My return to poker and the start of sponsorship

Hello all,

From tonight I'm due to be sponsored by Pokerisk. I intend to produce a blog at some point and will put links to it but for now I'm wanting to see how I go and go from there. I need a new setup (PC two monitors etc) and an area where I'm not playing off the couch.

Anyway, last night I started playing again and had my first win. I played several small buy in MTTs across two networks. I won the 8,15 Hilo for $533 and cash in two further MTTs. Total profits for the night $653.

It's a good start but can I keep it up? Tune in tomorrow for more of 'Vad - has he got a clue?'

Nice one Squire, may your adventure be blessed by good variance, looking forward to the updates.

gl madv hope you do well

MADV wrote:Hello all,

From tonight I'm due to be sponsored by Pokerisk. I intend to produce a blog at some point and will put links to it but for now I'm wanting to see how I go and go from there. I need a new setup (PC two monitors etc) and an area where I'm not playing off the couch.

Anyway, last night I started playing again and had my first win. I played several small buy in MTTs across two networks. I won the 8,15 Hilo for $533 and cash in two further MTTs. Total profits for the night $653.

It's a good start but can I keep it up? Tune in tomorrow for more of 'Vad - has he got a clue?'

Nice one mate, the win's and the spons.

Once ya gone twin there is just no going back you know that, and the lure of a trip set-up seems even better (and woth every penny)

Evo397bhp wrote:

MADV wrote:Hello all,

From tonight I'm due to be sponsored by Pokerisk. I intend to produce a blog at some point and will put links to it but for now I'm wanting to see how I go and go from there. I need a new setup (PC two monitors etc) and an area where I'm not playing off the couch.

Anyway, last night I started playing again and had my first win. I played several small buy in MTTs across two networks. I won the 8,15 Hilo for $533 and cash in two further MTTs. Total profits for the night $653.

It's a good start but can I keep it up? Tune in tomorrow for more of 'Vad - has he got a clue?'

Nice one mate, the win's and the spons.

Once ya gone twin there is just no going back you know that, and the lure of a trip set-up seems even better (and woth every penny)

Well - after last night, and my first night for Pokerisk it's official. MADV is getting a new PC with two monitors as soon as is feasibly possible. So, for all the techies out there, I want to know what's currently the best multitasking CPU and decent size screens for me (the rest is irrelevant and I can handle that tech) to be multi-tabling MTTs. They have to be budget of course. More bang for my buck!

Anyway, onto last nights performances. It didn't start well with me running round like a loon trying to rescue tea because we burnt the pan of stew (out into the snow for it to cool down and then be scraped off). So I'm trying to cook 5 pizzas and some chips and chicken nuggets whilst Sharon melts down because the kids are driving her mental and I try to open three poker sites and all the HEM and other stuff I need.

I finally get it sorted and I'm away! I didn't last two long in the early freeze out as I get coolered with KK vs AA on a low flop. Oh well, onwards and upwards. I'm soon in 8 games across 3 sites and realise it isn't working. My Laptop is going into meltdown and I'm hating the dog that is Betsafe. Fire up the second laptop with Betsafe on that and now, for the first time, I'm dual screening - kind of!

The hands are thick and fast but I feel I'm playing too many hands. I try to contact my mentor but as usual, even though he's won a fortune, the fella can't sort his blaaaady MSN!

I eventually end up 2nd (after having him heads up to the river 4 times for him to suck out 4 times!) on the $22 Betsafe hilo for my biggest cash but there's a disappointing number of runners so I only net $160 ish.

I'm going well in two rebuys on Circus poker and the High stack and Jackpot tournaments on Laddies. Then I have a 5 min spell lie you do! and all my games go from great to chite (and out in some cases) except for the $10 rebuy 128k gara on Circus.

Long story short, I run AK into Q7 or something for 100K pot in a game I was playing (of which I'm going to post the hand for comments because my mentor and I disagree) and my night's ended with 3 cashes of $40 ish and the hilo cash.

All in all $450 worth of tourneys entered and I'm about $40 down across 3 accounts.

Tune in tomorrow for more . . .

Well depends on if you want to use windows dual monitor mode, if you do then the strain is obviousy greater on the CPU and depending on mother board you limited to 1x DVI and 1x VGA. so I chose to go down the Dual head graphics card route (this was with twin's, now use trips so no choice but card route)as I wanted both to run DVI.
That said running AMD phenom x4 (only changed due to work and heavy use in Photoshop)on dual was trotting a AMD Athlon II x2 at 3.2GHz and worked perfect.

