Interview With Heads Up SNG Poker Player M@D@M@D@D@ne

M@D@M@D@D@ne has been a regular player in the high stakes heads up sit and go lobbies for years. Not only has he made over $600,000 in profits over 16,000 games, he has also staked many winning poker players over the last few years. For more information, you can read M@D@M@D@D@ne's Heads Up Player Profile. HUSNG.com exchanged emails and messages with him over the last few weeks, leading to the following interview.

HUSNG - You're starting a blog in the next month. What motivated you to start this blog and what can we expect to see from you there?

M@D - I am starting a new blog at www.justanotherpipedream.com. My main motivation to start this blog was to out ppl who had rolled me after Black Friday. And also warn people about the mistakes I've made throughout my poker career, mainly in the areas of staking players and loaning money. The blog will also cover a variety of other topics in the long run. Pretty much anything I have an expertize in and even a few things I don't :p. But it will probably start slow. Keep an eye out for it.

HUSNG - You back a lot of players, can you talk about some of the common pitfalls that come with staking poker players?

M@D - Two common pitfalls are not figuring out why the person needs backing and if he was a winning player why he wasn't able to save enough of a bankroll for himself. And whether these are all workable issues. Doing your due diligence in this regard is very important.

HUSNG - Given those pitfalls, why do you still continue to stake players?

M@D - At this point I am essentially chasing makeup, but am looking to get out or reduce my stable greatly. Poker is just getting tougher and tougher every day and USA leaving the market has greatly reduced the profitability in backing.

HUSNG - What are the most common things you look for when deciding whether or not to stake a player?

M@D - There are too many things to summarize. The major ones are trustworthiness and profitability, as well as maintenance and workability.

HUSNG - What is your playing schedule like and what games are you playing currently? Has the action died down a lot for you in the regular speeds and turbos with the addition of hypers and the closing of the USA market on major sites?

M@D - I try to play 20 hours per week usually from 1 until 9 eastern time. I tried putting in 30 hours/week a few months back but that's just too much of a workload with all the other things I do. I currently play hyper hu sngs as well as the regular and turbo speed ones up to the highest stakes. Though I've stayed away from 5ks recently due to being short online and a good sized downswing. Getting action is the major problem though. Yes, action has died a lot since PokerStars added hypers onto the site, especially the $1k buyin and lower.

HUSNG - How long will hyper turbos be profitable for?

M@D - Hypers will always be profitable for the most part. As players get better and challenge each other for lobbies and lines to get them become longer and longer though everyone will have to sacrifice their hourly. Turbos and regular Speeds will always be very profitable especially for the best players. The ceiling for those is much higher than hypers.

HUSNG - Who is the most underrated HUSNG player? Most overrated?

M@D - Most underrated is probably Berndsen16/SanderB12. Most overrated is probably Adonis112/livb112. It's weird for me to say that cause I'm not saying he's not very likely the best hu snger presently, or of all time, but I definitely think he gets too much respect. And almost no one will give him action where as they're giving a ton of action to players of a similar caliber.

HUSNG - Who are your top 5 players?

Top 5 Hyper Turbo: SkaiWalkurrr, Lotte Lenya, Serkules, Berndsen12, riyyc225.

Top 5 Non Hyper Turbo: Adonis112, Lotte Lenya, Berndsen12, Old Time Gin and Iftarii. 

HUSNG - Why do you regularly keep your Sharkscope stats blocked?

M@D - I feel like the best players will play me anyways, but if I keep my stats blocked it will allow more marginal regulars to give me action. That's how I feel in this environment, with more Cash and MTT pros dabbling in HUSNGs. I want to maximize the action that I get from them, and I feel it's too large of a disadvantage to give your opponent anything you can choose to keep unknown, such as profitable stats. The times I've sat the $300s too, I've noticed the regulars give me 5-10 games of action with my stats blocked, and I think that is more than I would get unblocked. The counter side is that showing your stats is probably more intimidating, so if you're a marginal regular it would make more sense not to block your stats.