Interview With DFBC Finalist and Poker Pro Matt 'SamENole' Smith
Matt ‘SamENole’ Smith was a top online poker player, who after online poker’s Black Friday, took his talents to FanDuel. It didn’t take him long to master a new online game, qualifying in Week 6 for the DFBC finals. With over $1,000,000 in online poker winnings to date, he could be adding another $25,000 to his pocket in the DFBC finals. Matt and Cal know each other from the Pocket 5’s days, and shortly after completing a stay in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker, Cal put me in touch with SamENole for this interview. Being a die-hard Florida Gator, I struggled with the ethical dilemma. After much thought, I opted to not let my passion for the Gators stand in the way of interviewing a guy I followed and respected from the earliest days of Online Poker. Here’s what we discussed:
Give us a little background on who Matt Smith is. Where are you from? What’s your favorite sports team? Did you play any sports? Why the name SamENole?
I grew up in Leesburg, FL about 40 miles north of Orlando and currently live in Lithia, FL a suburb of Tampa. As a graduate of Florida State University I’m a diehard Seminole fan in all sports and I’m a fan of all the local pro teams: Rays, Lightning, Bucs, and Magic. I played basically every sport growing up and played both golf and tennis for my high school. The name SamENole was just a play on words from Seminole and my dog named Sam. When I first joined AOL back in 6th grade that was the name I came up with and it stuck with me. I think about half the people I meet in the poker world think my real name is Sam, and some even think my last name is Nole. Neither is the case.
What’s your experience in Fantasy Sports? What’s your best fantasy or betting sport?
I’ve been in some high stakes fantasy leagues amongst poker players (live and online) for the past few years. I’m the guy who bubbles every league every year, no matter what the sport is. If the league pays 2 spots I get 3rd, if it pays 3 I get 4th, etc. As far as betting goes, I personally am a terrible sports-bettor, but I have some friends who do pretty well and occasionally give me some good info on games.
Seeing the name SamENole win money online is nothing new. You have amassed over $1,000,000 in online poker winnings, but now you’re winning seats into the Daily Fantasy Baseball Championship! When did you transition to Daily Fantasy Sports and why?
I actually created my FanDuel account on Black Friday, April 15th. My friend Chris Moore (gcnmoo on FanDuel) told me about the site and I needed a place to get my online gambling fix in. I think I originally deposited $400 and that was gone in just a few days. Since then I’ve been grinding the micro HUs, 5-mans, and “Tournaments” they have on the site. I want to start beating those consistently before I move back up to the $50s, $100s and above. Up to this point I’m not sure I’m good enough to beat the 10% rake.
OK, before we get any further, our readers want to know more about your poker background. I know it’s a lot to answer for one question, but give us a rundown on your experience with both online, and live, poker:
I started playing poker in college, in usually a $20 buyin home game back in 2001. I played almost every day and became obsessed with it. When I wasn’t playing with friends I was playing on Pokerpages’ free site just for fun. Eventually Pokerpages started a real money site called Bugsy Club. When they started up they had a Grand Opening freeroll that I won $50 in. A few months later I had turned that $50 into $5,000, and a few months after that (thanks to Neteller) I was playing all the big MTTs and SNGs on PokerStars, PartyPoker, UB, and eventually Full Tilt Poker.
In 2005, right before I graduated from FSU I won my seat to the WSOP Main Event on PokerStars. At the time I was still planning on getting a job of some sort or going to law school, but since I had won my seat to the Main Event those plans were put on hold. I flew out to Vegas that summer and busted from the Main Event late on day 1. All was not lost though, while I was out there though I heard that they were running $1,000 buy-in bracelet events while the Main Event was going on. In the very last tournament of the summer I managed to get heads up for a bracelet but eventually got 2nd place for $98,000 or so. That put the job search on hold.
Since then I’ve had plenty of ups and downs in poker, but I’d say my greatest accomplishment was achieving Supernova Elite on PokerStars last year. It was a huge grind but well worth it in the end.
Which strategies and theories that you used in poker, have you found to also be applicable and beneficial to Daily Fantasy Sports?
Mainly just game selection. There are tons of regulars on Fanduel just like on Pokerstars and other online sites. I try not to join the regulars that routinely have good lineups and find the people who are new to the site or people that have had questionable lineups against me in the past.
You won the DFBC Satellite…congrats! Tell us about your strategy approaching that event, and what the keys to your lineup were.