Card's I tend to go for are EVGA Corp, as good value for money and to be honest been had been using them for years fault free in graphic design office of old company, Although I think Matrox are little cheaper.

Your going to drive at 1280 x 1024 (can driv analog higher but depending on software you use this can get well bent out of shape, Holdem manager does (or did)so monitor size 24" is the cheapest large view route, I reccomend Novatech.co.uk and there own brand which happens to be 25" (still use these with trip set up, 30" are still to expensive (and how much desktop do ya want !!lol)

I get most stuff from Novatech, and if you have any OS serial No's spare can buy OS free systems

Should get the whole lot new inside of £800 - £900 inc VAT (buy through work and wipe the 17.5% off)

I've configured a system roughly around what you said. Can you have a look and see any areas I may need to down or upgrade. They also sell 19" monitors at £70 at the mo so will add two of those.

1 Year Return to Base Warranty
Coolermaster Elite 334
Akasa Dual 2.5" Mounting Frame
LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVDRW
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad Core CPU
1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3 HD103SJ Hard Disk Drive
OCZ Onyx 64GB SATA II 2.5 inch Solid State Drive
Asus M4A77TD Pro AM3 Motherboard AM3
750W Powercool High Efficiency Power Supply
6GB Corsair XMS3 1333MHz DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Kit
Sweex 5.1 PCI Sound Card
CCL Choice nVidia GeForce GTS 250 1GB ECO

Is the graphics card good enough. Should I spend £70 on a blue-ray writer, etc. It's a lot of money but I suppose it will last a long time ?

£507 +VAT but I'll try to get through company. What you think?

Monster night tonight.

Full update tomorrow.

One happy MADV getting his new PC!

awesome results tongith vadddddddddddddd, legend

There's a little background behind this latest update but I doubt you all want to know the ins and outs of that so a quick guide.

I started sponsored play last week and have had mixed results culminating in an horrific night on Thursday evening. I've never had a night like it. I lost every race that I entered, every pot where I was ahead (bar a couple) and was out of every MTT I'd entered, before 10 o'clock. I was chatting to my mentor at the time and he was trying to reassure me. Sharon, sat at the side of me, was also attempting to reassure me but I'm absolutely horrible when I'm in a bad mood (I'm sorry, Sharon, you are my world and help me through it all) and I couldn't snap out of it. I shut the computer down in disgust and was close to tears, fearing my sponsorship career was over.

Bearing in mind I played about 10 MTTs I must've done something right without noticing because I was only about $50 down - not bad for worst 'feeling' night of my life with regards to poker.

So, I took Saturday night off, and the day – spending time with my family, and went on to Sunday. It was always my intention to play around 6.30pm as some great Omaha tournaments for me start then. Add to this I was in the Pokerisk $5k Christmas freeroll for writing my first article for the site. I quickly logged into the two sites I play on (Circus and Pokershare – my computer doesn’t like Betsafe and goes into meltdown) and loaded up all my favourite tournaments for the night on both sites. I then went and finished my Sunday dinner I’d just cooked for all the troops (lovely it was too, but then I’m a Northerner so have roast dinner ability inbred!)

Sitting back down I was ready for play. Sharon was supporting me by doing all the household chores and getting me my first Vodka Redbull – I don’t condone getting pisshed whilst playing btw, I just like a drink (statement of an alcoholic!) The first game of notice was the 5k starting chips Omaha rebuy. That’s 15k to me as I’d missed the first hour, Auto-added on (love that feature) so played from there.

It would take me too long to go into every game in this article so I’m not going to bother. I’d just like to say that everything seemed to be going my way. I wasn’t muffing people, I was just getting them in good and they were holding up. I started to panic as I had 9 games on my 15.1 inch laptop screen (laptop is also 6 years old – but was very good at the time) and my computer was really lagging. I was finding it difficult to play all the games. I took the decision and shut down HEM – better to play with no stats than not to even be able to click call, raise, or fold.

