Blackjack Guide - Big Fish Blog

Previous Post: https://www.reddit.com/pokecomments/bg7xox/inside_boston_underground_poker_part_4_bubbles_in/
So there I was, walking to the Wynn craps table with about $38k in cash in my pocket. I was up $30k for the day in poker, but as always, I had to push my luck.
There's a table off to the side with only one player at it, while the rest of the tables are pretty packed. I prefer a relatively empty table, so I head over there. The guy at the table has weirdly colored chips in front of him, and I realize he's some mega-whale with over a million in chips in his rail. I walk up to the table and he stays sitting, staring into his rail of chips. The table is $100 minimum which is why no one else was there, and I buy in for $10k.
The guy is just starting a new roll, so I put $600 each 6 and 8 and $250 on the 5 and 9, and he instantly 7s out. I'm down $1700 already in about 3 minutes, shit.
I throw $100 on the line, throw a 6 on the come out and put $600 on the 8, $250 each 5 and 9 again. The other guy started the roll with $12k each 6 and 8, $10k each 5 and 9 and $5k each 4 and 10, plus $1000 each on the hardways. I end up going on an insane roll. I'm throwing hard 6s and 8s like crazy, the guy has pressed up to $5k each on the hard ways and $30k each 6 and 8, and I just keep rolling them. I'm pressing my bets as well, and I'm up like $20k plus I have my bets up to $1000 each 5 and 9 and $3000 each 6 and 8, and I'm still going. At one point I bounce one of the dice off the table, and the other guy turns his bets off, and I roll back to back hard 6s, so he missed out on $160,000 from those rolls, it was pretty sick.
I think in total I made something like $35k off of my roll, and the other guy made over a million. The sickest part was that he barely even looked up from his chips, and he never said a word to me or tipped the dealers at all. He went to the bathroom at one point and I made a comment to the dealers, and they said he was still down overall on the day... What a sicko.
I played for a bit longer and ended up with $90k in my pocket, a profit of over $52k in a couple of hours of craps. I went into the Wynn with $8k in the morning and was leaving with $90k about 12 hours later. It was absolutely insane. I walked outside to wait for my car at the valet, and I had stuffed all 9 of the $10k "straps" into the pockets of my jeans. My jeans were busting with all of the cash, and these old people who were waiting at the valet noticed it and were staring so hard, it was hilarious.
Between my cash, bank accounts and investments, I had about $350k to my name at that moment, less than 3 years after moving to Boston with a roll of around $1500. As you can imagine, I felt absolutely on top of the world. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head. Should I go buy a Porsche in cash? Should I listen to my mom and go to school in Santa Barbara, and use my money on a down payment on a house there?
What was certain was the first thing I should have done was taken a bunch of that cash to the bank and gotten it out of my degenerate hands. Instead I drove to the Bellagio, got a room, got some room service, and went to bed. I woke up in the morning and had lost the $90k at the craps table before lunch.
Now you might be thinking that this was the start of my spiral down, that I went and cashed out my investments, got it all in cash, and blew it all at the Bellagio craps tables, but that would have been too simple. Instead I went back to grinding $10/20nl like nothing had happened. I had lost 2 buyins, oh well.
I took a few more shots at juicy $25/50nl games that summer, and like the lucky asshole I was, I never had a losing session in the 5 I played of that game. The other 4 were all at Bellagio, and usually only ran because a couple of specific businessmen wanted to play. They were bad, the games were great, I was still on top of the world in terms of poker.
One session in particular stood out. I sat down with $10k and was on a roll again, running it up to over $20k within a couple of hours. I had maybe $24k in front of me and was the big stack at the table, it was early and there hadn't been too many rebuys yet, and in walks Viffer (David Peat). Viffer was apparently down a few buyins in Bobby's Room and only had enough for our game, so he sat in with $50k. Being the biggest stack at the table besides him, as well as a 21 year old dressed like a complete douche, Viffer instantly focused on me. He was sitting all the way across the table from me (I was in seat 3, he was in seat 8), but as he sat down he called across the table to me, "hey kid, ever lost a $50,000 pot before?". "Not yet, but I look forward to it!", I retorted. Not my greatest comeback ever, but oh well.
I continue working up a stack without playing any big pots with him, and I'm at close to $30k and Viffer is still around $50k when a big pot happens. Since it was a $25/50nl game with $100 dead on the button, a typical raise was $300-350. In this hand, UTG raised to $350, Viffer called from the CO or HJ, the button called, the SB called, and I woke up with KK in the BB. There's over $1500 in the pot already, so I make it $1500 total and everyone calls. There's over $7500 in the pot preflop. The flop comes KTx rainbow, and I'm trying to figure out how long I should wait before checking, and if I should ham it up, when instead the SB open jams for around $8000. I have nearly $20k behind, and I wasn't sure what to do. UTG had about $12k, Viffer had me covered, and the button had under $10k, so raising vs flatting only really mattered significantly vs Viffer. I decided he didn't have much that could have hit this flop strongly, I wasn't getting paid unless he had KT or obviously TT or bottom set, and I didn't want to let him have pot odds with QJ, so I just jammed. UTG snap folded and Viffer stared me down for a minute before folding, and the button folded as well. We didn't flip our cards up, and the turn came an A and Viffer cursed to himself. He admitted later to having AT. River came a blank and the SB flipped up QJo to ship the pot with his straight. Bye bye $24k pot.
I shake it off, I still have around $20k in front of me, and I run it up a bit once again, sitting with around $25k when I get into a big pot once again. This time I raise to $300 with J9s from the CO and one of the donkey businessmen that the games run because of reraised from the blinds up to $900. I called the $600 more, he had around $13k in his stack to start. The flop comes QJ9 and I'm loving life again. He could have QQ, but JJ is unlikely since I have one, and I had only seen him 3 bet once in around 4 hours. Great chance he had an overpair. He instantly bet out $1500 into the $2000 or so pot, and I reraised to $4000, he went all in pretty quickly, and after a little bit of thought I made the call and he proudly flipped up KK. He had a decent number of outs with his gutshot, another K or a Q giving him the pot, but instead the board ran out 5, 5 to give him higher 2 pair in a different way. Bye bye $26k pot.
