This hand occurred during a recent live stream for Bally Live Poker at the Commerce Casino and Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. In the hand, two high-stakes LA regulars, Paul James and L, butt heads during the last hand of the evening.
Paul James was one of the big winners in the game and was sitting on a stack of $33,500, and L had a stack totaling $10,400. The blinds were $25/$50 with a $50 big blind ante.
The two players have a history of playing together numerous times on stream and have a fun, if not very competitive, camaraderie at the tables.
In the video above, each player talks through the hand moment-to-moment, providing exclusive insight into the thought processes of high-stakes cash game professionals.
Paul James â WSOP bracelet winner
James is equally adept at cash games as well as tournaments. He won the 2022 $400 NLH WSOP Colossus Event for $414,000 and has over $1.1M in career cashes.
Like many players, he fell in love with the game as a student in school. âI learned the game through a friend on my table tennis team,â shared James. âI used to play poker at a club in East London called Equal Chance. I thought I was better than I was because I never used to win. I'm sure I was the sucker at the table.â
To improve his game, James sought out a group of friends who were more knowledgeable and successful at the tables than himself. Only then did he understand what to pay attention to during a session.
âI think once you understand the game flow daily, who blasts, who doesn't, what tendencies people have, how to exploit weaknesses, etc, the game becomes a little easier. I have learned to trust my intuition more and more. Itâs something that you can't teach too many people, which is why most people struggle to be successful players.â
L is a mystery
L is relatively new to the high-stakes cash game scene in Los Angeles. Over the last year, he has been a regular on the Bally Live Poker and Hustler Casino Live streams.
L grew up in China and traveled to the United States to attend college, where he began playing poker with friends. He eventually completed an MBA at a university in Hong Kong before returning to the US and rekindling his love for poker.
The past few poker streams have not been kind to L as he reflects on the volatility and variance of high-stakes poker. âI enjoy the games a lot,â shared L. âHopefully, I can win more consistently. But lately, Iâve been on a downswing. I don't think people should play too high stakes above their bankroll. I remind myself of this daily. I want to use my profits to play in the games. Thatâs my ultimate goal.â
Interestingly enough, he takes his poker stream moniker 'L' from the well-known Manga series Death Note. He actually resembles the character, whose true identity remains a secret as he pursues a serial killer in the popular series. So far, Lâs true identity is also a mystery on the Los Angeles poker scene.
