Come On In

Hi. Come on in. All I have for us to munch on while we talk is some peanuts and raisins. Did I ever tell you about my "free" $40 sandwich? OK, I'll get to that in a moment.

You were asking about the "stop-loss" method of money management, and if it's right for you. Maybe, maybe not. Stop-loss is a form of money management that from a skill point of view is not in your best financial interest. From an emotional and psychological point of view, however, it is appealing to many low-limit players.

So, let's take a look at an aspect of stop-loss that would more appropriately be called "stop-loss-of-profit." Many players, when they get an appreciable amount of money ahead, want to assure that they take a large portion of that money home with them. So at that point, they set a stop-loss amount, below which they will not go. It's also called "building a floor." If and when they get down to that "floor," they take the rest of their profit and run for the door. They don't mind if the game is still good, they are still a favorite, and there is more money to be won – they are content with that amount.

If for your own psychological reasons you are using this plan, use it correctly. Most players, when setting a floor, set it "a hand too low." As an example, let's say that you've been playing in a low-limit game for a couple of hours and you're $300 ahead. You tell yourself that you're not leaving with less than a $200 profit. That's your stop-loss amount. That's where you've built your floor. You continue playing and take a few losses, putting your stack at a $215 profit. You now tell yourself that you can lose only $15 more before you'll reach your floor and will leave. Mistake!

You've gone "a hand too far." If you now get involved in another hand, you don't have enough money above your floor to play the hand to the end. If you lose that hand, you will be well below your floor.

To guard against going below your floor, when you set it, add to it the cost of playing one hand to the end. If you get below that amount, that's the time to haul your bod toward the door. If you continue playing and lose a hand, you've gone through your floor, and your inclination is to say, "Well, I'm below it, so I might as well stay." This leads to beating up on yourself – and beating up on yourself is not conducive to the PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) that's so important to winning play.

If you should show a loss for that session, you'll really be kicking yourself. ("Why didn't I leave when I was ahead? When am I ever going to learn?") Soon, you'll be telling bad-beat stories.

There's another side to this coin. You start in that same game with $100. After a couple of hours of going up and down, you have $40 left. You then win a couple of small pots and get back up to $70. You tell yourself that when you get even (get back up to your $100), you're out the door. Another win puts you at $97. ("Three dollars more and I can leave.")

If it's important to you emotionally not to take a loss in this session of play, I say, "Leave now!" Eat the $3 and split. Too many times I have heard, "I was back up to $97 – so close – and then …"

Change of subject (and another of Roy's Rules): Learn to trust yourself. Many poker players read and study, attend seminars, take lessons, and do whatever else they can to learn about winning poker. But, when they sit down at the poker table to play, the knowledge they've worked so hard to acquire seems to fade from consciousness. Why is that so? A lack of trust.

A principle failing of many poker players is a lack of trust in themselves and their poker knowledge. Learn to trust yourself. If you aren't using the poker skills you've learned in your studies, you've wasted your time studying.

What you learn away from the poker table, take to the poker table. Many players know what to do, but are fearful of doing it. That's a lack of trust. Without trust, you aren't playing the game – the game is playing you.

Learn to trust yourself and you'll win more money – trust me.

Now you want to know about my "free" $40 sandwich. I think a lot of players have had this same experience. A while back, I was heading home in the late afternoon when I drove past a casino that put out free sandwiches at about 6 p.m. for poker players. I decided to go in and play a few hands and have a sandwich. You guessed it. When I left a while later, I was a $40 loser. (I could have bought that sandwich for about $3.)

Editor's note: Roy West, author of the bestseller 7 Card Stud, The Complete Course in Winning, available from Card Player, has a toll-free 800 number and continues to give his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas to both tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome.