Roulette is hazardous to your bankroll. Duh. BRT.

Noble Poker recently added double-zero roulette to their system (house edge: a brutal 5.4%), and I'd avoided it up until yesterday. Back in 2004, when I was on a major hot streak, about half my $1800 in winnings came from poker; the other half was single-zero roulette (2.7% house edge) and Pontoon blackjack (0.17% house edge). The hot streak ended when I went on tilt at the roulette wheel, and lost more than I care to admit (I was up well over $2000 before I dropped back to $1800 and cashed out).

Within the week, the site I was playing on (Phoenician) closed up its card room and went exclusively to table games. Coincidence? I chose to avoid the online poker scene for several months afterwards, starting back up last fall with a freeroll win of a no-strings attached $2 at Noble Poker.

As of Wednesday night, I'd built my online bankroll up to $15, finally having enough to play in the $1 SNG without worrying about a losing streak. Then, for some dumb reason, after winning $4.80 as the first place prize, I went to the roulette wheel and lost $1, a dime at a time, hitting lucky 9 and coming out $2.60 ahead.

Yesterday was similar; a few tourneys, up $2.30, and a horrid session at the wheel dropping me below where I started. This, combined with three later bad tourney beats (including the brutal 56o in the BB, losing to 76s UTG, with a board of 765-6-Q, going all-in on the turn), dropped me back below $10.

No more roulette for me, for at least six months. You may taunt and smite me if I do.