around so I can get a bit unstuck and then convince myself to play longer to get completely unstuck.
No one wants to leave the casino down money.
— Joey Ingram 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽 (@Joeingram1) March 6, 2019
Joe Ingram also replied on Twitter. He wrote more of a tongue-in-cheek message about never leaving a casino while you’re down money. Evidently, this is not a good piece of advice.
Who is Tommy Angelo?
The man Phil Galfond is referencing in his tweet is Tommy Angelo, a former musician who became a poker pro and author.
His Hendon page only shows a measly $3,395 in live tournament earnings. However, he is a prolific poker writer.
He’s published four books on the subject, as well as one about meditation practice. He’s also written for the late Bluff Magazine, PokerNews.com and Poker Digest Magazine.
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