Introductory Post and AMA (Ask Me Anything) about being a Professional Poker and Daily Fantasy Sports Player
Apparently I am bad at tagging posts
So I cross posted this over to introduceyourself and steemit: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@daut44/introduction-and-ama-ask-me-anything-about-being-a-professional-poker-and-daily-fantasy-sports-player-cross-post-from-poker
Am going to be on the road the next few days but will try to keep up with everything and answer as many questions as I can in both places :)
Hi!
My name is Ryan Daut, I'm 32 years old, and I'm a professional poker and daily fantasy sports player living in California. I grew up in NJ, went to college at the University of Richmond on a full mathematics scholarship, double majored in Math and Computer Science, did a short stint of a math PhD program at Penn State University before dropping out full time to play poker in 2007 and have been a professional gambler ever since.
More of a bullet point timeline of my adult gaming/gambling life:
-was a semi-competitive Starcraft: Brood Wars player in high school. At my peak was maybe the 10th best player in the USA, was captain of Team USA for a year before being unceremoniously impeached due to me being awful at being captain of Team USA. I am not a good leader.
-a friend of mine was the best player in the USA, moved to Korea to play professionally, but unfortunately for him and everyone else outside of Korea, the Koreans were much better, so he took up poker, started making lots of money, and convinced other Starcraft players to start playing.
-I deposited $45 online during my Junior year of college (2005). After 6 months I had turned it into $500. 6 months later, as I was graduating from Undergrad, my bankroll was up to $10,000, so I decided to play poker all summer instead of getting a job and then continue on with my PhD program
-Over that summer I made another $50,000 playing poker, but decided to continue with my schooling because I was paid to go to Penn State since I would be teaching undergraduate math classes alongside my own studies.
-Made another $50,000 that first semester and did poorly in my own classes (nobody told me Cs were a failing grade in grad school), but decided to finish out the school year before making decisions about the future.
-Over winter break, I traveled to the Bahamas to play in a World Poker Tour (WPT) event. It drew 937 players and I won it for just over $1.5 million. Despite winning the tournament, I managed to be on the losing end of one of the most famous hands in live poker history
-I immediately quit teaching classes, gradually stopped going to my own classes, eventually dropped out later that semester, and began playing poker full time without any other commitments.
-I started a poker backing business with Victor Goossens (owner of TeamLiquid.net, a successful Starcraft fan site and gaming team), where we stake players for live and online tournaments and receive a % of their winnings. We backed 2 WSOP (world series of poker) bracelet winners, a WPT winner, an EPT (european poker tour) winner, numerous other big live and online scores, and also some players that also us a bunch of money, and some others who scammed or stole from us. Once again, I am not a good leader
-On April 15, 2011 (called black friday), the US department of justice indicted the major poker sites operating in the US, so in August of that year I rented an apartment in Vancouver, Canada to continue playing poker.
-After black friday, the difficulty of winning at poker increased at a much more rapid rate. By the end of 2013 I was making a fraction of what I had in previous years, and by the end of 2014 I was transitioning over to Daily Fantasy Sports because that became more profitable for me than poker.
-I now play DFS full time, concentrating in NBA (pro basketball), NFL (pro football), PGA (pro golf), and MLB (baseball), and with the exception of my big WPT win in poker, am making more money in DFS than I ever did in poker.
Nowadays
my hobbies include having my life run by an 8 pound toy yorkie named Boo, falling off of climbing/bouldering walls, taking astrophysics classes, learning everything I can about cryptocurrency (including unsuccessfully day trading Ethereum and Ethereum Classic), losing money in daily fantasy baseball because it's the worst, watching sports such as MMA/tennis/golf/basketball/football/boxing, and seeing how many episodes of Archer my girlfriend and I can stay awake for after consuming edibles.
Ask me anything about playing poker professionally, the poker staking industry, poker in general, daily fantasy sports, season long fantasy sports, sports in general, or anything else you think I would be qualified or unqualified to answer.
Jesus mate, this is legendary. I can't believe you posted, that is one of my most favourite hands ever. Can't really tell how his bluff or how he gets there fits into a gto strategy? but man he did it with style. Condolences to you for going through such a soul crushing moment.
