[AKQJ10]

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You can get away with 100 bucks easy.

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Spoken like someone without much first-hand experience of variance at limit poker....

If you're just looking to spend a pleasant afternoon in the cardroom and set a loss-limit in case the game is too tough for you, then sure, 17 big bets will let you play for a little while unless you have bad luck, then you may just play a few second-best hands. For riding out variance, even the variance one expects to find in a session, it's nowhere near enough.

Yesterday at Foxwoods I started out up two stacks (of $2 chips, so +20 BB) at $2/4. Then I hit a lousy run for several hours, and I suddenly I was stuck almost two stacks (a swing of -40 BB). Lo and behold, I hit a couple of big hands and had a couple of pocket pairs hold up surprisingly, and I finished up two stacks (another swing of +40 BB). This was in no way an extraordinary session; just the way things go in a typical 9-to-12-hour session of limit hold'em.

If I had only taken 67 bucks to the cardroom, I would have busted out instead of finished up $80.