Risk of ruin doesn't apply in poker decision-making except in the "metagame" (ie which stakes you play and how much you actually put on the table etc). In hand

Risk of ruin doesn't apply in poker decision-making except in the "metagame" (ie which stakes you play and how much you actually put on the table etc). In hands themselves poker is played for "table stakes" (ie in a given hand you can only lose the chips that are in front of you at the beginning of that hand). Because of the table stakes rule, avoiding risk of ruin in poker is literally as simple as keeping some money as cash and not putting it on the table. The thing that happens in movies where someone makes a bet their opponent can't call so they throw the deeds to their house/title to their gold mine/keys to their car into the pot literally can't happen in poker. You can only bet what you have on the table at the beginning of the hand and if you call all-in (all those chips) you get to see the hand to conclusion regardless of what the opponent bet.