Although playing online poker since 2005 whilst he was at Edinburgh University David has only been playing professionally for the last twelve months. He has come a long way from the University Poker Society to winner of one of Europe’s biggest poker titles but little is known about this new face.

As a member of RakeTheRake David granted us exclusive access to get to know him a little better and shared some tips for other upcoming poker players looking to follow in the footsteps of himself and other successful rakeback players such as WSOP November Nine player John Racener.

In this excerpt from the interview with David Vamplew, he answers some questions asked by other rakeback players.

You have only been a pro player for about a year, what have been the highs and lows? (Eric Grimshaw via Facebook)

“Well, one obvious “high” immediately comes to mind from the past week or so! Apart from London, it was pretty cool winning a main event seat in an online satellite while in our house in Vegas this summer with my friends sweating the seat bubble. I have had a couple of pretty large downswings in the last year or so, one of them all within a week last year when I was grinding out a lot of hands for a promotion. That wasn’t much fun, but as a professional player you can’t allow these things affect you too much, they are a part of the game.”

Have you ever had a regular job? (What did they involve and if you had not been a poker player what would you have done?) (DanDeepStack @UKRakeback on Twitter)

“I had a paper round and later worked as a lifeguard in high school. For part of the time while I was at uni I worked in a supermarket, but eventually I was making more from poker than from my job. One of the things that pushed me towards playing poker professionally was that I really didn’t know what sort of thing I wanted to do after I had graduated. I really enjoy playing poker so I decided to give it a shot.”

What advice would you give to anyone who is thinking about making the move to playing poker full time? (Rob Alideyu via email)

“Poker as a job isn’t for everyone. There are a lot of benefits to having an office job that you miss out on playing poker and you need to be aware of these. I think to make poker a viable option you have to be earning a significant amount more from it than you could in a regular job. Also, a big part of being a pro poker player is dealing with the inevitable swings. If you can’t have a bad day at the tables and be able to forget about it and relax and enjoy yourself afterwards, then I don’t think poker is for you.”

What tips can you offer to players regarding bankroll management? (Alan Crowbert via Facebook)

Have at least 20 buy ins for cash or 100 for tournaments and make sure you stick to that. Don’t be afraid to have a shot at the next stake once you feel ready, though.

How did you first here about Rakeback and how important has it been for you? (anon)

“I think it must have been twoplustwo forums that educated me about rakeback. When playing low stakes where rakeback can represent a good portion of your winrate it is definitely great to have the steady income stream each month.”

What will you spend your £900,000 EPT, UKIPT winnings on? ( POK_HER81 @raketherakecom)

“I am looking into buying a flat in Edinburgh and of course travelling to a lot more big live tournaments.”

David is definitely an ambitious up and coming player and one to watch over the next few years. It’s clear from the entire interview we conducted that he has a good perspective on the ups and downs of playing poker at this level which is a great example for other players. We hope he does indeed go onto achieve his ambition of winning a WSOP bracelet soon and beats Phil Hellmuth’s record of bracelet wins within the next ten years!

The full Interview with David Vamplew is published on Rakeback.co.uk

Read Full David Vamplew Interview

Assuming you play micro stakes cash poker games, you will get 50% more VIP points in these rooms during MicroMania.  The offer stands for holdem poker tables that are between the $0.05/$0.10 and $0.10/$0.20 stakes. 

Poker tournament players can also benefit from MicroMania because PokerStars will be adding $1,000 to the prize pool of select $1.10 No-Limit Hold’em tournaments.  To find these value-added tourneys, just go to the poker software and look for MicroMania Specials.  You can also earn a share of $100,000 by winning MicroMania $1.10 Super Sit & Go; as the name implies, everybody that wins one of these sit and go’s will receive a piece of the $100k.

Players will be able to satellite into some special casino poker events during MicroMania as well since seats to NAPT Los Angeles (July 11th), LAPT Florianopolis (July 4th), EPT London (July 18th), and the WCOOP Main Event (July 25th) are all offered.  The MicroMania satellites to these tournaments are only $1.10 to enter so as long as you know how to play poker, you should consider playing in these events.

Everybody who completes the poker download and signs up for PokerStars during MicroMania will also be able to participate in a free poker tournament.  Plus you’ll get to take advantage of all the online poker deals that PokerStars offers on a monthly basis including the Frequent Player Program.  Since you’d be earning 50% more VIP points in cash games and tournaments, you will be able to receive freerolls entries, cash bonuses, and merchandise from the VIP Store much quicker.

We arrived at Dusk Till Dawn at 1.30 for slap up steak dinner; to be honest the thought of stuffing a slab of steak down was not as appetising as it should have been. I noticed several players had hardly touched their food and this was interspersed by frequent trips to the gents. In fact I caught a player chucking up, not happy at the prospect of being the short stack, much like entering the coliseum in Rome to be devoured by the Lions.

David La Ronde

Winner of the English Poker Open 2009

English Poker Open

Part 6 next Tuesday…