WillisNYC

I am encouraged by many of the changes that I am seeing in poker during the last half of 2007.   Observing the progress of many different bills passing through Congress to regulate or officially legalize online poker is especially exciting.  I doubt any of them get passed during an election year, but I feel that 2009 after the election will see some progress on this front.  US regulation would send the fish back to the online poker sites in droves. 

I played a LOT of live poker in 2007 and I can attest that the average live player is far worse than online players.  The comparison is not even close.  I think this is because if an online player sits at a 5/10 NL game, he made enough money playing poker to sit at that game.  Making $20,000 that would be a recommended bankroll for this game is no small feat.  Few online players deposit this kind of money in order to play poker.  Thus, the average 5/10 or better player online has made a fair amount of money playing poker.  Contrast this with your average 5/10 NL player at the Borgata in Atlantic City.  The max buy in is $2000, but rarely are the players properly bankrolled for this game.  Half the players in your average 5/10 game are casual players with a fair amount of disposable income.  There are plenty of doctors, lawyers, business owners and retirees.  These casual players are not good players.  They don’t know pot odds, outs or even how to properly figure them in many cases.  (See my earlier story ‘about the math’.)  They tend to chase draws, call you down with 2nd pair or top pair lousy kicker.  And they call you down for big bets on the river!  Barring unlucky disaster, the 5/10 and 10/20 NL games at the Borgata are a goldmine.  A goldmine that I have been working in for some time now and am happy to report success. 

The other half of your average 5/10 game consists of ‘local pros’ who just are not that good.  They could not win consistently playing on the tougher 5/10 tables that exist online.  Their games are full of holes that are readily exploitable.  On average, one or two of them ‘might’ make it playing online.  In AC they do fairly well because they are feasting on the truly terrible casual players who frequently play there.  Currently there are few of those casual players at the higher online levels and the pros who win there MUST be far better in order to profit.   

I am guardedly hopeful that the US will regulate online play in the near future and bring back the fish that are the lifeblood of poker.  When those fish come back, online poker will once again be a feeding frenzy of joy not seen for over a year.  In the meantime, the popularity of poker on TV and elsewhere has brought the fish to the casinos in droves.  There I will continue to feast on them and eagerly await their return online. 

The Palms casino near my hotel has a 2/5 NL game with a buy in cap of $1000.  A couple nights ago, I happened to be at a table that saw the biggest 2/5 pot I have ever seen.   Joe Awada was at the table with ‘Jack’, another bracelet winner from last year and the preflop action was very heavy.  Preflop bets of $100-$200 routinely received 3-4 callers because of the crazy action induced mostly by ‘Jack’ who was also the owner of a casino and his daughter. 

Jack opened the betting for $25 on this hand in particular.  He was called by the ‘loose cannon’ of the table and his daughter.  On the button was a tight aggressive player who raised to $150.  All three players called his $150 of course.  The flop was K83 with 2 hearts.  Jack checked and the loose cannon bet $150.   Jack’s daughter pushed all of her $500 worth of chips into the pot at this point.   The button called, Jack folded and the loose cannon called.   The pot now has over $2100 and both remaining players have about 2k remaining in front of them.  Their stacks were  the result of earlier battles with Jack and Joe. 

The turn brought a non heart 6.   Loose cannon checked and the button bet $500.  The loose cannon thought about 2 seconds and shoved.  Now the button showed a pained expression on his face over the difficult decision he has to make.  He has seen the loose cannon win at least one huge pot with 36 offsuit when it hit two pair against an overpair when huge, ($150) preflop action occurred in a hand.   The button went into the tank for about 2 minutes at which point he turned over 2 aces.  No ace of hearts and he tried to get a read on the loose cannon.  No read seemed possible from what I saw.  Another 3 minutes or so passed and button finally said, ‘I call’.  A non heart 7 hit the river and neither the loose cannon or Jack’s daughter immediately flip their cards.   The aces held!  After some prodding the loose cannon flips 9T hearts and Jack’s daughter shows Q4 hearts.   The button scoops a huge 2/5 pot which may well have been the biggest of his life!  He treated it as such since he left the table within one orbit of stacking it.

Late last night, I went to sleep after playing poker at about 2am in the morning.  The next thing I hear is the ringing of my room phone.  Not my cell phone, but my room phone… no one knows my room phone number.  WTF it is like 3 am?  I pick up and it is the front desk of my hotel.   “There is a bomb threat and you must evacuate your room immediately!’, says the voice from the front desk.   ‘OH Shit’, I think to myself. 

I hang up and start stumbling around looking for my clothes.  I get outside in my flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt.  There are at least 8 police cars in the parking lot and yellow tape everywhere!  ‘Damn, no shit bomb scare here!’  I stumble toward a police officer who asks my name.  I tell him and he says go stand over there in the parking lot on the other side of the tape.

In that parking lot is one lonely looking fella sitting on the curb. ‘What’s up?’ I ask.  ‘I found dynamite in my room!’ comes the reply.  “WHAT?” ‘ I checked in to my hotel today around 3 PM and then went to play poker.  I just came back and under my TV I found four sticks of dynamite!  Also some kind of timing device I think.  The police think it is real because they ran like hell when I showed it to them!’  ‘Wow!’, I reply. ‘Whose mafia wife have you been sleeping with dude?’, he laughs and replies, ‘I have no idea!’

I start talking to some other newly arriving hotel refugees.  Half of them are twenty something young men and they all seem to play poker!    Wish I had brought my bankroll and cards into the parking lot!  We could have had quite the game. 