Those were 2 of the biggest pots I had ever played where it actually went to showdown and I hadn't gone all in with 100% to win. I had around 62% equity with the J9 and 74% with the KK, so it was a less than 10% chance for me to lose both. I ended up leaving the table up $7k, which was awesome after having lost my only 2 all ins for the night, but I was feeling negative, and of course went to the craps table. I lost my $7k profit and went home even for the day.
Another of the biggest pots I ever played was actually at $10/20nl at the Wynn vs another pro who liked to try to make huge bluffs sometimes and had a habit of overthinking stuff in my opinion. I was sitting with over $15k from $8k in buyins, and was having a pretty great session overall, and the other pro had around $10k. I don't remember the action nearly as well in this hand as the others, but I had KTss in a 3bet multiway pot to the flop, and it came KT7 with 2 hearts. Someone bet, the other pro raised, I 3bet, the original better flatted, the other pro 4bet for like 40% of his stack, I shoved, the original raiser folded after tanking, and the pro went into the tank hard. Now this was a guy whose game I respected. He was facing a bet of another $5500 to win a pot of about $23000. When he went into the tank, I figured he had a non-nut flush draw and was trying to figure out if I had some pair and higher flush draw combos or nut flush draws in my range where he'd be way behind. He tanked for nearly 5 minutes and eventually called, the board ran out A, 5 and he said "you've probably got me". I turned over my KT and he goes "oh holy shit I figured you had a set!" and turn over A5hh. I'm not sure why he tanked so long getting over 3:1 with a nut flush draw, even if he put me on only sets, he still had the odds to call, and I'm playing QJhh and 98hh the same way, hands he is ahead of. I didn't mind losing 2 pair vs flush draw as much as I minded that he had me convinced I was good with his tank, and then even more when he said "you've probably got me". I had to leave the game because I was close to tilt after that one.
The WSOP ended and the games dried up a bit. There were still $10/20nl games going at Bellagio usually, but with more grinders and fewer donks per table. Throughout the post- WSOP summer, many of my friends came out to party, and I spent a lot of time with Ashley, growing closer with her. At the end of the summer I decided not to stay in Vegas full time, moving to Berkeley, California, near my hometown and where several of my friends went to university. I played some of the juicy $5/10nl and $10/20nl games in the Bay Area with a medium amount of success, and partied a bunch with friends in frats at Cal. I made lots of trips out to Vegas, usually just for degenerate gambling and not a ton of poker. I had taken some losses in the market, but was still sitting with around $300k between cash, accounts and investments. When Bank of America dipped in November, I bought some for under $12. I still had Jetblue stock which wasn't doing great, and a handful of other stocks which were all struggling in the bear market, but I was convinced it would turn around.
My host at the Bellagio was always inviting me to special events, and 2 stood out. A $1 million freeroll heads up blackjack tournament was the first. It was 128 players, so nearly $10k in value. If you won your first 3 rounds, you were in the money and guaranteed $50k. After dominating my first 2 opponents who knew very little about blackjack tournament strategy, I was feeling confident. Blackjack tournament strategy is very different than normal blackjack strategy since your objective is to beat your opponent, not the dealer, and there are weird rules like blackjack paying 2 to 1. There are a set number of hands you play, and whomever has the most money after those hands wins. My first opponent went broke, so I automatically won that. My 2nd opponent just bet small every time, and didn't compensate when I took a lead, so on the final hand he didn't even give himself a chance to win with his bet.
My third opponent was semi competent, he at least knew basic blackjack strategy, but his betting was wrong and he still played as if he was trying to win chips from the dealer, not merely outplay me. I managed to make it so that on the 25th and final hand of our game, if both me and my opponent won the hand, I won, if both me and my opponent lost the hand, I won. Outside of making it impossible for them to win at all, which is very hard with correct strategy, this is about all you can ask of in a blackjack tournament. Me and my opponent both received face cards first, a great sign for me. For my 2nd card I received another face card, great news, until my opponent was dealt an A and got paid 2 to 1. My only chance was to split my face cards and try my luck to still end up on top, but it didn't work out and my opponent was the winner.
A few months later I was invited to a free $1 million poker tournament. This was it, my ultimate chance. It was 100 invited players only and based on pit and slot play, not anything to do with poker. It was going to be me vs a bunch of degens without any poker skill! The time for the big tournament came, and there was a twist. There were actually 110 players, 10 of whom were MGM executives and had cash bounties on their heads between $1000-$10k depending on their level at the company. They couldn't cash the tournament, they were just there to have fun and add a wrinkle to the game.
I easily navigated the field to start, although someone else at my table got the $2k bounty for knocking out our MGM employee. As the tournament progressed, it became clear the structure wasn't great, especially with so many inexperienced players taking a long time to make decisions. We were down to about 14 players including 2 executives left. Once only 10 real players were left, all of the executives remaining would be removed and their bounties would be put into the regular prize pool. Top 10 got paid, so there were essentially 12 left plus 2 fake players. I don't remember the action too well for this hand either, but I believe I was about 30 bbs deep to start the hand and raised with AJ from the button and got called by both blinds. The big blind was a $5000 bounty and she only had about 5bbs left after the call. The flop came KJ4 and they both checked, and I bet the 5bbs that the bounty had left. They both called. Turn came a T and after the other guy checked, and I thought I had him beat, so I went all in for the remaining 20 or so bbs. The SB tanked and was talking about how he really wanted the bounty. He ended up calling, he had about 1bb behind, and we all showed our hands. The SB had T9 with no flush draw, and the bounty had QJ, so I was 81% to scoop the hand, and only 11% to bust. River T and I'm done. The worst part was that the guy who stacked me with T9, having called with just a gutshot on the flop, managed to lose all of his chips on the bubble and go out in 11th place. He got his $5k cash bounty though...
