Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Do you have a win goal when you play in a casino?

  1. #1
    Let's have a fresh new thread for this topic: Do you have a win goal when you play in a casino? And if you do have a win goal, what do you do when you reach it? Or, if you fail to reach it? Do you have a money management system or do you keep playing till you can't get any more money out of your credit cards?

    How do you determine your win goal? Do you double your money and quit? Triple your money and quit? Quit when you get a W-2 payoff? Quit when you increase your bankroll by a certain percentage?

    Or, are you so lucky that you can just keep playing because you are never without money, and quit only when it's time for a bathroom break, show time, dinner time, bed time, or time to leave?

    For this discussion there are NO right or wrong answers. I just want to see what people think and do. So, please -- NO judgment calls.

    I'll go first:

    When I play live poker, if I double or triple my buy in, I leave.

    When I play craps, I play till I exhaust my budget or in the very rare case score a big win. Rarely have I scored a big win, and over the years I have reduced my craps budget knowing it is a negative expectation game. Frankly, I'm tired of craps.

    When I play video poker, I used to play till my trip budget was lost trying to get that elusive royal flush. Now I have adopted a win goal strategy of 20% of my bankroll for the session and I will raise the win goal to a trailing stop if I am winning more.

  2. #2
    I live in a VP wasteland area so I adopt many elements of Singer's SPS for fun.
    $1,050 bankroll for 25c/50c/$1.00 600 credits at each level (200cr DB, 200cr DDB, 200cr TBP+or SDDB at 25c), (100cr BP, 250cr DB, 250cr DDB, TBP+ or SDDB), (200 cr BP, 200cr DB, 200cr DDB or TBP+ at $1)
    I skip BP at the 25c level
    If $2 games are available I'll use a $2,250 bankroll with the $2 level identical to the $1.
    10% goal for both situations ($100 goal for $1,050)/($225 for $2,250).
    This is just for fun...and I do have fun with it. I don't mess with soft cashouts like Rob as I just revert to a previous game in the progression when up 50 credits on a game.
    I try to play at least 4 different machines in a single progression.
    Trailing stop-losses similar to what stock traders do are interesting approaches, but too hard for me to do in a casino. I just quit for a while when reaching the goals stated above.
    I do lose the bankroll sometimes, but I've also hit royals at the end of the progressions, too...which is pretty exciting.
    Last edited by Count Room; 04-19-2012 at 07:15 PM. Reason: Corrected games for 50c level

  3. #3
    Only under rare circumstances do I play a negative expectation game, so the concept of having win or loss goals is completely alien to me. I don't particularly enjoy the process of gambling, so there's no need to put some kind of artificial leash on my behavior.

    The only current beatable games are sports betting and certain rare and specific poker situations, along with (to a lesser extent) horse betting, video poker, and the occasional opportunity like positive expectation bingo (it does happen). I get no boost walking away from a scenario because I've won money, so (to put some of these debates on their head) I have no addiction to the "high" of labeling myself a "winner."

    "Fatigue Goals" make more sense to me; win/loss goals make no sense at all.

    Some rules for the road: Never play when you're tired. Never play when you're upset because of something else. Never play when you're happy because of something else. Never play after a loved one has died or after some romantic break-up. Play because you have an edge.

  4. #4
    Redietz may I sum up your position this way?

    Originally Posted by redietz View Post
    ...the concept of having win or loss goals is completely alien to me.... "Fatigue Goals" make more sense to me; win/loss goals make no sense at all....

  5. #5
    Good enough, Alan.

    I just had a partner/client call me from LV after he had scouted futures for us. He had gotten all of the numbers, and briefly considered playing in a poker tournament at Binion's, but then stopped himself by quoting me, which I was honored he did. It was the "Never, ever play when you're tired" mantra. And just like that, even though he always plays a tourney or two when in LV, he decided against it this time. No muss, no fuss, no big debate.

  6. #6
    Especially poker. A good poker tournament, including those low buy-in daily tourneys they have in Vegas, can last six hours or longer.

  7. #7
    Most of what was mentioned here as times never to go into a casino to play are what I follow. In fact, if I've begun a session then get very tired, I quit and return after I've slept.

    The win & loss goals are of course extremely important aspects of my play strategy. I would suggest the reason they do not make sense to some people is because they don't understand their application within my strategy well enough to see their extraordinary value. They also make playing the game much more fun, partly because you can play at any pace and you know you can get out of that stinky casino as soon as a goal is attained.

  8. #8
    I've grown fond of Rob's short-term strategy and have now adapted it to my aart strategy EXCEPT I grew tired of the BP games spitting out the first 10 or so hands and then just literally dying. So now, if I don't see anything happening in the first 10-20 hands, I jump the gun, so to speak, and switch to DDBP and if it keeps me interested, I play till either I hit at least 250 credits or get ahead by $20, or it gets to the point where it obvious to me the flushes, straights, 1-2 card draws aren't filling. I am a quarter player and mostly start out with aart on the 5-10-25 cent machines then switch to rtt with the same attitude. Many times I've switched after a few hands of BP going nowhere and only a few hands later hitting the quads. If the quad pays 400 or more credits, I'll play a few more hands to see if anything promising happens as I've a few times hit 3 in a row. The 250 credit wins I cash out immediately. I always go for 3-royal even if one of them is a low card in the four=card flush. I've hit well over 30 of them and I love going for them. I usually find on a bad day that if I'm ahead by only $50-$100 it's best to get outta there after switching 10-20 machines. My wife is addicted to the penny machines, so if I win we immediately go there. At first I was bored- but then began to recognize patterns on them and have bumped it to $1 and hit some $300=$500 wins which really gets her to screaming and alerts the whole casino. LOL

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •