The 2001 movie “Donnie Darko” was a classic, so much so that it ignited the imagination of PocketFives member whereisdonny, who lives in Thailand and recently finished second in the GSOP Grand Slam on the Ongame Network, which includes sites like Betsafe. The mammoth score clocked in at $118,000.

“I feel great,” whereisdonny told PocketFives in an interview from Phuket. “I had just played in APPT Seoul. I busted out from the High Roller, took a nap, and woke up fresh for the online grind. I’m glad this tournament went so well for me; otherwise, it would have been a pretty terrible day. I’m very competitive and never completely satisfied unless I win outright, not to mention the big pay jump between first and second. Maybe next time I’ll take it down.”

The final table of the GSOP Grand Slam also featured 74th ranked Civeland longtime PocketFives member wywrot, who finished in third place and sixth place, respectively. “The final table had a lot of regulars,” whereisdonny assessed. “I don’t play as many hands on Ongame as I do on PokerStars and everyone’s name is different on the different sites, so it’s pretty tough to tell exactly how good everyone is from the limited sample size and few showdowns. It was a $5K buy-in, so I definitely expected the good regulars to come and battle it out.”

whereisdonny is up to $3.1 million in tracked scores in his PocketFives profile and told us that he might invest the money: “I have been doing some reading on personal finances and economics, so I have a few prospective investment ideas, but I really don’t feel I have that strong of a grasp of the subjects in that field yet.. SCOOP is coming up too, so I’m looking forward to that and can use the money for buy-ins. I did pretty well in it last year.”

He added, “I am always looking to move up in stakes and make more money. I feel a lot of regs sometimes become satisfied with themselves when they beat a game they can make some money at and stop trying to move up or get better. Maybe that’s good for some people, but it’s not for me. I’m always trying my best to keep improving and beat better players. My thoughts are: if those games are running and someone is beating them, why shouldn’t it be me?”

When you think of poker powerhouses, Thailandprobably doesn’t come to mind. Thailand is #34 in our Country Poker Rankings, but when you rank the countries of the world by Average PLB, Thailand can be found at #9. whereisdonny outlined, “I live in Phuket where all of the beaches are. There’s a very welcoming community of online players here. We have a Facebook group and people often organize group activities.”

There are 99 registered PocketFivers in Thailand. “Outside of that Facebook group, I really don’t talk poker with anyone. Technically, the climate for gambling in Thailand isn’t great, but if you keep it in your own home, there’s no problem living here and grinding online.”

As we said at the top, whereisdonny’s PocketFives user name references the movie “Donnie Darko.” He explained, “Near the beginning of the movie, Donnie wakes up in the morning lying in the middle of the road. On his fridge, someone wrote, ‘Where is Donnie’ since he spent the night outside the house. I guess I had just recently watched the movie when I made my poker account.”

whereisdonny got his start in poker in $2 sit and gos with his junior high school friends. “I was one of the worst players in the group,” he confessed. “I found out some people played the game for a living and decided I would do whatever it took to get there, and that’s what I did. I got my actual start in poker from my dad when I was five years old. I played some Five Card Draw.”

Other top-notch scores for whereisdonny include a second place finish in a $2,600 No Limit Hold’em Knockout SCOOP tournament in 2012 for $140,000 and wins in the PartyPoker$200,000 Guaranteed Sunday and PokerStars Sunday Second Chance, both worth about $40,000.

If you want to play on the Ongame Network, you can sign up for Betsafe through PocketFives’ linksand make a deposit to get two free months of PocketFives Training with the sign-up fee waived, a $100 value. Click here to get started.

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