As I have gone through my poker life, certain things have become apparent to me that were not immediately obvious in days gone by. One of those is how certain other games and fields share uncanny similarities with poker. I am not talking about the actual tactics here but more of conceptual issues.

One area that has long since held an intense fascination for me has been the stock market. I have always risen to the new challenge of trying to beat something that few others could and was the main reason why I became active in not only online poker strategy but blackjack as well before that.

I have done an awful lot of research down the years on the stock market and I have noticed that many principles and concepts can be used to great effect in poker and we will be taking a close look at three of the best known golden rules of trading in this article and seeing how each one can just as easily be applied to poker. These three golden rules of successful trading are,

1. Cut your losses
2. Letting your profits run
3. Trade selectively

Of course there is far more to the stock market than simply following these three pieces of wisdom but let us take a look at how each one applies to poker.

Cutting Your Losses

Is it feasible to quit an online poker game just because you are losing money? Many mathematician types would argue that it is all one big long game and that it really does not matter when you quit. If all we look at are the mathematics then this piece of well trodden advice is true. But unfortunately, poker is played by human beings and they have emotions that can play havoc with your game.

If losing money in a poker game really and truly does not affect you then there is absolutely no reason to quit the game at all…or is there? It could certainly be possible that the reason for you losing money could just be because you are playing in a game that is too tough for you and the other players have your number. Maybe they are reading your bluffs very accurately or you have a predictable table image.

But one thing is certain, most players do not play as good when they are losing as when they are winning and this certainly applies to me. So if you are losing money then by sheer definition, some of your opponents must be winning that money.

This then means that not only could you not be playing at your best because of losses but your opponents are not suffering from the same emotions because their particular session is going well. Thus the gap between your level of play and that of your opposition could have got a whole lot wider since you first sat down.

It is true that your poker losses could be entirely statistically normal and you still have an overlay in the game but if you are not sure then why take the chance and especially if losing money affects you. If you are going to have the inevitable losing run and you are prone to tilt through incurring losses then it makes sense to fragment those losses so it ends up hurting you less and when you hurt less you tilt less.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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