Don't be like this guy - the best way to lose your bankroll straight away
Find out why Marcel 'urubu111' Freire is known in poker circles as the king of the degenerates...
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Marcelo 'Urubu111' Freire: "King of the degenerates"
In the words of Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) legend Joe Ingram: "if you don't know who 'Urubu111' is, please Google him, you should definitely know who he is". Marcel Freire AKA 'Urubu111' has been grinding mid-stakes PLO for nearly a decade, and although he's well known in the poker community for being a great player, he's famous for his costly penchant for high stakes coin flips...
The graph above belongs to Freire from back in 2011, and the insane fluctuations speak volumes about his willingness to roll the dice. "He always seems to win a lot grinding normally, but then he has this thing where he likes to flip...for a lot of money" says Ingram. "Unfortunately for Urubu he likes to just do this until he loses, and though he's not quite as bad any more, he's done this for as long as I can remember."
"After I couple flip sessions I found it amazing," said Freire in a 2011 interview once the dust from his crazy swings had settled. "It's hard to explain what you feel but it feels good. After a few sessions I started flipping for fun, but it then changed into a way for me to chase losses. I'm pretty sure gambling and flips has stopped me being a professional. I'm up lifetime but I regret it a lot because I could have grinded more and won more on a solid basis. My goal for 2012 is to take poker seriously and become a professional."
Fast forward a few years though, and there are still signs of excessive risk taking in Freire's character. He might not be flippin' for rolls as much these days, but he's still pushing the boundaries of sensible bankroll management - as was made all too evident by his insane prop bet in 2014. Ahead of last summer's football World Cup in his native Brazil, Freire put up $30K of his own money to win $60K from opponents scattered around the world, backing himself to complete a monstrous 500,000 mid-stakes PLO hands in only 45 days, AND to turn a profit in the process.
As you can tell from the graph above, the first 15K hands of the prop bet literally couldn't have gone worse. "I regret a lot starting this bet," Freire said at the time. "It's stupid, it's not fun, I'm not enjoying it, and even when I win I tilt. It's not so hard to win $60K at mid-stakes, and I'd have to play a lot less." That dismal start sent him spiralling out of control, and though he valiantly decided to carry on with his epic grind initially, it wasn't too long before he was forced to concede the bet.
More money that he'd worked tirelessly to grind up, wasted on an impulse. Freire knows he can make an easy living playing his usual game, and that these huge risks soon become huge regrets, but doesn't seem to have the patience required to realise his talent. And unfortunately for our hero from "Brazililand", hindsight isn't enough if you don't learn from your mistakes.
