Hi guys! I thought I'd write a little bit about the trials and tribulations of running a pool with close friends. My own pool started out as a one year until I was able to convince the majority on the benefits of even the shallowest of keeper pools. It is surely a challenge and here's the main reason why.

THE CAST OF CHARACTERS..................

AVERAGE JOE - These friends are surely the most entertaining friends to have in your pool. They always show up on draft day with a 6 pack of their favorite micro brew and are completely unprepared. They are constantly looking over your shoulder and asking if anyone has a hockey pool magazine that they can borrow, drunk by the 3rd round, make one pick that causes a laugh in the crowd , and can even try to draft the same player twice.

They usually watch about 30 home team games and tune in for the playoffs. Their hockey knowledge is limited and they tend to like the one year points only pools....."Can we do a box pool?"..... These friends are the most difficult to convince of a keeper format. They want simple and easy. Where beer drinking and hanging out with friends is the main reason for participation.

HOME TEAM DIE-HARD - These friends can be just as entertaining as the Average Joe. They are usually drunk by the 2nd round, draft homers above market value, and take forever making their picks. At least the Average Joe doesn't ask questions and quickly takes the next available player on his borrowed projection list!

They watch 82 emotional games of their home team, throw things at the TV when their team is losing, threatens to switch allegiances when their team falters, and always watches the playoff with their eyes closed. Their extended hockey knowledge comes from the Hot Stove, Pierre McGuire or a cursed argument with a TV protected Nick Kypreos. They are open to simple keeper formats, but have trouble seeing past the proven 60 pt players. Their early picks are usually quite solid, but by the end of the draft? Not so much.
They always end up picking an AHL bound Redden type with the thought that he'll be on their NHL team's active roster. Alcohol usually plays a factor in the late rounds for the Home Team Die-hard. "What do you mean Heatley plays for the Wild?"

DIEHARD - These types of friends always show up over prepared on draft day. Their picks are instantly ready for every round, they tend to draft too many "potential break out players", live in a fantasy that the pool is deeper than it really is, end up completely sober or completely drunk for the duration of the draft, brings 3 hockey pool mags, and have a detailed 'for his eyes only' custom projection list secretly hidden in their underwear. They tend to want a deeper keeper format with tons of statistic crunching rules and are never satisfied.

The die-hard is completely addicted to all things hockey, watches 70+ home games including playoffs every year, watches a ton of other games on random networks, spends hours researching players and teams, spends a hot July 1st glued to free agency news, and get's a "dobber rules" tattoo on his ass after a drunken night in Mexico. Draft Day is one of their favorite days of the year. Sad bastard.


WANNA BE DIE HARD - Wishes they were die-hard, but they have a wife, kids, and no extra time to immerse themselves into the abyss of hockey pools. Poor bastard...... RIP

In Summary, all of these close friends make the pool fun, but definitely challenging in respect to getting everyone on board for keeper growth as an administrator.

Hope you enjoyed the read!

haha, thought i was a die hard but the wife and kids puts me in the wanna be die hard.

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10 team Keeper Roto League
4C-4LW-4RW-6D-2G-5bench-unlimited farm.

C= crosby,m.koivu,malkin,zajak,grabovski,j.jokinen,
LW= ovechkin,nash,s.gagner,dubinsky
RW= downie,hemsky,callahan,voracek,perry,mueller
D= green,doughty,phaneuf,wisniewski,girardi,karlsson
G= rask,lundqvist,ward,price

FARM=kreider,grachev,petrov,enroth,kuznetsov,ennis ,rundblad,bjugstad,radulov,montoya, adam,t.erixon,cowan,s.elliot,j.faulk,cormier,petro v,orlov,stone,eakin,grigorenko,silfverberg,brodin, atkinson

--G,A,P,PPP,SHP,GWG,PIMS,+/-,SOG,hits,FOW,blocks-Wins,GAA,SV%,saves,SO

Great post!

haha too funny and too true

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Thats me on the street with a violin under my chin, playing with a grin, singing gibberish.





P=1 DPts=1.2 +/-=.32 PIM=.08 PPP=.4 SHP=.6 S=.015 Blk=.2 Hit=.08
W=2 OTL=.8 GA=-.64 SV=.08 SO=3

Pro (23 keep 17)
C- Filppula,Turris,Stastny,Backstrom
D-Boyle,MDZ,Karlsson,Robidas,Goligoski,Schenn,Seiden berg
G-Anderson,Hiller,Rinne
LW-Malone,Parise,Rolston,Eriksson,Ruutu
RW-Alfredsson,Callahan,Setoguchi,Brown,Ryder,Vrbata

Farm (9 keep all, max 200 GP, 100 Goalies)
Colborne,Leblanc,Loktionov,Perreault,Tangradi,Blum ,Poulin,Markstrom

+ rep to you for the laugh stick boy

you can add this habit to the list of ''average joe''' habits .

usually 3 or 4 times throughout the draft its his turn to pick , but he's busy talking about his upcoming hunting trip with the people sitting at a table next to your table .

you dont want to be the bad guy by saying ''lets go , yer up'' , so you bite your tongue and quietly hope that you get home by 11 pm to watch Matlock .

Even Doing 6 rounds with 13 friends take about 4 hours. I have all my picks ready for a 1/2 draft and it takes 4! I blame the beer.......and Average Joe

Beer is always a factor.....we have guys that want the draft over and guys that want to make it an all night event....I am somewhere in the middle, but usually end up loaded by nights end.

Beer tastes the same when the draft is over....then you can analyse and trash the teams the sober guys picked!!!

ahhhh...draft day.

Bahaha, very funny stickboy.

I would probably be a new category - DIEHARD DUMBASS. - The guy who spends a lot of time doing everything you mentioned, but at the end of the day still doesn't know wtf to do with his team.

Sigh...

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@B0ndon

Goalies: If I'm pickin em you best be sittin em!

Not bad, not bad Stick Boy! Fun read, thanks!

If you want some good reads along the same lines, check these out :

Chris Burns - "It takes all types to make a draft"

GMG Trade Fever - Types of Preferences : Draft Edition

GMG Trade Fever - Types of Preferences : Player Edition

Needless to say, offline drafts are priceless.

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Gates Imbeau
Assistant Manager - DobberSports.com
Writer - Fantrax.com
Regular Guest - The York Report via NextSportStar.com
Email: gates@dobbersports.com
Twitter: @GM_Gates

Thanks Gates!

will read those other posts/articles. I'm sure that there's tons of similarities in regards to poolie types.

Bring on the draft!