Cashing out during a hot streak. What do you do?

[Lucky Larry]

This past trip I had played through most of my bankroll. Took a break for dinner and came back renewed. Still trying to find the "flow" of the machine I finally hit a groove and within 30 minutes made up all of my losses and doubled my bankroll.

Having been bitten by this bug before - you know the one - I'll keep playing since my timing is on and then having lost most/all of your money you kick yourself. (Bad money management is a killer.) So I finally convinced myself to TITO out. Cashed the ticket. Put 1/2 back to take home and then put 1/2 of the remainder in to continue playing. Of course in the words of Righteous Brothers (which I have on my playlist) the machine and i had "lost that loving feeling".    Went through the first 1/2 of the remaining bankroll in almost record time. Then the second part of the remaining bankroll within an hour to kill out the night.

So back to the old dilemna - "keep playing or cash out". What's your strategy?

[alpax]

Today's Score does not matter.

Before you actually play, figure out how much time you want to play for the day prior to actually playing and bring a bankroll based on how much it will cost in the worst case scenario wise.

[notes1]

one day's results, a couple of days, 6 months or a year's worth of play results may not matter to a mathematician, but it sure matters to me.

last time I checked with my cardiologist, my life expectancy was not infinity.

[FloridaPhil]

I've lived long enough to realize everything in life is just one continuous stream of experiences.   VP is no different.   The odds and my skill are what they are and will play out over time.  However, as humans we want to believe we have everything under control.  Walking away ahead is one way to reassure ourselves that we are doing the right thing.   I believe in setting financial limits to gambling.  Not because I think it affects my long term win or loss, it's because it helps me to control my impulses to do things that hurt my bankroll.   Sitting at the same machine and playing the same way for days at a time is tiring and often boring.   I need some way to tell me when I've had enough.

[MCPoker]

After I get a hand pay, I usually take a break. I walk around, stretch, get something to eat or drink and then go back at it. Hopefully I lose the feeling of invincibility or thoughts I am always going to win. I treat it as a new session. I lose my initial session money and walk away with what I won. Also, if I'm up and plan to leave, I always reserve some of my winnings to play a few slot machines on the way out.

[Tedlark]

Because we are all different the answer to this dillema will not be the same for everyone.

The only trait that we all share is that we all, I should hope, like to make some money playing video poker. This though, would lead to other questions such as: how much do we want to make, do we chase losses with fresh money, etc.

This is where what our video poker money means to us comes in. I'm hopeful that we are all wise enough NOT to be playing with the rent money and we all play with money we can comfortably afford to lose. This leads to playing denominations where we can get the most bang for our buck. Not all here are in the same financial situation so to some, going home with a $100.00 profit is a big deal while others may not even consider leaving up a $100.00 a profitable session.

FAA says that he will leave a machine after it hits, but I don't. Everyone is different. But FAA and I both share the feeling that leaving up $100.00 is a winning session.

So, in this case I would go against Gordon Gecko and say: "Greed is NOT good" and in the video poker world it is quite the enemy. I will ride a hot streak until it bucks me and then I get off. A couple years ago a friend came to town and we hit the casino for some play. I managed to hit a couple royals but the machine grew cold. My buddy still wanted to play but I wanted to do some things with my winnings so I went outside to my car and took a couple hour nap until he was done.

The moral of my long winded editorial is this: play smart, dont play with money you cannot comfortably absorb losing, if you do win, think about what the money means to you and go from there.

Namaste.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=Tedlark]The only trait that we all share is that we all, I should hope, like to
make some money playing video poker.[/quote]I love making money playing video poker, but it's not my all consuming reason for playing.   I play weekly to get out of the house and have something to do.  On our longer trips, I enjoy my wife's company and doing something together we both enjoy is our main goal.   Video poker gives us the ability to stay at great resorts for very little cost.  We like to take travel vacations, but we both get boarded with cruises and just sitting around.  Playing video poker is always at the heart of every trip we make.  This is hard for some of our friends to understand.  They think everyone who hangs out in a casino must be a hard core gambler.   They ask us "Don't you ever do anything but gamble?"  They don't understand that you can enjoy video poker without going to hell in a hand basket.  It doesn't matter to either one of us if we win $250 for a quad deuce or $5,000.  What matters is the overall cost vs. reward and I would have to say VP played right is a real bargain. 

[seemoreroyals]

If my wife or I, normally my wife, hits something big, the first thing we do is go pay off any markers we have taken out. Next we decide how much money we want to risk for the rest of the evening, and the rest I hastily take up to the room and put in the safe for safe keeping. Since we can take out additional markers this does not work all the time but it does make it easier to take some of the money home with us.

[FAA]

After I get a hand pay, I usually take a break.-----------------------------------------------------------Hope to experience an HP one day. After a RF, I leave the casino and the city at the first opportunity. A clean break!

[FAA]

Greed, among the seven deadly sins, is certainly deadly for a bankroll. This is the very reason that I will be drinking up from the get go on subsequent sessions. After an hour, nature's call will short circuit the session without an alarm, which I ignore anyway. I don't even know why I bother to set it.