Welcome Stormer Community! It’s great to have you here as we begin a new segment of some Q&A with various Stormer members. We kick this off with our very own Stormers Manager, IT5PAYDAY. He was a guest on ACR Poker Twitter Spaces yesterday for a little Q&A with the community. If you missed the podcast, feel free to read our out take below or click the Tweet to listen.
Q&A with IT5PAYDAY
We are LIVE! Come join for a chance to win $630 tourny tickets! https://t.co/aLQQo3gZrb
— ACR Poker (@ACR_POKER) September 12, 2023
Before we dive into our discussion, I’d like to take a moment to get to know each other. To kick things off, I suggest we start with a quick introduction. You can tell us your name and share a few interesting facts about yourself. Additionally, if you want to speak more throughout our conversation, please feel free to request to do so. We want to hear your thoughts and opinions.
Now, I’ll pass the floor over to you. Take your time, and don’t feel rushed. We’re all here to listen and learn from each other.
@IT5PAYDAY
No problem. What’s going on? Everybody? My name is Adam. A lot of you may know me as it’s payday through various poker avenues that I’ve been down over the over the past few years. At this moment in time, obviously I am the ACR Stormers manager. Some of the newer people to my page may know me through through that avenue. I was on the Thirst Lounge a few years back with Bill Perkins and yeah, I’m from England. 34 years old feels 65. I’m getting getting old, getting wrinkly, getting Gray.
So yeah, that’s me. I welcome any questions that anybody has and that, yeah, let’s have some fun.
@ACR_POKER
Awesome. Thank you. So people, go ahead and start requesting on the button – if you’re on mobile bottom left, there’ll be an option for you to try to request. I have some questions for Adam, but if people start bringing them in, I’m going to go ahead and let them go. And I have one right now, so you should be good.
@ShirtsGive
Ohh OK hello. Yeah um my my question is, is uh is there going to be another Thirst lounge? And if so how do we like apply to get on it?
@IT5PAYDAY
So in all honesty, I wasn’t the person behind choosing Thirst Lounge etcetera. Obviously, that was all Bill Perkins. I was just fortunate enough to be able to apply and and get a spot on there. I’d imagine like with the way that social media is and stuff these days that I think there’s a big opportunity for for Bill to do it again. And last time I believe that the way that people would try and get on there would just was fire Twitter.
To be honest mate, that’s how people were were auditioning for for for a part on the Thirst Lounge.
@Plons00
Hello so I was just curious about what the ACR Stormers like becoming one, what the process is like how that really works? Umm I was just curious about that.
@IT5PAYDAY
So I would say that the main thing that I look for somebody was to come to me and asked about joining the Stormers. First of all, I try and ask for at least three months consistency of streaming experience.
Now it sounds like a long time, long period, but it’s not really in the grand scheme of things. It gives me the the overall look at how somebody’s consistency is and that is the main thing with Twitch. Like a lot of people ask, oh how do I make it in streaming, etc. It’s literally like a TV show, you just have to turn up, be consistent and let people know that you’re you’re on at certain times.
Also a big thing that I’m looking at as as we move forward is sort of social media. I’m trying to get people to be way more active on social media, especially within the Stormers. So that is something that I will be almost almost a requirement. I would say when joining the team is is make sure that you’re going to be social media focused as well as as the streams.
@Plons00
OK, so then, is Twitch the only platform that qualifies, or does Kick possibly qualify as well?
@IT5PAYDAY
I’d imagine at this moment in time, Twitch is the only only platform there. There is definitely scope for kick to be definitely used in the future. There’s just a few things from like a back end perspective that makes it difficult for me to track certain things; basically, which would, without getting too deep into it, sort of affect payments etcetera like that. Twitch is the best best way that we can stay focus on that at the moment so that most definitely in the future when certain things get ironed out within the Kick world that that will definitely open up. A couple of stormers are already streaming on on YouTube, so so that is that is an option as well. Although Twitch is kind of #1 preference right now.
All right. So my question is, what’s your favorite part about poker and then your favorite thing about America’s Card Room?
@KevinSnelgrove
When’s your next song coming out?