The bomb squad finally shows up about an hour later.  They remove the bomb and the police tell us we can go back.   Talk about anticlimactic….

A couple of my poker playing colleagues have recommended that I should play the games at the Commerce Casino in CA.  I thus added a trip there this year before the  WSOP events that I intend to play.  I must report that so far the Commerce has been as good as advertised, if not better than I expected.  My regular live game at the Borgata in Atlantic City is 5/10 NL with a $1500 max buy in.  During the week they usually get three tables going by the evening and have 5 or 6 on the weekends.  They also have a 10/25 NL game available on weekends and some weeknights with a $2500 minimum buy in.    SO even though there may not be enough players to support it, there is a hole between $1500 and $2500 that exists in AC.  That is because the 10/25 game plays very big  compared to the 5/10 and  there should be a game that plays in between these two levels.  

The Commerce Casino does not have this problem.  Their 5/10 NL has a max buy in cap of $500!   However, their 10/20 NL game has no cap and a minimum buy in of $600.  The average buy in seems to be around $2000-$3000 at the 10/20 game and they nearly always have 3 games running during the day and 5 or more at night and on the weekends.  They also have a $20/40 NL game that runs most days and a $50/100 NL game that runs irregularly.  The staff tells me that things are slow right now because many players are in Vegas for the WSOP, yet this is a far bigger game selection than I have in AC and this is during their slow period! I doubt that a better game selection at this level exists anywhere, even in Vegas if you are looking for big NL cash games.  They also have many big Limit games as well as some of the other games.  Over 300 tables and if you play in the high limit room, all your food is comped completely!  I have eaten many of the items on their menu and I will attest that the selecion is very large and most of their dishes are very good.  The staff also allows you to eat at the tables which is another big plus not allowed by many casinos! 

I know that I may sound like an advertisement after writing this, but I am just offering what I have learned.   I also may be biased because I am having a very good run during my stay here.  I have won 4 days out of the 5 I am here so far and I would have won 5 out of 5 if not for one big mistake yesterday.  Regardless, I promised some hands and analysis, so here we go.

After scouting out the casino and discussing the various limits available with the floor personnel, I decided to sit at the 10/20 NL table for my first foray into combat at the Commerce.   A brand new 10/20 table is forming and I sit down with $2000.  We draw for the button and I win the button.  The very first hand, UTG makes it $100 to go and I look down at two beautiful red aces on the button.  I raise to $300 and think this is going to be interesting.  UTG thinks for 2 seconds and raises to $800!   No thinking for me, but I slowly count to 20 before saying, ‘I am all in!’  UTG calls immediately!  I think to myself, ‘Fasten your seat belt Willis and welcome to Commerce!’  The board comes out Q high, no flush and I turn over my Aces saying, ‘Am I good?’  UTG mucks his hand with a disgusted look on his face!   Thank you lord!  One hand played and I am up $2000.  Talk about a baptism by fire!

Thanks to some good luck and reasonable play, each of my first three days here are winners.   I make one big mistake on day 4 and it ends up as a loser.  By day 5 I am starting to feel comfortable in this game and I have some interesting hands to relate.   I have been buying in for $2000 each day and that is pretty close to the standard buy in most players use with a few buying in for $3-4000 and a couple I have seen buying in for close to $10k.  The guys with 10k all moved on to the 20/40 game as soon as seats opened up there which happened fairly quickly in most instances.    Many players also buy in for around $1000, on the whole most of them are bad players.  One guy on my table is particularly bad and he proceeds to go all in on 5 of the 10 hands he played.  In addition, he played 10 of the first 20 hands he received.  This is an especially bad player that we all welcomed and he busted out when he pushed with 45o, no draw and no pr on a draw heavy paired board!  He had pushed for $1500 which is what he had built his $1000 stack up to after stealing a couple pots with previous pushes.  He leaves to go to the ATM and returns shortly with about $2500.  I have built my stack up to over $3000 during the first hour of play when I am fortunate enough to get involved with the table maniac.  The maniac has straddled UTG for $40 and I look down to see KhKc in middle position.    I make it $180 to go, assuming that I will get heads up with him.  Everyone else folds and he calls as expected.   The flop comes Qh7s8h and the maniac leads out for $200.  I had seen him lead out in another hand when he hit two pair and he then had pushed all in when he was reraised after the flop.    I figure that I will get the same pattern if he has two pr and I raise him to $700 total.  Maniac thinks a while and decides to call.  The turn is the 4h and the maniac immediately pushes all in for another $1500.  I sit there thinking whether I can fold here or not.  I think it is at least 50% likely that I have the maniac beat.  I also have the redraw to the Kh for a four flush if I am wrong.   I am getting over 2 to 1 on my $1500 and I figure I am about 75% likely to win, easy call by the math so I decide to hold my nose and say, ‘I call.’   The dealer turns over the 9h and I immediately turn over my hand.  Maniac looks and looks at the cards, finally discarding them into the muck!  Big pot, big call, big reward, I feel great. 

