Anyone remember exactly how it worked? It was used successfully in Reno for many years, but Reno was 9 ball. Did he create a similar model for 8 ball?
Gene Story Handicapp System
- Thread starter Island Drive
- Start date
Gene Stary ran the USPPA on the West Coast for many years. It was actually invented by someone else (whose name I may remember...). I think the USPPA system was only for nine ball.
It kept track of innings and safeties and calculated a rating based on how many shots it took on average for a player to win a game. In matches, the higher-rated player would give the lower-rated player games on the wire. Typically, each night of play was a double elimination tournament with relatively short races and the entries (less a bookkeeping fee) were paid out in prizes. Ratings ranged from maybe 20 (beginner) to 140 (road player).
There were lots of problems with the system. You had to have a scorer (third player) for each match. Sometimes the score sheets with all the inning counts were not done correctly due to lack of training or willful padding of innings. Players from rooms with tough tables were rated low compared to players who played on easy tables most of the time. At the Reno events (where the prizes were really worth while) you might see a player who was getting a couple of games on the wire run racks and that caused hard feelings. And then there was the final tournament in Reno at the Peppermill : http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/call-kurtis-behind-the-8-ball/ and http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=213553
The NPL was developed to avoid some of the rating tracking/adjustment problems.
Today I think the best way to implement such a system would be to use FargoRate and the handicap system it has. There is no score keeping except to record each match score. I think that FargoRate does not have a method to include such in-house (or regional) leagues yet.
Last edited:
There's no reason the same process could not be used for 8 ball. The spot is games on the wire and that's sort of independent of the actual game you're playing.
Thx, Bob. I just talked with John Lewis a little bit ago, he's gonna send me something that for 5 man teams, with a simple points/value system. This is the second time in my life where rules were completely changed to eliminate winning teams. That's normal, especially if some teams only win one or two games the entire evening. It's either that or no more league, which is what it is. Years ago in Denver, players got tired of me winning too often, and rebooted/handicapped the entire tournament system. I stopped playing, eventually they realized the system put in place was worse than before. But hey, I understand, that's how we roll. Hopefully I'll se ya again at Chris Swarts place with the Seniors. Till then have a good winter/holiday season that's before us too soon.
BM
Here is some more information on the NPL system (and a small bit on USPPA) created by Bob Jewett as well as the Argonne Pool League Handicap System which was based on NPL and run by Ron Shepard. You may be able to use one as is or modify them based on the features and ideas that you like most.
http://www.sfbilliards.com/Misc/NPL_info.txt
http://www.sfpool.net/cgi-bin/pool.pl?pChoice=fairness
http://www.sfbilliards.com/Misc/argonne8.pdf
Thx you all. I'll give it to the league operator and let em run. They are thinking of making every team have at least one woman. That should unravel the league in time, very few women in this area even know how ta hold a cue. Our population is only 3800, and my team captain is 77 and it's mostly retired folks or farm workers here.