Handicapped tournaments that rate players based on their league rating. Fair or not?

[ronscuba]

I never mentioned anything about gambling, or betting above someone's pay grade.

We're talking about tournaments. That is the beauty of tournaments, you can play good players without betting the farm.

Adversity breeds excellence. I would gladly pony up the cash to play in a tournament against top players, and wouldn't cry about not having a handicap.
It's the price I would pay for the chance to learn from advanced players.

If you are not that motivated to improve, that's your loss.

I agree if you are talking once in a while or if you are close in ability to the top players.

In NYC, there are tournaments almost every weekend. You can enter the handicapped amateur tournament for A+ players and below, or enter the pro tournament, no handicap. Entry fee varies from $50-$100 depending on your ability. Predator Amateur tournament gets 60-100 players each weekend.

If you are B+ level or below, entering the pro tournament every weekend is wasting money. Depending on the weekend, you could see Dechaine, Strickland, Shaw in the tournament.

In the amateur tour, some high level players do want to get rid of handicapping, but without it, the lower level players would never enter and that leads to very small tournament payouts. The tour would dissolve over time due to not enough people entering.

A key component of a handicapped tournament is accuracy in handicapping. It can be a problem, but the solution is not to eliminate handicapping altogether.

 

[Tiddler]

It's all about numbers. $20.00 Handicapped tournament with 100 added (as gift card to winner) just shy of a full 128 bracket. $60.00 Non handicapped tournament with 1000 added 6 players total (all top 32 finishers at US Open). It's your pool hall which would you want to host?

 

[Mrdodd72]

I agree if you are talking once in a while or if you are close in ability to the top players.

In NYC, there are tournaments almost every weekend. You can enter the handicapped amateur tournament for A+ players and below, or enter the pro tournament, no handicap. Entry fee varies from $50-$100 depending on your ability. Predator Amateur tournament gets 60-100 players each weekend.

If you are B+ level or below, entering the pro tournament every weekend is wasting money. Depending on the weekend, you could see Dechaine, Strickland, Shaw in the tournament.

In the amateur tour, some high level players do want to get rid of handicapping, but without it, the lower level players would never enter and that leads to very small tournament payouts. The tour would dissolve over time due to not enough people entering.

A key component of a handicapped tournament is accuracy in handicapping. It can be a problem, but the solution is not to eliminate handicapping altogether.

I agree, that works well in a venue as large as NYC.

I would love to be able play in an amateur tournament every weekend, and roll the dice in a pro-level when I'm feeling "froggy".

Here in the Midwest the opportunity to play advanced players are limited.

A majority of players here are career league players who are unwilling to put a nickle into a tournament unless the handicap gives them a better than good chance to win. And even then they'll have a "vote" to ban the top 3 or 4 players in the local league from playing in some of the local tournaments; otherwise a 3rd of the field will not show.

This pervasive attitude frustrates me to no end. I don't understand this lack of competitiveness, as if being mediocre, but winning is better than pushing your play to the limit, and improving, even if it means you can cash only once in a while.

 

[ronscuba]

I agree, that works well in a venue as large as NYC.

I would love to be able play in an amateur tournament every weekend, and roll the dice in a pro-level when I'm feeling "froggy".

Here in the Midwest the opportunity to play advanced players are limited.

A majority of players here are career league players who are unwilling to put a nickle into a tournament unless the handicap gives them a better than good chance to win. And even then they'll have a "vote" to ban the top 3 or 4 players in the local league from playing in some of the local tournaments; otherwise a 3rd of the field will not show.

This pervasive attitude frustrates me to no end. I don't understand this lack of competitiveness, as if being mediocre, but winning is better than pushing your play to the limit, and improving, even if it means you can cash only once in a while.

Now I understand.

Sounds the same as what I see in the beginner leagues.

The beginner league has many players with no real drive to get better. They don't practice and some lose on purpose if they think their handicap is about to get raised. Some do want to get better and like the challenge of playing better players. These people do improve and move on to the intermediate league. But, many many others never advance beyond the beginner league. Nothing wrong with this because their motivation is not to get better, but to win. They forever stay in the beginner league and if this makes them happy, who are we to criticize ?