DFS Football 101: Important Tips for New Players, Round 2

Last week, I wrote an article entitled "Important Tips for New Players" where I covered the research process and how to pick your Defense and Kickers. After writing the article, I had a list of about 20 more topics I could have written about, so I decided to develop this into a series. Let's face it: there is not much to read about on a Monday or Tuesday until we start getting injury news, so this is a nice break in the week for you to get started with.

I tried to put myself into the shoes of a beginner or lower-stakes player and recall when I first got started in daily fantasy sports. There are so many things involved in being a successful daily fantasy sports player that go beyond simply "picking the right players" that we often take for granted that people just "know what to do". Some weeks I will have a lot of words on a couple topics while others will be just a few words on several topics. Let's get started.

Don't panic when the inactive report comes out on Sunday morning

So think about Sunday morning, you are getting your lineups ready, figuring out what sites to play on, entering contests, and BAM the inactive reports start to come out. Low and behold, there are a few players that impact your situation. Chris Ivory is out, giving T.J. Yeldon some play. How do you handle this? Well, I only looked at it on DraftKings because Spencer Ware and Yeldon had similar salaries. I didn't want 100 percent exposure to Ware in case something happened and he laid an egg, so I put Yeldon in about 20 percent of those lineups. Granted, Ware had a great game and Yeldon was barely playable, but it was about the process, not the result, here. It wasn't even an option on FanDuel because the salaries were so far apart.

The takeaway from the Sunday inactive report is not to blow up the teams you spent all week researching and building. If an opportunity presents itself and you can make a small change to give yourself more of an edge, then do it. But if it means that you have to start tinkering with your lineups on several players, I would advise you stand pat with your original lineups. If one of your key players is out, then make sure you have a backup plan in place for a plug-and-play. Remember, I wrote about the research process last week. If you come in prepared, then it will not be an issue.

Plan what contests you are playing in before Sunday kickoff

Start getting a feel for what contests you are going to play in prior to Sunday morning. Build a dummy lineup as a placeholder and get into the contests ahead of time. This will help save time Sunday morning so you are not scrambling in the crowded contest lobby. Get the percent of cash games and tournament ahead of time. If there is an opportunity for overlay, you can always wait until five or ten minutes prior to kickoff and then enter those as well.

An example would be a $100 bankroll -- $50 on FanDuel and $50 on DraftKings.

Enter $5-$10 in tournaments on each site. Look for single-entry or small-field tournaments with 500 or less entries.

Then, enter $45-$50 in H2H, 50/50, or Double Ups. Beginners should stick with single-entry 50/50s.

Play in smaller game sets

One of the most overlooked daily fantasy football strategies for beginner or smaller-stakes players is looking at the alternative game sets. These are Sunday 1 PM Only or Sunday Late (4 pm, SNF, MNF) types of contests. By having to only research about only half or one-third of the games on the full slate, things become easier to digest. Also, most of the sharks stay away from these contests because the prize pools are significantly smaller. There is still plenty of money to be made in these game sets.

Play in smaller tournaments

If you are playing under $100 per week, you really need to be focused on building a bankroll and not trying to chase money in a tournament with over 100,000 people. I know the allure of trying to win a million dollars is hard to pass up and putting one entry in at $3 is fine, but just don't chase them. Prize pools are what draws everyone in, but what most new players fail to realize is that your solo entry is going up against a lot of players who are putting in hundreds of lineups to cover all the bases.

So, look at tournaments with 100-500 entries and prize pools around $100-$5000. You would be surprised how quickly you can build a bankroll in these contests if you have a hot week. Taking a $5 entry and turning it into $250 is still 50 times your money and will allow you to start playing in the $10 range the following week. The mega prize pool tournaments are very top heavy to the point where you might only triple your money on a very good lineup, whereas in a smaller-field tournament you could land 5x or higher.