May 06 2013, by Eric Danis

FANTASY POKER MANAGER: Daniel Buzgon

New Jersey poker pro Daniel Buzgon (GPI#116) has been a member of the GPI 300 since October of 2011.  With the hours he puts in grinding the live tournament, one can wonder how Buzgon finds time to field a team on Fantasy Poker Manager at every event- but he does – and he’s been quite successful so far.

I met up with Daniel during the Day 1C dinner break here at the Playground Poker Club near Montreal where he is fighting his way into Day 2 play at the PartyPoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship.

 

Thanks for taking the time.  Let’s start with how things have gone for you here in Montreal, you’re on your third bullet?

I think I’ve been playing pretty well it’s just the last level of Day 1A and 1B have not been pleasant.  Day 1A I lasted until the last 10 minutes to go in the night and then yesterday, I had 80K going into the last level and busted on the very last hand so it’s a little discouraging but these are things you can’t control.

You’re a Top 30 Fantasy Poker Manager, how have you liked the game so far?

It’s been fun, I’ve always liked fantasy sports but I don’t really follow a sport close enough to be competitive.  With poker, I’ve played with many of these guys, it gives me a little edge to know player values.

What’s your strategy when making your picks?  Do you pile up with the big boys and girls and then fill your roster with value players or do you balance things out?

I guess it depends on the field of the tournament.  With this field (in Montreal), Christian Harder should be a lock with that chip count.  Even if he’s at around 300,000 points, his consistency is second to none.  It’s picks like that that make you win.

You can either get a few home run hitters than can win this or you can pick players who will cash on a consistent basis.

You have been playing several events on the World Poker Tour for the past few months, how do you explain the Matt Salsberg phenomena?

I’ve started just keeping him on the team.  What he’s been doing is unprecedented.  I got to play with him last week in Jacksonville two tables left.  He just keeps grinding it out, I don’t know how he does it, and it’s impressive.

Do you have any dark horse picks for us?

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of anyone.  But there are so many out there that don’t play tournaments, they just play cash games on the side, they don’t have these results on the ranking system.

That’s one of the benefits, I know a lot of (those) guys or they’re friends of friends so it’s easier for me to see them on leaderboard and see the true value instead of the 10,000 value.

The World Series of Poker is right around the corner, are you starting to get excited?

Next week I’ll be excited.  I’m kind of poker-ed out at the moment.  I’m going to take a few weeks off and get ready for another two months, should be exciting.

Putting you on the spot, why should fans think of you when making their teams for the WSOP?

I’m a consistent player; I’ll go deep a decent amount of times with a good chance to cash.  I’ll probably be playing 20-25 events, hopefully less (with final tables and deep runs!)

 

Thank you, Daniel, best of luck the rest of the way!

Be sure to follow Tim on Twitter @WiLDmAn_75.

 

Ready to add Daniel to your FPM team?  Head on over to Facebook and signup to play the GPI Fantasy Poker Manager …  FPM is the official Fantasy game of the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker!

WPT FPMWSOP FPM

 

More news and updates  on our facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter!

Related articles

About the author

Eric Danis’ passion for poker came at a very early age but it’s when writing about and covering the game he loves that Danis is most in his element. Danis is better known for creating www.PTPRpoker.com where he spent a few years covering poker events. Danis is also known for having worked on the poker shows Poker Eh! and The Pulse on the Quad Jacks Network.