Hey everyone, new to these forums...

I have been playing online poker for a number of months now, and although it is enjoyable, I really have had no luck and discovered I have been going about it the wrong way. Last night I was thinking of a way to go about it that might improve my odds, please tell me if you think it's acceptable...

Basically, I have a calander that I have printed out in regards to poker playing... in each day, I have a dollar amount set for that day... example... Tuesday 19th of April - $20 Goal. I put whatever my dollar goal is into the poker table... so I either win $20 or lose $20... and that's it...

Gradually incrase you're daily goal as you're bankroll rises, by $5 maybee, something reasonable....

I find the biggest problem I and some friends have is that we play for entirely to long, or keep coming back, and eventually if you play so long, you'll either even out or just lose it all... Does this sound like a reasonable method?

wtf?? ok, the idea about limiting your loss to a certain dollar amount and quitting is fine. Setting up your goal for winning before you pick out a table is nuts.. your profits come from playing the best you can under the circumstances, whether it be half ur "goal" on a tight-passive table or 3-4 times that goal on a loose-aggressive table (keeping in mind in this case it can go the other way FAST) you really need to play a few hundred hands and find out ur tendancies and playing ability before you can set any kind of standard of winnings for yourself.

__________________
IIAv8tionII - ME
Av8tion - SCAMMER

Online Tournament Wins: 11

Not really the best method 9. Poker is a game where if your skills are good, the longer you play the better off you do.

Setting a dollar limit to win is bad for a few reasons. For example, what if you are in a juicy easy game? You may be able to easily win $50, so why stop at $20?

If you are looking for "when to stop", try setting a time limit or a hand limit. I know that I generally consider a session 100 hands online. So if I play 1 table, I don't mind stopping after 100 hands played. If I'm playing 4 tables at once, I don't usually stop until I've played 400 hands, etc.

Setting a loss limit may not be a bad idea though. However, in general it sounds like you need to tighten up your game. What limit do you play and what is your % of flops seen?

__________________
"Ok, this is for the game. How you doin' over there? NOT TOO GOOD!"" -Bubble Boy

I am fairly small time with poker... I play on 50-1$ tables and that's fine by me...

I mean last night I tried it out, and won $20 in about an hour, and just walked away... and I was flopping some good things near the end, but I walked away. The longer that I play, the quicker my money fades...

Setting a floor at which you're going to cut your losses for the day is fine, especially early on when you might not have the discipline to recognize when you are/aren't on your A-game.

Setting a ceiling for the maximum you're going to win in any given day though is the same as taking money out of your pocket. Like Kliph said -- what if you could have made $50 at that table but settled for only $20? That's the same as a day and a half of losses...not good.

When you find yourself at a table that's making you money -- keep riding that horse for as long as its profitable. Instead of cutting yourself off at a dollar figure, raise your floor. If you told yourself you'd stop when you lost 20 bucks and you find yourself up 50...then change your plan and tell yourself that if you ever get down to where you're ahead 30, then you'll stop. As long as you're pulling in cash though, you want to keep playing.

__________________
:cool:

To be successful in business, surround yourself with professionals. To be successful in poker, surround yourself with idiots.

Interesting points...

yea, just put urself at a winning maximum of $20 per night... just give me the extra winnings, and then ur all set

__________________
IIAv8tionII - ME
Av8tion - SCAMMER

Online Tournament Wins: 11

So is setting a stop loss if you're a winning player who can recognize when the game is too tough for him.

__________________
“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

Agreed, which is why I said it was a good idea EARLY ON.

As a player gains experience, they become more attuned to what might be poor/unprofitable table conditions vs. what might be an early loss of money at an otherwise good table due to variance/bad run of cards. When you start out, you don't have that wealth of experience to fall back on to make a sound decision like that. That little voice that taunts you into staying at the table because 'you know you can get it back' isn't as correct as it gets later in your playing career.

The poster identified his/her self as fairly new with a history of break-even play and the tendency to play too long and/or play 'til the profit's gone. The idea of employing a stop loss in this position is a good one to tide the player over until they've developed the self-discipline to realize when they're not playing at their A-game or when table conditions aren't favorable to pulling down a profit.

__________________
:cool:

To be successful in business, surround yourself with professionals. To be successful in poker, surround yourself with idiots.

OK, glanced thropugh the other posts, and got the idea that Stop losses are frowned upon.

Now heres my 2 cents:

Stop losses/wins are only useful for weaker players who can't read game conditions. They are best used when a player has a high standard deviation and can very easily lose back everything hes just made in a short period of time.

Everything Shade just said I was going to say... so I'm done.

__________________