Just won a $2500 hand on FullTilt Poker...

[The Afterbirth]

$2500 bucks!! Dayum not bad for an hour's work. I would take the money and run. My luck I would turn around and lose it.

Whenever my parents went to Vegas, my father would always come home with a bundle. When he would win a good size pot, he would walk away and go do something else for a few hours. He might then come back and play some more but he never touched his winnings. He would take a certain amount there to gamble with and that was it. If he lost that amount, then he was done. He always came home with at least triple what he brought. How he managed to walk away from the tables is beyond me.

Walking away with cash is more than 50% of the skill you need. I deposited $200 3 years ago and haven't redeposited since. I cashed out about $2k, but then lost over $1k in a month. I was down to my last $.10 and built it up to $700 in a week and lost it all except $.35 again in 2 days going on tilt. I can't stop once I get going, which is bad, especially when I play 4-5 games at a time.

Ya, the biggest problem people run into is that when they start losing, they keep playing in order to get out of their hole. I'm not saying you have to quit everytime you lose a hand, but judging when to take a break is key. I deposited $500 when I first started my account 8 years ago and also haven't ever had to redeposit. I always leave 5% of my monthly winnings in the account so that I have a fail-safe if I start doing poorly. I have a pretty simple rule that I go by. If I ever lose more than $2000 within 5 hands, then I am done for the day. So far its worked pretty well, I'm usually able to come back the next day and win it all back.