Meet The Nation: Doug Lyford

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Meet Doug Lyford. He is a member of the TPE Nation and an aspiring poker pro. In fact, he plans to quit his job as an Industrial Engineer in the next few weeks to begin his journey. The transition will be a lot easier after his recent 5th place finish in a $100K Card Player Poker Tour event.

So Doug, how did you get your start in poker?

I got started in a way very similar to most other players. I started playing 5 and 10 dollar home games with friends near the end of High School. I discovered online poker just about the time I turned 18, and for the first several months my online grind consisted of playing every freeroll Absolute Poker offered. I never cashed in one, and I’m sure my game was an absolute tragedy at that time. I loved the game and was hooked. I have been playing in some capacity ever since. Throughout college, I played off and on, mostly cash games, and never really built a bankroll. In 2013, I started to focus more on MTTs and had some good consistent results. I was able to make a little supplemental income playing part time. In 2014, I stepped it up and applied myself more to improving and putting in a lot more volume.

Tell us a little about your job and why you plan to leave it to play poker professionally?

I work for a small engineering consulting company in process controls and automation. The majority of our work is in the forest products industry, so I spend a lot of time at lumber mills, chip mills, wood pellet mills, etc. I spend 60-70% of the time working in the field and often have to travel. The job can be quite stressful and I work a lot of hours. Because we are a small company of only 5 employees, I wear a lot of hats. I do everything from computer programming and electrical wiring to quoting and project management.

2014 has been my best year in poker and is really the first year I fully applied myself to studying the game and getting much better. I started playing in February after some time off with a $200 deposit on Bovada. Playing mostly Bovada throughout the year, I was able to maintain a 50% ROI over about 1200 games. Working 40-60+ hours per week and grinding 20-30 hours most weeks was very difficult. Near the end of the year, I was starting to get very burned out. I have always had the dream of being a professional poker player. I was at a point where I really needed to choose between my job and poker. Poker was the clear winner.

How long have you been a member of TPE? How has the experience been different from other training methods you’ve tried in the past?

I joined TPE around late January 2013 when BigDog had the back to back Sunday Million final tables. Throughout 2013, I kind of lurked and watched some videos here and there but didn’t get involved much in the forums or the community. That was a different story in 2014. I’ve met several great poker players and people, both amateur and pro, through the forums. I started studying with TPE members through Skype and eventually started getting coaching from some of the pros.

In my opinion, the biggest difference between TPE and other training sites is the feeling of community. I feel like I have made some great friends through TPE and the networking opportunity is huge. Pros regularly respond to forum questions. That is very valuable in and of itself.

Who have you been coached by and what are some of the biggest aha! moments you’ve had?

Last year and into this year, I have been getting professional coaching. I have been coached by Danny Noseworthy, Marc Alioto, and Ben Reason. They have all been great and well worth the investment. Most of the biggest realizations I have come to over the past several months have not been technical aspects of playing the game itself. Some of the most valuable things I have learned are the importance of life balance, the nuances of good game selection in MTTs, how important the mental game is, and how to increase the amount of time we play our A game. Also, meditation is very +EV.

What are some of your favorite TPE videos?

Generally, I tend to enjoy and get more out of theory videos than live play/hand history review type videos. Some of my favorites are Andrew Brokos’ Bluffing series and Daryl Jace’s 3-betting series. I also like live play/review videos where there are lots of questions asked to the viewer and some theoretical frameworks are worked in. Daryl Jace’s recent OPS run is a great example of this. Currently I am really liking Cory Waaland’s “Ninja Tactics”, which is an all hole cards exposed format where Cory even discusses the lines opponents take in hands he is not involved in.

You started a 2014 goals thread and a 2015 going pro thread. Give us a little teaser that would make us want to go read them, like what’s something interesting we will find in there?

My 2015 going pro thread will be updated regularly. You can expect to find some interesting hand histories posted in there. I will also be posting monthly graphs, pictures of trips and life experiences, and hopefully more articles about future live event final table runs!

One of the things I remember from reading your threads is that you once worked for 14 hours and then came home to play tournaments. That sounds grueling. Have you ever fallen asleep on a session?

Last year, there were way too many nights like this! I have been extremely tired at the end of a session lots of times. Once, I did fall asleep on a session. It was in the mid stages of a session and I believe I was 4 tabling. I decided it would be a good idea to lay on the couch during one of my 5 minute breaks. I woke up 5 hours later.

Ha, I’ve definitely been there myself. You recently final tabled Event 1 of a Card Player Poker Tour series. Going into Day 2, you had a huge chip lead on the field. Do you remember how you were able to amass the big stack?

It was mostly a combination of running really well in terms of preflop card distribution and taking good lines to get max value. There were, however, a few key hands late in Day 1 where I was able to amass a ton of chips. In one hand the villain had recently lost a large pot to me and may have been a bit tilted. He decided to 3bet/5bet all in with 99 vs my AA. The other hand was blind vs. blind. The small blind limp/called preflop when I raised JJ . On a board of T4554, my opponent check raised flop, made a large turn bet, and shoved river for about 32bb. I went into the tank and was a little concerned since villain could have some 4x and 5x combos in his range, but decided his line didn’t make any sense for value and made the call. Villain snap mucked A6o.

Nice, nothing makes me happier than the ole snap muck. I read that this was your biggest live score. What are some of your biggest online scores?

Yes, this score was by far my biggest live score. Last year, I had a lot of great scores on Bovada, including the following:

-2nd GSPO2 Event 7 $162 50k GTD for $9960

-1st 35k GTD for $7700

-1st GSPO2 Event 45 $30 turbo rebuy for $6300

-1st and 2nd in two $109 12k GTD’s on the same day for total of $6200

-1st 15k GTD for $3770

-1st 10k GTD for $2580

-1st 10k GTD turbo twice for $2430 and $2300

This year, I had been on a downswing for a while, but the other night, I hit my biggest score so far in 2015 by shipping the 15k GTD on Bovada for $4200.

As you begin your professional poker journey in the next couple of weeks, what are some of your goals for this first year?

My only real quantitative goal is a volume based. I want to get in 500 MTTs per month for 6000 total MTTs this year online. I would also like to play at least 20 live MTTs. Other goals are to get into the habit of exercising 4 times per week, eating more healthy, learning about nutrition, and studying a ton. I also want to develop a solid pre and post-session routine and stick to it for every single session.

Before I let you go, is there anything else you’d like to tell the Nation. Any members/pros you’d like to shout out?

Well, let me first thank you Carlos for all you do for TPE! Big thanks to Killingbird and RonFezBuddy for creating this community, and major thanks go out to all the pros for being active and creating good content! I would like to specifically thank my coaches: Danny Noseworthy, Marc Alioto, and Ben Reason for the direction and confidence they have given me. Shout out to TPE members jacobsharktank and Jason Mauney. The support you guys have offered has been incredible and the time we have spent studying and talking about the game has made all the difference for me. Looking forward to the continued success of all of us and to breaking the game with you guys!