Satellite Sensation: Doug Lee Blends Styles On Epic PGT Run

A satellite win at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas turned out to be quite a poker run for Doug Lee. The poker player and businessman from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, won a $380 qualifier into the PokerGO Tour (PGT) Venetian Las Vegas Classic and went on to finish third, earning $120,000. If that return on investment wasn’t enough, he then won a satellite into the Poker Masters $1,000,000 Showcase and finished sixth for $49,000.

Some of those winnings were then used to play some additional Poker Masters events. He chalked up a 14th-place finish for $13,000 and a runner-up in another for $180,000. Lee capped off the impressive streak with a third-place score in the Poker Masters $25,000 Finale for $220,500.

The epic few days all came after grabbing a satellite entry into the $5,000 buy-in WPT Venetian Las Vegas Championship in July. He went on to finish 28th for $33,000 in that one, which kick-started the last few months after a history of successful satellite surfing into the money.

"I said to myself that I would use my $33,000 in winnings as an indirect satellite on this event to play the PGT events at Venetian and ARIA, as it’s good money management to do so," Lee said. "I have a good record in satellites … somehow winning 70-80% of them to get into big events."

The biggest of those came in 2005, when Lee I turned a $100 satellite into $1,000 and then parlayed that into a $1,000 sit-and-go for a $10,200 seat in the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at the Rio. He then went on to win the tournament for $695,970, which featured a stacked final table that included Jennifer Harman (runner-up for $383,840), Jean-Robert Bellande, and Phil Ivey.

Watching PokerGO to PGT Success

The run through PGT events came after checking out the action regularly on PokerGO over the last year. Lee has $2,800,000 in live tournament winnings and believes he has the skills to compete.

"After watching PokerGO events for a year, I was thinking that I should start playing these events as I would do well playing against the top players in the world," he said. "I actually like playing with the pros as they can fold top pair and other big hands in certain situations, so you're playing real poker.

"This is unlike playing with amateurs in smaller events where they call a lot more hands preflop and on the flop, and get lucky on you when they call you with no pair and no draw. Calling with no hands doesn’t happen in the PGT events as the pros are smart enough not to call with nothing for their tournament life."

Watching the action gave Lee some insight on the pros, he said, that allowed him to exploit some of them at times. His style of play is a combination of old-school poker, focusing on using good reads, and exploiting opponents’ weaknesses by watching how they play.

"I have also studied GTO and new-school strategies that the pros use, and use exploitative strategies against the pros that use those," he says. "With the two schools of thought, I combine them together in my strategy in these high roller events to exploit the good pros."

Lee likens his approach to Bruce Lee using multiple martial arts to craft his own style – combining some of the best aspects of each. His punch and counter-punch style seems to be working. Of the first eight PGT events he played, Lee cashed in four and won two satellites.

That record included four final table appearances and finishing in third in the race for the Poker Masters Purple Jacket. In total, he parlayed $380 into $582,500 on the PGT and "was grateful for the opportunity to play in these events."

Poker Life

When not mixing it up against some of the best poker pros in the world, Lee is an entrepreneur who markets AI projects and is also involved in real estate investing. His other hobbies include tennis, squash, padel tennis, weight training, yoga, and flag football.

"I have been playing poker part-time and doing entrepreneurial projects for the last 10 years," said Lee, who has a bachelor’s degree in management/marketing from the University of Calgary. "I have a more balanced life besides poker in that I also enjoy traveling around the world and playing competitive sports tournaments as well.

"Being fit keeps me mentally and physically fit for long poker tournaments, and I feel I have a big advantage over the pros with being physically and mentally fit because my concentration level is very high."

A job as an advertising consultant led Lee to the poker table in 2003. He was sent out of town to Edmonton to meet with high-profile business clients. When the work day was over, he spent the evenings playing tournaments at the local casinos in Edmonton.

"I won my first tournament I ever played in," Lee recalled. "I also watched Chris Moneymaker win a satellite that year to win his $10,000 seat in the WSOP Main Event, and he won the tournament. I wanted to do the same."

Just two years later, Lee indeed cashed in with a win in that WSOP Circuit Main Event for his own six-figure payday.

What’s next for one of PokerGO’s newest crushers? The recent success has him weighing some options. He’s considering launching a poker vlog on YouTube and plans on playing the WPT World Championship in December. More PGT events also appear to be on the horizon.

"I think what made it so fun was playing with the highly skilled, energetic players like LuckyChewy (Andrew Lichtenberger), Jason Koon, and a few others I didn’t mention," he says. "These guys have a lot of class, and that makes it challenging and fun to play with. It was a pleasure."

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