By JIMMY D / Jimmy D fantasy sports expert | Jimmy's archive

I WASN’T SURE I WANTED to do this. Still not so sure it’s all that swift an idea.

I mean, why would I want to come in here every week and share my tips, strategies and insights with every freakin’ sports fan and poolie on the planet?

I’ve been having a nice run making fools of my supposed foes in online contests and offline pools and now I’m gonna give them ammunition to help knock me off my perch?

It’s almost like that Jeremy Roenick slapper to the skull actually damaged my brain too.

Anyway, here I am, Jimmy Poole. I’ll keep my trash talk to a minimum, but for the sake of introduction, suffice it to day that I win pools and contests.

Lots of them. All kinds of them. Weekly pick ‘em pools, NFL office pools, longterm keeper pools, salary-cap pools, survivor pools.

And while many of you may think you eat, sleep and drink sports, I actually watch sports so I can eat, sleep and drink.

It’s my "job." Winning pools, betting on sports and now penning columns. Which is a pretty cool gig for a sports fan, almost as cool as the guy I was named after, the King of Cool, James Dean, Jimmy D.

The wife calls me Jimmy D, too. Jimmy D. Geek, she calls me. She doesn’t get that watching the game is "work".

Not work, eh? How the hell am I supposed to know to get Brian Rafalski out of my lineup for Sunday if I wasn’t watching the Saturday night game to see him wreck his leg?

How am I gonna win with an injured guy in my lineup, even for a day?

How about the plus/minus or goals against average impacts in Philly since Keith Primeau got hurt? Flyers have only won three of 15 games without their captain and they get outshot almost every game. So while Primeau is no fantasy gem himself, losing sight of his value on his teammates invariably leads to losing your lead in the hockey pool.

Ditto for hoops. If you don’t keep tabs on the Toronto papers and Raptors discussion boards about Vince Carter’s wonky knee, you might as well pack your NBA pool in. Icing opposing defences one day, icing that damn knee the next. You can profit from it or be punished by it, it’s your choice.

It just takes a bit of work, which is where I come in. I’m gonna give you some cheat notes and some heads-ups in this space. I will set up an Internet forum so us geeks can communicate and share information, ask questions, debate trade rumours, whatever, as they happen.

I’ll take a peek at some strategies for the various kinds of pools out there and I’ll give everyone a heads-up on new pools and upcoming events that lend themselves to contests. Like March Madness for example, which I’ll focus on in Column No. 3.

There is a lot of money to be made out there. Billions are spent on entry fees, information subscriptions and online leagues.

And even if you’re playing for fun or for free, why not give yourself a chance to win by investing a bit of time in it? I mean, why give your friends more reasons to taunt you by being what I call a 3P – a Pathetic Pool Patsy.

Make them eat your pool dust for a change.

My father Jimmy D., Sr. always told me, “Jimmy, if it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing right.”

Sage advice that I applied feverishly to my sports interests, even as a youngster, albeit with far less zeal to pursuits such as shovelling the driveway or cleaning up my room.

So that’s the plan to tackle fantasy sports in this space, unofficially dubbed by myself as Poole Resources.

Next week, there should be plenty of NHL trade activity on the books which will dramatically alter your tactics and player positioning for the final weeks of your hockey pool. And some lingering injury situations (how is the knee Mr. Hatcher and how is the noggin’ Mr. Roenick?) are likely to resolve by then, forcing your hand on moving players in or out of the picture.

Next Tuesday is the trade deadline, there are still teams with lots of player purges planned, so we should have some good banter going when the forum goes live next week.

I also want to take a quick look at baseball, its injury, free agent and trade situation as the Boys of Summer get rolling in Florida and Arizona. I’ll revisit baseball in more depth in the two weeks leading up to Opening Day and I plan to bring in some baseball pool heavyweights for those reports.

And a week later, we will focus all our efforts and space on busting your bracket game when the American college hoops national championships tip off. We’ll bring a pro sports handicapper in to size up the first-round matchups to find the safe bets and the danger spots in your bracket contest.

We should also have an online bracket game in place so you can apply your new-found hoops knowledge.

In the meantime, anyone with questions and column suggestions can email me.

I will also add you to a mailing list so you’ll know right away when the forum is live and help you learn that winning pools is all about luck. It’s true. Bad luck, bad injuries can kill you. My cursed pool pal Foggy knows all about it. And whines about it.

But the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Get busy and get lucky.

Jimmy D is a fantasy expert. His column appears every Tuesday.