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Intro to NBA Cash/GPP/Bankroll Approach and How to Use the Domination Station

Intro to NBA DFS
by DFSnDONUTS

Class is in session, find a seat and let’s get to work.

*EDIT* In addition to this article, our wonderful NBA Mods have put together a page for beginners with several extremely important podcasts/articles. JUST CLICK THIS LINK

Your approach needs to be two-fold. You should have two lineups, one for cash and one for GPP. The
GPP line should have a different assortment of players so that you hedge against your cash lineup. That
way, if your cash lineup sucks then your GPP lineup likely has a chance to blow up – vice versa if the cash
line is amazing then the GPP likely sucks.

Cash approach:
Our goal is to take the most optimal lineup possible for cash. Don’t worry about ownership or anything
like that just the best possible plays and lineup. For instance, I spoke all day about Drummond and you
liked him but then talked yourself off him because you were worried about ownership – THAT’S GREAT
FOR GPP BUT HORRENDOUS FOR CASH…so for cash you would lock in Drummond as your center and
then for GPP you would make sure you didn’t even sniff Drummond’s butt and you would go elsewhere
at center.

You basically do that up and down your lineup, most optimal everywhere and ownership concerns aren’t
even a part of the process. Grab the low cost guys who might be thrust into a starting role that your
coaches have identified as supreme values due to the nature of their role in the offense when they’re a
starter (i.e. Napier) and focus on players in massive paceup/minutes up/higher implied totals for the
team situations.

Don’t enter the expensive double ups – that’s a suckers bet. If you have that money pick on the people who
aren’t as smart and play 100-200 different $1 and $2 double ups until you get to where you want with
your investment. Also, try to avoid multiple entry double ups and try to get the largest single entry
double ups possible. If that means you have to enter a bunch of $5 and $10 double ups then so be it,
just don’t enter those $200 ones and avoid that small $2 double up that is multiple entry and like 15,000
entries.

For your GPP make sure to enter a single entry GPP that is a bit smaller, a $12 GPP with 47 entrants is
WAYYYYY easier to win than making 4 different $3 entries into a massive multiple entry gpp. I would
much rather take a stab at being able to win $200 against just 46 other people. That’s how you make
money on GPPs, it’s really the ONLY way to make money playing GPPs unless you win a GPP which is like
winning a lottery ticket. Don’t chase that crap. If you have the urge then enter something like the $12
that is 47 people and then use that same lineup and enter the $3 massive GPP just in case your lineup
explodes you aren’t capped at winnings of $200, you can take home that 47 person AND the large field
GPP entry.

For your GPP lineup:
Focus on ownership a bit here. If Steph Curry is going to be chalk but Chris Paul is at a comparable price
point, then the pivot is to Paul. If the entire field was going to be on Damian Lillard, then leverage that
ownership and use CJ McCollum because he will be so low owned as everyone has their Blazers
exposure on Lillard so you can leverage the ownership of the field by using someone else that has a high
ceiling on the same team that if McCollum went off would hurt Lillard and his DFS owners.

Use guys the field has been burned by recently. Use guys in very good spots but maybe not the top spot
(those guys are normally the most popular – i.e. Cousins last night was the top owned center but I used
Drummond and he was in a superb spot and 9% ownership). You don’t need to go off the wall with who
you use and take some random punt that likely will never work out – it is simple as just taking the 2nd or
3rd best option, not some wacky off the wall bum on off the bench.

For the DS Optimizer:
For GPPs it can be as simple as “well, Drummond and Dragic are NOT in my cash
lineup but I want exposure to them tonight….Porzingis is IN the cash lineup and I don’t really love him
but see credence to using him so I’ll leave him in cash and take him out of GPP…….So, I love Drummond
tonight, I love the spot that Dragic is in, I don’t want to touch Kristapz Porzingis – so I am going to LOCK
Drummond and Dragic, and X out Porzingis and click optimize. Boom. That’s a GPP lineup.

It doesn’t take much massaging in the optimizer – you guys overthink this crap way too much. X out a
few of the guys showing up in your cash lineup, lock in a few guys you KNOW you want in your GPP
lineup. Run two lineups – one cash, one GPP.

Then once you run it for GPP and you see JR Smith pops up in the SG spot and you don’t want him in the
GPP lineup, then simply X him out and re-run it with the same everything already set. Continue to do so
until you are like, yep this is the one.

While I am ranting and teaching – Stop entering 100-man contests. They are too hard for NBA. Some
sports they’re great for making money but they are a money pit in NBA.

If you want to run a variation of the ladder that will maximize your ROI while also protecting your
bankroll:
Let’s say I had $20 to spend that night:
$1 single entry dribbler (297 person)
$1 single entry dribbler (the large one like 15,000 people)
$2 quintuple (the smallest one you can find)
6- H2H’s at the $1 level
5- double ups at the $2 level but as big as you can get them. don’t enter those stupid 56-person ones

This can be applied on both FanDuel and DraftKings.

Lastly, and most importantly, I am still blown away every single night by members saying, “crap, I didn’t see any notification that player X was out and that player Z was an elite play, how’d you miss that coaches?”. Then twenty members quickly reply “nba-notes-and-news” channel posted it twenty minutes ago with a stats breakdown and analysis. For the final 15-minutes of the pre-lock time, if you aren’t hanging around there or don’t have NOTIFICATIONS ON for that channel, then you are doing it wrong.

Your four NBA coaches and their channels are as follows:

DFSnDONUTS: #donuts-nba-nfl-mlb
AdotWalsh: #adotwalsh-nba-mlb
MrBearHere: #the-bear-cave-nba
BoomersDaddy: #boomersdaddy-nba-mlb

Again, the most important channel the final 15-minutes of NBA Lock is the #nba-notes-and-news channel. That’s where you will find ALL the notes posted by your coaches AND all pertinent information due to scratches, injuries, pivots, and analysis on how to benefit from these situation. Turn the notifications on for that channel in Slack.

Best of luck,
Donuts

*EDIT* Our wonderful NBA Mods have put together a page for beginners with several extremely important podcasts/articles. JUST CLICK THIS LINK

Make sure to give that a read next before you begin to try to build your bankroll and/or take down a GPP (preferably a smaller one that you have better odds to win rather than losing money chasing a large field GPP lottery ticket).