Another big $1,000 entry 600 and under tournament...

For whatever it's worth, I personally know and have played 20 of the entries. I consider their Fargo ratings to be pretty damn reasonable and accurate. As Fargo rate itself will tell you, any of them can play up or down 50+ points in any given match/tournament. Just as you and I can.

None of them throws away their money and all thought they had a solid chance, but nobody could possibly think that they were stealing.

A pretty even spread throughout the tournament as to where they finished, with the best finishes 9–12 and 17-24.

9-12 got paid right at $7,000 with Calcutta and side pots.
There are two players left on the winner's side, and one of them, Josh Mitts, went two and out (8-11 and 9-11) at the big 600& under this summer in Oklahoma City
 
The issue is the same as all other rating systems, cheating. I'm sure there is not many stats on exactly how many players deliberately dump games and miss shots to stay low, but my money, going by what I see and hear, is at no less than 25% of all players in leagues and tournaments. No one pays $1,000 or even a couple of hundred for an entry unless they feel they are a at least half a level over the rest of the field if they are not just gambling junkies. This is why I avoid tournaments for anything more than like a $40 entry where I just view it as some fun competition, I'm not giving my money to cheaters. For 600 level it can actually be pretty tough to know who is who for correct rating because a 600 is very capable of stringing 2/3/4 racks, which is also what a 650 or a 700 can do.
Any system can have problems. I threw out golf as an example, and there have been some publicized questions in big tournaments - Pebble Beach National Pro Am in the news the last few years. A handicap system and human nature and money mean there will always be a problem somewhere somehow. But I think the system will work well overall and there will be policing mechanisms. It may be easier mathematically in golf because a player’s performance is not dependent on the opponent. I don’t know the math but they can ferret out suspicious situations analytically. I can’t speak for FargoRate but I imagine they will be able to do that if they can’t do it now.

In any event I think you - not just you personally- will lose out on opportunities if you fear the sandbagger excessively. Sure you might take the worst of it someday. But you might miss times where you could have had a lot of fun and maybe gotten some cash. Think of the story in Playing Off The Rail where Bucktooth passed on playing Kamikaze Bob. His worries kept him from a potential score. Years ago Doyle Brunson wrote of a similar thing that came up in his gambling career on a proposition bet. One of his friends/ partners didn’t like it. He wanted to test it. Testing it led to a nice opportunity. For him, not the guy who passed.

As for me, I don’t play for a living. I like to compete. I am not a top player. I don’t mind being dead money, but don’t want to pay big money to play with no chance. Everyone has their own number for what they will pay. Mine is somewhere more than 40 and less than 1000 for an event I have no chance in. But entering a qualifier for a big event? Sure. A few hundred for a capped FargoRate event or handicapped event in, say, Vegas? Sure. Recently I finished higher than expected in a local mildly handicapped event. The spot came into play in one match where we went hill-hill with me getting a game on the wire. Other matches went the way they did without the handicap. So yeah, I and another player who got games from some better players got in the money. In the end the top players got there but not ever one of them. The best players also won a lot more than they would have without the handicapping because there were more players willing to play. So I thought complaining about the format was not productive.
 
How did this finish? Any brackets ? Looking for guys I thought should have went deep, but didnt.
Good tournament!!!!
 
For whatever it's worth, I personally know and have played 20 of the entries. I consider their Fargo ratings to be pretty damn reasonable and accurate. As Fargo rate itself will tell you, any of them can play up or down 50+ points in any given match/tournament. Just as you and I can.

None of them throws away their money and all thought they had a solid chance, but nobody could possibly think that they were stealing.

A pretty even spread throughout the tournament as to where they finished, with the best finishes 9–12 and 17-24.

9-12 got paid right at $7,000 with Calcutta and side pots.
How much was 9-12 in for to win the 7k?
 
I've only seen the first 3 racks of this Carlos Jinez that's on the stream right now, and that's enough for me to say with confidence that the kid is straight up stealing.

Anything can happen in 9ball on a barbox, but I'll be pretty shocked if he doesn't go deep.

So it's tough to actually say someone is stealing in barbox 9ball, but the kid is guaranteed 2nd.

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Anyone know how much higher the winner’s FR will be after a tournament like this?
 
Finals going on now...


Not surprising since he's one of the top fargos...

I know that the top handful won't be playing in any 600 and unders anymore! 😁

Congratulations Alvin Randall. 👏👏

And congratulations Dominick Dunn and crew for a phenomenally run tournament.

That's the way it's supposed to be done, boys and girls! 👍
 
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I know that the top handful won't be playing in any 600 and unders anymore! 😁

Congratulations Alvin Randall. 👏👏

And congratulations Dominick Dunn and crew for a phenomenally run tournament.

That's the way it's supposed to be done, boys and girls! 👍


Mr. Randall played in two other 1,000 entry events in 2023.

In one, (Moby Dick event in Vegas) he went 2 and out
In the other (Chester's Brawl in OK City) he reached final 32 bracket and went 2 and out in that.
 
For whatever it's worth, I personally know and have played 20 of the entries. I consider their Fargo ratings to be pretty damn reasonable and accurate. As Fargo rate itself will tell you, any of them can play up or down 50+ points in any given match/tournament. Just as you and I can.

None of them throws away their money and all thought they had a solid chance, but nobody could possibly think that they were stealing.

A pretty even spread throughout the tournament as to where they finished, with the best finishes 9–12 and 17-24.

9-12 got paid right at $7,000 with Calcutta and side pots.

Maybe my gambling and risk aversion is at a much lower level than those people you know, but the people I hang out with would not put up that much money unless they thought they were a 90% lock to cash. Having that decent of a payout for the 9-12 spot is not bad, but that means everyone had to dump a bunch of money into the pot.
 
Anyone know how much higher the winner’s FR will be after a tournament like this?

Well its only one tournament and I suspect Fargo doesnt give extra weight to tournaments with a big buy in. Its all about who they beat and all of them are below 600 so its not like there are a lot of surprising results here. So I dont know that their fargo would move a whole lot.
 
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