Having a five or six-figure winner isn’t a new thing or the DFS Army. As a matter of fact, we have had about a dozen over the past two years. Our largest ever was a $380,000 winner in NFL last season. More recently we had a $50,000 winner in Nascar, $120,000 at the end of the NBA season, a handful of five-digit wins during the summer for MLB, and now this gem that I will be breaking down that took second place and won $150,000 in the FanDuel Sunday Million contest.
In Week 5 of the NFL season, DFS Army VIP member, “jhawkfan25” fired eight bullets into the Fanduel Sunday Million. This was his second place lineup:
It was a fantastic lineup with the perfect blend of leveraging the field, using our content, and applying the strategies and coaching that we give all of our members as part our VIP membership package.
When asked by other members how he contrived such a phenomenal lineup, this was his response:
The reference he made to the “Stacks on the site”, was a VIP only article (not available to the public). While we do release more than a dozen free articles weekly for the public, we go incredibly deep in our analysis in our VIP only articles and Slack conversations. Good information for everyone to consume will definitely help you create lineups. The truly great information and discussions had on Slack will be the boost you need to take down GPPs. That’s where we will often discuss our personal strategies and reveal our own player pools and approach to any given slate.
Deconstructing the $150,000 winning lineup
jhawkfan25 used the Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins, and Travis Kelce stack directly out of my Stacks on Stacks column. One way we teach getting leverage on the field, particularly in large GPP’s, is to stack games we believe will play to the over. Game stacks are a great way to ensure exposure to high scoring games. By using a triple game stack, jhawkfan25 effectively raised the scoring ceiling of his lineup.
From there, he did a great job “leveraging” the ownership of the field, by using Leanord Fournette against the heavily owned Steelers defense. This was a very savvy move because it also allowed him to pivot off of Todd Gurley at a similar price point.
He then used Joe Mixon, who was highly owned in Week 4 and let a lot of people down, in his second running back slot. This was a great recency bias play, as many owners we afraid to go back to the well after being burned by Mixon just one week earlier.
At wide receiver, along with Hopkins, he used Davante Adams, who was the lowest owned Green Bay Packers pass catcher, likely because of the concerns of coming back off a brutal concussion he suffered in Week 4. “Geek” had mentioned that Adams would be low owned and he was on his top player picks list. Geek also touted Adams in Slack all week. It was a brazen move, but one that paid off in spades.
Another high leverage situation presented itself in Week 5, and the coaches on Slack mentioned this one often throughout the week to members. By fading Le’Veon Bell in a perceived smash spot, we could leverage the field (and his 40% ownership) by using Antonio Brown. Under the assumption that if Bell fails to meet value then someone else likely picked up the offensive slack, jhawkfan25 used Brown as his final wide receiver. He did a great job putting the best lineup together against the field (ownership) rather than putting the best lineup out based on matchups. This is critical for large field GPP contests and something we reiterate to members as often as we can.
As jhawkfan25 believed the Texans and Chiefs game was going to hit the over, it only made sense to roll out Harrison Butker at kicker, believing he would likely get many kicking opportunities by the end of the game if the over hit. As with most kicking situations, we preach to our members to select kickers on teams with a high implied team tota (ITT), or at least on a team where we believe they will outscore their ITT. Butker fit the mold perfectly, as we discussed on our weekly podcast that this was the sneakiest game of the week to stack.
At defense, he used the Miami Dolphins, who the boss man “Geek”, mentioned over and over throughout the week and on the podcast. The Dolphins were one of his favorite defensive choices in Week 4. As a top 100 ranked heavyweight on RotoGrinders, when Geek drops his articles or VIP only podcast (a secondary listen for members only), the staff and members perk up. He heavily influenced this lineup with his takes and research.
We couldn’t be more happy for jhawkfan25 and the success he has achieved. The money is life changing for his family and he is genuinely a good person. We are going to interview him and release the podcast on our iTunes account. This way we can all revel in his success and hear about his experience as it all unfolded.
The wins just keep rolling in!
If you thought that was our only big win of the weekend you’d be mistaken. Along with jhawkfan25’s lineup, it was one of several that pulled in thousands in Week 5. Without cluttering up this article with images of all of the successful “ladders” (our investment strategy that we created for how to enter your bankroll weekly), I will tell you that dozens of members won hundreds upon hundreds using this strategy. It truly was a special weekend for our members.
In addition to the strategy success, we had another member win $5,000 on DraftKings in a large field GPP and even had the boss man, Geek, take second place in one of the primetime slates on Fanduel.
Our optimizer, the Domination Station, is incredibly unique and unlike anything else available on the DFS market. Over the past several weeks, we have had more than a dozen winners over $1,000 during the primetime slates. By implementing our stacking strategies and tweaking projections, members are taking full advantage of a tool we have put two years of research and development into. If you’re intrigued go ahead and check out this video. It’s a tutorial and sneaks a peek at what type of product we provide our members.
Our members and coaches create a type of bond that goes beyond fantasy sports discussion and DFS coaching. Often you’ll find members and staff sharing conversations about life in general, sports, family, work, stressors, and testimonies. It’s a really unique community and one that drove me to leave every other company I was working for at the time to focus on this one. If you’re playing as a hobby there is a place for you here. If you’re playing as a means to a secondary income, join the club, as hundreds of members are (including the 18 staff members). If you’re trying to make this a career, then we implore you to join our community, use our services, tools, articles, podcasts, research station, domination station optimizer, and last but not least – our members only Slack for over 1,000-plus members.
Lastly, if you’re trying to make this a career, then we implore you to join our community, use our services, tools, articles, podcasts, research station, domination station optimizer, and last but not least – our members only Slack for over 1,000-plus members. You can join via this link or take a sneak
You can join via this link or take a sneak peek at our available options with this one. No matter what you choose, we cannot wait to hear from you and work with you in Slack. In addition to our website and content, being able to talk with you in a group setting or one on one is what really makes this company, and its members, so special.
You can find me on Twitter @DFSnDONUTS where I post my daily articles and love to interact with my followers.
**Editor Note** Would you like to try out a VIP DFS Army Subscription for free?
Do you want access to the most advanced Daily Fantasy Sports tools in the industry? How about the chance to talk player picks and lineups with our DFS Pros and like-minded players? DFS Army VIP Members get all of that PLUS access to our best in the industry projections and optimization tools. Go to DFS Army VIP membership and join the Army today! You won’t find a better deal or a better DFS team to join!