Forumite Focus - Mandylou

First and foremost, why the poker alias MandyLou, it's a little unusual?
It's after my lovely wife, Mandy Louise.

It seems like a good choice to us, playing under a false persona is one of the beauties of online poker. Do people treat you differently on the tables playing under a female name?
Yes they do and that helped in the early days - there is still a false assumption that women can't play and the annoyance of being outplayed by a woman puts some players close to tilt. They are also more likely to attempt bullying which suits my play. It wasn't the intention to fool anyone to start with, when I registered - In the beginning everyone just assumed I was a women and I will fully admit to not correcting them though ☺

So how long have you been playing poker in total?
Not too long actually, only about seven months , I started on Christmas eve 2004 on Betfair Poker.

It seems that you spend a lot of time on Betfair Poker, in an average week how many hours of poker would you say that you play?
Probably about 60-70 hours in an average week, I am on the tables virtually every night from about 62 am plus a few hours during the day!

You're not a poker professional so what do you do for a living to facilitate spending that much time on Betfair Poker?
I have a business that employs a couple of people and is virtually self run by my employees I don't work on it daily, just the paperwork side of it, giving me plenty of free time for playing on here.

Very nice, how does your wife feel about the amount of time you dedicate to poker?
My wife Mandy is a big help , she gets a bit narked every now and again , but as we have the PC in the living room, it means that I'm always around so it's better than being out at work for 10 hours a day! Also, whenever I have a decent win it goes on treats for her and the kids (holidays etc) which also helps ☺, Mandy also plays a little bit herself through the day on the lower stakes so at least she appreciates the game.

We love a decent win at Betfair Poker, what are your biggest wins so far?
I have won the 8pm multi on here twice , once when it was the £10K and then the £12K , prizes were approx £2,300 and £2,800. Offline I finished 2nd in my 1st ever live game at a casino where the prize money was about £550

So, a nice bit of healthy profit there, what game types do you prefer: STTs, MTTs or ring games and what stakes are you most likely to be found at?
A mixture of them all really. I play all the big MTTs every evening and STTs throughout the day. I don't play many cash games unless I am waiting for a tourney to start or I've had a decent win. In terms of STT stakes, normally £20/£30 although I will play the odd £50 game, With cash its usually £1/£2 to a max of £5/£10, though I do admit to being a bit of a hit and run merchant on the cash tables.

You have to be a pretty good player to win the big MTT, do you ever plan to make a living out of poker?
I am happy at the moment getting a 2nd income from the game but obviously would love to be good enough to play and make it pay in all the festivals and tour games. It always seems far fetched to anyone but a win in one of the £150k guaranteeds on Betfair could give a good enough starting bankroll I suppose.

Well we wish you luck! So which professional poker player do you rate the highest?
At the moment I think Daniel Negreanu is the most complete player, but I love watching the likes of Gus Hansen, Hellmuth and Devilfish for the entertainment value.

Let's talk cards briefly apart from the big pairs, are there any hands that seem to be lucky for you?
I am not a big believer in lucky cards, having said that though, pocket 10`s seem to hold up for me. I also like playing 72 if its cheap enough because if you flop trips or make a full house no one expects you to have a hand and the payday can be very good it's also a very easy hand to get rid of if you don't fully hit the flop!

Final question but we have to ask you Carl, what is it that you like about Betfair poker?
Personally I like the graphics better than any other site I have looked at. The quality of players is very good as well, I genuinely feel more comfortable playing on here than any other sites and there is a good mixture of games and the forum is quality!