Bankroll = $3,659.85

Murder. Destroy. Kill. I’ve been a machine so far this month, that number is with about $1k of withdraws. I had a $4k bankroll during my session Saturday night to Sunday morning, but, wound up getting killed by the drunken buffoons I was staying up late to play with.

I walked around all Sunday fuming at this loss. And I didn’t play again as I realized I’d gotten to the end of my poker wits. I was dying to play, but not from a love of the game, but rather a hatred of the men who took my money. This feeling is pretty central to when I begin tilting. So, I ran (6 miles, yay!), finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” watched 5 episodes of “Breaking Bad,” and to cap it off went to the Francis Bacon exhibit at The Met. I often wonder what it is in me that causes the most bleak existentialist/nihilist art to resonates the deepest. But, there I was staring at “Three Studies…” et al., thinking about the man wandering through the dead earth, and listening to the chatter of my brain fume over the stupidity of men who cost me $297 the previous night. These activities did not reduce the chatter nor my tilt, I still felt a horrible urge to play bad poker. But they did allow me to realize this urge was there, to get far enough away from it to examine it, rather than act upon it. I was also very glad that I don’t play live anymore, as if I had endured the poor play of these men in person (regardless if they were embarrassed of their mistakes with sheepish grins, or proud of their gamble with boisterous cheering) that succumbing to my anger would have been far more difficult.

So, instead of playing, I took it out on a couple friends over email. Telling them how bad they are and need to study. One was glad about this and very excited to have me help him. The other seemed offended, especially when I deflated his belief that he was profitable by sending him a link to his poor statistics.

Anyway, I’ve played 14,170 hands of poker this month. Over the course of 44 hours I made $68 an hour. I think it’s now safe to say that my game is reasonably decent. However, my sample size is small, and I must not get cocky.

The highlight reel below the fold:

This is my biggest pot to date. As you can see Villain was completely insane, this was the middle of the day, so I don’t think he was drunk. He’d been on a monstrous run going from $100 up to $900. I took $200 from him a few hands before this when my set beat his 3-barrel bluff. Then the hand directly before this he sucked out on a made straight vs his set. So maybe not insane, maybe just on crazy-monkey-tilt from his roller coaster of a session.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

jumsoon (UTG): $145.95
INSART (MP): $101.15
bOLdbLUFfs (CO): $100.00
Freddyco (BTN): $504.80
Hero (SB): $483.80
RaizerRamon (BB): $190.55

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with K A
Hero says “lolz”, 3 folds, Freddyco raises to $19, Hero raises to $58, 1 fold, Freddyco raises to $97, Hero raises to $483.80 all in, Freddyco calls $386.80

Flop: ($968.60) 5 2 5

Turn: ($968.60) 9

River: ($968.60) T

Final Pot: $968.60
Freddyco shows K J (a pair of Fives)
Hero shows K A (a pair of Fives)
Hero wins $965.60
(Rake: $3.00)

My biggest loss to date. I usually avoid Pot Limit, but I was on this table because there were two players who were utter lunatics. Villain in this hand wasn’t one of them though, not that if I was playing this hand against one of the lunatics it would have made my play ok, but maybe slightly more acceptable. As is, it shows a number of big holes in my deep stack play that I really need to fix. With 100 big blinds, shoving KK is pretty standard, with 300, especially in Pot Limit, it’s pretty terrible. I really hate my all in on the turn here, it’s just embarrassing.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Hold’em – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

ElCreco (SB): $260.80
Hero (BB): $320.50
LooseZepher (UTG): $524.70
QuarterTon (CO): $348.80
Peyote Asesino (BTN): $27.85

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with K K
1 fold, QuarterTon raises to $3.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $9, QuarterTon calls $5.50

Flop: ($18.50) 9 6 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $14, QuarterTon calls $14

Turn: ($46.50) J (2 players)
Hero bets $35, QuarterTon requests TIME, QuarterTon raises to $95, Hero raises to $297.50 all in, QuarterTon calls $202.50

River: ($641.50) 4 (2 players – 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $641.50
Hero shows K K (two pair, Kings and Nines)
QuarterTon shows 9 J (a full house, Nines full of Jacks)
QuarterTon wins $638.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Ok, let’s end on a good one. Villain is a regular who I’ve played with a bunch before. His stats in my personal DB make him look like an overly aggressive fish, but looking him up online, he appears to be pretty good. The reason I decided to put out the huge bluff there was because I had him attempting to steal 60% of the time, and not folding to the first raise. I’m wondering now if this was the right play to make, but at any rate, it worked here.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

pokerkhmel (BB): $143.85
Marcov1 (UTG): $192.95
lootme (MP): $120.75
nsdclan (CO): $178.15
julesdAA (BTN): $100.00
Hero (SB): $108.05

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with A 7
3 folds, julesdAA raises to $3.50, Hero raises to $11.50, 1 fold, julesdAA raises to $34, Hero requests TIME, Hero raises to $108.05 all in, 1 fold

Final Pot: $69.00
Hero wins $69.00
(Rake: $0.00)