Diamond Interview Series: Cakara
We continue our special interview series with a rather elusive Diamond member. You might not know much about him, except that he's always high up in our rankings, but that's about to change. Introducing: Cakara!
This interview was conducted by
Meet our Diamonds:
Name: Vladimir Čakarević
Age: 26
Nationality: Serbian
Game types: FL SH $3/$6, $5/$10
PokerStrategy: Hello, Cakara, and thanks for agreeing on this interview. Why don't we start with a little introduction from you?
cakara: Hi everybody, my name is Vladimir and I'm a 26 year-old computer technician from Cacak-Serbia.
PokerStrategy: Your name reminds me of a character's name from the SEGA racing game Road Rash II, but I'm pretty sure that's not where your nickname comes from. Is there a story behind your username here at PokerStrategy.com?
cakara: No, not really, it comes from my nickname which is derived from my last name Cakarevic -> Cakara or Chakara. I could only imagine how it sounds to English speaking person 😉
PokerStrategy: Me and SoyCD actually have different ways of pronouncing your nickname 😀 You don't want to know them 😉 Now please tell me, how did a computer technician get into poker in the first place?
cakara: OK, that story begins more than ten years ago when I got into the world of sports betting. I had serious addiction and my problem escalated very quickly and I was losing huge amounts first at local bookies and latter online.
But then two and half years ago I stumbled into PokerStrategy.com link at some betting forum and the rest is history. I still cannot believe how can I play poker with so much self discipline and devotion to improve same things I lacked with my sports betting adventures. I still get chills when I pass by local bookies .
PokerStrategy: Hehe, I can only say I'm glad you found us. What about your main type of game? What poker format do you prefer and why?
cakara: I am playing fixed limit. Currently, 3/6$ SH and I am taking some shots at 5/10$ when tables are good. I play some DONs and MTTs for fun but FLSH is my main choice. I actually don’t know why I chose FL instead of NL. I think that SSS was too boring for me back then in beginning and now I’m to much advanced into FL to start all over again at NL. Someday I’ll give it a shot but definitely not soon.
PokerStrategy: Well I'm sure our Fixed Limit members out there already like you more now 🙂 Regarding a normal online poker day in your life, how does it go? How much do you play in a session? How many sessions do you play? What atmosphere do you need for your A-game?
cakara: Atmosphere? What atmosphere, just give me my laptop make me a giant cup of coffee and I’ll grind all day long. Seriously, I am taking very long sessions up to 3-5 hours. playing like 3,000 hands (5,000 when I am in the mood) per day.
PokerStrategy: Wow so we have a grinding machine here - opal99 should be worried now 😀 What about live poker vs online poker? What do you like more - the multi-tabling and comfort of playing at home or the feel of playing in a live environment?
cakara: opal99 and terrorblade are one step ahead me in their carriers mainly because I wasn’t eager to move up limits when I had roll to do it. I am still looking weird at myself when I win or lose 2 or 3 my monthly paychecks in one session. About live poker I couldn’t say anything – I've never done it. I don’t even know how to say check-raise-bet-fold in Serbian.
PokerStrategy: So if opal99 and terrorblade are reading this - cakara respects you as poker players 😉 However, you are still a solid Diamond member and a constant top finisher in our monthly rankings. What do you advise players that are just starting out and want to reach Diamond status?
cakara: Start slow, follow BRM, read articles, read them all over again and again, apply the them in real play, avoid crazy moves and do not despair when things aren’t going well I felt from initial 50$ to 22$ at .5-.10$ at Party in beginning but I constantly improved my game every just to have more then 10K roll now.
PokerStrategy: Alright new members, you heard him - bankroll management and discipline are very important. What about your poker goals - where do you see yourself going with poker?
cakara: I am quitting my job in next couple of month. It is hard to work for 150€ per month when your standard deviation is bigger than that. I will set aside enough €€€ to survive whole next year and then start grinding for Supernova elite (at Stars) status in 2010. black member status will follow it naturally and in 2011 nothing is impossible.
PokerStrategy: Black Member status? Sounds great! Best of luck achieving that and maybe you already know about thelastnail's challenge (race to Black Member status), so maybe he might make an exception and compete with Fixed Limit players as well - feel free to discuss with him and tell us if something happens 😉
Let's not talk only about poker now - how does a regular day in cakara's life look like?
cakara: I am working from 9.00 to 17.00 . I come to work about 9:30h -10h and flee around 16h then grab a bite than grinding till 22h and than off to town to get wasted pretty much ordinary working-hard hardly-working days. I tried couple colleges first Electrical then Technical engineering but never gone far from 2nd year. That doesn’t trouble me much, I make more money than most of my friends. And this is only the beginning of my carrier 😉
PokerStrategy: I liked that last line. I can only say that I hope you reach your career goals as soon as possible. Since this interview series will go on, is there a Diamond member in particular that you would like to see interviewed?
cakara: I would say smidlo, redman, sm112, mcneil or some other members who aren’t so active in community (neither am I btw).
cakara: But I promise I'll be a lot involved once I quit my job. A lot more involved.
PokerStrategy: We are definitely looking forward to hearing more from you in the forums - a poker blog perhaps? And remember, you promised, so now our members will be expecting to see you posting 🙂 Is there something you would like to add before we end this interview?
cakara: Thank you for your time and patience. I would wish good luck to everyone but luck evens out over a huge sample-size anyway so just improve, play yours best game and you'll be fine.
PokerStrategy: Ok, thank you for your time as well and best of luck in your poker career!
