11a. High Rollers
Date: Wed Dec 24, 2008 5:04 pm ((PST))My questions are:
How much money does one insert into the machine to start playing.
What kind of limit does one set before one gives up.
How do you know when to stop when you are winning?I am a lowly quarter player. I try to play as perfectly as I can,
but I rarely go home a winner. I am a bit awe struck at playing for
this kind of money.
There is no correct answer to your three questions; it is a matter of individual preference for "style" and money management.
For example, as a quarter player, you could start with $5 in the machine, if you so chose, or with $200. Doesn't matter.
Some players like to load the machine with enough money to cover 100 hands, e.g., on a $1 machine, $500 - others do 20 hands / $100 at a time. Doesn't matter.
You could "give up" or "stop when you are winning" at any time that suited you. Usually, if you have enough money to back up your play and are playing a positive EV game, you should quit when your spouse is going to get mad at you for still playing, when you are too tired to continue to play correctly, or when "conditions" otherwise make the game less than optimal for YOUR particular skill level at that time.
In other words, if the game is positive EV, and your bankroll is adequate, the reasons for quitting should be unrelated to the game and whether you're winning or losing.
If you are playing a NEGATIVE EV game, then presumably you EXPECT to lose eventually "on average", and should quit when you've accomplished your purpose in playing, which should not, in that situation, be about winning money. It is probably about having fun or earning comps, and you quit when you've played enough to earn the comps you want, or when you stop having fun, hopefully with the former coming first.
If you are a compulsive gambler, you quit when your compulsion is satisfied, usually sometime after a few rounds of rehab.
I also was sitting next to a $2 10-play player once, and watched him get a dealt "special" AAAA (I don't know what game he was playing, but it paid the same as a Royal) -- good for 4,000 "coins" - x $2 per coin, x 10 hands = $80,000! He took the payment against his marker.
I congratulated him, and commented that Uncle Sam would like him next April, and he replied that he usually has a couple million in W2Gs each year. Clearly, he is quite comfortable with a lot of high-limit play. He himself was loading cash into the machine 10 $100's at a time when he needed to do so, but I've heard others comment that you can expedite this on a TITO machine by going to the cashier and buying vouchers to load the machine with higher amounts at a time - kind of like buying $1,000 or $5,000 bills (in whatever denomination you choose).
--BG
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