The maniac leaves the table for good and a couple orbits later I look down at TT in middle position.  The studious looking, middle aged Asian gentlemen to my right has just raised to $100 and I make it $300 to go.  They all fold back to him and he thinks a bit and calls.  The flop comes Jxx rainbow, the Mr. Asia checks so I bet $500.  He thinks a second or two and calls.  Uh-oh I think.  A blank comes on the turn and Mr. Asia checks again.   I turn to him and try to get a read. ‘What do you have?’ , he replies, ‘I have you beat.’ in a very confident tone looking me right in the eye.  I look at the board again and check.  QQ or KK I am putting him on!  An offsuit Ace hits on the river and Mr. Asia checks again.  A voice in my head says, ‘He is scared of the ace, you must bet!’  An appropriate bet here for me if I held AK would be about $1200.  I look at my chips and slowly count out the appropriate chips and push them into the betting ring.   I watch my opponent out of the corner of my eye and he reaches…not for his chips, but for his cards!   He takes off the card protector and turns over KK!    ‘I let you get there didn’t I?’  I haven’t moved a muscle and I only glance at his cards before looking straight back toward the pot.    He mucks them and I happily collect my ’stolen’ pot!

A young asian has been playing a short stack of about $1000 for about an hour.  He has been pretty tight and he has his girlfriend sitting with her head on his shoulder quite bored most of the time.  I raise with QQ to $100 in middle posn and the youngster calls from the BB.  The flop comes 789 two hearts and the youngster checks.  I bet $250 into the pot and he calls.  A non heart rag comes on the turn and the youngster checks again.  I am certain he is on the draw by now or maybe he has a set.  I ask him how much he has remaining and counts down his $740 remaining chips.  His girlfriend’s interest seems to have perked up and I catch her looking at me.  She smiles and rolls her eyes and then looks away.  Hmmm, I wonder if she knows what he has.  I pick up 800 chips and place them in the pot.  The youngster reluctantly calls.  Another rag comes on the river making a str8 and I turn over my QQ.  He looks at the board and reluctantly mucks his cards.  Nice little roll that I am on this afternoon.

A couple hours later I haven’t gone up or down much in chips and I thinking about leaving soon.  4 limpers in front of me and I have 23h on the button.  I don’t normally play these cards but almost no pots are limped into on this table, so I figure what the heck for $20.  The flop comes 456 two clubs!  Check, check in the blinds and the UTG bets $70.  Fold, fold and I raise to $270.  Fold, fold and UTG calls.  Damn, I really thought I would take down the pot right there.   Turn is an offsuit Q and UTG checks.  I bet $600.  UTG looks like he will fold, then finally calls after about a minute of thought.  The river is the awful 8 of clubs.   UTG has at least $4000 in front of him and I have him covered by far.  He thinks a bit and bets out $1200.  I really, really hate that river card.  The reluctance of his call on the turn screamed draw and now both the flush and the straight draw have gotten there.  I am really perplexed and cannot determine the best course of action.  I probably should call and take my medicine, but every hand I read him for seems to have gotten there now.  I really reluctantly fold my cards into the muck.  He doesn’t show so I ask him what he had.  “A set!’ he replied.  “That makes sense,’ I say while beginning to seethe inside.  I didn’t seriously consider that possibility since I would not have played a set that way in that hand.  My opponent in this hand was fairly tight and aggressive and a set made sense the more I thought about it.  I really need to get better at calling big bets on the river in this game.  Partly, I am not quite used to the size of these pots and frankly, I am not used to playing 23s in late position.  Hell I don’t usually play it in any position and after this hand I will really think twice about the damn thing!  I hate tough decisions and this game is full of tough decisions quite frequently.    Anything to lower the amount of tough decisions should be a good thing. 

Still, I am up for the day quite well and very well for the trip, so I shouldn’t complain too much.  I love the tough decisions as much as I hate them…after all it is the challenge that makes NL such a great game. 

I leave for Vegas today to enjoy the cash games and some tournaments in the WSOP.  Unlike last year I have not won my way into any of the events via online satellites but I hope to do so in the live satellites in Vegas.  Tons of people I know will be there over the next few weeks and it will be a blast to meet up with them again.  I am also planning a side trip to the Commerce Casino to check out the reputed ’scene’ there.  I have been told the cash games are even better than Vegas at this time of year so I will report back on my discoveries.  I am due for a good run since I have been running neutral to bad in May.  June has turned around and I hope my playing and luck will peak during this trip.   I am anticipating having many cash game hands to report in the next few weeks and hopefully some WSOP progress reports.  Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed!

Live play has been very good to me in the last couple months.   I have not had a sick run of cards or been running particularly good.  However, my confidence has been soaring as I have been playing a lot more live games recently.   One of the things that has been very heartening has been my ability to read my opponents and put them on hands in key situations.    For example:  Last night I was playing a $5/10 game in the Borgata in AC.  The table had been allowing a lot limping and I had not been getting a lot of great cards all evening.   2 limpers ahead of me and I had JQh in late position.  I limped with them and the SB and BB completed.   Flop was 49J rainbow.  All checked to me and I bet $50 into the $50 pot.  SB and UTG both called.  The SB loved to play any two cards but the UTG player tended to only play good hands.    The turn brought a blank 6 that I didn’t think helped anyone.  I figured the SB was on a draw and put the UTG on a Jx or a pair like TT.  They both checked and I bet $250 into the $200 pot hoping to push out the draw and take down the pot right now.  The SB called convincing me that he was on a draw and the UTG folded.    A threatening Ace hit the river and the UTG player almost immediately bet out $350.   There was no flush draw on the board at any time, so I couldn’t put the UTG player on an ace for a flush draw.  Also an ace wouldn’t make sense to be in his hand for the draws that I put him on.  I really thought he had either T8 or TQ.  Those are the only two hands I had him on to this point in the hand.  I also knew the SB was an experienced player who could bluff if he missed his draw, especially if this would be the only way for him to win the hand.   Thus, his bet not only didn’t surprise me, it was almost expected.  All this went through my head in a few milliseconds and I made the call within 5 seconds.   I immediately turned over my JQ and the UTG player started moaning immediately, ‘ I can’t believe this shit!  I folded AJ!’   The SB slowly turned over his hand revealing TQ and boosting my confidence in my reading ability.   Looking back on the last couple days, this wasn’t my biggest hand by far, but it illustrates how in certain situations, I have been able to read accurately and more importantly ACT upon the reads properly in the heat of battle.  Two players on that table asked me ‘ Just HOW did you make that call?’  “I went with my read,” was my response.  This hand garnered me MUCH more respect at the table afterwards. 

