So you read our feature on how to play Playoff Fantasy Football and have decided to form a league. After confirming the requisite number of participants, and establishing a draft time and place, the next thing to do is, of course…buy beer. After that, it's time to start working on strategy.

Chances are good that most of you who are reading this have never participated in a playoff fantasy football league. Don't worry, you just have to slightly modify—not overhaul—the strategy with which you currently attack your regular fantasy football league.

A slight tweaking of your methods plus a functional crystal ball geared to tune in which teams will do what in the postseason, and you're in business.

There are no lineups to set so you don't have to fret about making those dreaded tough calls on who to start. But winning during the playoffs is more difficult than simply ranking the players position-by-position and then trying to get the best ones when it's your turn to pick.

The key to winning lies in the number of games played.

Any fantasy player can tell you that Adrian Peterson, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Cedric Benson are among the best fantasy running backs headed to the playoffs. But if none of them play more than one game in the postseason, how much good can they do you? If for whatever reason you think the Vikings, Chargers, or Bengals will be one and done, you need to understand this key point. Will three games out of someone like Brian Westbrook wind up being worth more in your scoring system than one out of the aforementioned trio? Maybe not, but these are the kinds of questions you'll need to ask yourself when figuring out who to draft when it's your turn.

The first thing you need to do is just rank the players as you normally would. For instance, take the 12 starting kickers in the playoffs and rank them best to worst. Then you need to project how the postseason will play out.

Go through the teams, one at a time, and figure out how many games you think they'll play and start adjusting your rankings accordingly. If you have a team like the Packers emerging from the Wildcard round and going all the way to the Super Bowl, you'll want to push Ryan Grant, Jermichael Finley, and Greg Jennings way up your rankings. It's not often that teams get to play four games in the playoffs, but when they do, the players on said teams pile up copious fantasy points.

Conversely, if you're certain that the Cowboys have no chance of surviving the first round, it doesn't matter how good you think Tony Romo and Miles Austin are. Neither will be racking up yardage or touchdowns sitting at home watching the last three rounds of the playoffs on the television like the rest of us.

The last layer of preparation you need to do is figure out how much you want to diversify your draft picks. If you are the gambling type and want to put all your eggs in one basket, then you may want to load your team up with generous helpings of players from the team you think will win it all. However, if you pursue this strategy and your forecasted "can't miss" Super Bowl champs fail to get past round one of the playoffs, you're screwed.

Balance your squad with players from more than one or two teams just to give yourself a cushion. However, you don't want to go to the other extreme and fill your squad with no more than one player from any given team either. Such an approach will leave you with a third of your squad automatically out of it after the first round of postseason games.

Take a stand. Polish that crystal ball up and determine three or four teams with the best chance of lasting three or four games, and then go after players from those teams.

Enjoy playing Playoff Fantasy Football and good luck!