- sometimes I wonder about the doom switch...

This blog (and this post) will not turn into a bad beat saga. I really get tired of listening to beats and no one enjoys the guy who constantly tells you about his latest tale of sadness. But, the month of November has really been the worst month of good poker I've ever played. I'm only down about 1k over 450 games or so, but it's been absolutely infuriating. I mean, like punch a whole through your monitor type of infuriating. By the end of sessions I'm pissed off and don't feel like doing anything except hunting down the idiot opponents I run into with a sharpened MacBook. Fortunately those feelings really only stay for about 10 minutes at the maximum and then I can get other stuff done.

I've had my chat back on Pokerstars for a couple months now and am kind of regretting it. It's nice to make some friends with a few of the decent regulars at the tables, yes, but mostly it just gives me an opportunity to freak out when some idiot snaps off on the bubble with A6o from the small blind. If you somehow find this blog (and you know who you are), yes, I do push things like J5o when I'm the big stack at 200/400 because there are so few hands you can accurately call with - especially when there's a microstack at the table that has already folded. Trust me, A6o in the small blind is one of the worst plays and you spew your equity all over the place. But, no, I'm not bitter that my AK went down to your A-rag for the 3rd time that game and about the 50th of that session. Now I'm angry again.

Through the last couple months I've had my chat blocked a couple times (once by me and once by stars) and been warned a couple times. Reasons varied from insulting a foreign player (he was German and bragged that English was his 2nd language...he'd also sucked out on me 4 hands in a row and I couldn't deal with it) to insulting another foreign player (he was French - not going to explain further) and arguing with regulars about someone's poor play. I don't know, but it felt like I played a more level-headed game without the option of the chatbox. Not saying I'm prone to tilt, because honestly, I'd stop playing so much if every session ended in vicious cycles of tilt. But I definitely stop paying as much attention to all my tables when there's some idiot (fish or not) that needs my verbal ramblings. My angry rant serves no positive purpose either. The fish or regular that I'm pissed at isn't going to apologize or transfer me money because of how awfully they play. The only logical result would be that they they celebrate at how furious I am or they make a slight adjustment next time and play the hand better (exactly what I don't want).

I don't know. Maybe if I get my chat perma-banned from stars I can just click out the table when I bust to an idiot and leave it at that. If anyone has suggestions for how to get perma-banned, I'd appreciate them.