The day before I was involved in a very big hand that in the end boiled down to a read again and math.  I was on a fairly aggressive table which raised $40-$75 for nearly every preflop.   I had about $2000 chips and called a $50 raise with As9s in the cutoff.  The initial raiser, a middle position caller and myself saw the 9dTsJs flop together.   The initial raiser bet $150 into this pot.  The middle position player raised to $300.  I hoped to draw cheaply to my flush and called expecting the initial raiser to call or fold.  Instead he reraised to $900 total.   The middle position player immediately threw $2000 chips into the pot covering both of us remaining players.    My initial reaction was to think damn, he obviously has QK and I have to fold!  I then forced myself to look at the betting and do the math.  $165 pot preflop.  $150 initial bet, raise to $300, call $300.  A reraise that contributed $750 more.  I had put $350 chips in the pot already and had $1650 left behind.  Thus I could win $1650 of the $2000 chips the middle position player had contributed in the last raise.  Thus I had to call $1650 to win $1665 plus $1650.  I was getting almost exactly 2-1 on my call if I made it.  I reviewed the betting in my head and the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that the last raiser had KQ.  This was important because if he had a set, any board pair would kill my flush and keep me from winning the hand.  However, the middle position player had acted very quickly in each of the rounds of betting.   A set would require more thinking for most people to throw $2000 into a pot when he wouldn’t be guaranteed the best hand.  If the mid position player had a set, my odds of winning were much lower and I can’t justify the call.   IF the initial bettor has a set and decides to come into the pot, then I will get 3-1 on my money and that is what I need if I am up against a set.  The math says go and I decided to go with my read and pushed my remaining chips in the pot.   The initial bettor folded his hand at this point and says, ‘I folded the ignorant end of the str8.’  The middle position player flips over KQ to my relief.  A beautiful 3s hits the turn and my opponent is drawing dead!  A meaningless 9 hits the river and I get pushed the monster pot. 

Many people at the table expressed shock that I had made the call with just the draw to which I replied, ‘It was just math in the end!’  However it was my turn to express inward shock when I realized from the ensuing discussion that NO one at the table was able to articulate the math behind the call!  I was friendly with a player who had sat next to me for some time and we quietly discussed the math.  He said I needed 2.5 times on my money to make the call.  I asked him to explain and he said, ‘You had 9 flush outs and therefore you were 40% to win the hand.’  ‘Ok’, I replied, so how does that make me 2.5 to one against to win.  He couldn’t explain it.  Two others overheard our discussion and it was clear that THEY had no clue about outs or odds either!   I am truly shocked that these opponents could sit at a $5/10 table with $1500 in front of them and NOT know basic poker outs and math odds!  This is great to know that my average opponent knows little to nothing of pot odds in a firm way.   

I love live poker in Atlantic City!

I have been playing quite a bit in Atlantic City lately and have been a fortunate winner in some big hands.  

The first hand, I was playing $5/10 NL in the Borgata  for about 45 minutes.  I had built my stake up to $2k from my initial $1500.   The table was playing very weak with lots of preflop limping.  5 limpers ahead of me, I have 48s in the cutoff.  I limp along and see a flop.  The flop is 5s6s8d.  UTG bets pot, the limper next to him calls and so do I thinking I have excellent drawing odds for the flush and straight.   The turn brings the 7d and completes my str8.  UTG and the limper check, so I bet pot of about $300.  Both of my opponents call and I am putting one on a flush draw and the other on two pr or a set played weird.    A beautiful 7s hits the river to complete the str8 flush for me.  UTG checks and the limper now bets $300 into a $1200+ pot.    I have to struggle to contain the glow of joy at this development since you always wonder if you can get paid off with monster hands.  I think about my play for a while and decide to push all in and pray for the best.  Neither player has been particularly aggressive to this point and I wonder if I will get called.  UTG instantly folds and the fella next to him instantly ‘calls’ and flips over quads!  It takes him about 30 seconds to understand that I have a str8 flush and he loses.   He immediately gets up from the table, dials a buddy on his cell phone and says, ‘Call the cops, I just got robbed down here at the Borgata.  I can’t believe I just got beat with quads for a $4500 pot…’

