Rise & Grind: Thursday, January 15th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we run over yesterday’s happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
In Case You Missed it
We Goin’ to the Ship – Congratulations to Grinders Youdacao and Al_Smizzle on punching their tickets to the World Fantasy Basketball Championship on DraftKings. Youdacao won the $20 qualifier and Al_Smizzle won the $1,000 qualifier. Also, congratulations to DraftCheat for his second place finish in the $300 qualifier. The R&G has been to plenty of weddings, and hates to see the bridesmaids not get any attention. In fact, the R&G thinks that whoever accumulates the most second place finishes in qualifiers, without winning one, should also win a trip to Vegas. They wouldn’t actually compete in the event, but they could just generally enjoy being there and think about how it could have been. Maybe they could even help present the check. Make this happen, DraftKings.
McJester Wins 2014 TPOY – While on the subject of congratulations, we would be remiss not to mention that McJester won the 2014 Tourney Player of the Year. You can read all about it here. The R&G is a big fan of McJester’s work nightly in the $25 FanDuel NBA Slam. If you want to learn GPP strategy, reverse engineering McJester’s NBA rosters is a great place to start.
Showing Some Love to UFC – With only two NBA games tonight, the R&G recommends trying out a new DFS sport. If NHL, CBB and PGA just don’t do it for you, I recommend reading up on this weekend’s UFC fight. Grinder Pug_Ca has an excellent preview here and bbbomb did an excellent job with this MMA mailbag. Show these guys some love for their hard work.
On the Menu Today
On the Hardwood – After last night’s buffet of 10 games, the NBA left us nothing more than an appetizer today, with just three games. Sadly, one of those three games is taking place in London, and will tip off at 3 PM EST. If you insist on playing this slate, Notorious has you covered with his First Look. Later today, Socky will continue our Starting Five series and Notorious will provide everything you need to know, and more, in the NBA Grind Down.
On the Ice – With a less than appetizing NBA menu, the R&G recommends you feast at the table of NHL fantasy goodness. With a full slate of 10 games, there will be plenty to like tonight. The R&G doesn’t have a favorite hockey team, but is guilty of occasionally entering a team by picking players just based on last names. I recommend starting your team off with Tuukka Rask. While he is an expensive option, he offers the upside of typing “Tuuuuuuuukkkkaaaaaaaaaaa!” or “Rasssskkkkkkkkkkkk!” into chat every time he does something exciting.
Must Read NHL Offerings – If my named-based strategy is not appeasing, you can also try doing some actual NHL research. A great place to start is the NHL Daily Plays article, which will be brought to you by TheTonyM. As I often like to say about the NHL Daily Plays article, “you come for the disclaimer and stay for the picks”. There will no doubt be plenty of names to choose from, and they have the added bonus of being backed up by actual research. Once you finish the NHL Daily Plays article, you might as well top it off with some NHL GPP Plays, brought to you by Pepsi7.
Tonight’s NHL GPPs – With so much NHL content available, you need to get in on the action tonight. FanDuel is running a $20K Breakaway for only a $2 buy-in and a $15K Goal for a $25 entry. The marquee event of the night though belongs to DraftKings, as they are running a $60K Breakaway at a $100 buy-in. As of this writing, the contest is nearly two-thirds full, so you will want to reserve a spot soon, or you may miss out. This contest also accepts January Jam tickets. I’m sure you have a couple of those just laying around right? If so, you have no excuses. Get in there!
GrindersLive
5:30 EST: NHL GrindersLive – With only two NBA games tonight, there will not be an NBA show. Tonight is all about the puck picks. Our resident Canadian hockey expert, Pepsi7, joins recently crowned FanDuel DFHC finalist, dooger1234, to talk all things NHL DFS.
The R&G will begin running on a daily basis. If there something you’d like to see in this column, or if you know of a Grinder with a notable win, leave a comment below. See you tomorrow!