Introduction to Money Management - John Patrick's show  

So, yester evening, I'm playing in a 1$ Sit'n Go (I know I know, my stakes are pretty pathetic right now... this is why I label myself as 'learning the game' still :P). Since I am the product of my time, I cannot live without noise, music, something to create the audio background track. Mostly tv, in my case, for I must confess I am what could be called a "tv kid"...

Becoming the perfect Poker geek, I watch the free CGTV channel (Casino Game TV) on a regular basis. I think Poker Night Live is an awesome place to learn plenty of ropes. Anywho, yesterday, I happened to catch a show I wanted to give a shot for a while; The John Patrick Show. Now I know from a poker buddy of mine (I actually only have one for the time being - sad sad sad... And my other friends ARE gamers, just not gamblers :( ) that the dude (John Patrick that is) advocates to play "any two suited cards". Now, I definitely don't know much about poker, but I know this: beginners overvalue suitedness. I know, I did lol. Roughly, suitedness will give you between 0.5% to 2.x% edge against an unsuited hand. Not that relevant when you're a 3 to 1 dog, now is it?

Anyway, this episode was not about poker; it was entitled Introduction to Blackjack and Money Management if I remember correctly :). Besides giving me some interesting insights about blackjack, which I know squat about :P, Patrick dude said one thing that really stuck. Talking about money management, he gave a simple guideline to keep a close monitoring eye on your session's bankroll; simply aim at winning 20% of your bankroll (or table buy-in would be more appropriate in our case :) ), and quit when stuck no more than 40%. I thought this made a lot of sense, especially since I was having a hard time with the burden of having lost an entire buy-in earlier that very same night. The psychological toll of losing all one's session money can be quite overwhelming, and this simple ratio can help one cope better with losses.