 At a different table, I was playing a full ring game with 2 really aggressive guys.   Directly to my left was an Asian kid that the table nicknamed ‘Turbo’ for his hyper aggressive style.  Turbo had just bluffed me out of a $1000 pot with 2nd pr when a flush card hit the turn and I had put him on a flush draw.  He was ‘kind’ enough to show me the bluff after the hand, I think hoping to put me on tilt.  I never tilt.  Get frustrated or mad yes, but never change how I play because of ’tilt’, it is one of my strengths.   However the two aggressive guys on my table got me to alter my play since they were both to my left and presented a trapping opportunity for me.   I got QQ UTG and decided to limp since I was ‘certain’ that one of the two aggros would raise.    Sure enough, Turbo raised to $100, the other aggro called as did another fella and myself.    The flop came down AhQhTd.  Not perfect, but about what I was hoping for .  Turbo checked as did the other aggro.  The other fella bet $200 and I smooth called hoping for a raise from Turbo or the other aggro so I could get all my chips in.  Turbo calls and the other aggro folds.  SO much for that plan.   Turbos call had me putting him on  KK  and the other fella on Ax.    The turn brings a Kh and I moan inwardly knowing that it is a bad card.  I check, and so do my opponents.  Good, neither was on the flush draw, but I am probably behind Turbos set of Ks.   A very fortunate Q hits the river giving me quads!    Knowing how aggressive Turbo is I decide to put a ‘feeler’ bet of $300 into this $1200 pot figuring that he will raise me if he has what I put him on.  Sure enough he instantly fires $900 into the pot.  The other fella folds while I think for a minute about what to do.  I slowly count my chips down and then announce ‘all in’.   Turbo instantly calls and flips over his KK.  I show him my quads and the whinging and whining starts immediately. 

On a different $5/10 table a day later I have built my stack to around $3k.  Two players on the table are very aggressive post flop, betting at any ’scare’ card that completes a flush or str8 draw when it hits the board.   They have each cost me several pots where I didn’t have enough of a hand to call down their suspected bluffs.  Needless to say I am a little frustrated with each of them.  I am also determined to show down a hand if I can just hit something reasonable on a board with them.  They each have me covered as well.  I limp in ep with 66 and get raised to $50 by one of the aggro players.   The other calls, as do I and another player.    The flop is 6s8sTd.  Bottom set in ep, so I check, looking to check raise and take down the pot.  It gets checked to the 2nd aggro who bets $125 into the $250 pot.  The half pot bet screams drawing hand to me so I decide to make a huge raise.  I raise $600 on top of the $125 bet to destroy his drawing odds.   The other players fold and it comes back to aggro 2.  He hems and haws for a good 2 minutes and I think he is folding til he finally puts $600 into the pot.   I am pretty sure he is on a draw, but I really don’t know which one.  A 3s hits the turn.  Aggro dude instantly says he is all in.  I had already decided that I had to show down a hand with this guy and no scare card was getting me off this hand once I put in the big raise.  I instantly call because of the decision I had already made.   A beautiful 8 hits the river giving me a FH and aggro dudes starts cursing me ‘You stupid mother fucker!’  and flips over AKs for the nut flush.   I take down the $6k pot and a huge amount of discussion ensues as aggro dude leaves the table in frustration.   Most of the discussion centered around how badly aggro dude played and how I could call so quickly.   Aggro dude really should have pushed or folded on the flop.   He has no drawing odds except for implied odds on the flop, but he has two overs and the nut flush draw which is a favorite over a pair.   However, it is highly unlikely that I had just a pr when I put in the huge flop raise.   He should have put me on a set or a flopped str8.    I made my decision about how to play the remainder of the hand based on two things.  I knew aggro dude would bet any scare card regardless of whether it made his hand or not.   I also knew that if I was wrong and he actually did hit his hand I would have outs.   I only had ten outs for a one in five chance to win a pot that was offering me only 1.5 or so to 1.  However, given our history, I gave him less than a 30% chance of actually having the hand that he did.   So it could be argued that I made a bad call on the turn, but given the history between us, I wasn’t folding a set there regardless.  

I was very lucky in all 3 of these hands and I didn’t put them in the blog to show how lucky I have been lately.  The interesting thing I discovered was how frustrated that I became when playing with bigger aggros than myself.  It gives me insight into how frustrated others must feel when playing me.  I have known all along that my aggressive play gets others to make bad calls because they don’t know when I am bluffing or when I actually have a hand.   It was interesting that I fell into the same trap when playing other aggros.  

WPT UK magazine offered me a chance to write a bankroll article early in 2007 and I leaped at the chance.  I am an instructor by nature and love to write about poker and my experiences.  The opportunity to combine my playing experience with what I have learned about poker primarily from other authors is a singularly satifsfying experience for me.   

I learned poker just like I learned many other games.  I read a book.  I then applied what I learned and was immediately successful.   I must be fairly unique because I read countless stories of people who have not had any success, let alone the success that I have had from reading and applying what they learned in poker books.   Evidently, many people have trouble trying to actually apply what they have read and thus look for other sources to learn how to play poker.  I have tried to become one of those sources.  I teach poker online and in person to those that contact me.   I also produce online videos that I sell here:  http://www.thepokercamp.com/videos/bwillis_main.htm

 In my classes I teach a very nuts and bolts approach to cash games.   I lay out what starting hands should be played from every position on the table whether it is full or short handed.  I also describe what actions should be changed based on the other players acting ahead of you.   Reraises, all ins and play against short stacks are all covered.  Postflop I describe my strategies about continuation bets,  when to check raise, when to bet pot, etc, etc.  This is my basic class and it describes how to play the cards properly.  This strategy will enable anyone willing to apply it to beat games up to $5/10 NL for 10big blinds per 100 hands or per hour in a live game.   I know this for a fact because I have been doing it for over two years now and the system is well proven at all the lower levels of poker.   Many reading this may doubt this, but my results speak for themselves and I have the pokertracker and excel spreadsheets with years of data to back it up. 

