Know When to Hold Em

Need some insight:

Pretty sure Ive read somewhere on here that going through trip bankrolls is no big deal (mine is 10 max bets).

The other night I was down 6 max bets then fought my way back to only lose one max bet. The whole time I was calm and waiting for the cards to turn around but sometimes this may not always happen.

My bankroll is small with a high RoR (50-55 max bets) but the way I am playing is keeping a couple trip bankrolls on hand; if I lose one Ill take a break and build back up and go back for more.

But Im just curious: is there a limit for your trip bankroll that you set yourselves? I stick to an hour session every time I go but do you sometimes tell yourself, "whoah man, enough is enough. Take your crumbs of your lunch you ate and go home'? Or do you gut it out and lose your trip BR?

Quote: gav

Need some insight:

Pretty sure Ive read somewhere on here that going through trip bankrolls is no big deal (mine is 10 max bets).

The other night I was down 6 max bets then fought my way back to only lose one max bet. The whole time I was calm and waiting for the cards to turn around but sometimes this may not always happen.

My bankroll is small with a high RoR (50-55 max bets) but the way I am playing is keeping a couple trip bankrolls on hand; if I lose one Ill take a break and build back up and go back for more.

But Im just curious: is there a limit for your trip bankroll that you set yourselves? I stick to an hour session every time I go but do you sometimes tell yourself, "whoah man, enough is enough. Take your crumbs of your lunch you ate and go home'? Or do you gut it out and lose your trip BR?

As most things... It depends. If I'm taking a trip to a place I know I can camp out for a few hours, then that might warrant a different trip bankroll to a place I'm going to be at for 1 hour. The whole idea of card counting is to get hands. If you're playing with an advantage, you can quantify everything and prove you'll be ahead after "X" hands. So hours aren't important, fluxuations aren't important (well in the long run =p), but what is important is the number of hands. Don't focus on "Man, I've lost 5 max bets in the first 10 minutes I've been here. Tonight isn't a good night I better leave!" If you have a winning game the best thing to do when losing is to keep on playing (SO LONG AS YOU ARE PLAYING CORRECTLY AND NOT LETTING THE BAD VARIANCE GET TO YOU AND MISPLAY). The more and more hands you can total up the less variance will effect you until you hit that magic X number of hands and variance can not make you lose any longer.

On a regular trip where I may play anywhere from 2-4 hours I usually take about 10 max bets as well, since that's the info you're curious about. When my business partner and I take a trip to Vegas (4-6 days), we usually take about 40 max bets... but this is also included in some other small time playing we do (VP, craps, etc), and we tip out of this, etc, etc.

EDIT: Since I wanted a more hard number... I referenced my 3rd A-Z Article where I discuss EV/RoR/SD... The magic number is about 50,000 hands. After 10,000 hands you have a 2/3 chance of being even or up. At 100,000 hands you have a 100% chance of being up (past 3 standard deviations). So around 50,000 hands you should be very very likely (a couple SD's out) to be up.

Thanks again Romes. I have done my calculations and figured out my hourly EV so its no longer guessing if I have a winning game.

Now this "regular trip" you take is this a local place? Do you have a plan of attack when you go there with ten max bets? Like "Im gonna play for x amount of hours and see where I am and how I'm feeling"? Or do you have it down to a T with how long your playing?

Quote: gav

Thanks again Romes. I have done my calculations and figured out my hourly EV so its no longer guessing if I have a winning game.

Now this "regular trip" you take is this a local place? Do you have a plan of attack when you go there with ten max bets? Like "Im gonna play for x amount of hours and see where I am and how I'm feeling"? Or do you have it down to a T with how long your playing?

Again, it depends =). I go planning to play at least a couple hours because I want to make sure I get at least X number of hands for the trip. I don't have a set number/hours, but I can tell you it's at least a couple hours (because my business partner also puts in a couple hours so between the 2 of us we can make a nice little session and get some hands). Of course there's the little bug in your head that doesn't like to leave "down" so long as you're not getting heat/etc. So if it's close (maybe off 1 max bet or something) then I might stick it out another couple shoes and see if I can get a little variance my way and leave up on the session.

This all changes though if you feel heat, especially if it's a local place you want to play for quite some time. You need to be a bit extra careful and get out of dodge immediately if you suspect something is up, because you don't want any problems/bared from your favorite local place(s). This might cut your session short, but to me this isn't by choice. You're asking by choice how long do I play... It also again depends because I'm not professional. Some pro's might play 8-10 hours per day MIN (spread out across several casinos of course). I try to get an 'average' of about 10 hours per week, however that may be at the end of the year... 0 hours this week, 20 next week, etc, etc.