Fantasy Poker
I had a pretty good showing in this year’s fantasy poker league on Fulltilt. Although the prizes were a little bit weak, I wanted to reform my strategy for some other future events. A friend of mine is in the process of getting a fantasy poker league running that should be top-notch. I’m looking forward to signing up and taking down some healthy prize pools. For those of you who didn’t get to check it out, here is a quick break-down of how Fulltilt’s fantasy league works.
You have to pick 3 teams of players; an A, B, and C team. If your players are able to cash in the tournament, their total winnings will multiply by 1x for the C team, 2x for the B team, and 3x for the A team. The adjusted total $ won by all of your players is then added up to determine the leader board.
Last year I participated in Fulltilt’s fantasy league during the WSOP, so I had already put some thought to who might be good picks for my roster.
It helps to know who all of the players are and know a little bit about each of them. For example, some of the popular players don’t play in a lot of tournaments. It’s O.K to pick these players but you have to do your research to find out which players are going to be in each event, and which events they are favored to win.
This year I decided I only wanted to enter my picks once, so I had to choose a little differently than I normally would. Optimally, I would want to find out who is still in an event for day 2. This way I wouldn’t pick them for a tournament that was starting on the second day.
I’m going to save some of my fantasy poker strategy for later blog entries… but I can tell you the #1 mistake that people make while creating their fantasy roster; Some participants will pick a popular player like Phil Ivey or Phil Hellmuth and put them on their B or C team. You could argue that choosing one of these guys is a waste of a pick altogether, but if you are going to pick one of these them, you need to maximize the value that you can get from each of them. For example, thousands of people put Phil Hellmuth on their A team. This means that if you put Phil Hellmuth on your C team, you are essentially wasting a pick. So when Phil cashes, you won’t really be moving up the leaderboard at all. Everyone that put him on their A team will be earning 3X as many fantasy dollars as you.
The reason that you would pick a player like Phil or Daniel Negreanu, is that you feel that they are a staple and it is almost a necessity to have them on your team. When they do cash, you will simply be keeping yourself in a position where you can still do well because of your other picks. Without having them on your team, your total $ will be significantly lower than everyone else’s and that can be a hard difference to make-up. You would be better off filling a C team spot with an unknown player that not many people are likely to pick.
In my opinion, putting one of the most popular players on your C team is pointless.
Here are 4 of the players that I put on My A team for this year’s World Series of Poker;
Men “The Master” Nguyen – Men plays every tournament that he can, including $500 buy-ins. I expected him to play in the majority of the events at this year’s WSOP. I especially liked him when considering the fact that I didn’t want to have to change my picks throughout the World Series. He’s also not on the top of a lot of people’s lists so this also made him a good player to keep on my A team.
Daniel Negreanu- There are many reasons why I picked Daniel this year. Mostly, I thought I had to pick him just to stay even with the field. Daniel is one of the world’s most popular players and I also think that he is one of the best. This meant he would be at the top of everyone’s list and he would be a source of a lot of the total winnings.
Phil Helmuth- Another staple on my roster. Phil is well-known for his quest for WSOP bracelets. I thought it was wise to assume that he would play in every event that he could get into. Again, I felt I needed him on my A Team just to stay even with the field.
J.C. Tran- J.C. is not as well known as some of my other picks but I consider him to be a world class player. He’s probably been the most unlucky player in WPT final table history, and he’s had good finishes in some other major events. I figured that he would be playing in a considerable amount of tournaments, and not many people were likely to have him on their A Team. Consequently, J.C was responsible for boosting me up the leader board on several occasions this year.
Players that I was sure not to Pick…
I’m not gonna reveal too many of these, as my future success depends on people taking these sucker bets. However, one player I wouldn’t recommend to anyone is Phil Ivey. Phil is one of the best poker player’s in the world, but these days he is more concerned with golf than he is with poker. It’s also likely that there will be a cash game waiting for him where he could make much more money than he could by sitting in a tournament. By picking someone like Phil, you are not really gaining anything over the field because he is among so many people’s top picks. As I have said before, you are just sort of staying even with the field by picking Phil.
You would be better off betting that Phil won’t even play in the tournament and using that spot on your A team for an unknown player.
As the new fantasy poker league gets started I’ll be sure to put up some more blogs about who I think the good picks are. Sometimes the most crucial knowledge is just finding out that one of your staple players will not be in a certain tournament. This can help you to avoid wasting one of your picks. Be sure to subscribe to our blog for updates as things get started.
Related posts:
- WSOP Main Event down to 27 players
- # 1 in my Poker League
- What Pleases Poker Farce
- The 2009 WSOP Schedule
- WSOP Main Event Final Table Is Set
Categories: Other Poker Topics