The stock market continued to crash, and I went harder and harder in on the stocks I thought would bounce back, still investing on margin. Eventually I lost it all in February/March of 2009 when Bank of America stock dropped to $3. I had bought in more at $7, then even more at $5, and when the margin call came in I lost nearly $200k just on that one stock. My average buy price was a mere $6 since I had bought in huge at $5. If I had been able to pay the margin call and hang on, by August of 2009 my 50k+ shares would have netted me a profit of over half a million dollars. Instead I was completely broke. My losses in the market for 2008 and 2009 were nearly $400,000, and I later found out my casino pit game losses were nearly $200,000. If I had been patient, diversified, not on margin, and kept out of the pit, I would have been a 22 year old millionaire. Instead I was busto.
I continued on in poker for several years after that, but unfortunately my persona of trying to seem like a rich kid wasting daddy's money had left me without many poker friends, and without many people who respected my game enough to stake me. I ended up turning to online SNGs and being moderate successful, but still lazy and not putting in the hours I should have. Ashley and I tried to make it work, but she wanted me to move out to Vegas for good, and I was afraid being in Vegas would end in disaster for me as I'd continue to waste a huge amount of money on gambling, money I no longer had. My high school sweetheart came back into my life at that point as well, and I pushed Ashley aside for nostalgia, ignoring the reasons the high school gf and I had broken up several times in the past. In the end, I wanted to be more serious than she did, and I haven't spoken to the high school ex in 10 years. Ashley moved on quickly as she always did, and already had a serious boyfriend by the time I came around and realized I wanted to be with her. She ended up becoming a stripper in Vegas, and the last time I saw her she was a bit of a mess. She moved out of Las Vegas these days and I think she's doing better, but we don't keep in close touch.
By Black Friday I had joined a good staking group and was successful at online SNGs, making a nice hourly, coaching other players, and generally doing well at poker, although in my personal life I was a mess after losing both girls I loved in close succession. After Black Friday I made several stupid mistakes, alienating my backers and many in the poker community. I paid everyone back in the end, but I knew I needed to get out of poker. I went back to college, met my wife and we've been together for nearly 7 years now. I now work as a financial adviser.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my crazy life journey! Some other crazy stuff happened along the way that I might throw together at some point, but those are more Vegas party stories than much to do with poker.

We've been getting more than a couple "I play online a lot but I've never played live, so I'ma try that -- what should I do?" posts around here.
As a primarily $1/$2 live player who has only occasionally been dabbling in online play, I thought I'd write up a short post with some general tips for people who haven't played live. Other live regs, please feel free to add what you can! Thanks!
VERBALIZE YOUR INTENT
This is very important. There are some rules in live environments including "chips across the line are in play" and "a single chip is a call" that might mess you up. To remove doubt, until you're more comfortable handling and cutting chips -- announce your intention before you start putting chips over the line! This will also help in situations where you'd like to bet using a denomination of chip you don't have -- for example the pot is $25 and you want to bet $26 because you're a big ol' jerk.
A SINGLE CHIP IS A CALL
This is a pretty well-known rule, but it surprises me how many people people sit down who haven't heard it. If you toss in a single chip, it's a call, no matter what the amount you're calling is. Similarly, if you put fewer chips across the line than the aggressor bet, and you don't say raise, that's a call, too. A common thing is for you to be facing a bet of, say, $75, and you, intending to call, toss in $5 to let the action continue while you figure out how many chips represents $70.
THE MAGICAL LINE ON THE FELT
Most (all?) felts have a big oval-y line around the table. Consider that a barrier between things that aren't in play and things that are. When chips go across it, those chips are committed to the pot. When cards go across it, unless you're at showdown, those cards are in the muck. If action is to you and cards are face down across that line, the dealer's probably going to take them -- just be clear about your intent. Use a card protector or a chip on top of them to signal that you're still considering your action.
Now, whether the line exists and what it signifies can vary between casinos. I think the most common rule is the one above, but as others in this thread have mentioned, they've played at places where it doesn't matter. This all really comes down to making whatever your action is obvious and deliberate -- you don't have to worry about the line at all if you properly protect your cards, properly cut your chips when betting, etc.
LET THE DEALER DO THEIR JOB
Related to the last part of point 1: The dealer is there for a reason. If you need change, they'll make it. If you want to top up, they'll do it. If they're fast, friendly, or both, tip them a buck out of the occasional won hand, and a couple out of the monster pots. If another player just puts a bunch of chips out, the dealer will usually count 'em up to announce the bet, and if another player goes all-in you can ask the dealer to count the size up. One thing they can't do is count up how much is in the pot -- that's on you. You can ask them to spread the chips out a bit so you can count if you want but it's better to just keep track as the action is going.
BETTING, IN GENERAL
Ok, so most of these actually apply to online as well, but since computers do math for us, and since we so often just think of betting in terms of some fraction of the pot, there actually are rules that you have to follow.

• The minimum bet is the previous bet. The obvious example is that you're first to act and so the minimum bet is two big blinds. However, let's say the action goes: UTG raises to 3 big blinds, which is a 2 BB raise. UTG+1 then min re-raises (which is a raise of 2 BB, because UTG's raise was 2 BB), so that the total bet is now 5 BB. It folds to you on the button -- if you'd like to re-raise, the minimum is still 2 BB, because that's what UTG+1's bet was, for a total of 7 BB. Say you actually raised it to 10 BB -- that's a bet of 5 BB, so the next player's minimum raise is 5, for a total of 15.
• There's this thing called "string betting" and it is NOT OKAY. When you bet, you have two options: Dump some amount of chips onto the felt all at once or verbally announce your bet and then put the chips out. "String betting" is putting some amount of chips out and then immediately following it up with some other amount. That isn't allowed, and the dealer will refuse to accept the second portion of the bet.
• A player moving all-in is just the same as any other bet. The minimum re-raise is still twice the difference between the all-in and the previous bet (although chances are, unless the guy is very short stacked, you're probably going to have to shove over the top to isolate it if that's your goal).
