Fantasy Football (and a political rant)

I'll just get my poker talk out of the way and say that I've played 13 hrs in cash games and am stuck $800. My all in ev line is at +$1200 though. As for mtts I'm down another $1200 so not exactly a robust start to the month. I do have to say that my effort time wise is not good. I'm probably feeling too complacent after having a good month last month. I mentioned earlier I tend to do so and need to work on this. To be fair I've had my parents over for a few days and wanted to spend some time w/ them. Also it's almost NFL season which means 1 thing for me....fantasy football!

If there's one degenerate aspect of my life that would be fantasy football. If there's one blog post I hope my wife never reads, this would be it. I tend to go overboard in side action...maybe that's because I've been crushing it the last 2 years. I'm in a $500, $1k, and a $3k buyin league this year. That's $4500 in buyins which is probably about 1/10th in side actions, almost all of it in the 3dime league. There are some big degens (big gamblers is more appropriate I guess, or maybe it isn't) in the 3dime including Erick Lindgren, Brett Richey, and Matt Woodward and I have a lot of weekly and total points bets w/ them. Just about everybody in the 3 leagues are professional poker players except for the nickel league which has 1 non poker player (and yet he's the best ff manager in the league, go figure).

The nickel league is a friends' league that I've been a part of for several years and we have a mandatory $50 weekly bet vs each team along w/ the standard payoffs for 1st and 2nd place and for total pts leader. It's a 8 team full ppr (points per reception) league that starts 2 qbs and has 2 flex spots so it's unique. I managed to win the league last year. I won about $3k in it but better yet won a yahoo tshirt proclaiming me league champ for the year which is awesome because I get to wear it every sunday when I get together w/ my league buddies to watch games. I can happily point to my shirt whenever someone points out so and so on my team sucks. Childish, yeah, priceless, definitely.

As for the team I'm ok w/ it but felt like I could've done a slightly better job drafting it. I had the 6th pick (out of 8) and went w/ Gore in rd 1. I think I screwed up taking Tony Gonzalez over Arian Foster and Michael Bush over a couple of different other backs inc. Ahmad Bradshaw in the mid stages of the draft. Out of all the drafts, I felt like I did the poorest job here but luckily it is the cheapest buyin. I do come in as the reigning champ and hopefully I can become the league's 1st back to back champ. Nickel team....


















Now the 1dime league is a new league for me. It's a mid stakes nl cash game players' league comprised of guys from 2+2. I don't know most of the guys in the league but I play against most on a daily basis in the cash games so I trust them (please don't check raise me anymore guys). I do know the man, the myth, the legend AeJones (high stakes pro, lead instructor at leggo poker). He is actually a pretty cool guy that I've met over the summer at the WSOP and is pretty down to earth and into sports (traits that I like to think I share). I'm trying to work on becoming the man, the myth, the legend myself but got a long ways to go. I think I'm at the footnote right now.

Obviously as true to form for good online players, this league is comprised mostly of young guys. I probably brought up the avg. age of guys in the league from 23 to 30 w/ my participation. I wonder if I would've ever been allowed in if they knew I was in my mid 30s. Too late now fellas! I was going in thinking "sweet, bunch of young guys who crush online poker, probably a bunch of degens....they'll probably want to wager (and lose) thousands to me!" but I'm beginning to think these guys value money more than I thought, oh well.

Anyway I was very happy w/ how the draft went. I loved getting the #2 spot out of the 12 teams. I'm bullish on AP this year and pretty much got everybody I targeted. I haven't really looked at all the teams but just the fact that this is a 12 team half ppr league I'm assuming I have one of the top 3 teams (it's all just a matter of opinion really....nah I really do have a top 3 team). The league pays top 3 spots and total pts leader so I'll be disappointed if I don't show a profit in the league. I guess I can always take their money on the poker tables (or maybe it's vice versa?). 1dime team....
















In the 3dime league there are 14 teams and it's a half ppr (.5 pts per reception). So this isn't chump change, considering the prize pool is $42,000. Top 2 teams and top 2 total pts leaders get paid. Since it is a pretty expensive league I brought in a co manager to take some of the buyin and action. His name is Hemma and is a solid internet cash game pro that lives in Vegas so it'll be cool to sweat games w/ him. Also I figure a young kid from Iowa will know a little bit about football since they're crazy about their Wolverines there (haha, I'm kidding Hemma, I know it's the Buckeyes). We have several 4 figure weekly bets and 5 figure seasonal total pts bets w/ various teams so it's not a league for the faint of heart (Hemma, get on that grind so you can cover for both of us!).

Last year I managed to come in 3rd which sucked but managed to get 2nd place in total pts which was my buyin back if I recall. I did manage to clean up in side bets and won a car, errr the cash equivalent ($25k). Sounds cooler saying I won a car in fantasy football though. We did up our side bets this year so if our team sucks I could be paying back 2 cars worth (hopefully kia's if that's the case).

An additional bet I have w/ Erick (edog) is if I beat him in total points I get a red pro deal w/ FTP, and if he beats me I have to wear a dog outfit w/ a big letter E on the front at next year's WSOP (or maybe just a simple edog tattoo on my rear end would've sufficed). Actually I'm kidding about the additional edog bet but just in case he ever reads this, the offer will be on the table...for real.

Anyway we changed our draft format from the standard snake to auction which made it very interesting. A lot of guys were rookies (inc. myself) but I felt like I had a great approach and did a good job overall getting the players I wanted. Obviously w/ 14 teams and a 3dime buyin it was very competitive and bargains were hard to find but I think I found a few. 3dime team....
















I have a 2ndary plan in place if we get pummeled... I hear Ecuador is a really cheap place to live and hard for anyone to find out if you're living there (get your passport ready Hemma!).

Anyway I'm excited for the upcoming season and to say I'll be sweating the games is an understatement. I'll be sweating and I'll be sweating (perspiration!...nah I don't really sweat perspiration...asians don't have much body hair, or does that matter??).

Now I do want to point out something. That the frick'ing gov't has no clue when it comes to regulation! They pass the UIGEA which bans payments to offshore gambling sites like online poker sites because it's the ethical thing to do (in their minds). Oh we can't let Americans play poker or bet sports on their own free will because they won't be able to control their habits and everyone will become degenerates and society will crumble as we know it. We will however, carve out an exception for betting on horses and participating in real money fantasy leagues though...how much can people lose in those endeavors anyway. Besides, horses are pretty. I think I answered that question, and the answer is sometimes a whole damn lot more than in poker! Great sense of reality Uncle Sam.

Now they really didn't think like that. The reason that happened was all political. What I mean is that the politicians were paid to vote that way for the most part. E.g. the really right Christian groups contributing millions to certain politicians to vote and impose those laws. Also the NFL contributed a lot to it. They are a very strong entity in America and have millions of dollars to bribe, oops, pay politicians to do what they ask. The reason NFL is so popular in the U.S. is because of all the gambling that is done on the sport. The NFL knows this and they know fantasy football is a form of gambling when it deals w/ real money. They know fantasy leagues create tons of new fans and viewership. There is no way in hell they'd let fantasy football leagues be a part of the UIGEA hence they contributed lots of $ to convince politicians to make an exemption for fantasy football. Sounds funny actually but that's the reality of it. ***If any of the stuff I said is incorrect, forgive me...I'm a frick'en poker player, not a CNN correspondent***

Now I guess I can protest and abstain from joining fantasy football leagues but the degeneracy in me won't allow that. Also I'm planning on winning 2 new cars from them this year so how can I pass that up?!