During my stay in Vegas, Vanessa and I watched Cash Cab and these guys ended up taking over $2,000 during their ride. They decided to go for the video bonus and double up. Vanessa said she would always go for the video bonus but I wouldn't. This started a discussion about money, risk, EV, and such.

Me: "So if I give you $2000 and offer you a 55/45 flip in your favor, you take it, right?"
V: "Oh hell yeah."
Me: "What about if I offer you $1,000,000 and a 55/45 flip in your favor? Do you take it?"
V: "That's a lot closer because $1,000,000 is enough to change your life whereas $2,000 isn't. Also, the amount that $1,000,000 can change my life vs. what I have now is much greater than the amount $2,000,000 will have if I already had $1,000,000."

So then I tweaked some of those numbers ... like - would you take a 70/30 on $2,000,000, but after that it was pretty much messing around.

It was really interesting thinking about this as in the end, it all comes down to how practical the money is in your life. If $10,000 has the potential to significantly effect your life, then you shouldn't be playing stakes that have swings in the thousands.

In one of my talks with Frank (Ecart), he mentioned that he was able to move up and learn much faster because he simply doesn't need the money. Thus, he's able to be a lot more aggressive with it and losing $4,000 pots doesn't phase him as much nor does it effect his ability to continue playing the session.

My situation is much different than his. Katy is in grad school and we have a mortgage. Every $100 is fairly significant, so playing at a level when I swing thousands of dollars a day would just be -EV for me in general. In my situation, stability and limited variance are much more important than a boost in my EV by taking shots. Thus, my whole approach to the game is different from someone whose goals are to move up soon or play tough regs to improve their game. I'm obviously also working to improve my game, but am simply much more risk-averse than your average HU player for the reasons I mentioned.

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