As for the GTO aspect of his play....it's hard for me to answer completely accurately because I don't have that much experience playing 40-50bb ante HUNL, it's a rare game and is basically only played when you get HU in a tournament. Additionally, the game is played very differently in 2016 than it was in 2007. But I would imagine I have some sort of limping range and a wide value raising range (most of my Ax but I do limp some of them) and am folding <5% of hands due to the ante. After I limp I think Ike raises most of his Ax and all of his broadway hands. This is important, because that means his only gutshots are 23 25 35 (KJ JT KT all raise), and his only other "air" c/c hands are hearts that decided not to c/r, and I think he c/c Qx 4x and his king highs as well.
In 2007 I would likely be cbetting this flop with my entire range after he checks back pre. In 2016, I would likely check some Qx and some 4x back on the flop, reason to bet some Qx on the turn is that since he likely raises most or all of his Ax now my Qx is ahead of almost his entire range so I can bet it freely.
The turn K pairs some of his c/c range and when it goes c/c that eliminates 2 pair from my range.
On the river Q, he needs to bet since he has the nut low, he bets all of his 23 35 25, bets quite a few hearts (likely checks the Jx Tx hearts since they have showdown value), bets his Qx, whatever Ax he has, and probably checks his Kx. after I raise he knows I have no boats but he can have Q4, but from a GTO perspective, since my range is {Qx,bluff}, I pretty much have to commit to calling off Qx otherwise I am folding range.
So I think the deciding factor here should be blockers: he should 3bet hands that don't block my likely Qx hands. I'm probably raising most of my good Qx preflop, and probably limping the Q2-Q6o range. He shoves 6 combos of Q4, and can probably shove a few extra combos of hands like Q9/Q8 that he limped back (let's say he can shove 25 total combos) but knows are ahead of my Qx so he can shove probably about 8-10 bluffs, and I would probably do that with the hands that only have one 2-6 in them (he probably raises 78hh 79hh 89hh and checks river with Tx Jxhh), like 92hh 93hh 95hh 82hh 83hh 85hh 72hh 73hh 75hh. Probably not GTO 3b shove, but very likely that my raising range is weighted too heavily towards bluffs and his rebluff is still +EV.
Appreciate that. Will split up my reply into two posts, one to describe my feelings and one to talk about the strategy aspect.
At the time I wasn't much of a tournament player, I grinded up my roll playing cash games without any tournament success online or live. I remember being extremely nervous and on edge from 27 players down to 6, although it seemed to play out relatively quick from 27 to 10. From 10 to 6 I remember playing really nitty and being scared of busting. One hand in particular with 8 or 9 left where I raised AK, was called by one of the few non pros at the table, he raised me in position on a K high flop, bet again on a K turn, and the river went check check but I was legitimately scared to face a large river bet despite having AK on a KKxxx board with no flushes or likely straights. But once we were down to 6, I was guaranteed over 200k which was twice as much as I had made playing up to that point so I was no longer nervous and just played my best all final table.
When we reached HU, we normally would have chopped instead of playing for 700k when neither of us had nearly that much money at the time, but the WPT didn't allow us to chop or even discuss it. But as stated I was no longer nervous and think Ike was a little rattled at the time. I don't consider myself prescient by any means, am generally bad at predicting the future, but right after the hand I knew he made a great play and knew it would be a big hit on tv and wasn't really soul crushed at all given I had nothing too
I'm a poker player as well, what kind of money is there in DFS? Have played season long fantasy for years, but never made the switch.
It's huge. I've made roughly 900k from DFS the past 18 months with no large tournament scores. I truly believe I've run below expectation, losing on many of my bigger days/weeks and lacking major tournament wins. High stakes players can easily make into the 7 figures a year, crazy industry. Compare that with poker, I had a great 2011, made maybe 450k that year, a decent 2012 (maybe 100k), and roughly 40k in 2013 and another 40k in 2014 playing poker before switching over to DFS, it's a hard industry to make big money nowadays, that is unless you are getting in juicy private live games.