It’s now 10 o’clock and I’m still in every game I’ve registered for. I’m on the final table of two Omaha games and getting close in a few others. I go out 26th in the $5k $5 rebuy on PS for about £50 and it’s a decent start to the cashes – AK to AA so not a bad beat!) I’m struggling in a few of the Omaha games as I’m getting high hands on the hi-low and low hands on the high only.

Long story short, two hours later and I’ve reached the FT of every game I’ve entered bar two! That’s seven out of nine. What the hell is going on? In stark contrast to the other night I’m so happy; jumping about; playing with such confidence; really getting my thirst for the game back, it’s untrue!

The next crucial game sees me get heads up in the £3k guaranteed £20 f/o. It bats backwards and forwards for a while when I get A5 in BB. SB raises up and I reraise for about 8 x BB. We both have about 180K and the raise is to about 60K. On a flop of 477 I check trying to induce the bet. SB goes all in covering me – I listen to my heart and make the call. It’s the first wrong decision I’ve made all night and I’m sat looking at his 66. I miss and it’s second for £700. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t make the correct decision but I’m more than happy with my first decent cash in Hold-em since I started a week ago.

I go out of two Omaha Hi-Lo games in quick succession and take about $100 from each. The Omaha then pops up and whilst I’ve been sat out, there are only 3 of us left! I pile all in a few times and before I know it I’ve won for another $250.

This leaves me with the Pokerisk Christmas freeroll remaining. I decide to concentrate solely on this without playing anything else but load up a £1 Hold-em (my tilt game – something Steve will have to work with me on if he has a problem with me ‘wasting’ the £1!) It’s a really tough final table with a spread of mentors and mentees. I watch the Lemmings jump one-by-one (sorry to whoever went before me :$) and I’m happy to see JJ with only a half-a-dozen players remaining. This doubles me up and I’m in good shape. I then take a few nice pots and I’m raising most hands (the 45 of diamonds I didn’t raise would’ve flopped a flush – grrr) until the next change happens. I’ve just taken out another short stack with a good A5 call in the BB to his button shove of A2 when I get dealt KK. There are four of us remaining and I raise my standard 3xbb (I never really raise anything different unless I slip or type a witty number in). The BB goes all in and I can’t call fast enough. My new positive attitude is screaming YESSSS! As he flips AQ. I’m not screaming much more when the A hits but nevertheless I’m hopeful. I lose and I’m down to 20K instead of being on 200K-ish. I steam and run round the room but soon I’m all in from the BB with QJ versus the button’s A3. I double up to 50K and I’m back in it.

The short stack goes and I’m left three-way with two mentors who know each other! Arghhhh! They pussyfoot with each other for a bit but slowly my stack is growing. I’m raising nearly everything and only ever losing chips to the short stack when he decides to go all in. I can’t really remember the crucial hands past this point but I get heads up with one of them and I’m leading 4 to 1. It’s all over soon after when I get KJ in the BB and he shoves with 45 from the SB.

This caps off a perfect day, winning less than most sponsored players I’m sure, but meaning so much more for me, MADV, back at the tables!

PS – It’s also buying me this :

Your system consists of the following components...
• 1 Year Return to Base Warranty
• Coolermaster Elite 334
• Akasa Dual 2.5" Mounting Frame
• LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVDRW
• AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Processor
• 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue 3.5" Hard Disk Drive
• 64GB Corsair Nova Series 2.5" (SSD) Solid State Disk Drive
• Asus M4A77TD Pro AM3 Motherboard AM3
• 750W Powercool High Efficiency Power Supply
• 6GB Corsair XMS3 1333MHz DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Kit
• CCL Choice nVidia GeForce GTS 250 1GB ECO
Oh and 1 full HD 22” monitor and another 19” one thrown in!

cool night

Comp spec is good, i'd not bother with a Blueray writer, remember this is a workstation why would you need to write disc's

I WOULD however, invest in larger monitors, 2x 22" monitors sit 6 tabs each with no overlap, giving ya 12 clear views.

HEM screws ya head up early in games, I only flip the HUD on at tourney start to clock regs, then turn off until made the cash cut.

Evo397bhp (Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:19 pm) wrote:cool night

Comp spec is good, i'd not bother with a Blueray writer, remember this is a workstation why would you need to write disc's

I WOULD however, invest in larger monitors, 2x 22" monitors sit 6 tabs each with no overlap, giving ya 12 clear views.

HEM screws ya head up early in games, I only flip the HUD on at tourney start to clock regs, then turn off until made the cash cut.

