It depends alot on the stakes that I am playing for. If I'm playing 10NL I might be willing to lose 3 BI before pulling up. I hate to be losing 3 BI regardless of the stakes. If I'm playing 2NL I hate to be losing 3 BI. I just hate to be losing! But at 10NL I can console myself by telling myself that it's still less than 1 BI at 50NL, which is my preferred stakes for cash games.
My real problem with stop loss is that it might normally take me a couple hours or more to lose 1 BI. At which point, I'm ready to take a break and come back in a few hours and win it back. But when I'm really losing bad enough to need a stop loss strategy is when I'm up against bingo players and maniacs that are cracking my quality hands like pocket Ks with ridiculous stuff like J-6 off. When I'm up against players who use play bad/get lucky strategy it's hard for me to quit on them. I can't stand the thought of some PB/GL donk getting my money. In theory, skill will win over luck in the long run. So when someone 3 bets, then comes over the top of your 4 bet for all their chips with Q-7 aginst your Q-Q and makes a 7 high straight, you don't leave the table. Stop loss strategy goes out the window because this cat can't keep winning like that. After a couple of hours of getting them in with the best hand and getting sucked out on again and again, not only has the skill beats luck theory been disproved, but you're now starting to believe in the mythical doom switch. But when I raised with A-A and got 3 bet, 4 bet and got called, flopped a set of As and check raised all-in, was called by 2-4 suited (no flush draw showing), and the board runs out with a 3 and 5 on the turn and river, my stop loss strategy was to slam my right fist down so hard on my cordless mouse that a piece of it ended up embedded in my left hand. By the time I had calmed down enough to dig another mouse out of a box, I had been removed from the game.
