Interview with Alex "awesemo" Baker
If you’ve played DFS at all in 2017, you’ve probably encountered the name awesemo at the top of your GPP contests. The tournament maestro has been holding the top spot in the RotoGrinders Tournament Player of the Year standings for most of the year. He is currently the #1 ranked player in MLB after finishing the year #3 in NBA, #9 in NHL, and #14 in NFL (he’s also top 20 in PGA). In addition, he’s a multiple time qualifier for live finals.
In real life, awesemo goes by the name Alex Baker, and like many top DFS professionals comes from the world of poker where he was a poker professional, SuperNova Elite, and CardRunners instructor. Baker graduated high school in 2004, and then went to college at Washington University in St. Louis before turning his attention to poker and eventually DFS.
The often whimsical Baker took time out of his busy schedule dominating DFS contests to answer a few questions for RotoGrinders.
RotoGrinders: Tell us a little bit about you… your name, where you’re from, your basic background.
awesemo: I have the perfect amount of experience filling out dating profiles to answer this question. My name is Alex Baker. I’m a simple guy who works hard and plays hard. I’m down to earth. Sorry, I’m new at this.
RotoGrinders: How long have you been playing DFS? What was your introduction to DFS?
awesemo: Officially, I started playing DFS in 2011. I had heard of DraftDay because I had done videos for CardRunners and the same guys that owned that site were the ones who started it. One day I was playing Pick-ems and Condia owned me because I had Rajon Rondo and I didn’t realize he didn’t play on the back half of back-to-backs. I concluded at that point that I had a lot to learn! I got back into it in 2015 after hearing it was the next big thing after poker.
RotoGrinders: Tell us about your first experiences playing DFS. Did you start out right away high-stakes or work your way up?
awesemo: I had a decent bankroll to start with when I picked DFS back up in 2015. At the time I was playing online poker full time, grinding Supernova Elite on PokerStars. I slowly worked my way up, only playing in higher stakes games once I had started maxing out on the lower stakes ones.
RotoGrinders: What is your favorite sport to play DFS in and why?
awesemo: I think the most fun sport to play right now is fantasy golf. I like the fact that you get more bang for your buck and get to play for four days instead of one, and how the highest scoring players finish last, giving it suspense until the very end.
RotoGrinders: Which sport are you most profitable in? Why do you think this is the case?
awesemo: My favorite sport to watch has always been NBA, and I have been fortunate that it’s both popular in DFS and predictable. Having the knowledge from being a fan helped me get ahead in that sport more than others.
RotoGrinders: Which sport do you struggle with the most? Why?
awesemo: Golf. I have never played it and I don’t know much about the athletes, but it’s a lot of fun!
RotoGrinders: How did you come up with the name awesemo?
awesemo: In high school, I thought it would be a great idea to start an emo band to pick up chicks. I was reading a review on Amazon and they described the new Dashboard Confessional album as “awesemo” and I thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately, our band Friends4Ever broke up before we got famous.
In 12 major league starts, Robert Gsellman has pitched 66.6666 innings. I would avoid him tonight, that’s pretty spooky!
— Alex Baker (@AwesemoDFS) May 6, 2017
RotoGrinders: Your Twitter account is quite funny – filled with one liners and quips and seldom talking much about DFS (i.e. no screenshots of your big wins). Would you say this is a reflection of your true personality?
awesemo: I’m not really into social media a lot because it seems like most posts are flat out bragging about how great the person’s life is. This especially applies to screenshots of winning days. It’s like someone wins every day, why is it impressive that one day it’s you? That’s why I only post dumb things trying to get a laugh. I’m lucky because I’ve been on a hot streak recently.
RotoGrinders: Tell us about the first time you hit a major score in DFS. What was the feeling like and what did you do afterwards?
awesemo: My first score was on Yahoo when they were first getting going. They had a $5k first place and the contest was nowhere close to full. I had stacked the Yankees and they had a ton of runs that day, but what put me over the top was a home run from John Ryan Murphy, who was about 1% owned. It felt great and after drinking a 40 ounce of King Cobra to celebrate, it felt even better!
RotoGrinders: In terms of your research process, what resources do you utilize? Do you utilize any other analysis or solely rely on your own?
awesemo: I try to keep up with everything that is going on in the industry so I not only have a good idea of who the best picks are but also who everyone else is likely to be on. One of my favorite resources is the Last Call on RotoGrinders with Chris Culosi, Kevin Roth, and Devin. You never have a great idea of what the weather situation is before lock, so having a detailed analysis at that point is crucial!
RotoGrinders: How long do you foresee yourself playing DFS? If you have other endeavors in mind down the road, what are they?
awesemo: The current trend seems to be that guys make it to the top and then fade off into the sunset. Right now I’m working my way up there, and I’m going to try to stay there as long as I can! It’s hard to imagine having an easy time getting into a different field with a background of poker and fantasy. I’m hoping to win one of those live finals so I can take the next step and start my own DFS site!
RotoGrinders: You are a mass multi-entry specialist. There’s a certain “art” form to doing this successfully. Are you the typical MME player that identifies a narrow core and builds from that base?
awesemo: The key to mass entry beyond having a good idea who will perform on a given night is having software that you can use to build lineups according to your strategy. I like to mix up my lineups a lot so a key feature for me is a way to limit exposure and add randomness. Fortunately, there are a lot of options out there for players now.
RotoGrinders: Do you use your own models or rely on others? Do you use DFS tools from other sites of build your own? If you do your own, tell us a little bit about what goes into that.
awesemo: The way I got started was using the projections on RotoGrinders. I entered the optimal lineup and won the Daily Dollar on DraftKings and thought there was really something to this. I still use the projections of RG and other sites as a starting point when I don’t know a lot about a sport.
RotoGrinders: Are you solely a GPP player or do you play cash games as well? If you play both, what would you say your typical breakdown is on a given night?
awesemo: You can’t become #1 on the RG leaderboard by playing cash. That’s my goal right now, so I’ve been focusing more on GPPs. For smaller slates though there’s not a lot of action in GPPs, so I play more cash then.
RotoGrinders: If you do play cash games, do you play the lower stakes buy-ins ($5 and under)? Many in the industry think it’s not good for the high-stakes pros to play games at those levels. What are your thoughts about that?
awesemo: I don’t play cash games below $10. I think it’s important for everyone to work together to build a healthy ecosystem for DFS. Part of that is having contests where players can learn and play casually with a great chance of success. I always win my cash games so I wouldn’t want another person to be discouraged.
RotoGrinders: What would you say is the biggest mistake the average DFS player makes?
awesemo: It’s definitely picking players based on recent success. Especially when they jack up the prices on those players, they can be big losing plays.
RotoGrinders: If you were going to teach a new person to DFS one thing – what would it be and why?
awesemo: The most important thing is that you’re playing against people you can beat. The amount of competition varies wildly based on site and contest type. Contests that have a ton of people or sites that don’t have as much traffic are a good starting point.
RotoGrinders: You mention being the top ranked TPOY player as being something you are shooting for. When did you make that a goal? Why?
awesemo: I was inspired by SaahilSud’s dominance of the leaderboards in 2016, and I realized when he scaled back his play in 2017, I had a shot at it. Being able to compete at the highest levels in a lot of different sports shows a lot of dedication and skill.