• Regarding chip stacks: So, technically, if, before a hand starts, you announce to the dealer that you'd like to top up, and you put money on the felt before she deals everyone in, the dealer can announce to all players that your chip stack is whatever you topped up to. Like if you have $100 in chips and you put a $100 bill on the table and announce that you'd like more chips, then, while the floor is getting your chips, you technically have $200 in chips to play with -- it's just not physically there. I've seen weird situations where the dealer has to just tell people that you've got $X in play when you don't have any in front of you -- this goes back to "Let the dealer do their job." They'll help you out.
• For the most part, just to make everyone's life easier, it's a good idea to try and keep bets/raises to a multiple of whatever the most common denomination of chip at the table is. For $1/$2, this is usually a $5 chip unless you're playing pot-limit. If that means you've gotta round your intended $18 bet to $20, man, it's just two bucks. You'll live!
• Again, when in doubt, see rule #1: Verbalize your intent.

CHECKING
Have you ever played Blackjack? You know that thing people do when they want to hit, where they just slap the table like their hand is a wet noodle? That motion is also a thing in poker -- it means "check."
If, for some reason, you don't want to actually say the word "check" out loud, like you believe it would signify weakness or some silly thing, or if you're the coolest kid on the block who don't need no words ... you can rap the table with your knuckles, or tap it gingerly with your fingertips -- any sort of "up and down" motion with your hand will signify your intent to check to the dealer.
If somehow you have performed this simple motion and your intent is still not clear, the dealer will ask "Was that a check?" in the same tone your girlfriend might ask "Are you in yet?" Avoid being in that awkward situation by announcing "check" or knocking on the table like you're knocking on a door. Or do both! As long as you're clear!
CHOPPING THE BLINDS
Some places let the blinds chop a pot. If preflop action folds all the way to the small blind, and both he and the big blind agree to a chop, they can both announce their intention to chop to the dealer, and if the house allows it (I'm not sure I've seen a place that doesn't, but who knows), then the dealer will push the blinds back to the players and the hand will end.
If you're the small blind and you want to be a cool dude, offer to chop before you've looked at your cards. If you look first and then offer, that's often a pretty big sign of weakness and it's kind of a jerky thing to do imo.
I did see one guy do that, looked at his cards and then offered to chop, and when the big blind refused, the small blind raised, which was surprising; big blind called, flop came K high, sb checked, bb bet pot, sb raised to 3x pot; bb shoved; sb called; bb flipped up KQ; sb flipped up AA and they held. "I offered to chop," he said, and we all had a good laugh, except the guy in the big blind. Sucker.
CHIPS ON THE TABLE STAY ON THE TABLE
Unless you're racking your chips up to leave, once a chip is in your chip stack, it's in play. You can't be pocketing chips beyond the initial buy-in -- the only exception being that if you want to keep a stash that you can use to top up with (for example you buy in for $300 and only play with $200, using the remaining $100 to top-up when needed) -- but even that's kinda weird and unnecessary.
DON'T BE A DOUCHE
Don't be that guy with sunglasses, a cap and earbuds. Nobody likes him and nobody's gonna want to get into a pot with him. You're grinding for at least a couple hours -- have some fun. Make some friends. Poker's a social game. I know it's a job for some of you, but you're allowed to enjoy your job, right?
Also, one douchey thing people sometimes do and it's pretty frowned upon is hitting and running -- when they scoop an enormous pot and immediately leave. Seriously, that's a dick move. Stay for at least another orbit. If you wanna grab a rack and start racking up chips while you're hanging around for as long as you feel morally obligated to, that's cool; even if you fold every single hand, whatever. You want to at least look like you care about giving people the chance to get their chips back. I'll usually hang around for another twenty minutes or so, enjoying the free ("free") drinks and just playing super tight or something. If I just took down a $500 pot, I don't care about a few orbits' worth of blinds/limps/whatever.
STRADDLING
This is a thing that I haven't seen allowed online but exists in live games. There are two common types of straddle: UTG and Button straddles. A UTG straddle is when you're under the gun and, before you look at your cards you announce that you're straddling and put the straddle amount out (usually 2bb, but in 1/2 it's often gonna be $5 to make it easy on everyone). If you do this, then you are now last to act preflop, not the big blind. A button straddle is similar, but you have to be on the button and do it before anyone has acted, and then preflop action will start with the small blind.
It is not normally +EV to straddle, but if you're super deep stacked and want to play a little loose and fun, go for it, man.
NOTE: I'm not sure I've ever seen a tournament where straddling is allowed. This is purely a cash table thing.
YOU ARE NOT CEMENTED TO YOUR SEAT
Most places will hold your spot for up to an hour if you need to take a break to grab a bite to eat or whatever. Just let the dealer know. They aren't gonna blind you out. If you're just zipping off to the loo, you don't even need to tell anyone, although if you wanna verbalize your intent to take a piss, whatever, man, that's poker, I guess.
On the topic of food, btw -- food is totally allowed at the table (after all, you've probably got alcohol there, so why the hell not) -- but don't be a jerk about it. Don't be sitting there with a big stinky plate of curry or something. It's pretty common to see people bring snacks like nuts or sweets and if that's your thing, by all means, go for it. Just don't make a mess.
PEOPLE WANT TO PLAY THE DAMN GAME
It is generally much harder to isolate people preflop than it is online. Online, if you're playing full ring and you're under the gun and you raise to 5 bb, you're probably not gonna get a lot of action. Usually that's what you want. In a live game, however, you'll often get called by the guy with suited connectors, and the guy behind him with K7o will call because that's his favorite hand, and the guy on the button will call with T4s because they're suited. If your gameplan is to get a couple callers into a bloated pot with a monster, that's great! Just watch out you don't get mugged.
If you really want to isolate, you're gonna have to bet really fucking big, and the drunk whale with 450bb might still call you with 69o because "it's the old college hand, get it, 69, HAHAHA," that motherfucker.
