Interview: David "headChopper" Kaplen Wins SECOND $1,000,000 NFL DFS Prize
One of RotoGrinders’ OGs, David ‘headChopper’ Kaplen, has won his second $1,000,000 GPP prize, this time in Week 15 of the 2020 NFL season.
Kaplen took home first place in the $3.5M WFFC Fan Championship and added a fifth-place finish for good measure. You may remember that headChopper has already won $1,000,000 in a FanDuel NFL DFS tournament back in Week 1 of the 2019 season.
The final standings:
His winning lineup:
We caught up with Kaplen and he answered some questions about his big win.
Congrats on your second $1,000,000 win! How does it feel the second time around?
It feels great. I doubt it would ever stop feeling great.
Both of your seven-figure victories have come on FanDuel. Do you play similar action on both FanDuel and DraftKings generally? Why do you suppose you’ve had more large-field GPP success on FanDuel?
I do play similar action on both sites. I have had some decent success on DraftKings but nowhere near the outcomes on FanDuel.
If I had to say why, I think it’s because the salary cap is generally a little looser over on FD. On DraftKings, you need to be ready and willing to play cheaper value guys to fit in star players. I’m generally not good at that. FanDuel allows me to typically worry more about the hierarchy of the good players as opposed to chasing value guys.
What is your typical research process for a week of NFL? What resources do you utilize? What factors do you take into consideration most when constructing lineups?
I start looking at players on Wednesday. I start to narrow down a pool of players, and then I’ll whittle it down even more on Thursday and Friday. I’ll add players if the right news rolls in, but mainly keep trying to get the pool down by Sunday morning.
To help, I use all sorts of different things: Rankings from RG, projections from THE BLITZ, articles and videos. Most of it is just for entertainment, but almost every week I will hear or read a nugget that helps. When I make a lineup I am always on the lookout for upside. I don’t like guys that feel like they have a limited chance of going for that big game.
Talk a little about your pool-building process for Week 15 and go into detail on how you wound up on the $1,000,000-winning lineup.
I narrowed things down as usual, and then on Sunday I added a few guys based on news. The most notable was Tony Pollard. Leonard Fournette was a late week addition due to the news on Ronald Jones.
Jalen Hurts was one of five QBs I really liked. I didn’t pair him because I don’t like to force correlation plays when they don’t need to be there. He is a runner and spreads it out, so he’s better left as a solo play.
David Montgomery has been on fire, was in a decent matchup and was going to come in under 10% owned, so he made the player pool. I thought DeAndre Hopkins was the best WR on the slate (I believe I had him ranked at the top on my rankings that week on RG). I made several teams, but he made that one for sure because he did correlate well with Jalen Hurts. It wasn’t forced at all.
Marvin Jones was a late addition to my player pool when they announced Matthew Stafford would start. Robert Woods was in my player pool because I liked the matchup versus the Jets and I like his touchdown upside on FanDuel. Travis Kelce is the best tight end out there and I could afford to spend up here with the value RBs on Sunday.
Any special purchases planned with the winnings?
Yeah, when the after-Christmas sale hits, I’m getting a new washer/dryer set.
What advice would you give to a new DFS player looking to win big?
Loosen up if you want to win in big GPPs. I could comb through numbers for hours building a cash game lineup because you want to get it perfect. In large-field tournaments, you should realize that meticulous nature is a detriment. Just loosen up and build a roster that ends up not having any weak links on it.
You have been a contributor at RotoGrinders for a long time now. How has it been to see the RG community and DFS industry grow first-hand? Any special memories stick out along the way?
It’s been pretty incredible watching the growth of RG and DFS in general. I always knew it was going to happen because it is a great entertainment industry.
I have too many memories to count. The pizza place at the first RG party, all the shows with the different personalities, but one that stands out was the first-ever FanDuel basketball event in Las Vegas. Taking down first place was a blast. I did it with plenty of RG support from DB, Noto and all the guys that weekend. Collecting that check showed me and the people around me that this industry was here to stay and big things were in store for all of us.
Lastly, you are considered an OG in the DFS industry and have already accomplished a lot, but do you have any future goals you’d like to hit?
Football has been good to me. Now I’d like to win a milly in NBA.
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Thanks to Chop for taking the time to answer some questions. Give him some love for the incredible achievement in the comments section!