Larejo is a mid-stakes tournament mastermind who specializes in outmaneuvering 150-max players with a small number of entries
It’s important to note this week that I could probably pick any situation(s) and describe how and why they can hit, and it would be fitting for Week 18. When sitting to write this week, I can’t help but start with that statement. Week 18 is an all-around mess, but that’s what makes it beautiful. Wherever and however you have conviction, you should feel empowered to build around those players or situations and tell the story that works to win a large-field tournament. The spirit of Willing to Lose is exactly this – to identify the “Week 18” situations each week and lean into them to have some fun and profit. That’s where the problem lies this week, as the “Week 18” situations are the entire slate 🙂 So here we are…
In years past, my strategy heading into this slate would be a bit thin. It’s far more exciting to identify players whom you’ve never heard of prior to this week and daydream about them having career days. Build-a-players will still seem to be all over the fields on Red Zone on Sunday, as you’ll get teams like the Eagles, Rams, Chiefs, and more resting most of their core guys. But as I’ve matured (tried to) as a DFS player, the way to play in Week 18 which will win you the most money over time is by understanding the probabilities and leaning into the likelier spots on the teams and players being overlooked. As I wrote earlier in the week, this eliminates at least six teams from my stacks list, as we still want to back the teams expected to produce offensively in their games.
