Season 17 - Week 2

Craig Lowe continues to lead the overall league, despite a paltry 22p gain this week.  Either he has decided to bank his way tosuccess following his big 4.33 winner in week one, or he forgot to pick!  Moving up into second is Michael Kennedy, who has now picked 2 back to back 2.50+ Scottish away winners.  Simon Gurd moves into second with a remarkable 4.00 draw pick in the Everton v Wolves game.  At the other end 21 people have stil yet to pick a winner, including some big names (Rosser, Delahunt & Lines Jr)

In the Pele league the top three all lost, allowing Ian Booth to come from downtown to snatch the lead, his pick of Preston to beat Portsmouth at 2.62 was truly inspired.  Perhaps the cream truly has risen, as the Pele League is the only league to have no players on -£2

Picks of the Week

Simon Gurd may have moved into the top 3 with the pick of the week (Everton v Wolves draw), but this was also spotted by Rob Weston and Chrissy Blackers.  Gary Moss had the next best winner (Reading v Forest draw @ 3.40),  but in a poor week for pickers you have to go right down to Booth (2.62) and Gwiggs & Kennedy (2.50 - Hearts away win) for another good winner.

Strategy

The first step to WP glory is to know your strategy.  There are four main ways to play the game:

1) Mr Consistent:  This player will tend to pick in the 1.7-2.0 range and will be aiming to pick winners most weeks.  This can often bring great success in gaining promotion and avoiding relegation, but is not always enough in a competitive league and will rarely win the overall league.  Prime Users:  Paul Shakespeare, Nick Lines

2) Mr One-Shot: This player will pick even shorter odds with the aim of being out of relegation trouble in week 9, thus allowing them effectively a "free" pick in week 10.  This last pick will be a big one aiming at either sneaking promotion or even the overall title.  This again has the benefit of avoiding relegation, but really is only fun for one week in 10!  Prime Users:  Ben Drury,

3) Mr Long Shot:  This player views the glass as half full, whilst simultaneously wearing rose tinted glasses and singing tonights the night.  Picking in the 3.50-6.00 range they only need to hit a couple of winners a season to stay safe, and occassionally will break records whilst still only hitting winners less than half the time.  The major downside is that when it goes wrong it is disastrous and these players bounce far more than others:  Prime users:  Simon Gurd, David Rosser

4) Mr Better the Devil you know:  This player immediately throws out 95% the betting coupon, choosing only to back or bet against the few teams they know inside out.  They are not looking for a range of odds, but instead "wrong odds".  Prime users:  Grant Elder, Trevor Gibbons

So what can you learn from this, which way is the best?  There is no easy answer to that, but what I do know is that you need to find your style and stick to it, most relegation occur because people flit between styles mid-season, garnering the worst of each.  If I had to plum for one style I'd choose style 1 for gaining promotion (but probably in the last promotion spot) and style 3 for trying to win the overall league.... but hey what do I know!

 

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