In the first few weeks of the contest I think I had 2-3 entries every week, but the week I finally won I only fired one single bullet in the contest. I think my account was down to $30 or so and I didn’t want to have to reload again. I can’t say I was determined to make the final or I would’ve put a lot more money into it. I just hoped to get lucky and that’s exactly what happened.
If you win the DFBC, how do you think it will compare to your largest online poker cash: Largest Cash: $ 27,071.64 on PokerStars for winning the Nightly Hundred Grand [$162 NLHE] on May 18th, 2007 ?
I’d say it would be pretty similar. $25k is $25k no matter where it comes from. That will definitely be an exciting day.
Do you focus on just the big FanDuel events, or do you grind Daily Fantasy on a regular basis?
I’ve definitely been grinding on a regular basis. I figured that the Ironman Freeroll would be one of the best ways to get into the Final before I won my seat. I was thinking there would be maybe 50-100 people that qualify for it but last I heard there were like 176 people still eligible. I thought about abandoning it when I won my seat but kept at it and can’t quit now.
What is the #1 tip you would give to those new to Daily Fantasy sports?
My main tips would be to game select, and obviously make sure to check all the lineups for MLB. You’re at a huge disadvantage if you’re playing 7 on 9 or even 8 on 9.
Daily Fantasy Sports is still a new industry. So far, what are your favorite aspects of Daily Fantasy? What do you think most needs to be improved upon?
I just like being able to make baseball games fun to watch and being able to gamble legally on the internet. As far as improvements, first and foremost would be the rake. 10% is tough to beat for even the best players. The online poker sites had some things with similar rake specifically MTTs and non-turbo SNGs, but they also had rakeback of some sort and rewards programs. I think Fanduel and other Daily Fantasy sites need to either reduce the rake greatly, come up with an amazing rewards program, or preferably both of those things. I just can’t imagine there are more than a handful of people consistently beating that rake outside of getting lucky in a big “tournament”.
Do you think that comparing Online Poker to Daily Fantasy Sports is fair? If so, what is the Cash-Game, Sit-And-Go and Multi-Table for Daily Fantasy?
I haven’t really seen anything that compares to a cash game on fanduel but the HU’s, 5 and 10-man tournaments (SNGs), and Tournaments (MTTs) are all very similar. The only major difference is you can usually have more than 1 entry in their tournaments unlike most online poker tournaments.
With poker out of the picture, what are your plans moving forward with Daily Fantasy? With players like HixvilleHunk having $20,000 profit in right around 2 months, do you think it is, or ever will be, possible to make a living grinding Daily Fantasy Sports?
Wow, what Hix did is impressive. The only way I can see someone making a living grinding Daily Fantasy Sports is if the rake goes down. Maybe I’m just a huge DFS fish that just got lucky in a big tournament, but the rake seems awfully difficult to beat. Even in the $5 HUs the large majority of people seem to have a good grasp on who to select.
All right, game time: The DFBC is coming up! What are your plans for the finale? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve? How do you plan to prepare?
Well, I will definitely be home on the couch watching every single game on DirecTV. I plan to prepare just by consulting with my fellow fantasy sports friends about my selections. I can’t say I have any tricks up my sleeve but we’ll see when the time comes.
Most cliché’ question of all-time, time: What will you do with the $25,000 if you win?
Well, I’m considering moving out of the country to play online poker somewhere and that would definitely make the move a lot easier. Outside of that, my wife and I would like to start a family in the near future so that would make that a lot easier as well.
Lastly, I like to end our interviews with a fun question. So, since most readers on our site know I’m a pretty die-hard Florida Gator and you’re clearly an FSU ‘Samenole’, in the spirit of fantasy sports, how about this for a futures question:
Who will have more TOTAL Fantasy Points in the 2011 NFL Season (FD Scoring)?
A) Christian Ponder
B) Tim Tebow
And yes, I am 100% open to wagering on this.
Haha, I’d consider it if I knew Ponder was going to be the starting QB for the Vikings. Since Tebow will actually have to pass the ball in the NFL and can’t rely on just running over guys, I don’t expect him to be much of a Fantasy QB. Ponder has the potential if he can get the starting job. I’ll get back to you when we know who the starters in Denver and Minnesota will be.
Thanks again for the interview, Matt! Good luck in the finals!
Cameron MacMillan
RotoGrinders.com Fantasy Content Manager