DJ Sensei

Dan "DJ Sensei" Morris has been stacking fools now for a little over 3 years. He got his start playing low-stakes limit games online on a $50 initial investment, then another $50, then finally $100 more. After the first two deposits he dedicated himself to actually studying the game via books and eventually 2+2, and never looked back. Upon graduating from Duke University in May 2006, he decided that playing professionally was too good an offer to pass up, and he's been playing as a pro since then. Dan has found most of his success in online cash games, and currently plays between 5/10 and 25/50, wherever the softest games are at the time. He has also been successful playing in live cash games, and has been known to play a big tournament on occasion. He has been coaching students in mid-stakes no limit cash games for almost a year now, and has given many students a new outlook on the game.

DJ Sensei is a DeucesCracked Executive Producer.

Q. What is most appealing about DeucesCracked's video series? A. Well, while players certainly have much to gain by watching the best online players explain their thought processes in a hand, real-time videos generally have a bit of dead time. Also, if the producer wants to really focus on one key concept, its difficult to do it when playing live during a recording. Many of the most important situations that make the difference between a great player and a breakeven one really don't come up all that often when playing. So when Vanessa and I created our series, we were able to trim the fat, so to speak. We include only the key hands to whatever subject we're discussing, and make sure to really expound fully upon them. If we're going to take up an hour of the student's time, we may as well pack it as full of as much useful content as we can!

Q. Why play both live and online? A. As I'm sure all of you online grinders know, it can be strenuous to put in hour after hour, day after day in front of your computer screen. I find the pace of live play to be a pleasant vacation from the online grind. Of course the number of hands and the likely stakes of live play mean that I'm giving something up in expected hourly return, but if you return to the online tables relaxed and ready to play again the next day, then that might end up being a positive overall decision for your game. Additionally, there are many things one can learn in a live poker game that are often overlooked online, such as the psychology of your opponents. If you can see their faces while they are dealing with the decisions you put them to, you can get a better idea of which spots are best for putting your opponent on tilt, or how to exploit their mental weaknesses. Live games also can be played with deeper stacks than the standard online game, so having some experience dealing with those situations can be great for the occasions online that you end up super deep against a fish (or a shark). And of course if you aspire to strike it big at the World Series of Poker or something like that, its good to have a little live experience under your belt.

Q. Any particularly memorable hands? A. There was a hand in late 2006 when I was playing 10/20 on Party against KRANTZ (but he didn't know it was me at the time). We were 4k deep, and after overcalling a raise preflop with QJ from the blinds, I led into both of them on a Q72 monotone flop (I had the J of that suit). The raiser folded and KRANTZ called. The turn was a blank, and I led into him again, and again he just called. The river blanked one more time, and I checkraised him all-in. He folded what turned out to be a set, and both of us posted the hand at the same time from our own perspectives, which led to hilarity. This of course happened before river checkraise bluffing was in fashion, but I like to think it helped lead the charge. Hands where you turn a made hand into a bluff on the river are usually my favorite kind, too, especially when deeper than normal.

Rate: $300
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