Stop-Loss
Also known as: stop loss, loss limit
A pre-set loss limit for a session that, once hit, ends play — a discipline tool against tilt, not an EV tool.
A stop-loss is a rule you set before sitting down: "if I'm down X buy-ins, I quit for the day." It exists for one reason — to cap the damage from tilt and fatigue, the periods when your decision quality silently drops.
Be clear about what it is and isn't. In a vacuum, each hand is independent and a stop-loss has zero EV effect — chips don't remember you lost. The justification is entirely behavioural: most players' win rate genuinely falls after a few stacks lost (tilt, looser calls, revenge-jamming), so the marginal hands beyond the limit are played at a worse rate. Cutting them is +EV for that player.
Practical guidance:
- Set it in buy-ins, e.g. 3–5 bi for cash, and honour it mechanically.
- Pair it with a stop-win or a time cap if you find you give back wins late in long sessions.
- A stop-loss is not a downswing cure — it manages a single session; bankroll rules manage the career.
If you genuinely play your A-game while losing (rare, and worth verifying with a Hand Tracker), a stop-loss costs you a little EV. For everyone else it's cheap insurance against your worst self.
Example
A 200NL reg sets a 4-bi ($800) stop-loss. Three buy-ins deep on a brutal session, he notices himself float-calling rivers light. The fourth stack goes and the rule fires — he logs off. The hands he didn't play would have been at a tilted, sub-breakeven rate, so quitting was the higher-EV line for him specifically.