Video Poker's Setting Your Limits

Video Poker's Setting Your Limits

As a player you should always want to set a limit on losses so that one bad session doesn't devastate you, and at the same time, a stop-loss on winnings as well, so that once you have a good win going, you never give the casino a chance to get it back.

Before sitting at the table and making your bets, you must decide on the amount of money you'll put at stake, and should luck turn against you, restrict your losses to that amount only. Do not go against this rule and you can never take a big beating. If things go poorly at first, take a break, simple as that.

And when you're winning big, put a good chunk of these winnings in a "don't touch" pile and play with the rest. You never want to hand all your winnings back to the casino. Should a losing streak occur, you're out of there, a winner!!!

Never risk needed money at the machines no matter how lucky you feel. Just as many "lucky" players contributed to the phenomenal growth of casinos, as did the unlucky players. Well, perhaps there's a lot more of the latter, but you get the point. The reality of gambling is that money can be lost, and if that money is earmarked for rent or food or any other necessity in your life, you're making a whopping mistake.

I know this is all common sense, but it bears repeating because so many players go against this basic rule. There's an old Las Vegas saying about a guy who rides into town in a $20,000 Cadillac and leaves in a $100,000 Greyhound bus. Unfortunately, that saying bears a lot of truth. The list of sad stories from out of control gamblers can stack a pile of papers up to the thin air of the cerulean sky. And more can get added every day, lots more.

Let's say you're a quarter player and are on a winning streak that has expanded your starting machine bankroll for the day from $100 to $350, a nice $250 win. Should you go up to the $1 machine to really go for the kill? Absolutely not. You're hot and you're winning. The action is good. But raising your stake to the $1 machines now magnifies all the bets. Sure you can win a lot more. But don't let greed lead you astray. Greed nabs most gamblers, and the end result every time is an unhappy player who got buried by that greed.

All that's needed for the winds of fortune to change is a short losing streak at a higher level to wipe out all you winnings, and that's at a level of play uncomfortable to you, and perhaps, since greed has overcome your sanity, to dig you into a deep ditch quickly. Not good. You cannot afford to be playing at a level that spells danger, and betting over your head spells danger.

So many gamblers do this that I always wonder at their goals. Are they really trying to win, or are they raising the stakes so the fall is bigger? They'll win say $300, bump up the stakes, and if they don't get wiped out at the higher level, they bump up the stakes one more time. Well, it catches up quickly. Eventually, luck will turn, it always does. If these players were smart, they would get out while the getting was good. But inevitably, and almost invariably, they will not leave until they take the big fall.

What are these players really trying to do? The psychology on all this is complex, but the empirical evidence is always the same. They lose it all back and more. There is almost no way that these gamblers can come out ahead because no matter how lucky they get, they raise the stakes again so that all it takes is a small losing streak to wipe it all out, their winnings, their original stake, and then in desperation, even more. I've seen it time and time again. And then these players wonder, "What happened?"

Greed happened baby and a lost of control. But we can make this all easy right now. Stick to the level you started at so that when you do win, you stay a winner. It's okay to reach for the stars, but don't bet jumping off the bridge to catch them. Whether you win or lose at video poker, always keep on the level of betting that you originally decided to play at.