Interview: RG's Latest Millionaire, Josh Veurink
RotoGrinders’ own Dan Back found himself sweating the DraftKings Millionaire Maker on Sunday, and after the afternoon games ended he was sitting in a respectable 10th place.
One spot above him, in ninth place with 60 PMR (player minutes remaining), was a user sporting a RotoGrinders avatar going by the name of jrveurink. He had $3,000 in salary left, meaning he likely had Green Bay’s #3 WR, Geronimo Allison, as his lone remaining player. Sitting in first was DFS legend rayofhope, and jrveurink would need a 15+ fantasy point outing from Allison to take over the top spot. Not all that probable for someone who had a total of 25 fantasy points in six games (although he did snag 10 the game heading into this one with Randall Cobb out, and Cobb was out again).
Josh would move into fourth place after Allison caught a couple passes late in the first half, and he would take the lead when Aaron Rodgers would extend a play for nearly ten seconds and find Allison in the back of the end zone. Geronimo made a great catch and now Josh merely had to fade those players who were creeping up the leaderboard, as the Packers-Lions game turned into a late shootout. When Micah Hyde intercepted a Matthew Stafford pass in the end zone, it sealed the win for Josh and he celebrated with his friends at a local bar.
data-lang=“en”>This is me after the
micah_hyde</a> pick. Was sweating with <a href="https://twitter.com/d_dejong">d_dejong andreggiekuipers</a>. Great bros that we bounce DFS ideas off! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/besties?src=hash">#besties</a> <a href="https://t.co/rudTLPQLwm">pic.twitter.com/rudTLPQLwm</a></p>— Josh Veurink (JV2929) January 2, 2017
We reached out to Josh to talk to him about his big win…
RotoGrinders: First off congrats on the huge win. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Who you are, where you’re from, what you do?
Josh: I’m originally from Platte, South Dakota and now live in Sioux Falls, SD. I’ve always loved sports and played football, baseball, basketball, and track while in high school. After high school, I played college football at the University of Sioux Falls where we won the 2006 NAIA National Championship. I graduated with a degree in Mathematics and Education. After USF, I decided to pursue a Pharmacy degree at South Dakota State University (alma mater of Zach Zenner) and have been working as a pharmacist for about 3.5 years. My wife, Jennifer, and I have been married since 2011 and we have a dog named Murphy.
RotoGrinders: How long have you been playing DFS? What got you into it?
Josh: I have been playing DFS for a couple of years now, but have played season long fantasy football for probably 10+ years with a group of friends. I got into it because I love sports and statistics. I saw all the commercials promoting DraftKings, so I signed up and was instantly hooked.
RotoGrinders: How has DFS been for you up until your big win today?
Josh: Since I started, I have always enjoyed playing DFS. I think part of that is because of my math background. However, it hasn’t been profitable until last night. I play all tournaments as I have always chased the one big hit. I mostly play football, but also play some golf and baseball. With my job, it’s tough to play the sports that change day to day such as basketball and baseball because I can’t put enough time into the research. With football, I can spend my weeknights and weekends doing research, listening to podcasts, and reading articles. My biggest win prior to last night was $500 this year in a Yahoo contest.
RotoGrinders: You’re a RotoGrinders member – can you tell us how you use RG to help you with DFS?
Josh: My first read every week is JMToWin’s NFL Edge. I also like to look at Chris Gimino’s ownership analysis. Last, I listen to quite a few podcasts on RG throughout the week. I usually listen to the Absolutely Epic Early Week Podcast, the Expert Roundtable, and then the two Sunday morning shows before lock. I also purchased the RotoAcademy course How to Construct Winning Daily Fantasy Football Rosters by JMToWin and read that in November.
RotoGrinders: What does your typical DFS weekend look like (i.e. what contests do you play, how much volume do you play, what your process is)?
Josh: My process is to draft a team on Sunday night after SNF when the games are fresh in my mind. This gives me a good feel for guys that are underpriced and guys that I like to start the week. I read JMToWin’s NFL Edge article and really trust his advice as I think he has sharp plays and ideas. I then usually listen to a podcast per night on Wednesday to Friday, but try to listen to the same podcasts each week. I try to meet up with a couple friends, Dan DeJong and Reggie Kuipers, that also enjoy DFS and we bounce ideas off each other. I set my lineups on Saturdays and make adjustments on Sunday morning after listening to the two morning shows.
