If you want to improve at DFS, you need to find the types of contests that allow you to have success and continue to play mainly in those. This enables you not only to have a greater chance of success each week but also to improve in identifying contest specific dynamics and trends.

I am a lower-stakes, small-field tournament player. I do not play cash games, and I do not play large field GPP contests unless I am just tossing in an entry for fun. The contests I am playing in typically have 60 entrants or less. These contests are my favorite because you do not need to get as many things right to get near the top of the leaderboard. Finding the right stacks in small fields is a great example of this. Most people do not stack enough in these types of contests and finding the right stacks and leverage points is a great way to vault up to the top of the leaderboard.

Each week I will post my favorite stacks of the week, especially those that are likely to be overlooked in the small-field tournaments. I’ll also provide my results from the prior week and talk about what went right, what went wrong, and most importantly, what we can we learn.

The Tom Brady ($6300) stack ended up being pretty popular, which was expected. Raheem Mostert ($5700) got lost in the shuffle last week and came in under 5%. I got lucky with Dallas defense. If I had known they would be this highly owned I would have played another defense. Its bad process to play a chalk defense.

I came in 24th out of 64 people, which did not cash. This is the $27 Casual 1.5K Gridiron — only the top-12 cash. The dynamics are much different from the ones where high-stakes DFS players can enter. For example, Leonard Fournette ($7400) and Alvin Kamara ($6700) were significantly lower owned in this contest. This will allow me to play more of the best projected players moving forward without having to be as concerned about the ownership getting out of control. Which is great in small-fields. So play these casual contests if you can!