[DonkeyKongSr]

I'm an occassional live player and I've thought about this question quite a bit. It seems to be that almost everyone pays out of their stack, but I've got to think that's not the best approach for someone seeking to be a winning player because it actually costs you more money in the long run.

For example, if I were to pay $10 for food and tip to the server out of my stack, not only does it cost me $10, but it will cost me an additional $10 on a double up that may come along because I no longer have that $10 to double up. Essentially that food cost me $20 on my first double up, $40 on the next, and so forth. However, I guess the opposite is true that if I bust, the food essentially cost me nothing since I paid for it with money I would have lost anyway. Is my thinking correct on this?

In lower limit games, this can add up to quite a large percentage of winnings over time. If everyone at the table is paying for random stuff out of their stacks, you could be seeing $20-$30+/hour disappearing off the table in addition to rake and tips. Now I'm not going as far as saying you should tip out of your pocket because that would be a huge pain in the ass, but really that would make more sense for someone trying to make a living at poker.

Do you pay for things out of your stack or not? Do you have a reason you choose one or the other?

Currently I usually pay out of my stack, but I'm trying to be more vigilant about paying for anything I'm paying more than $5 for out of my wallet.

EDIT: This is all really assuming you are playing NL, particularly with a capped buyin.