Handicapping the 2012 DFBC: Who's the Favorite?
Back in December I thought it would be fun to write a column where I “handicapped” the field of the FFFC. I got such a great response from the piece, that I suppose I have become the Mike Battaglia and Danny Sheridan of Daily Fantasy Sports and I get to “set the line” for these huge events. I have had a chance to size most of these guys up during our podcast interviews (which were terrific….thanks fellas) and hopefully nobody takes any real offense to being considered a long shot (I am pretty sure Oneshot1819 hated me for his 40/1 price tag I put on him in ’11 FFFC). This is all done in good fun, but I did have it right when Beermakerfan won the FFFC.
Dusty Jordan DustyJ155 – Tom Petty said it best when he sang “Waiting…is the hardest part”. Nobody has waited longer than Dusty who was the week 1 qualifier and he has had plenty of time to think about his strategy in the finals. I’m surprised he has not been playing more often with only 2 cashes in June and 3 in July and his total take in Daily Fantasy Sports is a shade of $1200. He only has to have one good day to take down $100K, but his inexperience worries me in this event. 40-1
Jared Amell Jamell4 – This high school football coach has cranked up his play big time since his win in week 2 with over $103,000 in total winnings just this baseball season. The fact that he is consistently throwing his name in some $270 3-man games shows me he has a ton of confidence in his picks right now. He is definitely going to be a player to look out for on Sunday. 15-1
Jim Bores Risingstar – This guy loves playing the GPP’s so much that he continued to enter the DFBC even AFTER he won the seat. With FanDuel only awarding 1 seat per player, I found it to be somewhat of a curious move, but the fact that I noticed he was playing means that he was near the top of the leaderboard which is always tough in a field of 1500+ participants. 
He has not played a whole lot this July, so it will be interesting to see how makes out on Sunday. 20-1
Craig Snyder Stewburtx8 – Craig is one of the guys toting the Rotogrinders flag this year in the DFBC, so you know he is going to have a lot of guys in the RG community pulling for him. He is a very solid daily player who plays on multiple sites, but looking at his profile I think hoops may be his best sport. Good news for this Phillies fan is Scott Hairston should be facing a lefty on Sunday and he worked pretty out pretty well for him in the qualifier. 12-1
Scott Fleming Elephant – I had a terrific time talking with Scott on the podcast and it will be interesting to see how this veteran of big money season long leagues fairs in a one day tournament with $100,000 on the line. No question this guy has the game to pull off the win. Not only did he beat a field of 1500 plus opponents, but he had to come back the next week and put up another big score during the playoff with a handful of other players (including top ranked Grinder Beermakersfan) to win the spot in Vegas. The cash winnings are not overly impressive, but I have a hunch he is going put together a good showing on Sunday. 20-1
Robert Baldes ShortyB12 – Here is another Rotogrinders member who won his trip to Vegas with an Oakland A’s stack in the qualifier. He fully admitted that RotoKevin’s Daily Plays stack recommendation of the A’s came into his decision making process that day, so hopefully he can buy him a beer if he takes down the 100 G’s. He has definitely been active on the lower limits on FanDuel and it will be interesting to see if some of those $2 games turn into $240’s with a 1st place finish this weekend. 25-1
Bob P. Trentsteele – There is no doubt that Trentsteele is the biggest dog in the DFBC final. He has amassed over $148K in total winnings on FanDuel just in the last two months! He doesn’t just play the same guys in the high limit games either as he will play in anywhere from a $5 to $535 buy in level. I know this guys ability because he has “curb stomped” DB730 on a number of occasions and will almost certainly be near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. 8-1
Danny Sawyer Bigd453 – Danny is going to be making his first ever trip to Vegas and he couldn’t ask for better circumstances than this. As a daily player he loves the large field events, but as a lot of experienced Grinders will say it is not necessarily the best idea to approach a field of 15 the same way you do a field of 1000. It will be interesting to see what strategy he goes with this weekend. 35-1
Chris Lowery Pepsi7 – Forget the champagne toast, if Chris takes it down on Sunday were are all tipping back some Pepsi’s. This Canadian is a bit new to the daily game, but I have to give the guy some credit.
He has really picked up his volume of play the last few week and looks like he is putting in the time to make a run at the title. 25-1
Jamie Robbins MLBSyndicate – If there is one guy who is not interested in just a “good” finish it’s Jamie. Somehow he was disappointed after his incredible run in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker came to an end, even though he finished in 19th place took home a cool $294,601. He is playing for keeps and if recent performance means anything the competition better watch out. He has won 2 $100 GPP’s on FanDuel this past week and considering he also bets professionally on sports, this guy definitely has a knack for predicting outcomes. 10-1
Chris Noroski Eritas – I am a big fan of ‘Mister Backwards Satire’ performance as of a late. He has been playing a good variety of games recently and looks to be having a good amount of success. He is another poker guy, so I’m guessing he won’t be taking the conservative approach Sunday. 20-1
Roger Narhi Narnar – Not really sure if NHL free agency distracted him or what, because he suddenly stopped playing much daily fantasy sports in the month of July. I know if I ever take a few days off, it usually feels like I haven’t watched in a month. I can’t imagine not being on the top of things with $100,000 on the line. With that said, I really enjoyed our conversation on the podcast, and wouldn’t mind watching our friend north of the border walk away with a nice windfall this weekend. 40-1 
Mike Romich and Darren Teixeira Nucor401 – Homie & The Bean walking away with the first place money would be one heck of a Cinderella story. We will see if two heads are better than one when these two steel workers put together the most important lineup of their lives. They are very inexperienced in daily fantasy, so they will have their work cut out for them, but I’m sure it will be one heck of a party if they manage to finish on top. 35-1
Todd Malorny Mal_nlp – I didn’t get a chance to talk with Todd on the podcast, but he definitely picked the right night to pick Bronson Arroyo. He pretty much came out of nowhere that night and did win using the stack philosophy. The big question is does he go that route again on Sunday. 30-1
Bill Carley Cardog777 – The one big advantage Bill has is he doesn’t have a whole lot of time to stress about building a $100,000 winning lineup since he only qualified a couple weeks ago. This is his first season playing on FanDuel. 25-1