PEOPLE WILL DRAW TO ANYTHING
Similar to the previous point: If you think your opponent is drawing, they will often call you all the way down to the river. Value bet the shit out of whatever medium-strength made hand you have.
TELLS: LEARN THEM, LOVE THEM
This won't help much if it's your first time, but you might be able to pick some things up anyway. Watch other players and how they act. Pay attention, mostly to their faces and their hands. People are creatures of habit. If you see a guy stare at the board like he's gonna murder it when he bluffs, remember that shit.
STEREOTYPES: YOU AREN'T BEING RACIST, SERIOUSLY, OKAY MAYBE A LITTLE
There are some live stereotypes that can actually be pretty accurate. Obviously your mileage here will vary but, for example, that old asian guy who's in every single hand actually is playing as wide as you think he his because he's here to gamble and when you bluff re-raise him he's not gonna respect your shit because you're a punk-ass kid. The old man reading a newspaper (seriously) and playing 1% of hands is 4betting? Lay down your queens. The large, pissed off black dude isn't aggressively betting for value; he's trying to steal the pot.
PHONES
The rule of phones is simple: You can have it at the table, but you can't be using it if you're in a hand. As soon as you fold, you can whip it out to do whatever, but if you still have cards, keep it in your pocket or in your lap. A phone is a good way to keep notes, btw, if you're the type to do that.
DON'T TAP THE GLASS
Sometimes I'll see players berate other players for making bad moves. Don't do that. That's -EV. You want players making bad moves. And what's more -- you want them feeling comfortable and enjoying themselves while making bad moves. Fish are a healthy part of the player pool, get it? Besides, we were all fish once. Most of us probably still are. Don't you hate it when some guy calls you a horrible player because you called his mega preflop raise with J9s in the small blind and flopped a boat? And wouldn't you want another player doing that, because most of the time they aren't gonna hit?
Part of being a social butterfly means accepting that just like you aren't the best player, you probably aren't the worst, and people are gonna do donkey shit that makes no sense. Learn to love it. Take advantage of it. And most of all, keep them at the table.
DON'T TALK ABOUT YOUR CARDS IF YOU AREN'T IN THE HAND
This should be obvious, but I actually see it pretty often -- if you fold, wait until the hand's over to discuss it. You aren't in the hand any more -- you shouldn't be influencing it. And if what you folded is a monster, that's fewer monsters for the players who are still in it to worry about, you dig? If you're sitting there looking at a QQK board and muttering "damn, I shouldn't have folded my Q7," well, obviously there's only one queen left in the deck, so the guy with the K is feeling pretty damn confident about his top pair now, and the guy who was going to semi-bluff his Jacks is gonna be pretty pissed at you.
Most dealers will actually reprimand you if you do this in an obvious way, or if you're purposeful about it, and if it becomes a problem they'll kick you out. It's a pretty egregious breach of rules.
Now -- one note -- this should go into the "live tells" section. A lot -- seriously, a lot -- of newer players will huff and puff to themselves about the hands they folded. Sometimes I'll look around the table at the players who aren't in the hand as the dealer's dealing the flop, because if you see them do a sort of "pssh, dammit" kinda face, that usually means they would've hit a piece of the flop, which is one less thing to worry about from the other players in the hand.
I think that's it off the top of my head. If ya'll have more points or feedback on those ones, I'll edit it. Thanks dudes.

First and foremost, here is a landscape screenshot of the HUD I programmed via mobile Excel and have been using for the past year and a half in L.A. casinos with great success. It has earned me roughly $48/hr playing the $3/5 NL holdem games in L.A. over about a 1,000 hour sample. I'd estimate my expected EV is running right about average, and this winrate will look the same (give or take $5/hr over 10,000 or 100,000 hours). I take some credit for being an on-and-off player, but consistent winner since I learned the game at 18 (I'm 31 now). But this HUD has a lot to do with my winrate being where it is, and frankly keeping me from being bored to tears playing live poker for the past 18 months or so.
As are many of you, I'm a former U.S. online player who stepped away from poker after Black Friday turned my world upside down back in 2011 (Full Tilt, thanks for everything). I've had a few decent, middle of the road analyst-type jobs since and have recently left my last one to pursue my Master's degree. While doing so, I have been playing live poker seriously to cover living expenses and supplement my income.
Early on around the spring of last year, I realized that the biggest obstacle I had in adjusting to live poker, especially after 4 years away from the game where I was used to 16-tabling at FTP, was managing the slow crawl of being dealt 18-25 hands per hour of NL holdem. This was a far cry from the 700-900 hands per hour I was used to from my online days. However, to compensate for the slow drip of cards to work with in live games, I noticed that the players I faced when actually receiving playable hands, were absolutely horrendous on average. The slow crawl poker that I thought was a joke during my online days was actually a huge benefit in a sense, as I noticed that patiently waiting for premium or semi-premium hands in loose L.A. casinos almost guaranteed significant winnings in the long run assuming the hands weren't butchered by me post-flop. Everyone else gets 18-25 hands per hour to work with as well, and most of them get impatient at some point or another and KJ suited starts looking like aces to many.
However, even as a patient player, I was still extremely bored folding 84 offsuit all day and actually seeing a flop with a playable hand 3-5 times per hour. I could manage my time browsing the front page of Reddit or watch a mindless YouTube video about how to make a great pizza and still make an ok profit on most days, but I wasn't learning much about my opponents while in between hands. If I managed to stay attentive after repeatedly folding my hands and watching the action, I was picking up on play styles of my opponents, but not to the extent my HUD allowed me to passively do when I played online and everyone's stats just popped up next to them as I played... it was mostly to the extent where I'd noticed seat 3 at my table played a lot of hands and bluffed lots of flush draws, or seat 8 was nitty and seemed to be sacrificing all his blinds. Getting this vague, but incomplete understanding of my table, while knowing how vital it was to pick up on every piece of information I could to ideally play my 3-6 flops per hour as perfectly as possible with these 8 other guys around me... That's when I had the idea to create this live HUD. As much as players say you can get plenty of info just by watching people play their hands (which is true), I wanted to take it a step further. And despite the common consensus that live HUD's are too small of a sample size or too much of a pain in the ass to ever be worth using, I'm glad I went through with this idea.
