Bankroll Tales: $3 to $158 in 81 Contests

It was right around four months ago, and the feeling of despair had set in for me. You probably know what I’m talking about. There’s a pit in your stomach; a touch of embarrassment. You’ve never been happier to join headChopper in turning off ESPN to watch American Idol, because you don’t want any part of the late NBA game on the West Coast. You don’t want to watch it, and you don’t need to. The combination of your lineup’s atrocious play earlier in the night coupled with wagering your entire bankroll on said lineup means you’re all but guaranteed to be waking up with a goose-egg in the My Account section of your favorite Daily Fantasy site. My bankroll on FSL was gone.

For me, that night was November 26th, 2010. You know you’re dealing with a spooky night when Andris Biedrins drops 28 points. Despite the losses, something clicked that night. I was fed up. I didn’t have to make any promises to myself or set any goals. I was committed to practicing good bankroll management from there on out. The next morning I logged in with the intentions of transferring money from another site to FSL in order to replenish my funds…but lo and behold I found a surprise waiting for me: a $3.00 balance in my account. Apparently I had squeaked into 2nd place at the last minute in a 10-man $1 entry on FSL. I had never been more excited about $3.00 in my entire life. The shame of the re-deposit drifted away as my excitement grew. It was time for a challenge.

A Chip and a Chair

With the awful feeling from the night before still fresh on my mind, I decided that I’d do the best I could with this $3 balance, and not re-deposit. If nothing else, it would be a fun challenge. If you had to pick a site to only have a $3 balance on, FSL surely would be it. Not only are they the only site which offers $1 leagues, but the contests also boast no-rake! In addition, FSL has ‘Beginner’ leagues which are limited to players with less than 100 total wins on their site, and overall their site has arguably the best rake structure in the industry. The Beginner Leagues are nice, because they essentially prevent new players from being ‘sniped’ up by the expert sharks on the site. For me, it gave me breathing room to re-build, while Kaiseroll13 and PrimeTime420 feasted on other competition. I was still relatively new to FSL at this point, so this gave me an added layer of security. It was time to get on the grind.

I set the plan of sticking to only $1 contests for the foreseeable future. The $1’s are only offered in the 10-man variety, so I had to run good right away to dodge the re-deposit…and that I did. I won two of the first 3 ten-man contests I entered, and continued to cash in them consistently moving forward. When I had grinded my bankroll above $20, I began to take some shots in the $2.50+.20 Beginner Heads-Up Contests. I maintained this strategy for December and January, hoping the combination of the soft-fields and little-to-no rake would create some positive expected value for my lineups.

I continued to reap the benefits of this new-found discipline as my bankroll slowly climbed to around $35. At that point, I decided to take my first $5 contest shot, in the 50-man Large-Field Friday on February 25th. I had done a lot of research that day and was confident in my picks, and I wound up winning the contest for $100. With other entry fees and losses factored in for that day, my bankroll now sat at $117. I continued to grind the $1’s and the $2.50 Beginner Contests on FSL, but with the big score I was now comfortable throwing some $5 contests into the mix as well (almost all being ‘Beginners’ though). When all was said and done, I was able to run the $3.00 up to $157.97 over the course of 81 Entries. I still haven’t cracked the FSL Leaderboard, which means that I’m [probably, pretty easily] under 90 total wins. Who knows what will happen when I lose the 100 win shark-barrier? For now, I’m content with my new-found patience and the FSL game structure for beginners.

Cameron MacMillan
RotoGrinders.com Fantasy Content Manager

Special Thanks: to Blinders at FSL for sending me my Contest History to verify the numbers in this blog.