I also teach advanced poker courses on how to use my cash game strategies in MTTs.  How to play the players after you have learned to play the cards.  How to beat SNGs using a totally different strategy that I didn’t come up with, but use because it works.   I charge $150/hr for my time when I teach all these classes because my time is worth more than that when I sit down to play poker.  (Which is what I could be doing if I wasn’t teaching poker.)  I do this because I love to teach and I understand that some people learn differently than I do.  They learn by watching and discussing poker while it is played better than by reading a ‘dry’ poker book.   The poker books are cheaper than my classes, but many of them are bad and learning which ones to heed and which ones to toss on the fire is a difficult proposition for beginners.  If you read my story below, you will find that I learned from many sources, not just books, but also from colleagues and videos.  Thus you will find this blog full of many links to articles and videos that will help you on your poker journey to whatever destination that you have in mind.   Enjoy!

I am going to take a break from my narration of my personal history today to discuss some of my most recent live play activities.  I have recently stepped up my efforts to win my way into WPT and WSOP main and circuit events.  Hence I have been traveling to Foxwoods and Atlantic City whenever those events come to town in order to attempt to ’satellite’ in to their main events.  On that front I must report much frustration.  I have entered 5 of the $1000 satellite events to date, with most of them paying around 10-12 entries.  I have finished within ten spots or less of the seats in 3 of my attempts.  Very frustrating to get that close and fail.   I have also entered several of the lower buy in events and have had little success in them as well. 

Thank god I still know how to play cash, because as soon as I bust out of an event, I go searching for juicy cash action and I usually find it!   After one of my bustouts at the Borgata WPT event, I ended up playing cash at a $2/5 NL table.  (Yes I still play $2/5 live from time to time if I don’t find the right conditions at $5/10 or if they don’t have $5/10.   Borgata is the only AC casino which consistently offers $5/10 by the way.)  This table was playing pretty normally for most cash games in AC and I was able to build my chips up to $750 or so from the initial $500 buy in.   The table had a light jovial mood with plenty of verbal jousting going on.   My favorite environment for a great, live cash game.   The action had been surprisingly tight and I had few opportunities in the next couple hours.    The preflop action was surprisingly tight for $2/5 and I started to open up my game a bit by calling some raises with suited connectors.  (Students of my game know I hate to normally call raises with suited connectors.) 

A tight, fairly solid player opened in middle position for $15, was called by one late position player and I called in the big blind with 56s.   Not a standard play by me, but I figured the price was cheap since most raises were coming in for $25 or more on this table.   Also, the original raiser and the caller had stacks as big or bigger than mine making the implied odds very good.     The flop was JQk with 2 spades.   I normally like to lead out when I have a draw, but this flop was very likely to have hit one or both of my opponents and I decide to check.   The initial raiser bets $30 into the $45 pot and is raised by the late position caller to $60.  I hope that both players stay in which would give me perfect drawing odds and I call the $60 bet.   The initial better totally screws up the equation by reraising $100 on top of the $60.   The initial raiser folds leaving me heads up.  I can now call $100 to win the $325 in the pot plus the implied odds of getting his stack if I hit my draw.  His $100 raise tells me he has a very strong made hand at this point and I put him on a set or AT for the made straight.   His anxiousness to end the hand now makes me think that a set is his most likely holding.   I have 4-1 drawing odds to hit my flush on the next card and I can get away from the hand without too much damage if I miss on the turn.  I also think that I have zero fold equity, thus I don’t even consider pushing in this position as some of my more aggressive colleagues recommend. 

When a red 4 hits the board on the turn, all these calculations are pretty meaningless.   I sit quietly considering my options for a second and look up at my opponent.  My opponent is a twenty something ‘kid’.  Three quarters of the table are twenty somethings just like himself and that has contributed to the consistent banter on this table.  For some reason, my look inspires ‘the kid’ to start talking.  ‘Sir, you have gotten yourself in quite the predicament here.  If you check, I am going to push and I don’t think you can call.   Furthermore, if you bet, whatever amount you bet, I will call. ‘  His smug smile of satisfaction disappears in an instant as I raise one lowly $5 chip from my stack in drop it on the felt in front of me.   The whole table cracks up in laughter as they all realize exactly what has happened.  ‘The kid’ begins to bluster and says, ‘You can’t do that!….Well, I am going to raise here!’   I reply, ‘No sir, you are not going to raise.  You can either place one red chip in the pot as you promised or you can call the floor right now!   I am going to bind you to your word SIR!’   ‘The kid’s’ face looks like a teakettle the instant before it is set to boil and the whole table is laughing nervously at his predicament.   ‘The kid’ asks the dealer if he can raise and the dealer says no.  “Floor!” shouts ‘the kid’.  A floorman comes over to the table.  Once he gets silence, he asks the dealer what happened.  The dealer reports the action and repeats ‘the kids’ statement word for word.  The floor asks ‘the kid’ if he said that and he confirms that he did.  ‘The kid’ starts to bluster, ‘I only said it so the GENTLEMAN could save his chips.  I was trying to be NICE!’  The floorman replies, ‘ I am sorry sir but verbal declarations when heads up are binding.  Since you two were heads up when you said that I have to ask you to call and honor your word.’   The kid asks for the floorman’s supervisor who eventually comes over and confirms everything just as the floorman did!    At this point, the ‘teakettle’ explodes, hurling obscenities, but luckily for him, at no one in particular.   He finally, reluctantly, places one red chip on the felt in front of him and the dealer turns the last card. 