My biggest worry in making the program was that it would be far too time consuming to be on my phone entering tedious numbers while a live poker game was going on and people were all around me asking me "what game am I playing... that looks weird." Well, I can honestly say that around half the players at my local casinos are browsing on their phones and tuning out while waiting for their next hand. In general, people don't give a shit at all what you're doing on your phone, and even if the floor came over and were genuinely interested in what my program is (which they never have and will never care), I could tell them the truth and they would most likely just find it "cool." I do occasionally have an old timer in the seat next to me take a peek at my phone, but they have no idea what they're looking at. If I don't really care for them and they ask, I'll tell them it's a spreadsheet for work. If I'm cool with them, I'll tell them exactly what it is and joke with them that they should start playing more than their 17% of hands they're playing, or everyone will think they're a nit. They'll usually just laugh when I tell them, and compliment me or ask how "the stats say they're playing". I'll lie and tell them something like "the stats say you're gonna donate all your money to seat 2 in the next 10 hands"... because I'm a poker player.
My next biggest worry in making the live HUD was that half the players in L.A. casinos play for around 1-2 hours at most before going bust or leaving with what they made, which means I'm only getting about a 40-50 hand sample size. I figured this wouldn't do me much good until I realized that the differences in play style statistics in casino players become apparent much, MUCH more quickly than online. I'll explain...
In full ring online games, extremely tight players' VP (voluntarily put in pot) percentages were between 10-13%. Loose players' VP's probably were around 20% and above. In 40-50 hands online, tight players could easily play 20-25% of their hands just by being dealt a good run of hands, making that sample size pointless.
In LIVE games, on the other hand, I quickly noticed that players' VP's (in my casinos) ranged anywhere from 10% to 90%. Yes, 90%. Casual players who come over from blackjack and don't really know much holdem strategy will sit down and literally want to play every hand unless the action has a $500 all-in preceding them, and the player looks down at 62 offsuit and has to begrudgingly fold. In fact, after about 5 sessions of tracking stats, I deducted that the average VP in my casinos is around 28-30% (note that this screenshot is from my most recent Thursday afternoon session, and my table was tighter than typical for this location). And this was among plenty of casino regulars. This average VP in my live games would be considered a MANIAC VP on a Full Tilt ring game back in 2008, when online players were frankly loose and terrible. Yes, tight players in live games will still get a hot run of cards over 40 hands and have a deceivingly high VP%, while loose players can be card dead and be deceivingly low. However, they will usually balance out to within 5-10% of what they are after just 50 hands if you played with them for another 200. You will not see a player play at 20% VP through 50 hands, and be at 45% after 100 hands. It just doesn't happen, unless there's some uber-tilt going on, which is easily picked up on without any need for a HUD.
The point I'm making is that I was noticing that just after a 15-20 hand sample size at any table, I was seeing some players playing 15% of their hands vs. others playing 60%, 70%, or 80% of hands. And this was plenty sufficient to at least give me a ballpark estimate of a player's style without having to mentally remember whether I keep seeing common players playing lots of hands, as most live players do to label players as tight or loose in their minds. The longer these players stayed while I tracked their preflop stats, the more detailed of an analysis my HUD gave on their ranges and play styles. 50 hands of data on a player in a live game is equivalent to about 200 hands of data on an online player, simply due to the DRASTIC percentage differences in VP, PFR, 3B, and even Fold to C-Bet stats among live players.
Finally, probably the most glaring concern, and the one I have spent by far the most time addressing, is the amount of time one would have to spend entering data into the spreadsheet after every hand. Keeping track of what every single player is doing after every single hand is a giant pain in the ass. However, only having to keep track of non-folding players makes things significantly easier. Especially when just tracking preflop stats (the most important stats), which is essentially what my HUD does. By making folds as blank cells by default, and only counting hands where at least one number has already been entered in its respective column, I was able to create a spreadsheet where the program counts everyone's action as a fold by default until a 0, 1, 2, or 3 is put in its place. This cuts down the time it takes to enter stats for each hand by about 80%. If seat 1 raises preflop and everyone folds, I am putting a "2" in row 1 to signify they raised, and leaving every other row blank. That's it. The program automatically calculates row 1's raise into their VP, PFR, 3B, and all their other stats, as well as the overall table stats, while automatically tallying up a fold for seats 2 through 9 in all of their respective stats. If seat 3 raises preflop, seat 5 reraises, and seat 3 folds (along with everyone else), I'm entering a "2f3" (to resemble a raise and fold to 3bet) in row 3 and a "3" in row 5 (to resemble a 3bet). Done. If a new player comes into the game, I'll enter what hand number they started on, and all hands before it are automatically entered as "0"s for that player, which tells my data to ignore those "0" hands for that player.
To debunk a few other commonly brought up myths as to why keeping stats during live games is supposedly pointless:
1) Casinos, at least in California and most in Vegas outside of crazy high stakes games, couldn't care less as to what you're doing on your phone. Apart from being on your phone with a buddy in the middle of a big hand and asking them what you should do, casinos do not want to make it their business as to what you're doing on your phone while you're out of a hand (or even in a hand, as long as you're not slowing the game down). Entering in a couple 1's and 2's into a spreadsheet to gain an analytical edge that they can't comprehend is far from a casino's concern. Even if they wanted to know what you were doing, nothing in any casino rules even hint at this being frowned upon.
2) It is NOT difficult to follow the action preflop, enter in a couple one-digit numbers into a spreadsheet, and then go back to whatever it is you're doing at the poker table. If you already folded your hand, you can enter in whatever seats actually had an action immediately. If you're actually involved in a hand (eg. you raised from seat 1 and had seats 5 and 9 call you), just play your hand as normal and enter the appropriate three numbers when your hand completes. If you miss a hand or happened to have tuned out while watching a cute dog do a somersault on aww, it's not a big deal. The spreadsheet doesn't care. It's at your disposal to give you as much information as you want to take from it.
