Choke doesn't seem to work as it should

It's a manual choke so I control whether it is open or closed, should have made that more clear in the first post. The more the plate is closed once you get to ~1/4 travel, the worse it runs and will quickly die out even if I feather the throttle. I've just been leaving it completely open and babysit it for a few minutes until it warms up enough to get along on its own.