I was a winning season long player too before DFS. The transition took a few months, but there's no money in season long, and big money leagues are annoying to have that much locked up for a season at such higher variance. I'll just say that you won't be a big winner overnight and it will take a lot of work, but you should pursue it.
@daut44. Welcome brotha. Glad I spoke to you earlier otherwise I probably would of missed this cool intro. I most definitely followed you and I will be bugging you about my Lakers later this season. I dig basketball and I am going to place a long term, high risk bet for the Cavs to win it all like I did this year (man was I sweating when they were down 1-3). Anyways congrats on your post and I look forward to your future blogs. Take it easy man. Oh yea, I am a huge fan of live resin especially moxie710. https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/moxie710/
I like the concept of the Cavs bet: the East is a joke, they are ~80%+ to make the finals, and are not drawing dead in the finals just based on tougher road in the West for the Warriors (and also injuries), but I do think a healthy Cavs team vs a healthy Warriors team in the finals next year results in a Warriors win >70%. So if you can get better than +300 I like it, worse I don't.
I'll edit my response slightly. I think the cavs are 75% to make the finals when accounting for possible injuries and other teams possibly making acquisitions to increase their chances to make the finals.
I'd guess the Warriors are 80% to make the finals with Duncan retiring and their biggest threat losing its best player directly to them.
I'd guess the Warriors are 75-80% vs the cavs in the finals and any other team is 40% on average vs the Cavs in the finals.
So the cavs % to win is .75(.8.2+.2.6) = .75(.28)=.21 at worst and .75(.8.25+.25*.6)=.24 at best. So I would say +300 or worse is a bad bet, +325 to +375 is iffy and +375 or better is a great bet. What odds did you get on them last year?
Also think Brandon Ingram is a stud. The lakers are just one good big man and a few years of development on their younger players away from being a playoff team again.
Wow this is great analysis. That math and science sure pays off when one puts it to use!! I seriously look forward to your future post and analysis on sports betting. I like Ingram and once he grows into his body I think he will be a beast. I like dlo (AKA "The Snitch") too but I think he needs more speed and lacks some of the athleticism some of the top guards possess in the NBA but he is young and has good court vision and can shoot. I'm excited to see how they play this year. I think ESPN picked them to finish last in the west but I don't think they will. Thanks for the chat.
Alright here's a strategy question for you. What do you think of using a min-bet sizing in range of different heads up spots where you are oop or even ip on the river? My idea is that it should be used to exploit passive players as a first motive but I feel like it gets trickier incorporating it against more aggressive players. I understand the theory behind gto being you should always choose the action with the most ev but I kind of find it hard in practice to calculate the ev of min betting vs other actions.
EDIT: also for context I have read advanced heads up no limit holdem volume 1, understood some of the ideas, got the gist of some of the other complex ones but can't say I really fully understood them.
Not a fan of it on the river. It's difficult to balance multiple betsizes, and having one of those betsizes as minimum on the river is not a great idea. It's a better idea on the turn to occasionally have small bets OOP to "set the price" yourself, rather than c/c a larger bet.
I would concentrate on having the proper ranges in standard betsizes first then start working with having multiple betsizes and trying to balance those ranges. It's usually pretty easy to exploit weak players with different strategies, but I wouldn't incorporate the min river bet. Small river bets are often necessary though, especially in spots where your range is incredibly strong and it's obvious.
Damn I didn't know that was you in that poker tourney. There was no way you could have called that. Poker is more soul crushing than anything. You have some serious skills though man. Need to hear more of your stories, preferably of the winning nature.
Will tell the story of my most soul crushing moment. It's hard to put in perspective, and very hard to relate to, especially given that I cashed for 192k in a tournament in a very good year for me, but it was so soul crushing that I was sick for a week afterwards.