3) People do NOT treat you as a nit and give you no action just because you keep glancing at or using your phone. It's 2016, and people all around us are on their phones and tablets doing god knows what. In fact, what I've found about live players, is that they're impatient, and even if they KNOW you're studying them or playing nitty (which I do on occasion, but not always), live players are bad and they really can't help themselves. If they have K9 offsuit and see you 3bet them. They aren't focusing on the kid who keeps playing on his phone... they're focusing on the fact that they have K9 offsuit, and maybe this is the time they'll finally peel off a flop and see three 9's hit... because they're totes due!
I can address several other things about my HUD, such as the "action graph" at the bottom of the screen that fills as you play or the shading of each player's cell in column A, which is lightest for the most profitable seat at the table based on the loose/tight players on your left or right and darkest for least profitable seat... But this has turned into a pretty long explanation already. If you have questions, I'll try and address them in the comments. No, this is not currently available for public use yet. But I'm not opposed to releasing it to the masses at some point should it gauge enough interest. I'd ideally like to find some other individuals who are actually enthusiastic about my project and perhaps even find a few app developers with a poker background and turn what is essentially a full-fledged backend spreadsheet into a frontend app with an actual table interface with 9 seats where each seat could simply be tapped, double tapped, etc. to signify limps, raises, etc. for each hand. That is the dream at least... I have no idea at the moment whether it could plausibly ever be a reality. But I can assure all that having this program at my disposal while I've played has been +EV for me, helped me in a couple very key spots where I would have never known to fold my two pair or steal blinds with my junk, or 3bet light, and it's given me some advantages that most would consider unheard of in live poker.

My parents love gambling. Notice that I did not say they love poker. They like to gamble - state lottery, blackjack, even let-it-ride. They are by no means degenerate, nor are they betting anything they can't afford to lose. But they don't really understand the type of mindset of a poker player as opposed to another gambler.
I'm visiting them for thanksgiving, and they're impressed with what I can do with poker. I say I'm slightly-profitable, which makes me better than most poker players out there. They know I made a deep cash run in a $235 side-tournament at the WSOP in 2012. And they know I study the game.
But they don't understand it.
"Brian," Dad asked me, "Mom and I were thinking about entering you in a tournament in Atlantic City, for $1000, and we'd split the money if you won."
My face blanched.
"Dad, I would NOT recommend that."
"Well, why not? I figure, you're good at poker, you could get lucky and hit it big!"
"Dad, that's not... that's not even really the point. In order to enter those tournaments for $1000, the rule is that you should have at least $50,000 set aside for poker to manage the risk..."
"I don't understand, this wouldn't even be your money..."
"True, and if you weren't my parents, I'd take you up on that offer. But it's a bad bet."
"What do you mean?"
"Okay, so maybe I play poker, and maybe I win. But it's far more likely that I'm going to lose. And the times that I do win, I'm rarely winning enough for all those times that I lose, considering the cost of the plane ticket and the house rake..."
"Well it would only be one tournament..."
"But that's just it, Dad. Let me try to explain this to you... I was playing poker with my buddies - a $0.25/0.50 No Limit Holdem game. My friend has $80 in his stack, I've got more than that. And I hold Ace-King suited."
"That's a good hand."
"Yes, it is. But it's a problem hand against a hand like Aces or Kings, because I'm more often losing to them. Even against a small pocket pair, I'm behind.
Anyway, my friend raised preflop. I re-raised, and he re-raised me back. I know my friend and know that a re-re-raise does not necessarily mean a strong hand from him, though from another player, this might be a cause to call. In fact, I think it's just as likely that he has garbage and is trying to bluff me. There's $40 in the pot, so I shove all-in. He has to call $60 to win a total pot of $160. If he has anything other than a pocket pair or a duplicate AK, it is incorrect for him to call. The pot odds are about 37.5% to him, and most hands he has have 30% or less of a chance of winning.
So, if he does call with any other hand, I have made money. If he folds his hand, I have forced him to surrender his equity and made money that way. I have just made a move that I believe, based on what I know about him, has made money.
He calls and turns over Q7o. He only has 30% chance of winning. The board runs out - I miss, and he hits a seven on the turn to make a pair, and he takes the pot.
The point is this - to a "gambler," it looks like I gambled money and lost it. To a poker player, it looks like I made a profitable move - and that anything that happens after that is irrelevant."
"Oh, so I think I get it now."
"That's right. I'll be honest dad, I have just as good a chance as anybody at winning that tournament - I don't know what the competition is like, but I know I'm neither the best nor worst player in the world. The thing is - if I'm not comfortable risking $1000 of my parent's money, knowing that it is a high risk, high variance game I am playing against people who are likely similarly skilled or better - then it doesn't matter if I end up winning or losing the tournament. I know that the correct strategic decision is not to play."
"Ah."
"I could teach you to play, you know."
"Nah, son, I think I'm just going to stick to Blackjack and Let It Ride."

Professional poker player here, and don't think I'm just making this post because it would somehow be profitable for me (I play in high stakes games, so advocating for people to play in low stakes live games is not going to help me).
For purposes of ease, although the same things I will say here could be said for online poker or other poker games, I will exclusively argue for why playing No Limit Texas Hold'em poker at your casino for a hobby can be a profitable hobby even for someone with no experience with not a lot of research and training.
Despite some peoples belief, Poker is a game of skill with a high element of variance, it is not gambling. In other words, if you are better than some or most of the other players at your table, you will win over a large sample of hands, but may lose on any given session. This can be hard for people to handle, but ultimately the entire experience will be profitable and rewarding if you keep at it long enough. Blackjack or 99% of other casino games are gambling because you will lose in the long run over a large sample of play.