As I said earlier, I’m a tourney-only player which I understand is not usually profitable, and wasn’t for me until last night. I always say, “All’s it takes is one,” which is truly the case in GPPs to turn your season around. I really am just a casual player that enjoys the process and the grind, and I think of DFS as a hobby. Most weekends, I spend anywhere from $50 to $150 total on multiple sites. I usually enter one or two Millionaire Maker lineups and five to 10 $3 play-action contests on DK. This week, I went to Dan’s house on Wednesday night and had a couple beers while talking over plays. To end the night, he loved Burkhead and I loved Ertz. I couldn’t get behind Burkhead as I hated the matchup, but to Dan’s credit, he hits on his value plays quite often. I had my family Christmas back home in Platte and was staying at my parents’ house for the weekend, so I didn’t get my rosters built Saturday. I woke up on Sunday morning and looked at the actives and inactives. I was surprised to see Ware was a true game decision in a must win game so kept that mental note in my head. I listened to the “Opening Drive” aka “Morning Wood” podcast and really wanted to game stack the ATL/NO game after listening, thanks to BigT, Crain, and Hoop. I also saw a tweet from Adam Levitan about Cobb being inactive, so I liked Geronimo Allison as a GPP play. I had $12 and some change in my DK account. I had built five teams that I liked, so I deposited $91 so I could play five Milly Makers and one $3 tourney.
I was surprised to see Ertz at only 10% ownership. I left Platte at 2:45 PM. I pulled over about five miles out of town and had my wife drive so that I could look at my options. I had Ertz in three of my five lineups. My other Ertz lineups had other guys from the early games that didn’t give me a chance to win, so I left two of three intact. The third lineup was really intriguing, as Ertz was the only guy going in the early slate. I’m 95% sure it was originally Ryan, Freeman, Ingram, Geronimo, Julio, Michael Thomas, Ertz, Boldin, and Chiefs D. I really liked Boldin to get exposure to DET/GB with him and Geronimo. I had a good feeling about ATL/NO shooting out and I remembered Kelce was going to be super chalky, which made me like West even more because if he took away TDs from Kelce, it would put me in an even better position. And that’s exactly what happened. Kelce tanked at about 34% ownership and West went off at 2.1%. I also had to change my defense to fit in West, so I pivoted off Chiefs to Cardinals. After the 3:25 PM games started, I drove the rest of the way home and listened to the games on the radio. When I got home, I was around 60th place, but propelled up to ninth going into SNF. I texted Dan and Reggie and made some plans for the evening to watch it together. I did look at my lineup for potential swaps, but my flex was already done, so I had $3,000 for a WR position. The only play was my original pick, Geronimo.
RotoGrinders: Geronimo! How did you get on him? What were you thinking when he caught that TD to put you into the lead?
Josh: I looked at Levitan’s twitter feed on Sunday AM and saw his tweet from Ian Rapoport that Cobb was doubtful to play, and Allison had filled in nicely the previous week. I googled him and saw he was 6’3”, so immediately liked his red zone potential. I wanted exposure to the second highest total game of the week. Dan, Reggie, and I were at a local bar watching the game and things were not looking good the first 28 minutes of the game, as I don’t think he was targeted once. The drive before halftime, he caught a ball or two, which moved me into fourth and gave me some hope that he was getting targets. I kept saying, “He has to get in the box.” Every play, we were focused only on where Geronimo was lined up. On the TD play, when Rodgers extended the play and rolled to his left, we all were going crazy because we knew he was on that side of the field. When we saw that it was actually him that made the catch, we went nuts.
RotoGrinders: When Hyde sealed the win for you, you went nuts with your friends (as seen in a video on your twitter feed). What were you thinking? Share that moment with us.
Josh: I actually thought I had it wrapped up when the Packers had the ball with about three minutes left. I thought they were just going to melt the clock and kick the FG to go up by nine. But that didn’t happen! The Hyde pick was crazy because we are all Iowa Hawkeyes fans as well. I thought that for sure sealed it, but I was wrong again. My original pick, Anquan, caught the final TD behind Tate. Once the Packers recovered the onside kick, I finally felt relief. It truly was a sweat, especially the last three minutes of the game! After the win, I was kind of in shock. I made some phone calls to my family and friends and had a fun night after the win.
RotoGrinders: So you’re a millionaire now. Any extravagant purchases in the near future? Any plans?
Josh: It truly hasn’t really sunk in yet, so as of now we don’t have any plans!
RotoGrinders: What does your wife, Jennifer, think about DFS?
Josh: She is actually very supportive of DFS and always has been. I tell her every Sunday at kickoff that I’m going to win “all the dollars.” This past Sunday morning at my family Christmas, everyone was looking for me and I felt guilty as could be. But I heard her say, “He’s building lineups. He will be out at noon.” I truly think she had more faith in me actually winning a GPP than I did.
RotoGrinders: Congrats on the huge win Josh and thanks for taking time for us in what must have certainly been a crazy day!
