Am I A Fantasy Sports Bully?

Recently, I was called out in the Fan Duel chat area as a horrible fantasy player. My usual immediate response is to offer up a $535 matchup. If I am so bad, why would you not accept? Consider this:

-You would WANT to play a bad player at the highest stakes possible, to bust that player the quickest.

-You would WANT to play a bad player at the highest stakes possible, to spend the LEAST rake to bust him/her.

Now I understand that some players cannot afford to play that high, but why not counter offer with a $270 or $109? At least some meaningful stakes with reduced rake?

All I'm looking for is consistent high stakes action. Over time, my EV increases if I get my money in with minimal drag of the rake.

I realize some players just do this for fun, but I'm looking to use my edges to make some money. I have a profit motive.

Maybe some people just like to talk a good game.

So tell me, am I just being a bully while trying to defend myself here? Is there a better way to go about getting high stakes games?

A Quick Tought About Rake & Bankroll Management

I was discussing bankroll management with a few other players and was very surprised at how varied players are at growing their rolls.

When I started out I used a 20 buy-in strategy to determine my stakes. At the time, I was pretty much forced to play HU contests with small entry fees.

With the explosion of player traffic, I can now afford to play much bigger stakes with less rake.

What about a newb starting out now? How should they attack the lobby?

I think the best value for a low stakes player is the large field tournament. You can even afford to drop multiple entries in a cheap buy-in. The potential ROI is much better than HU, even though the rake is similar.

However, if you're concentrating on HU, you might be better served to play higher sooner. On Fan Duel, the rake is identical from $1-$50 games. Only at $109 does the rake begin to drop.

It is a steep slope to climb before you can comfortably play without risk of ruin.

Some players told me they would only put 5% of their balance in play on a given night. I find that too conservative. The remaining money is just sitting there, not working for you. Besides, you can deposit instantly and withdraw almost as fast.

I think you should always have a portion of your bankroll aside to jump on a juicy deposit bonus. Every bit the site gives back will help combat the rake.

I guess the point is this: Consider how to get to the lower rake games the quickest, minimizing the drag rake will have on your bankroll.

Fantasy Hockey Tournaments Are Suffering

I was thrilled with the increase in traffic for this NHL season. With the expansion of the daily fantasy player base, it was a certainty that fantasy hockey tournaments would increase over last year.

However, while NHL tournaments have increased in frequency, they have not increased in quality.

Fan Duel has rolled out a tournament schedule with a mixture of single entry and multiple entry events.

I'm disappointed to say they the buy-ins and the field sizes almost preclude me from playing them anymore.

For example, the "Save" tournament offers a $5 entry and a field size of 167. If you finish 6th, likely scoring way above expectation, you win $30. Now playing a generic $5, 10 player contest can win you $45 by finishing 1st - a much more likely scenario.

So which is the better value?

I'm sad to report that the larger tourneys are filling up with regularity, but the prize pools have not grown. The $10 buy-in remains at $2500 and the $25 buy-in remains at $3000. They did run a $50 tourney last week but I have no idea if that will become a regular event.

Fan Duel has done an excellent job of building market share by offering the biggest prize pools in each sport. But it seems with hockey they either don't care, or they are trying to steer that money into other sports, such as college hoops.

I believe that if the prizes are big enough, any sport will attract the "smart" money.

Anatomy Of A Downswing

I've been meaning to write about one of my least favorite topics this week. Losing.

Simply stated, I got my butt whipped pretty hard the first week of November. I was shut out in week 8 of football, a rarity for me.

Over that same week, I experienced a six day losing streak in hockey. It was a tough stretch. I was a little unlucky with some injuries and some bad plus/minus scenarios.

There aren't many regular fantasy players that like to talk about losing. Even after 5 years, it still stings when you ride that variance roller coaster towards the bottom.

I continued playing well within my bankroll, not chasing losses. I finally broke through with a winning night on Saturday, putting up a solid score.

One silver lining is my continued success against Rudzia555 & Ohmsy. If they hadn't shied away from my high stakes games, I might be behind there too.

However, I'm happy to report that I crushed in week 9 NFL, gaining back all of my losses for the month. Maybe this week the good variance will shine on me.

I'm hoping the addition of NCAA basketball will give me the diversity of contests needed to avoid another losing streak for some time to come.