Player Focus: Bill Ivey

By Philip Tuck

24 August 2007

He obviously has a deep understanding of poker - not only tournaments but also cash games

Lee Gaines aka "Bill Ivey" isn't old enough to play poker in a Vegas casino yet so while he is waiting to come of age he is making thousands on the internet instead...

Professional poker player Lee Gaines aka “Bill Ivey” on PokerStars or “HisXLNC” on FullTilt has had a great year so far in the world of online multi-table tournaments (MTTs). The Tucson, Arizona native has cashed over $100,000 in the last year from tournaments alone, with career winnings (he has only been playing for about 18 months) of around $200,000.

These figures are not huge compared to some of the dedicated MTT pros, but Lee spends a great deal of time playing 5/10 NL Holdem cash, where he keeps the clock ticking over in between tournaments. He obviously has a deep understanding of poker - not only tournaments but also cash games.

In his blog Lee regularly talks through big hands from his tournaments and his cash table strategies. He has an interesting piece on how to deal with short stacks at cash tables which is well worth a read. It is an area that even good players seem to frequently make mistakes in, and he addresses the correct strategy well. There are also a selection of hands against some of the leading tournament pros that he discusses, including an interesting hand against everyone’s arch nemesis - Annette_15 - that shows quite why she is so dangerous to even the very best players.

However, Lee’s blog hasn’t gone down well with everyone. When Lee wrote in his blog that he had set himself a challenge to win $1,000 a day for 100 days a PokerStars player called Rekrul started his own blog called 'The Take $200k from Bill Ivey in 100 Days Challenge'.

“Recently an 18-year-old aspiring poker player named Lee Gaines embarked on a quest to earn a staggering one buy-in a day on average for 100 days straight. I am here to fuck that goal in the ass,” stated Rekrul in his blog.

Lee is also one of the new generation of online players living in a house full of online pros. Living with the likes of online pros "bdubs", "beck", and "bigpat" it is obvious that the strategy and skills of poker are the bread and butter of such a household (for another lowdown on one of the sicker “balla mansions” check out durrrr’s profile here.

The biggest day of Lee’s career came on 25 June 2007 when he racked up a string of great results. He came 33rd in the PokerStars $1000 for $5,187. Then, he final tabled the PokerStars Second Chance, coming seventh for $6,890. As if that was not enough he went on to win the FullTilt Mulligan for $27,700. That’s a total profit of $38,377, not bad lolly for a teenager playing poker for a night on his computer.

With such a short playing career yielding such success it is difficult to see how Lee will not continue to pull out good results - he has great results considering the relatively low volume he puts in, with cashes in every high stakes online tournament of note. Next time you open up PokerStars give him a player search and watch him smashing up 5/10 cash or gambling with the best of them in the high stakes tournaments.