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. 

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.

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….

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. 

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!

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.  

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!