Sweating Games and Players is Debilitating

Sweating, in gambling terms, is rooting for a particular team or player while not in the game. Betting makes otherwise boring games interesting and generally adds fun to watching sports, but it is often completely debilitating: incapacitating otherwise rational people. This is especially true in MLB DFS where every player matters, and even the best fail to reach base upwards of 60% of the time.

I am generally productive in the mornings to early afternoon: I work out, run errands, walk the dogs, and work on my lineups. But once lineups lock at 4pm PST, I find it nearly impossible to concentrate on any task while sweating. The building stress of watching my players fail while the players I could have taken or the ones my opponents have succeed for 6 hours is physically, emotionally, and psychologically draining.

I often find myself laying in bed from 6-9pm, watching 4-5 streams of different games, all the while miserable regardless of how I'm doing. If I am losing, I'm paralyzed clinging to hope that something could happen to change the outcome. If I am winning, I'm paralyzed while watching things that could ruin my night. If I'm breaking even, it's even worse because then I likely have to watch out for twice as many possible things that could change the outcome. No matter what my EV is around this time of day, I am paralyzed and incapable of productive work.

Detaching

In poker it was easier to remain unemotional: hands are quick, independent, and the randomness in cards is obvious. But it's tougher to see randomness in sport, and every event in every game matters for the overall result of a lineup. Further, since I'm less confident in my MLB DFS ability than I am in NFL or NBA or I was in poker, I beat myself up and second guess every decision afterwards.

This blog has a dual purpose. The first is a sort of catharsis: by typing out, analyzing, and labeling the emotions and feelings I have while removed from sweating games, I can hopefully be more rational and unemotional about them while it happens. The second is to institute some rules for productivity that will help me detach emotionally.

Productive activities while games are ongoing:

• Daily lineups blog and analysis: 30-60 minutes.
• Play later slates with at least 6 games: 10 minutes per slate.
• Register for next day's contests: 20 minutes.
• Go to the gym: 60 minutes.
• Meditate: 10 minutes.
• Write down noteworthy things seen to increase intuition in close spots. i.e. A pitcher's velocity is lower than usual, perhaps manually downtick his projection next game.

Take for instance last night: within an hour I knew I was for sure winning on Yahoo and would have at worst a breakeven day. Instead of looking at this positively as if I was freerolling, I stressed over my Draftkings and Fantasydraft lineups for the next 5 hours hoping I could win on one of the sites to have a profitable day. I wrote my blog and played one of the later slates, but had I registered, taken notes, and went to the gym, not only would I have spent at least 90 minutes less stressed out, but the endorphins released by working out and meditating create a positive feedback loop and further reduce stress. I also free up more time later, as I had to spend 20 minutes registering around midnight.

Tonight my main goal is to remain detached and stoic: I would rather lose money but play well and keep stress minimized than to scoop every site while torturing myself.

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My name is Ryan Daut and I'd love to have you as a follower. Click here to go to my page, then click in the upper right corner if you would like to see my blogs and articles regularly.

I am a professional gambler, and my interests include poker, fantasy sports, football, basketball, MMA, health and fitness, rock climbing, mathematics, astrophysics, cryptocurrency, and computer gaming.