Three-Time DFS Million Dollar Winner: An Interview with TwoGun
In Week 7 of the 2019 NFL season, DFS legend Michael Cohen, also known as TwoGun, made history by notching his THIRD $1,000,000 win on DraftKings.
That alone is an incredible feat, but the fact that he’s done it three times by stacking the same team makes this story all the more legendary.
TwoGun (@TwoGunFF on Twitter) was nice enough to share more about his personal life and daily fantasy sports journey. Enjoy this interview below!
RotoGrinders: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your background?
I’m from Houston, TX, and I have a somewhat typical poker/DFS background story. I started playing poker in college. A good poker friend of mine, Cory Albertson, got me into playing DFS back in 2011/2012.
As a day job, I work as a stock trader for a hedge fund, which I’ve been doing for a little over 3 years. I enjoy how during NFL season, I can focus on my normal job Monday-Friday and then shift gears to NFL starting Friday night. I’m married to my beautiful wife and have two lovely daughters.
RotoGrinders: Do you remember your first big win and, if so, what was it?
Yes, I would say it was winning $100K at FanThrowDown in December 2013. Back in the early boom days of DFS, there was a lot of overlay, especially on the small sites. FanThrowDown had a tournament with a $500K prize pool/$1K buy-in that they ran qualifiers for all season. I was able to easily max out my entries (30 if I remember correctly) through their qualifiers which pretty much all always heavily overlayed.
I was able to take down the main event for the $100K first-place prize and that helped put me in a spot where I could play a higher level of volume in 2014 and going onwards.
My first win above $500K or so happened in Week 17 of 2014. I had already had a pretty good DFS year and didn’t expect much at that point. I remember being heavy on Arian Foster that week (about half my lineups), and he got injured in the first half of the game, making me think my lineups were sunk.
Luckily for me, my other half of lineups had a lot of Andre Johnson, who blew up in the second half. This was also the week where I sprinkled in some Eric Decker, who was like .8% owned, in some of my lineups and he went off for over 200 yards and a touchdown. I ended up taking 1st, 3rd, and I believe 7th in the main DraftKings event that week, which was a $200 buy-in, $2 million prize pool event. I won about $700K that week.
RotoGrinders: Which tools, articles, or shows do you find most helpful when preparing to build your lineups?
I look at the projections from across a few websites to see in general what everyone thinks are the best plays of the week. I look at snap counts, targets, etc. like most people do. I also enjoy watching shows and reading articles projecting ownership. I’m a big fan of the Ownership Report weekly video you all do on RotoGrinders as part of the Premium content.
RotoGrinders: Judging by your RotoGrinders profile page, you pretty much stick solely to NFL contests. However, it does look like you jumped into the NBA contests for opening night. Will we see you playing multiple sports going forward?
Doubt it. I won a fair amount of entries at FanDuel through some satellites for the first few nights of NBA. I just don’t think I have the time to do an everyday sport like NBA or MLB. Pretty much all of my success has also been at NFL, so I doubt that my strategies will suddenly start working for other sports too.
While I think people tend to overrate their knowledge of a sport, you still need to “know the sport” in order to win. I just don’t think I have the time or effort in me to focus on NBA/MLB like I used to. If I was able to do another sport, it probably would be CFB, but the prize pools just aren’t there to justify the amount of work involved.
RotoGrinders: You recently won a $1,000,000 prize for the third time on DraftKings. This is simply amazing. Perhaps what is more amazing is that it has been a Green Bay stack that has helped lead the way each time. Are you a Packers fan?
I definitely am now! I think it’s natural to want to use guys again that have brought you success in the past, so I’ve often been overweight on Davante Adams, who was instrumental in Millionaire Makers 1 and 2.
TwoGun’s $1,000,000 Winning Lineup in Week 7
Going into Week 7, I liked Rodgers’ matchup, and I figured all the questionable tags would depress ownership in the Packers. I’ve always enjoyed playing Packers players, and this opportunity created the perfect storm.
DeAndre Hopkins was in both in Millionaire Makers 2 and 3, so he’s the non-Packer I’m the biggest fanboy of.
RotoGrinders: What does your average week of research look like for the NFL?
I generally start looking into NFL Friday evening after all of the injury reports come out. There’s too much noise during the middle of the week to really consider what strategies to use when a major player may suddenly become unavailable/available.
I then consider what I think the field will generally do and construct lineups/strategies that I think others won’t use and players that I think are undervalued.
I try not to stay too married to my lineups in case a major inactive occurs Sunday morning. I believe with Millionaire Maker #2 win, I changed my winning lineup to the one that it was after Zach Ertz was out and I was heavily stuffing Trey Burton into a lot of lineups.
RotoGrinders: Who is your favorite sports franchise outside of DFS? Favorite athlete of all time?
DFS has pretty much overtaken sports fanhood for me. So it’s pretty much the Packers as my favorite sports franchise. Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams are my favorite players.
RotoGrinders: Every grinder dreams of the success you’ve had in DFS. Do you have any advice to all of the grinders still looking for their first big win?
Yes, I’ve noticed a tendency for lower stakes players to try to build their bankrolls in two ways: 1.) By slowly grinding 50-50s double/ups and low-stakes/flat paying GPPs or 2.) By just trying to bink the Milly Maker. I think both of these methods are flawed.
Instead, focus on any GPPs where there are overlay, especially the low $ satellites. FanDuel and DraftKings both offer contests that exclude experienced players and sharks (I’m not allowed to play pretty much anything $5 and under on DraftKings or $3 and under on FanDuel outside a few of the large GPPs).
Binking a few entries into a $300 or a $2K buy-in contest and then parlaying that into a near top spot will instantly grow your bankroll more than grinding will and has a higher success rate. By playing those low dollar qualifiers, you have the advantage of both a softer player pool as well as perhaps the overlay.
Fear of losing tends to make players gravitate towards making choices that result in them losing slowly, whether it’s contest selection or lineup creation. That’s fine if your goal is to play on a set amount of money that your wife will allow you to lose. But if your goal is to become a significant winning player, you have to adopt a different mindset.
RotoGrinders: What’s the coolest thing you’ve purchased with your DFS profits?
With Millionaire win #1, I used the money to have Lil Flip perform at our wedding. Not sure how many readers are familiar with him, but he was very popular during the Golden Age of Rap in Houston in the early 2000s. He did an amazing job, and he even painted a painting for my wife and I that we hang in our house.
With Millionaire win #2, I used some of the money to buy a Tesla Model S. I’ve had a few nice cars in my life, but I can’t express how superior this car is compared to the other ones I’ve had. If you drive on the freeway a lot, the autopilot will change your life. The instant torque and fast acceleration are a lot of fun too.
Other than that, I’ve been fairly boring. I probably should live up to my promise and buy some diamond-encrusted cat jewelry like I said I would.
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TwoGun has put himself onto the Mt. Rushmore of DFS and we can’t thank him enough for sharing his story here. Grinders, will you be the next three-time winner of $1,000,000 in daily fantasy football?
Image Credit: USA Today Sports Images