Monday, October 8, 2018

Why Play DFS

I've been meaning to write this blog for a while, and the reality is that it should have been written a long time ago. The purpose of this blog is to show why I play DFS and why you should find your own style that works for you that you enjoy.

Background to the story:
I've played DFS for eight years now, and several years ago thought about doing it full-time as I made as much as I was making at my full-time job. The reality is that I could never pull the trigger on doing it full-time for one simple reason. Treating this as a full-time career would become a job just like anything else in life. Even when I signed on to Footballguys to be a writer/content manager part-time I was nervous about coming on as it takes the fun out of the games with the stress of writing and giving your insights on a week to week basis.

The reality is that as the years have gone by, I've seen hundreds of people who were once playing very high volumes disappear. This is the dark side of DFS that no one really talks about as for some reason there are ego's involved and people think they have to prove something by having horrendous bankroll management. I can list several examples of people who were playing less than $100 a week who won hundreds of thousands of dollars or even a million plus and then thought that based on that one lucky lineup they should try to put tens of thousands of dollars each week.

A significant amount of people think that they have to justify their play and have to post screenshots of them winning a significant amount of money in order to get people to follow them. The reality is that a significant number of people in this industry lose a lot, this is why I've found what I feel is my niche, and have been profitable in 6 of the 7 years so far.

I was talking to someone the other day who said that they wanted to get in the writing industry, so they felt they need to play a high volume to get recognized. I would warn everyone against this as it is largely an outdated misconception that you have to play high dollar amounts to get recognized. I can tell you at Footballguys we've hired a variety of all players with some of the highest volume players in the industry to guys who play small dollars. If there is interest, I can write recommendations for anyone looking to get into the industry.

Why I Primarily Play Cash Games

I get this question at least once a week. Cash games have become harder and harder to win at consistently, why do you play primarily cash games and not primarily play GPP's. The reality is it's what is fun for me.

Every Sunday at 1PM EST is like Christmas morning when you're a kid. I get to open up each Head to Head matchup and see who my opponents have decided to play and dissect each lineup.

The reality is that even though I have won several GPP's, I have never succumbed to the lineup optimizers and mass multi entries. I build 5-10 lineups each week for GPP's and that's really it. The reason for this is two-fold

1) I have done the mass multi-entry thing and it is simply not fun for me. I find it stressful as I watch Scott Hanson show every touchdown and thinking the worst every time some obscure player scores a touchdown.

2) What most people don't tell you is that while we see all the time someone who has 150 lineups in a tournament winning the tournament, there are a number of mass multi-entry lineups losing a significant amount of their investment each week.

Summary
The overall message is to play what you enjoy at a dollar amount that you are comfortable with. Don't try to prove anything to anyone.


4 comments:

  1. Enjoy reading your blog. Appreciate your insights. (something weird happened with my first comment).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the post bro. This season, I started to really manage my bankroll in a way that allows me to have fun, be comfortable with my outlay every week, and still use the strategies and concepts I've learned from listening to high level successful players. I've had 3 good weeks, 1 ok week, and 1 bad. It's nice to hear a pro that doesn't constantly talk about 150 lineups in the millionaire maker. A normal person who loves the competition and mental effort of dfs just can't conceive of throwing thousands of dollars in tournaments every week. I don't always agree with your takes, but I definitely wish there was more people in the dfs community that made smart players with a smaller bankroll feel included

    ReplyDelete