Stop Loss

A small note about stop losses then. A stop loss is a rule for stopping when you are behind by a certain amount. As a general rule of thumb someone might set 2 to 3 buy ins (BI) as a stop loss. The actual size will vary a lot depending on a lot of factors of course.

Should you have a stop loss? I never believed so. I always thought as long as you are still playing well, and the tables are still in your favour it's OK to keep playing, but I've come to realise it is an important concept. Here are some reasons why a stop loss can be good:

1. We won't often bounce back fully, meaning we will be down for the night regardless of when we stop now or not
2. While anywhere between 1 to 3 BI's can be upsetting to lose, beyond that can be much more damaging for the next few days.
3. If you end up having a big bad running period, you can end up cutting your losses a lot better this way. It will mean that when you get a solid winning streak going you can get ahead a lot quicker than you fall behind on your losing streaks.
4. It gives a bit more time to analyse your bad plays if that's why you are losing.
   

There are probably dozens of other reasons, but two sessions spring to mind. These are other players, but they prove the point perfectly. The first one was a solid grinder at CardRunners. He was really crushing the game, and only a very short time away from reaching NL100, already bankrolled for it. One night he lost 3 BI's at 6 max and 7 BI's at heads up. 10 BI's overall, he basically quit poker for a while. He couldn't face playing again in the short term. His next session was 2 weeks later, and he played 50 hands and stopped again. He admits he felt like he was playing OK at the time, so he kept playing, but the real damage was done after seeing how much he'd lost when he finally stopped the session.

The 2nd is a player who had just moved up. He had a rough night, lost 9 BI's and posted all the big pots on a forum. The hands seemed to start off as marginal, but end up as a few ugly calls and shoves. Again even though his mind wouldn't admit it, he was chasing his losses, and trying to hit a big pot to reverse the damage, but in poker, you just can't force the money your way. You have to choose spots to be overly aggressive, and his were bad spots due to the fact he just wanted to start winning some big pots. He was forced to also take a break, and start again at the lower limit, which again has a big impact on your mindset.