[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Everyone:

While I agree with the premise that if you have lost a lot if may cause you to play bad (Psychological Walloping) and perhaps you should take a break, I have always disagreed with the idea of setting a specific stop loss. The problem with this is that you put yourself in a tournament mode when you get close to this number and will be forced to play less than optimally, particularly in a blind game.

An example is: Suppose you are playing $20-$40 hold 'em, have $50 left (before your stop loss) and are dealt Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] under the gun. Because of your stop loss you may now feel that you have to play this hand (due to the blinds coming up) where if you did not have that stop loss you could simply throw it away.

best wishes,
Mason