The last card is the threatening, but beautiful ace of spades.  I instantly push all my remaining chips into the pot.   When ‘the kid’ starts boiling over once again, all my lingering doubts are erased and I know I have him.  I try to think through what I can say to get him to call.  I have remained calm and pretty silent through the whole episode, so I remain silent and try to look nervous as if I am on a bluff here.  My eyes dart around the table, looking at different faces, my expression unchanging.    ‘The kid’ is so furious and his mouth is berating everyone so quickly that I doubt he saw or noticed any of this.  Finally, after literally five minutes of anxious waiting the kid violently shoves his whole stack into the pot.  Half of it ends up in the dealer’s tray!  I flip over my flush and ‘the kid’ is just foaming at the mouth, he is so furious as he flings his ATo at the dealer.

I was concerned that he may try to physically attack me at this point and I kept my eyes on ’the kid’ as I raked in the substantial pot the dealer pushed in my direction.   The kid leaves the table and I breathe a sigh of relief as he storms out of the poker room.    A young player next to me turns to me saying, ‘Sir that was the most incredible play I have ever seen!  If I don’t win a cent today, that whole hand was well worth my price of admission today!’  ‘Thank you, but I wish my conscience was as comfortable with that sentiment as you are.  I really feel bad for ‘the kid’ because I really think, he thought he was trying to save me money with his statements.’ 

Regardless of my conscience, bear in mind that all verbal declarations at a poker table are binding when heads up! 

2005 ended with the feeling that my poker rocket was finally in flight.  I was able to go ‘pro’ once again and the bankroll was growing by leaps and bounds.  Jan 05 saw me at the $.01/.02 penny NL tables while December 05 saw me starting to dabble on the $5/10 tables!   My MTT numbers were growing as well.  My overall ROI for 05 was 82% with over $20,000 cash in net profit.  I had played only 556 MTTs during all of 2005 with my new focus on cash games.  That average of just about 50 per month was far less than the 150 per month I was playing while pro in 2004.   I made the money 107 times, the final table 67 times and had 19 top 3 finishes in my MTTs.   Thus my in the money percentage overall was 19.2%, FT% was 12% and top 3 finishes was 3.4%.   I played almost all my MTTs on UB where the fields only averaged about 200 entrants.  I had also made the FT of the UB $200 twice and the $500 once but never finished higher than 5th.  In 2006 I wished to continue to focus on cash, but also try to finally win one of these large buy in events which on many sites was garnering nearly 5000 players now (Pokerstars and Party.)   I also had the WSOP Main Event in my sites and was determined to win my way into that event as well. 

I started the year by playing $5/10 NL which I had only played half a dozen short sessions before January of ‘06.    I began playing $5/10 resolved to return to $3/6 if I lost 3 buy ins. Instead I began a fabulous run on Bodog which saw me win  14 out of 17 days that I played at $5/10 NL on Bodog!    January effectively doubled my bankroll and I was able to comfortably play $5/10 by the end of the month.  My February and March results were comparable to January and I was shocked to find that $5/10 play on Bodog at that time was no tougher than $1/2 on UB.  My bankroll grew by leaps and bounds!

Pokershare restarted with a new partner and rewarded all of us top ‘grinders’ from their LA WPT contest with cash and a promise to buy us into $5000 worth of WSOP events if we simply played long enough to earn the amount of points that would have completed their earlier WPT contest.  I began playing there in earnest.  Pokershare also offered tournaments where they ADDED a WSOP prize package worth $13k to the prize pool!   I didn’t even hear about the promotion until about 2 hours before the event.   My buddy called me and asked me to play because they needed a minimum of ten players for Pokershare to honor their prize pool add!  The buy in was $270 and I was shocked to see that only 13 players registered for the tourney!!    In summary, I won and was going to the WSOP ME for a total of $270 expended!   I was on the moon!   Pokershare continued to offer this amazing promotion and 3 weeks later I won my 2nd package for the WSOP ME from a total field of only 16 players!  My story of those two days can be found here: http://www.thepokercamp.com/articles/willisnyc.htm

All my recent success was garnering me a fair bit of notoriety!  WPT UK magazine interviewed me and asked me to write an article for their magazine.  They had seen my articles which were appearing with fair regularity on pocketfives.   Most of them can also be found here: http://www.thepokercamp.com/articles/willisnyc.htm   I also had several articles written for pokermentors.   All the writing served to clarify my feelings about many subjects and helped my poker game even more. 

I had little live experience, so I began trekking down to the Atlantic City casinos a couple days per month in order to get some.   I played $1/2 NL and $2/5 there and promptly started crushing those games.  My win rate was a sick $50/hr at 1/2.  I quickly discovered that ‘low level’ live 1/2 players were far worse live than online.  That is because 1/2 is as low as you can possibly play in a casino, but online, beginners can and do play far lower.   So live 1/2 players began paying my child support payments and I continued to make good money in the $5/10 NL games I found primarily at bodog.    I wrote about some of my live exploits here: http://www.thepokercamp.com/articles/WillisNYC_08.htm

Summer was fast approaching as well as the WSOP.  Pokershare was going to put me up in the RIO for three weeks during the WSOP.  I worked hard all spring preparing and decided to take a little break before going out to Las Vegas.  I took my children with me to visit my parents and then we intended to take some time traveling the southwest.   While visiting my parents I began to get the poker itch and decided to scratch it by playing the majors one Sunday while at home.  All of the poker stars were aligned for me that day as I managed to win the Paradise Poker $200 buy in that day.   Details here:  http://www.thepokercamp.com/articles/WillisNYC_11.htm

With some extra spending money in my pockets I headed out to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Painted Desert, LA and Las Vegas with my 14 and 16 y/o daughters.   After two weeks of enjoying the sites and sounds of the southwest I sent them flying home to New York.  I remained behind to start playing in the WSOP events that I was registered for. 

