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Hey there everybody! I’m Eric Crain, one of the Rotogrinders hosts and a professional DFS player. I go by the handle ‘jakz101’ on all DFS sites and am ranked in the top-25 overall. The good people at Rotogrinders have asked me to do an AMA, I assume because more interesting people weren’t available.

Some basic info about me:

-I started working at Rotogrinders in Feb of 2016
-I started playing DFS professionally in September of 2015. Before that I was a professional poker player for 10.5 years.
-I attended 4 different colleges, earning nothing more than an Associates degree and a masters in poker.
-I’m an avid St. Louis Blues, St. Louis Cardinals, and Southern Illinois Salukis fan.
-I grew up in Southern Illinois and have lived in St. Louis, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City while also traveling around the country playing poker.
-My wife and I recently celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Against all odds, she hasn’t killed me yet.
-I play mostly GPPs, though I’m starting to dabble more in cash games.
-I’ve qualified 5 entries in 3 different live finals. In the 2015 Draftkings NFL live final I earned the honor of getting last place. Go me.
-I was easily the most likely to get injured during the Fanduel NFL Combine at the 2015 live final.

Anyways, feel free to fire in those QQs and I’ll do my best to answer them throughout the week. Let’s have some fun!

Eric! Let’s kick this off, buddy.

Biggest poker score?

Best place you’ve played poker?

My question is,

Are you ever grouchy? I personally love your positive attitude, just can’t imagine seeing you ticked off as you are always smiling.

Online, it was around $280k in a tournament online with nearly 10,000 people. The same day my friend I was staying with in Canada got 2nd in a tournament for over $600k. That was a fun day. Live, it was 4th place in the circuit main event in Chicago maybe 5 years ago. I’ve had a few WSOP final tables, but never broke through.

My favorite place to play poker is St. Louis at Hollywood or Ameristar, wherever the $20/40 limit game is. Also, outside of the midwest, I absolutely loved playing poker in Melbourne, Australia. They treat players amazing at the Crown down there and I would love to go back some day.

Oh yeah. I was grouchy all the time when I was playing poker for a living. That world has a way of wearing on you.

Nowadays, I get grouchy during long losing streaks or when the Blues lose. For the most part I’m pretty laid back though. Another time I get grouchy nowadays is when people whine about mundane things. As Smartwater likes to say, I like to complain about people complaining … which is entirely fair.

my question is, did you practice that gem of a smile in the mirror for hours, or years?

Brit Divine goes to the gym, I go to the mirror. Practice makes perfect.

Approximate net poker winnings in 10.5 years vs. net winnings since being a DFS pro?

Without getting into specific numbers, poker winnings were mostly enough to keep up with every-day life (aside from some huge tourney wins). DFS has been better to me than poker was, both from a financial and mental standpoint.

who is the most famous person you have ever been at a poker table with?

As a fellow St. Louisan would you rather see the Blues win the Stanley Cup or you win the Milly Maker?

How much time do you allocate for researching different sports throughout the week (including podcasts/shows, etc.)?

Favorite DFS sport to play (even if it’s not your most profitable)?

Also, please treat ask your Blues to treat Carter Hutton well. We are going to miss him in Nashville.

Most famous person I’ve been at a table with is James Woods, many many years ago. Mike Patrick and I had a blast together a few years ago playing stud. Jered Weaver was in STL playing the day before the Cards won the World Series in 2006 (he threw his chips in faster than he throws his fastball … which isn’t that impressive). I met Michael Phelps in Nassau, but he wasn’t thrilled to be talked to. The only guy I was ever star-struck by was Lennox Lewis. He was sponsored by a site where I knew the owner and met him before the Main Event one year. The deep British “hello Eric” coming from the champ was too cool.

Oh man. It would have to be the Milly Maker, but the fact that I had to think about it says a lot. I’m a Cards fan, but the Blues have always been my team. Any Blues game is an event in my house and has been since I was a kid. That said, getting season tickets on the glass would also be pretty damn cool.

Eric, big fan..helped alot during MLB season so thanks!
I find I am breaking even or making a little money lately (with my share of 0’s lol). Any advice on taking my dfs game to the next level and placing higher in big tournaments? I feel I can get there, but I haven’t yet since I don’t play max entries given my bankroll.
Thanks, Daniel

I don’t really listen to podcasts throughout the week. I prefer to do my own research and talk to a very small group of friends. For NFL I do 20-30 hours of research a week. I typically start my research on Wednesdays with a big 10-hour cram session, then take time Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning refining my picks. It’s rare that I’m completely sure of who I’ll play until Sunday morning. For NBA I usually do 3-4 hours a day and MLB 5-6 hours a day.

My favorite sport to play is probably football. If I wasn’t angry at NBA right now (due to Niko and Kyrie injuries the last 2 nights) I might say NBA. This year I really fell in love with MLB research too, specifically pitching. It’s more time-consuming which is a bit annoying, but MLB is a blast for me too.

Hutton looked great the other night! I wish he had a better nickname than Hutts, though.

I saw that you wrote the course “Mass Multi-Entering NFL GPPs” are you going to create a course like this for the NBA? I contacted support but they are not responding back, its been about a week now, hopefully you could answer.

-Thanks.

Hey, glad I was able to help during MLB!

I feel like playing smaller tournaments with smaller entry limits is really important for people who aren’t putting a ton of lineups in. For instance, I would highly recommend playing the $27 3max instead of the $27 150max. The prize pools are smaller but your chances of profit are so much higher that it’s worth it. Also, give smaller sites a chance. Playing at places like Fantasy Draft and Yahoo is an under-utilized tool for building a bankroll.

Trump, Clinton or Meteor?

I considered it, but after looking at my stats I’ve found that I’m not nearly as good mass multi entering NBA as I am other sports. There’s something I just don’t “get” about NBA, and I’m going to be working this year to figure that out. If I do I’ll likely write a course on it, but as things stand now it would be pretty disingenuous to write a course on it when I can’t win doing it myself.

What is your preferred method for generating 150 lineups?

OK – so it seems the big pros in DFS normally win the big tournaments by scripting and mass entering tourneys. I was wondering if were a small time player like myself ($5-$10 a night normally) and playing mostly cash, what is the best strategy in your opinion for GPPs for a player like myself? I would assume single entry tourneys but i feel like entering safe, almost cash lineups is the best route to take to slowly build a bank roll. But by doing this I feel I never have a chance to win a GPP.

and what is your favorite non chain restaurant in STL? I from right across the river in IL…

Meteor is the only answer. I think anybody who feels good about either candidate has some serious blinders on.

Dartboard!

But really, I plug my own projects in, set my percentages, eliminate people I don’t want, click generate on the lineup builder. Typically I’ll run anywhere from 5-40 builds before I get the exact amount of each guy I want. If I have time I’ll go through every lineup and make sure nothing is ‘off’.

What made you become so attached to Subway?

You can win single entry or 3max NBA tournaments playing a chalkier lineup. I think being contrarian has almost tipped too far. Last year my ROI when entering 5 or less lineups in a GPP was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than when I entered 6 or more. In NFL, I would absolutely focus on limited enter tournaments. It’s tough to win a massive tournament. I would focus on tourneys with limited entries and a limited player pool (200 people or so).

As for my favorite restaurant, where on the IL side do you live? I just sold my house in Belleville and my wife just sold her house in O’Fallon. Gotta love Lotta Watta Creek in Fairview Heights. Fitz’ in U-City is spectacular also. I highly recommend the Hip Hop Pop or the bottled cherry cola.