@IT5PAYDAY
Ah, good question. Um, you know what it is. It’s a tough one. Like I have no plans at the moment. We had, I was in a band like for the past two years and we was getting kind of hit up by Universal a little bit. And we had the Universal following us for six months and then it kind of all fell apart, The band fell apart. Yeah, my focus isn’t is on sort of poker related things at the moment. So maybe, I don’t know man maybe within a month I guess, but I’m writing all the time. I’m actually like writing stuff like all the time every week.
@Frosty_Nug_Farm
Just curious. You hear all sorts of these stories in poker. People have a big win or whatever. What’s your story? How did you get to the position that you ought to, you know and everything? I was just curious about that.
@IT5PAYDAY
Um honestly, mate. Like a lot of just hard work and determination and just never really giving up. One of the main things like it’s my poker career results wise. Like it;s not like insane. Like it’s very very much like normal.
But I feel like I’ve put myself out there like I would advice wise for people is beyond just playing poker. The poker world and industry is is a real big one.
Just talk hard work, dedication, belief, and just surrounding yourself with like really positive people. Like the the elite players that this world and like the very good rigs in this world. It’s very rare that you’re going to find like a bad player within that circle of people or like a very negative person within that circle of people.
So yeah, I would heavily say that a lot of my success over the years has been a lot of things that other people and I’ve just been very lucky.
@PatrickWhatUp_
Adam, when are you? I know this is out there, but I can’t remember when are you announcing the winners to the ACR? Extreme Big Challenge, How many winners are there? And then the second question is when you send ACR Pros or Stormers to Triton, what percent of a cash do they do they get to keep?
@IT5PAYDAY
OK, so regarding the Stream Big which ends on the 14th. We’re going to be announcing the winners, two winners this Friday [September 15] on the ACR show. It’s going to be really cool. We’re going to get the final five that we’ve worked it down to and then we’re going to kind of do a big reveal. The three winners that don’t don’t win a place will get a pretty cool ACR bundle of swag type stuff
Second question regarding the High Stakes Adventure. If a pro or stormer wants to take the whole lot then they can just go and they they can just have 100% of themselves. Otherwise they can sell up to 50% to Phil.
@PatrickWhatUp_
Right. Because if you go out there and don’t cash, you get nothing then. So might as well take some money off the table there probably for most of us. OK. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate it.
@acesup2323
Yeah, I just wanted to ask, what are you looking for when you’re picking the next Stormer?
@IT5PAYDAY
A lot of it is just really like, I just want people to be themselves, entertainers. Obviously a perk, consistency, like I said previously is a massive thing that that I was looking at and just somebody that I feel has the potential to like really, really grow with the network of stormers that we have. We’re in a blessed position to be able to help very unknown streamers. So yeah, I must admit when starting the challenge I wasn’t really looking for anybody that had a huge following already or anything like that, like I can sort that out other times, etcetera. This challenge was really for for the kind of small fish and people that hadn’t really had a shot at building a community. So yeah, just being yourself, being consistent and obviously if if entertainment was there, then that’s super cool.
@oktboy
How’s it going guys? I just wanted to say I love you guys platform. Our poker community has started to slowly start playing on ACR, but I’m hearing all this stuff about Stormers. Can you just give me a brief overview of what it is? Because I see some of my local community guys in here and we kind of want to know what that is because we like to play poker and we like to discuss a lot of like poker stuff that’s going on and we’re mostly a NFT Project poker community, but if you can just go over that a little bit, that’ll be great.
@IT5PAYDAY
Yeah, 100% mate. So, so the Stormers are are a streaming community that represents ACR, not only online but also live. We’ve had Stormers represent us at live events even in Vegas this year.
And what it is, is the Stormers get paid basically off of the hours that they stream on Twitch. So they stream, stream ACR, showcasing what we can offer as as a poker room.
A strong community we we have a very, very good Discord between just the Stormers where everything. It’s like a hub for for myself to be able to communicate with the Stormers. Then also we have a a community Discord for for Stormers as well which we’re kind of building up at the moment. I think we’re just under 1000 people on there at the moment. But yeah I think Stormers has been running for well over 10 years I think. So it’s it’s been going a long time.
We have currently 60 Stormers gonna be taken up to 62 this Friday after the challenge. And yeah, we’re just a team representing a a card room and and showcasing what what this card room offers on on Twitch mate.
