I have always found poker to be a cyclic game. I usually know within an hour if I will make any money. If your not catching any cards or your hands are not holding up, change games. If you change games two or three times and still cant get anything going, quit for awhile. I almost always make my money in spurts. I'll get hot for ten or fifteen minutes. When things cool back down, I'll tighten up and wait awhile. If the cards dont come back within thirty minutes or an hour, Im gone. I know a lot of people say you have to put in the hours but that does not work for me. I seldom play more than a couple of hours at any one time. You need to be fresh and you need to feel good when you sit in. If you get tired or mad go do something else for awhile. The size of the game does not matter for me. I go by what I usually win when playing a certain limit. I dont want to lose more than I normally win. Like trading, I keep my losses small and every once in awhile you get those nice runs where you make a killing in an hour.