During the Wild West years of the poker boom, there was a steady stream of unknowns who walked in off the street and suddenly found themselves under the bright lights of a big televised tournament. Get hot at the right time, and the constant reruns on ESPN and the Travel Channel could see you burned into the poker world’s subconscious.
Doug Lee fit that mold in 2005. He only had one recorded cash before entering the $10,000 WSOP Circuit main event at the Rio, but before he knew it, he was in the money and playing against Phil Ivey, TJ Cloutier, and Allen Cunningham.
But it was Lee’s aggressive, yet unconventional final table performance against Jennifer Harman and Jean-Robert Bellande that stood out on his way to the $695,970 first-place payday. While keyboard warriors typed away in the aftermath of the broadcast, criticizing Lee for his play, he still remembers the experience fondly.
“I satellited into that one for $100,” Lee said. “I stepped up to a $1,000 qualifier and won my $10,000 seat. Then I turned that into almost $700,000, so it was a phenomenal rate of return.”
Running It Back, 20 Years Later
Lee had a recent run that mirrored his success 20 years ago. He decided to hit Las Vegas after seeing a social media post from Venetian Tournament Director Tommy LaRosa advertising a PokerGO Tour event in mid-September.
It was there that Lee started a sun run experienced by very few players. After winning his seat into the $3,300 buy-in event at Venetian for just $380, he would go on to make the live streamed final table and finish third for $120,000.
Eager for more time in the spotlight, he won a $560 satellite at the PokerGO studio at Aria for his $5,300 ticket into the Poker Masters Showcase. Lee would eventually bust in sixth place, banking another $49,000. A couple days later, he cashed again for another $13,000.
When the buy-in jumped to $10,000, Lee responded with a runner-up finish for $180,000. Then, with his eyes set on the purple jacket, he hopped into the $25,000 high roller finale and managed to take third place, good for $220,500.
“I had never played there before and I had five cashes, four final tables, all on one bullet each,” Lee said. “I did the best I could for ICM purposes by making moves and bluffs when I was card dead at the last three final tables.”
Although he would fall just shy of the series championship, Lee’s three-week run at the tables totaled out to $582,500.
Doug’s Disciples?
Poker was never Lee’s primary source of income. By day the graduate of the University of Calgary’s Business School is a real estate investor and an AI entrepreneur. But most recently, he began coaching about a dozen poker students.
“I have 11 students and most of them play cash games,” he said. “I’m self-taught, so I actually coached myself, right? My last student was a model from Calgary and is in Vegas. Another guy who’s focused on tournaments is a 21-year-old kid and his parents paid $10,000 for lessons. In his first year and a half, he’s made over $300,000 playing mostly mid-stakes.”
Lee sees the potential of AI in the poker strategy space.
“It already has taken over poker with the GTO mindset,” he explained. “I’m kind of old school where I can read people pretty well and I use exploitive play and a little bit of GTO charts. I’m a combination of both schools, so it’s like I’m Bruce Lee. He uses a combination of martial art techniques to improve his fighting skills. He used the best of everything.”
“The way I played those events was the best of those skills together,” Lee added. “It really confused the pros. I played against Martin Zamani and he was excited to play against me at the final table. He said it was like he traveled back in time. He saw me make some good bluffs and called me a ‘blaster.’”
“I got him on a really big hand where he called me with ace high when I had trip kings,” said Lee. “So, I basically reversed it on him and switched gears. I can be very loose-aggressive, and I can be very tight – people are confused.”
Playing In Poker’s Greatest Sandbox
Lee says he did his homework prior to his run.
“I watched PokerGO on YouTube for a year before I thought that I should start playing these events. I like playing with pros as they are capable of folding top pair and other big hands in certain situations, so you’re playing real poker.”
Lee’s run in the PokerGO studio against the best in the game was an experience he’s not likely to forget. During his time on the felt, Lee held his own against the likes of Jeremy Ausmus, Andrew Lichtenberger, David Coleman, Chino Rheem, Jason Koon, and Nick Schulman.
“It was fantastic. I proved to myself that I can play with the best for two and a half weeks,” he said. “I made the final table of the $25k and knocked out Jason Koon and in the $10k event, I knocked out Chewy. These guys have a lot of class and wit that makes it fun, but challenging to play. It was a pleasure, whereas in smaller buy-ins, I have grumpy calling stations and annoying people who are misled by the 2+2 postings about me.”
Lee Gets Last Laugh
Those who are old enough to remember or bored enough to dig through the archives of the 2+2 poker forum will recall a time when Lee got caught in the online community’s crosshairs. The passionate poker fan caught a lot of grief for his often over-enthusiastic attitude at the poker table.
How much did the online hate affect him?
“Not much, really,” Lee said. “I was busy doing my business and stuff and didn’t have time to deal with people like that. Some friends would put stuff on there and it would blow up and other people put false stuff on there. You had the trolls, but there was some good stuff, too.”
“People would poke fun at me and try to get me off my game, but it didn’t work,” he said. “I would laugh and thought, ‘Well, the haters make me famous.’”
- Photos by PokerGO – Antonio Abrego