Needing help here

[Hustler85]

I am working on getting a weekly tournament together or monthly tournament. I am wanting to try to do something different and see how it goes. I was thinking about using Fargo as a tool for help. But I would like for it to be using a ball spot to be the handicap. Is their anyone that has a chart or breakdown of this. Or has it been done before?

Thanks for the help.

 

[straightline]

First, I have no idea. Second it probably depends on how tightly grouped or loosely spread the ratings are. Application would also hinge on fairness or economics. You could just take the heart of the group and bias towards their best chance. Call it a day.

 

[couldnthinkof01]

Shooters in Burnsville mn used to have a 9 ball tournament like that. They had a chart- master++, master+, master, aa+, aa, a..etc
Then a corresponding side that gave a game on the wire, the break, wild balls, called ball spots.
The gap between two opponents would determine what kind of spot you got.
You could get in contact with them to get a copy of the sheet if they still have it or more information.

 

[David in FL]

This is a Fargo based race calculator that the USA pool league uses. Since it's available online I'm going to assume that it's not proprietary...

USAPL Race Calculator

Enter the 2 competing Fargo ratings and choose either a shorter or longer race. The calculator will give you a race in points.

The player who wins a game, regardless of how he wins it gets 14 points. The losing player receives one point for every ball he made. In 8 ball that includes balls made of his suit by an opponent, on the break or throughout the course of the game.

In 9 and 10 ball balls pocketed on a scratch are dead and do not count at all. In 8 ball all balls pocketed count regardless of scratch or not.

The first player to reach their points wins the match. If however both players are within 14 points of their total before one gets all their points, it becomes hill/hill and who ever wins the last game wins the match regardless of the final point tally...

In my experience it results in pretty fair matches even with a large difference in player ratings.

Maybe something to try rather than reinventing the wheel...

 

[Hustler85]

Shooters in Burnsville mn used to have a 9 ball tournament like that. They had a chart- master++, master+, master, aa+, aa, a..etc
Then a corresponding side that gave a game on the wire, the break, wild balls, called ball spots.
The gap between two opponents would determine what kind of spot you got.
You could get in contact with them to get a copy of the sheet if they still have it or more information.

This is something I am thinking. I will have to reach out to see how their chart is. Thanks.

 

[Hustler85]

This is a Fargo based race calculator that the USA pool league uses. Since it's available online I'm going to assume that it's not proprietary...

USAPL Race Calculator

Enter the 2 competing Fargo ratings and choose either a shorter or longer race. The calculator will give you a race in points.

The player who wins a game, regardless of how he wins it gets 14 points. The losing player receives one point for every ball he made. In 8 ball that includes balls made of his suit by an opponent, on the break or throughout the course of the game.

In 9 and 10 ball balls pocketed on a scratch are dead and do not count at all. In 8 ball all balls pocketed count regardless of scratch or not.

The first player to reach their points wins the match. If however both players are within 14 points of their total before one gets all their points, it becomes hill/hill and who ever wins the last game wins the match regardless of the final point tally...

In my experience it results in pretty fair matches even with a large difference in player ratings.

Maybe something to try rather than reinventing the wheel...

Not trying to reinvent the wheel. Just trying to see if I can make the game in my area a lil bit more fun and interesting in my area. But I appreciate the input. Thanks.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... I was thinking about using Fargo as a tool for help. But I would like for it to be using a ball spot to be the handicap. Is their anyone that has a chart or breakdown of this. ...

I have never seen such a chart. One problem is that you can't report the results to Fargorate because of the kind of spot. You will have to do the ratings admin yourself.

Another problem is that the winning 8 at 9 ball is a much larger spot between two weak players than between two strong ones (say 50 Fargorate points apart for each pair).

Is it 9-ball that you plan to play?

 

[iusedtoberich]

Before FargoRate, every weekly tournament I ever heard of used ball spots, not game spots. In my area it was a race to 5 in 9 ball.

The range would be something like 0-10. 0 is the best player in the room, 10 is someone who can barely make a bridge and blasts at the 9 each shot. For each difference in rating, it would be a one ball spot. Example table:

9 ball races to 5
Difference Spot
1 8 ball
2 7 ball
3 6 ball
4 5 ball
5 5 +7 balls
6 5 + 7 + all the breaks
7 5 + 7 + all the breaks + 1 game on the wire
8 5 + 7 + all the breaks + 2 game on the wire (this was the max spot, even if the rating difference was higher)

1st and second place each week would go down one point. The rest of the players would stay the same.

It's not nearly as good as FargoRate, because only the winners moved. Fargorate moves you for every single game played.

IDK why anyone would want to do this today though. FargoRate takes all the guesswork out of it, is integrated into the DigitalPool bracket software, and is used worldwide.

 

[hang-the-9]

Grady Mathews has given some comparison with ball spots vs game spots. I think he said each ball given is like a game on the wire in a race to 7. So giving someone the 8 is like giving someone a 7-6 race. Of course his thinking is for good players that don't often mess up the run outs. If you don't have players who are steady enough to finish the games, the ball spots will be worth more to them since there is a greater chance of multiple attempts at the game winning balls. I have very often pulled out wins after missing on the last few balls because the other player also messed up in the rack after me. If I was playing with ball spots, they could have made their early ball and I would not have had another chance to win.,

 

[David in FL]

Not trying to reinvent the wheel. Just trying to see if I can make the game in my area a lil bit more fun and interesting in my area. But I appreciate the input. Thanks.

That's the only "by ball" hcp system I know that was developed for and uses the actual Fargo ratings. Everything else is based on game races.

Anything else will likely be based on some form of the old A, B, C which tends to be more subjective but can certainly work in a small/local area where players tend to be pretty well known amongst each other.

 

[ZenmasterBear]

MPA has a chart on their site used for tournaments in MN.