Stop Loss

1. When a player sets a particular limit to the amount they will lose in a session, and if they reach that limit, immediately quit playing.

Explained

Many seasoned and disciplined players will set themselves a stop loss for a session and for a day. If they reach that stop loss, they will quit playing, take some time off and then reflect on what happened to cause the losses. A stop loss and sticking to it is an essential skill for a professional poker player to master.

An Example in Practice

Let's say you sit down at four tables of $2/4 NL with $400 at each one. You then set your stop-loss at $1200. This means that once you lose $1200 (of the original $1600 you sat in with) you will leave the tables and end your session. Just to clarify, let's also say that you dish out two mega-coolers in your first two hands of the session and all of the sudden have $2400 in play. Your stop-loss number should not change because you have won money - that is, you still have to be down to just $400 of the initial $1600 in order to force yourself to quit.