I've taken your advice, Evo. I've just bought a nice Overclocked triple core one of Ebay that the fella is configuring for me. Half the price of the one I showed. It's got 8gb ram, a dvd om and writer, comes with Windows 7 64bit so no cracks needed, Phenom 11 x3, running at 3.5Gb a core. Oh, and he through in a SSD and a 500gb HDD extra for me.

This baby should run like lightning. I'm getting (on your advice) 2 x 22" Full HD monitors. £200 for the pair, delivered from same fella!

Cheers, and see you at the tables!

Gl to you for having the balls to date all results on here pal.
Very best of luck hope it works out for you..............Im personally using a pc from ebay..8gig ddr400 ram with motherboard to support it. .. fed thru a 40inch tv with reclining leather comfort chair and a seperate room with no outside influences in there.
I find profit margins are alot higher playing 2 at a time altho ive done up to 12 before myself.......
Showing any profit over 12 shows one hell of a mental edge and if you can do it mate I take my hat off to you.

Remember my motto"comfort" and no outside influences to many games affects roi .Then again some people can keep a good profit margin whilst playing multiple games goin...return on investment is maxed when ur comfy and indeed not bein blabbed in ear every 2 mins..........hope kerry aint reading this haha

awesome read mate

Muffer wrote:Gl to you for having the balls to date all results on here pal.
Very best of luck hope it works out for you..............Im personally using a pc from ebay..8gig ddr400 ram with motherboard to support it. .. fed thru a 40inch tv with reclining leather comfort chair and a seperate room with no outside influences in there.
I find profit margins are alot higher playing 2 at a time altho ive done up to 12 before myself.......
Showing any profit over 12 shows one hell of a mental edge and if you can do it mate I take my hat off to you.

Remember my motto"comfort" and no outside influences to many games affects roi .Then again some people can keep a good profit margin whilst playing multiple games goin...return on investment is maxed when ur comfy and indeed not bein blabbed in ear every 2 mins..........hope kerry aint reading this haha

I hear what you're saying here muffer. It really is distracting when one of the children come asking something but I'm a father first, a worker second, and a poker player third. I have to keep prirites in order. What's the point in earning chit loads of money just to buy some penis-extension car that I'd wrap around a lamppost in 5 minutes? I'm currently trying to earn enough for a Ford Focus - mine is fcuked - so that I can get to work and back and enjoy life with my family.

Sharon is a massive help to my game - she's a great player herself and it's great to know that if I need a pee break or just to walk away, someone is there to continue my games (I play a lot of turbos requiring a lot of attention).

I've bought some stereo ear muff style headphones with a mic for Skype mainly but use these when I need to focus my attention (with Papa Roach blaring at me !).

The latest instalment can be found in my new blog:

Vad's Blog!

Please feel free to comment there or here or both !

Your some boy!

Sorry I came across wrong mate what I mean is having the suped up gear and multiple games pales in comparison to playing 2 or 3 at a time whilst comfy and maxed concentration.

Individual profit you may find is higher playing less games at once and more focus on a few,collectively maybe not but on an individual return it will be for sure.

Nice to hear married lifes goin good and I wish you and Sharon all the happiness in the future,im planning on going to the next live meet up as it always sounds good crack.

Muffer wrote:Your some boy!

Sorry I came across wrong mate what I mean is having the suped up gear and multiple games pales in comparison to playing 2 or 3 at a time whilst comfy and maxed concentration.

Individual profit you may find is higher playing less games at once and more focus on a few,collectively maybe not but on an individual return it will be for sure.

Nice to hear married lifes goin good and I wish you and Sharon all the happiness in the future,im planning on going to the next live meet up as it always sounds good crack.

Be great to see everyone there but As Sharon and I booked months ago and no one else seems to have bothered, it looks like a romantic weekend instead lol!

I didn't take your post wrong, mate - you came across perfect. I actually agree with what you're saying. I know I'm more profitable if I concentrate on the game, but to remove the variance, you have to have the volume. I used to play for myself on the $10 hilo 2-3 games per night. This was OK for a bit of pocket money but it's never going to give me enough to be able to buy into Holdem games, lots, to overcome the variance in them, to hit that 'big one'. That's the dream, the reality is much harder!

good read Vad,hows it going? any chance of an update? cheers.