And just and just also like for for people out there because this may be a question at some point regarding money and stuff that stormers get. The max payment that Stormers can get is $3000 a month and you know, streaming poker and getting $3000 a month is a is a pretty cool little gig.
@sebig1407
Yes, I’m here. Hello dress. Um, I would have a question regarding studying. How many hours of studying would you recommend to a young poker player a week?
@IT5PAYDAY
Good question mate. I would I would say it really depends on on your personal situation. If you’re somebody who is you have other commitments like school or college etc. I would say to be focusing.
Many, many hours on that rather than poker. But um, it’s very hard if if you have aspirations of of sort of being the best.
Then I am one of those people that I believe that you should kind of make certain sacrifices to make that, so, I wouldn’t be able to give you an exact number. It would be it would be pretty wrong for me to do that. But I would say that if you like when if you’re an upcoming player that wants to go far in poker and and really wants to do the best, then you know, put the effort in and if you’re not sure what you from poker then just kind of take it easy.
Tools out there nowadays that people can just pick up and not really have to try too hard about studying? Like I’m one of these people that gets very bored studying. I do study but I don’t find it interesting.
So yeah, there are very easy tools out there to to watch and even Ywitch, like the Twitches are learning tool within itself. So yeah, I won’t be able to give you a number mate, but if you want to be the best and and be the best that you can, I would say put in some some solid, some solid hours.
@BennyBuckets23
All right. I I just want to ask what’s like your highest cash live and then your highest cash online ever?
@IT5PAYDAY
highest my highest cash live in highest cash online is actually exactly the same maybe about two or three K out so I35K online and then i think it was like €38,000 live i just can’t i’ve had numerous like 25 K scores and and and 30 K scores i just can’t seem to break that that flip in 35 K mark for some reason. I don’t know why but it’s pretty, yeah, pretty frustrating, but yeah.
@ArmoredBlitzKrg
Hi, thanks for taking my question. If you if your game is slowly improving, would you recommend somebody stay away from peak KO’s and concentrate on more traditional MTT’s? Do you have an opinion on that?
@IT5PAYDAY
Like how how can I say this? The most, uh, mistakes are being made in the in the PKO’s, so naturally I would presume players get drawn towards those PKO’s because so many people are making mistakes. However, I’ve taken a lot of PKO’s out of my schedule these days, just because variance is lower in other games and I kind of want to go that lower variance route.
Like, I wouldn’t completely remove PKO’s because PKO is fun and there’s still a lot of money to be made in in them, obviously, and there’s so many mistakes being made. But I’m one of these people that do like do like the other variants and have taken PKO’s out my schedule.
@ACR_POKER
Awesome. Thank you. Alright, so I think that’s pretty much it for questions. Before we go, I do want to know, um.
Your plans moving forward with the Stormers, so anything you haven’t mentioned already?
@IT5PAYDAY
Umm, just a lot of growth like there’s no ceiling on on on where we’re at like we have. We’re very fortunate that ACR are a big, big advocate of what the Stormers are doing. I feel like we’re on a very, very good path. We’re offering them incredible opportunities.
We’ve slimmed the team down. I think when I first joined we had 83 Stormers and we’re at 60 now. We’re at a really, really solid team. I’m super proud of everybody that we have at the moment. I wouldn’t be investing as much time and belief into these amazing streamers if I didn’t actually believe that they could go on and achieve amazing things. So yeah, just really, really strong things coming from the Stormers and just literally zero ceiling. Like, I just want to be flying.
@ACR_POKER
Awesome. That sounds super great. Anything else you wanna finish off with? Parting words? Where to find you? Anything like that?
@IT5PAYDAY
Um, think Yeah, if you wanna hit me up on on on Instagram, it’s IT5PAYDAY.
And yeah, if anybody ever wants to reach out about literally anything ACR related or Stormer related, streamer related, music related, whatever you want, just hit me up. I’m pretty pretty easy to find.
@ACR_POKER
Great. Well, thank you so much for taking the time out. And we really appreciate you coming on talking about the Stormers and everything else. And we’ll probably have you on again sometime soon, I’m sure.
@IT5PAYDAY
All good, bro. I appreciate you having me on. Thanks very much, everybody. Take care.
