In another thread Arcimede$ made an statement which I challenged for its truthfulness and I think this is a good opportunity to discuss the use of win goals and stop losses when playing.

First, the exchange between Arc and myself:

Originally Posted by arcimede$ View Post
We've got to remember .... Alan is the same person that thinks if you set a stop loss playing VP, you will do better the next time you play. Some folks are immune to logic no matter how simple it is.
Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson View Post
No, that is not what I said. Geesh.
Originally Posted by arcimede$ View Post
Yes, you did. You just didn't realize that was the logical result of your approach.
Of course I never said that if you set a stop loss playing VP you will do better the next time you play. But setting a stop loss can have various positive benefits:

1. If you are having a run of bad luck it will prevent you from running to the ATM over and over again until you have no money left.

2. If you had a run of bad luck you can leave the casino knowing that you didn't lose more than you had in that session's budget (could be a day or weekend) and you won't drive home saying to yourself "why didn't I stop instead of losing more?"

3. Using a stop loss can help you save money for next time.

4. You might feel better -- emotionally and financially -- when you control your losses or keep them to a limit.

Those are the reasons for using a stop loss. Of course the "math guys" will argue that you never stop -- and the next time you play is just a continuation of your previous play. Well, that's true if you take a long term approach. But none of us is going to live forever so you have to realize that even long term approaches have their limits.

Besides, do you really want to keep running to the ATM?

And what about win goals?

Well, if you're winning and winning and winning -- I would never stop. But I've never had a session or a trip or a weekend when I only won and won and won. I've had periods of winning and then somehow what the video poker machine giveth the video poker machine taketh away.

The best part of a win goal is that you feel darn good leaving the casino with "their money."

When you go home with a little bit of "their money" it makes the outing so much more fun. So setting a win goal allows you a moment to say to yourself -- I got what I was after, now let's get the heck outta here.