My first event was the $5k short handed NL tournament.  It garnered around 550 starters and I was surprised to find one of the regulars from my Bodog cash games to my right on the table.  Gavin Smith sat between myself and the above mentioned Johnny Action on my right.   The early levels were marked by fairly uneventful play on my table.  Johnny and I seemed to upset Gavin’s game quite a bit since we never let him 2x limp into a pot we were involved with.    He never got anything going and busted out after a couple hours.  Johnny got the player on my right on serious tilt and proceeded to bust him on two hands that put his stack over 20k at about the 4th hour.  I was up to about 8k by that time, nothing to write home about.  After the 5th hour or so I was finally able to double up and they moved me to another table shortly thereafter.   

Some fellow in a cowboy hat was on my left at the new table as well as an Asian woman and an older gentleman on my right.   I was short stacked at this table and for the tournament in general since I had done little more than tread water and finally double up after 6 hours of play.  I was shocked to learn that we were getting close to the money already!    A Norwegian fella raised under the gun and I found myself looking down at a lovely pair of nines.  It was folded around to my button and the blinds were high enough that an all in push was the right move for me and my nines.   The Norwegian called with KJ and I was able to double up to get my M back up to around 15.    Earlier the cowboy had said, ‘New guys don’t get talked to until they win a hand.’  I winked at him after the hand and said, ‘Hi, my name is Brian Willis’  ‘Kenna James’ he replied.  Joe Awada  took this time to say hello from my right.  I thought these two guys looked vaguely familiar when I sat down!

Joe and Kenna each had over 100k in chips by this point.  The other players had about 50k, I had 35k now and the Norwegian was short stacked with about 20k.  The play was pretty tight  with some occasional pushes.  The asian woman turned out to be Jenny Kang and her constant banter was quite amusing.  Just before the money bubble was reached I stole from UTG with AJ.  Jenny was on the big blind and debated in her head a long time about whether to call or not.  She eventually did and the flop came Jxx rainbow.   She bet out and I came over the top all in.  She called with her own AJ and she proceeded to berate me about my play.  ‘How could I risk $8300 on top pair?’  (The first payout level was $8300.)  I never replied, just shook my head, gathered my half the chips and went on.  The bubble burst the hand after my all in play.    By the way Jenny, I wasn’t playing to make the money, I was playing to go deep in this tournament. 

I got up and looked around at the dinner break and there were tons of ‘big’ names hanging around in the tournament.  Phil Hellmuth was short stacked on the table next to me where Eric Lindgren, John Juanda and a couple of unknowns all had monster stacks over 200k.  It was quite amusing hearing him berate their play especially when he was busted out soon after the money bubble burst.    Vanessa Rousso, David Pham, Dustin Woolf, Robert Williamson and Marco Traniello were all around as well.   We played down to 36 players that night.  I was lucky to make day two of my first WSOP tournament since my stack refused to grow after the bubble and I was getting seriously short stacked again. 

Day two opened with the same players on the same tables as the night before. 4 of the other 5 players were all the same as when I first sat down at the table the evening before.   I never did know the latecomers name.  Very early in the first day I got in a SB vs BB battle with Kenna to my left and I was fortunate to double up early on when I won a race.  I now had a stack to be reckoned with and with another double or so I was likely to make the final table.   The action was fast and furious on the other tables as we were soon consolidating down to 5 and then 4 tables.  Our table lost the ‘new guy’ at the table and he was replaced by another with a stack over 100k.   This new stack played pretty tight for a while but after several orbits, he got involved with Joe Awada.   Preflop was about a 10k raise by Joe and a call from the new guy.   An AKx board with two hearts was bet out by Joe for about 3/4 of the pot.  New guy calls.  The turn is a blank and Joe bets 50k and is called by the new guy in the BB again.  The river comes a low heart and the new guy pushes all in for his remaining 100k or so.  Joe takes his time counting down his chips and would have about 80k left if he makes the call.   He wouldn’t be short, but he certainly wouldn’t be the table leader anymore if he called and lost.  He finally folds the hand and the new guy shows a total bluff with something like T3 offsuit.   Joe was furious and said he couldn’t believe this guy would try this total bluff so late in the tourney!

The Norwegian had remained short stacked and pushed all in from UTG for about 50k.   I had 80k now and looked down at a beautiful pair of red aces.  I push and end up HU with the Norwegian who turns over A8c.  The flop has the case Ace and two clubs.  My heart sinks as I get that really, bad, beat feeling coming my way.  The river doesn’t disappoint and brings a club with no board pair, much to my chagrin.  I managed a couple of all in steals with my newly shortened stack but it is only a matter of time if I don’t catch some breaks now.    The Norwegian gets put out by Jenny Kang and gets her stack up to a healthy level.   Joe Awada raises from UTG and I have a pair of sixes.  Not a great hand as a short stack, but not bad and I push.  Joe instacalls with pocket nines.   I don’t get lucky and go out of my first WSOP event in 19th for a little over 11k. 

 Not a bad start to the World Series but it was heart wrenching to come so close to the final and not make it.  Later I found out that Jeff Madsen is the one who pulled off the crazy bluff on Joe Awada and went on to win the whole event, beating Lindgren HU.   Jenny Kang went on to just miss the final, taking 9th.   All in all a great experience for my first WSOP event.    Next blog I will share my main event experience with you….