The truth is it isn't that hard to become a winner at your local casinos lowest stake poker game. The play is incredibly amateur and in fact so poor that by following a few strategic rules you can win easily. At low stakes this will probably be about 5-10 dollars an hour. Not much by any means, but poker can be an incredibly entertaining and a great way to meet new people.
The lowest stakes at most casinos however is 200 dollar buy in. At these stakes it is reasonable that you could go through a streak where you lose $2000 over a couple week or month long period. So make sure you are able to handle that.
Why is it so easy to be a winner?
Basically there are not going to be any professional players at the games you are playing. There's not many people willing to play poker professionally for a small amount an hour, and the ones that are able to will likely move up to higher stakes soon.
Imagine you are playing your favorite board game or video game against people who have never played the game before. How easy would it be to consistently win at a game of Halo against these people? How about a game of dominion? Obviously, easy. Poker is no different, most people are that amateur.
What skills do you need?
A very basic understanding of math (simple multiplication and division) and ability to roughly be able to count the size of the pot.
How To Get Started
The game I'm going to advocate you playing is the most common game they will spread at a Casino: Full Ring (9-10 players at a table) No Limit Texas Hold'em. Not all Casinos will have poker rooms so make sure to do your research that your poker room does in fact have this game.
There are many strategy sites where you can familiarize yourself with strategy for No Limit Texas Hold'em and develop or copy a suggested strategy from your own research. You should also stop here if you have no experience with texas hold'em and familiarize yourself with strategy terminology.
http://www.twoplustwo.com/ http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/170/live-low-stakes-nl/ http://www.flopturnriver.com/ http://www.flopturnriver.com/Brick-And-Mortar-Guide-For-Online-Players.html http://www.cardrunners.com/
There are also many places you can play online for free to practice general strategy for the casino.
http://zynga.com/game/poker.
Although the people you will encounter at play money games will likely be a lot worse than the players at the casino.
Okay, I did some reading, now can I win?
Here is general rules to play by (Make sure you have familiarized yourself with Texas Hold'em terms before continuing).
Preflop:
Early Position: Raise AKo, AKs, TT+ 5bbs + 1bb for every limper. Limp 99-22, and call any raise of less than 6bbs as long as at least one person in the hand has 60bbs or more. Middle Position: Expand raising range to AT+, KQ, 99. If there are two limpers in front of you limp 54s+, J9s+, K9s, KTs. Late Position (Cutoff or Button): Expand raising range to any two broadway cards (JTo or better). Keep same limping range sans broadway cards. Blinds: Limp or check any hand if there are no raises. If there is a raise, call with 22+, AJ+, KQ.
Anytime you have AA or KK 3bet. Raise to 3x times the initial raise, + .5x the raise for each caller to the raise. If someone 4bets raise all in.
Postflop
For semantic purposes, anytime there is a pair on the board, you cannot have two pair. For example, if you have AJ on a JTT board, that is not two pair, it is top pair, top kicker.
Anytime you have midpair or worse or a gutshot straight draw or worse, or a one card straight draw, check and if there are any bets, fold.
If you have top pair good kicker, call any bet that is not over the size of the pot. If someone has bet and another player has raised on the same street, fold. If someone has bet over the size of the pot, fold. If a player has bet the flop and turn and also bet the river, fold to the river bet as long as its over .5x the pot.
If you have top pair, top kicker or better (overpair, two pair, flush, straight, 3 of a kind, full house, 4 of a kind, straight flush). Bet or raise a bet .75x the pot. And keep betting that same amount until the action ends.
If you have what will be referred to as a combo draw (an open ended straight draw with two overcards to the board, a flush draw with a gutshot straightdraw, a flush draw with one overcard to the board, an open ended straight draw with a flush draw), play in the exact same manner as top pair, top kicker or better. If you have missed your draw and you have gotten to the river, check and fold.
If you have a flush draw or straight draw, and there is not two pair or 3 of a kind of the board, call any bet pot sized or less. If you hit your draw and there is no pair on the board, follow top pair top kicker rules. If there is a pair on the board, call any bet that is less than the size of the pot.
If one card in your hand gives you a flush, check fold any 3rd nut flush or worse. Call down any bets of pot sized or less with the 2nd nut flush. And follow top pair top kicker rules with nut flush, assuming there is no two pair or 3 of a kind of the board.
If you have bet and someone has raised your bet all in on the flop or raised your bet on any other street all in for less than 1.5x sized your bet, call. If someone has raised and neither of these situations are the case, fold anything except good two pair or better , which you will raise .75x pot. If you have a flush or straight with the possibility of a full house on the board, call down any bet that is less than the pot.
If you have a one card straight (i.e. A7 on an 8654 board) that beats any other one card straight (if one exists), play top pair top kicker rules. If there is 3 cards of the same suit on the board, or the board is paired or worse, fold to any raise. Otherwise, play as if you have two pair or better.
If you stick to these rules I guarantee you will be a winner in the game you are playing, as long as its the lowest stake NL Hold'em game at the casino.
Other tips

• Ask the casino what the rake is for the games you are playing. Anything worse than 10% with a $5 cap is likely not worth playing. Time based rake is the best rake structure.
  
• Always wear sunglasses when involved in a hand postflop. Most players will have no idea how to interpret your body language, but the ones that do will have a much tougher time without being able to see your eyes.
  
• Always take at least 10 seconds before making any decision besides a limp or single raise preflop, which you can do instantly. This will also prevent people from reading your timing well.
  
• Talk to the players next to you when in a hand. It's a great way to get to know people and makes the whole experience a lot more fun.
  
• Do not get upset when you lose or too happy when you win. This is a high variance game, wins and losses will happen and in the short term say nothing about your skill level. It is very easy to lose and feel like you are a terrible player and to regret ever playing. Trust me, as long as you follow these rules, you will be a winner.
  
• Get an app called DonkeyTracker, available on Android or IPhone. If you are at a table that over 50 hands that are not 4 more more players with 40% VPIP or greater, leave the table and find another game.
  

I hope you guys found this interesting and are inspired to test this strategy at your local casino. Here's to earning some extra money on the side!