Rule 4 - Don't drink and play

--- The caffeine high ---
I had an other session at Black Hawk on Saturday. My previous two sessions were so good by my standards that I was excited about getting up there and having another big session. Plus I ran into some traffic on the way there last week so I thought I'd get on the road early and miss some traffic. I didn't have time to finish my coffee so I took it along for the 1.5 hour trip from Fort Collins to Black Hawk. I was almost there when I realized I never finished my coffee and I hate to let things go to waste so I gulped it down in the last few minutes before my arrival at the Golden Gates casino. That is when I broke rule 4 of poker, don't drink and play. This means both alcohol and caffeine. I'll drink beer and play poker only when I'm in it for the fun, not to make money. Coffee is a different story, it makes me aggressive, even reckless. So after downing a full cup of cold, black coffee I headed to the poker room ready to book another monster winning session.
I got seated almost immediately. There wasn't much chat at this table. All male and at least two frequent regulars. I love it when a new dealer sits down says hello to a player using his first name. Even the waitresses knew these guys. I knew to steer clear of these guys but the others were mostly unknowns at this point. The dealer started hitting me with cards. AJo in the CO, KQ s in the BB, 88, AK o. Hands that I wanted to see a flop with. But they all came with a preflop raise from one of the other players. $10, $7, $12 preflop and then I would miss the flop and a c-bet from the raiser would send my hand sailing into the muck.
Before I knew it my $100 was down to $40. That's when I realized what had happened. The coffee was making me play too many hands and call with too many draws. I stood up and walked away. I grabbed a sandwich from the Full House cafe and returned to the table. Rebuy. The next few orbits I'm folding everything preflop. ATo UTG didn't look so good anymore. Discipline. I win a two $7 pots then see K3o in the BB and a limp pot. The flop hits me hard, K3X and I lead out for $7. I bet the turn and the hit a boat on the river. My river bet gets paid off and my stack starts moving in the right direction. I get lucky in another pot with QTs when I flop top pair and lead out. One player behind calls and by the river I hit Broadway which saved my butt against his two pair KJ.
Sorry for being a bit terse this week but morale this week was not about the hands but about the player. I let the coffee drive my play. I find it isn't such a big factor if I've been at the table for a few hours and order a drink, but when I first sit down I need to be focused and tight until I know how the table is playing.
I finished the day up a little. I quit shortly after I got ahead which leads me to another question. How ofter should a low stakes live cash game player book winning sessions and what is a reasonable dollars/hour return rate. I was reviewing a blog from the Poker Grump and it seems he books about an 80% win rate and maybe $50-$100/hour. This seems fantastic. I'm booking about 50% and $5/hr, but I have much less data than the Grump.