10 Tips To A Grinder Newbie From A 4 Month Vet
By chenman4ev,
It wasn’t long ago when I started daily with not a clue about what I was doing. So fast forward to April and I am on my 4th month of fantasy daily sports and decided to give everyone some tips or pointers that I have learned along the way.
1. Play only when you have the time to do all the research necessary to build a team. The other night I played Kyle Loshe even though the Cubs/Brewers game was cancelled in advance. I just threw a team together knowing I wouldn’t have the time to check late scratches and it was a costly mistake. Luckily I didn’t put a lot of money in but it became free money to everyone else as my entries were worthless.
2. If you are new to a sport, use all of the Rotogrinders tools (see “Daily Research” in the top-lef of the site) and social media to get a better grasp of the game. Then use that information to form a team based on the scoring format of the site you are playing as they do differ. Some league favors assists more than others or are more hitter than pitcher friendly. If you feel like have a good grasp of the daily goings of a sport, try to build a team with feel and information you already know and then you can use research to confirm your choice. Many times I would build a team the night before and the next morning I knew I was on the right track when my players would show up on the Rotogrinders daily plays.
3. Pick a site and stick to it so you can learn the ins and outs the salary,lineup format,scoring, etc… Also take advantage of all the new promotions of one site available thru RG. Daily Joust and Fantasy Live have beginner only games.
4. Shop around. If a site doesn’t suit your eye or you don’t like something about it, feel free to switch to another site. Its important to find what works for you. I found most of my success on Draftday and Draftkings. They have similar lineup sets where positions are flexible for the NBA and that really works for me.
5. Learn from the best. A lot of the top players in daily fantasy play games at all levels. A lot of them are willing to help new players . You can try to reach team thru grinders live chats or their twitter handle. On a site like DraftDay you can see the big 109 games live every night or any other big tourneys. Take a look at how the top names did and what rosters they did and compare them to yours. In most cases you do want to avoid the sharks when you are starting out. But on some sites I have seen big names like Condia or Ehafner, CSUrams playing low stakes h2h. You can even play them in a low stakes game and see it as a kind of a lesson on how they build teams.
6. Always play within your means so make sure you know how to manage a bankroll. There are a lot of good articles in RG’s strategy vault that go into more details. Its easy to chase after big GPPs when the stakes are tempting at $10 a entry. Maybe just do one entry and stick to double ups and H2H.
7. Enter the free rolls. I know Draftkings and Draft day have them almost every night.Its a great way to learn the scoring and how to play the game. If you can consistently do well in them then you can start to move up. The highest scores usually come from the free rolls or lower stakes then higher stakes.
8. Trust your gut. Sometimes it might not even make sense or goes against the grain but stick to it. I can remember all the times I left some guy out and went with someone else and it burned me. For big GPPs you always have to find that guy that is on nobody ‘s radar or as Socrdave would say the super sexy pick. I won the Draftday Bracket finals based on my gut. I love Dwight Howard and am a Lakers fan but I just had a feeling that morning that he would choke so I avoided him.
9. Hot streaks and cold streaks will come and go so just accept them. I was ice cold in Feb on Draftstreet as I lost all 16 straight double ups that month. Luckily it was all $5 or $10 games which was within my budget. If I had doubled up my money every time I lost I would have flamed out.
10. Lastly, remember to have fun. At the end of the day its a game even though the money can sometimes be good. The minute you feel that its work and not fun take a break from the game. Daily fantasy will always be there every night but you don’t have to.