In December of 2007, same year as the PCA, the Bellagio has a tournament series they call the 5 diamond. It's a series of ~15-20 tournaments culminating with a $15k buyin WPT event. I played 6 or 7 events leading up, think I had 1 small cash but nothing else. We started the main with 30k in chips and I ended day 1 with 20k, not good. I had a favorable table draw day 2 and chipped up all day to end with over 100k, survived day 3 and 4, and at the start of day 5 won a huge pot with AA v KK against Daniel Negreanu with ~22 players left. Pretty quickly into day 5 I'm chipleader and most of the other top players get eliminated. I make the final table 10 2nd in chips and am coasting to a FT spot with 40-50bb and a bunch of short stacks present. First I lose JJ to the Ax of Eugene Katchalov (the eventual winner) for about 1/4 my stack. Then I lose AJo vs KK to the late Devilfish (RIP) in a hand I probably made a mistake in. He raised UTG which he had done a few times (but at the same time he had been tight overall) with 12-15bb and I shoved from the BB when I probably should have just peeled and seen a flop. Then I lost 88 vs the AQ of Raymond Davis and all of a sudden I went from 2/7 to 7/7 with 5bb remaining. The payouts were something along the lines of 2.5M, 1.2M, 600k, 400k, 300k, 190k, 170k, and the previous payouts were also rather flat (I don't think there was much of an increase from 12 to 6). I didn't tilt shove in my chips but I was mentally devastated, folded some garbage hands and luckily someone else busted before it reached my big blind so I made the FT 6/6 with 4 big blinds left. First hand of the tv table I lose AJ v 88 to bust and went from likely having about 900k in stack equity to cashing for 192k over the course of 4 hands. No one bad luck hand did me in and I didn't punt off my chips, it was a combination of one iffy play and 3 unlucky losses.
It was the combination of everything that really got to me:
-that I finished exactly 6th, the last spot of the flatter payouts before they really got big. 4th place was over double my payout but 6th place was less than double 15th place
-that i lost a 70/30 with 7 left to the eventual winner
-that the final 9 players were relatively weak compared to the final 26: Vivek Rajkumar, Gus Hansen, Mikael Thuritz (one of the best 8 game players in the world), Huck Seed, Peter Jetten (great NL player), Todd Brunson, Negreanu, John Monnette, Erick Lindgren all bust between 26th and 10th, and at the time I thought I was the best player remaining (Eugene Katchalov is a fantastic player, but I didn't know him at the time)
-that no one big hand did me in, but rather 4 hands all in preflop
I flew home and laid in bed for a week before feeling better. I despise bad beat stories and despise complaining about bad luck in a game of skill, particularly in a year where I won one of the bigger tournaments that ran, but I've never felt so soul crushed by anything. Poker is a tough game to deal with the mental swings, even for those who have been lucky and are doing well.
Please copy and paste this and put this in your blog. I am a huge fan of poker and have spent countless hours watching the majority of the players you mentioned play in numerous tournaments. It is great to hear the thoughts and mind set of a player as accomplished as yourself. I am sure there are a lot of poker players here on steemit who would like to hear your story. What happened to you was brutal and I can only imagine the what if's going through your mind as you laid in bed devastated. I'm glad you came out of it and are succeeding in your endeavours. Take it easy man!
@daut44 I just noticed that you didn't tag your post with introduceyourself or steemit. If you did this post would have so much exposure. I would retag with introduceyourself first and then steemit. This post will explode on steemit if you did!! Retag and I you will see I am right. Also, do it soon because after 12 hours you can't edit your post. I'm curious to see what will happen when you do. Steemit will love you, trust me!! Also, don't use more than 5 tags because people hate on that here for some reason.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@daut44/introduction-and-ama-ask-me-anything-about-being-a-professional-poker-and-daily-fantasy-sports-player-cross-post-from-poker
link to the new thread
Word brotha.
How do the rewards on this site work? Do they continually go up with new posts in a thread? Or do the majority of payouts happen in the first few hours after something was posted? Just wondering if linking the AMA to some poker players and having them register would increase payouts, given that they have seemed to go down over the last 12 hours after going up the first 12.
@daut44 What up brotha? I'm not entirely positive, but I'm pretty sure the dollar value shown in our wallet is based on a 7 day weighted average of the price of steem.
Get those guys on here!! I'm sure there will be a steam poker site eventually. It's only a matter of time.
seems like I can't, keeps tagging poker first no matter what. I'll just repost it in those forums, thanks for the heads up