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Remember way back when, all the way back to the 90s, when getting together for poker meant dealer calls it? Card games like 5 card draw, 7 card stud low Chicago, Baseball, and Guts were played. Wild cards were called with reckless abandon. It was a time before the World Poker Tour, Rounders, 80 hours of ESPN coverage on the World Series of Poker, the whole card camera, Chris Moneymaker, Party Poker, and a little game called Texas Hold’em.

He did a little bit more than just read 2 poker books and put on sunglasses.

Then Texas Hold’em stormed it’s way into poker nights around the country. Dealer call it poker nights became $20 buy in tournaments with the losers fetching beer and watching porn until somebody won. Back then most people were still playing this new game like it was 5 card draw, specifically tossing chips into the middle with almost any 2 cards. The only strategy you needed to be a “good” player in these fields was a 80% fold rate.

But flash forward over 10 years and the games have tightened up. There are a ton of poker resources online and in dead tree form at Barnes and Noble. Most of the guys in your poker night have now played online, gotten their ass kicked, and decided to learn how to play the game a little. This does not mean that you’re staring at Phil Ivey across that home made felt cover to your dining room table, but it does force you to up your game. For instance, you now may have to learn how to properly play your position to gain that advantage.

It’s called the evolutionary arms race that Darwin wrote about and it takes place in any competitive system.

You gotta stay ahead of the prey, or you're gonna end up with that ACME anvil upside your own head.

The same thing is currently happening in your fantasy league. There are hundreds of resources where your competition is getting fantasy advice. You’ve seen the cheat sheets on draft day becoming more sophisticated and your opponents start spewing “conventional wisdom” like “draft running backs in the first two rounds”.

But the thing about “conventional wisdom” is that by the time it becomes conventional you better be figuring out ways to adjust away from them. You always need to zig when they zag. Stay a couple steps ahead of the pack. Predator and not the prey.

Many experts have been quietly suggesting for a few years now that the 2 running back strategy had run it’s course. Part of this is due to the viral popularity of the dreaded running back by committee, but it’s also because your entire league is following the same “wisdom”. It just doesn’t work anymore. Now there are still enough solid fundamentals behind it that you don’t scrap it completely, but you should already be tweaking the first couple rounds on your cheat sheet with some “Best Player Available”.

Every fifth day he gives us a reason to pay attention to the Royals.

And this finally gets us around to pitchers. Conventional wisdom has been giving them a bad rap lately. It says to draft the more dependable hitters first, fill in your roster with Low Investment Mound Aces (LIMA) later, never pay for saves, etc. Matt Berry’s take over at ESPN fantasy is a large reason that these strategies are getting more penetration lately. Enough years of seeing them in the Draft Day Manifesto and even the slower players in your league are starting to catch on.

So what does this mean? Well, you have to stay flexible. These strategies have some solid background but if you start to see more people on draft day following them, be prepared to zig. Grab Papelbon at $9 at that mixed auction if everybody else in your league is sitting on their hands not paying for saves. Don’t be afraid to grab a Greinke in the late 3rd round if everybody else is taking a pass on the Royals stud.

There seems to be some depth this year at a lot of offensive stat categories, so don’t be afraid to go after that ace at the right price. Just make sure you’re staying a couple steps ahead of the pack.

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