Had a fair crack at all the usual staking ideas over the years - doubling after losses, pressing when a feature lands, chopping the balance into little session banks, the lot. For pokies specifically, I reckon most of the fancy stuff sounds smarter than it actually plays. Once you get a dead patch, the aggressive ones can chew through a bankroll bloody quick.
The one that gave me the least grief was boring old flat spinning with a hard stop before I even start. Nothing magical there, just keeps me from doing the classic mate-I-can-win-it-back move when the machine goes cold. I also don’t mind a mild press after a decent hit if the game feels lively, but only for a few spins... not turning a $1.20 spin into a hero mission for no reason.
Martingale on pokies was probably the worst for me. Fine in theory till you cop one of those long runs with bugger all happening, then suddenly your stake is way above where it should be and you’re either bailing out annoyed or punting harder than planned. Same with those little progression ladders people post about - they can make the session feel organised, sure, but they don’t change what the reels are gonna do.
These days my review is pretty simple: the only setups worth keeping are the ones that control your own bad habits. Anything pretending to beat the machine long term... nah. Keen to hear what others have settled on though. Anyone still using a progression style and actually happy with it, or have most of you gone back to keeping it simple too?