Handicapped tournaments that do calcutas. Unfairly rigged?

J

justinb386

Banned
I was just thinking that when ever you see a handicapped tournament that holds a calcuta, then it might be unfairly rigged.

Whoever the players that are getting bid up into the hundreds (or any high amount of money) in the calcuta, they must be under rated (unfairly underated), because if that were not the case , then why would they be selling for so much money every single week?

I have never been able to get myself rated fairly in a handicapped tournament (probably because I have never been a local, or in good with the tournament director ).

I always felt as though I was unfairly overrated , and many of the locals unfairly underated, and that is why you see them getting bid up into high dollar amounts , because these tournaments are seemingly rigged for the locals to have the best chance of winning.

I do not know. Just curious what you guys think of handicapped tournaments that hold calcutas? When ever you see a guy getting bid up really high, do you think that the player is either not rated high enough, or rated too low for his actual speed of play?

Thanks for any thoughts about this.
 
I think handicapped Calcutta tournaments are great. The regulars and locals know who is playing well and who might be getting ready to be bumped up. It also generates a lot of action on lower rated players. I can see that as a non local you wouldn't get a fair handicap. That's just how handicap systems work. They reward regular local players who improve over time and try to protect them from underrated newcomers. Once in a local tournament I had to give weight to a guy that was a legitimate champion from another country who nobody knew. He ended up winning several open tournaments and was a great player. He showed up as "joe's cousin" from out of town. Lol.

So yeah, handicap tournaments aren't going to take a chance and underrating you and giving away all the regular's dough. And I'm ok with that.
 
I see your point

I see your point...A true good Handicap system is going to make everyone's chance at winning equal so it stands to reason that everyone should go for relatively an equal amount of money. Legit gripe but nothing can be done about it.

I will offer some sage advice given to me by a tournament director that fields these complaints...."If you think they are under rated...buy them". Very good argument that ya cant really disagree with :)
 
:eek:


People bid the highest on players that have a reputation and win a lot.

Even with a handicap, most of the time the same player will win.



Cheating is never allowed in pool tournaments.

And there is no such thing as sand bagging. The correct term is "strategy".



I love handicap tournaments!:thumbup:




.
 
I played in a tournament where the players were handicapped as A & B (1 game spot). There was a Calcutta also. Found out that the bracket was drawn before the Calcutta, and the top 8 players according to the TD were seeded. They were not charging admission, so seeding was ridiculous.

My first match was in a grocery store. I had to pause once to allow some shoppers to grab some items off the shelf.

I did not go back to that poorly run tournament.

.
 
rickwen186 said:
I see your point...A true good Handicap system is going to make everyone's chance at winning equal so it stands to reason that everyone should go for relatively an equal amount of money. Legit gripe but nothing can be done about it.

I will offer some sage advice given to me by a tournament director that fields these complaints...."If you think they are under rated...buy them". Very good argument that ya cant really disagree with :)
Click to expand...

I don't think most handicap systems do (or should) create a completely level playing field. Most, I think, still favour the stronger player but give the weaker player a better chance than they would have otherwise. So in local tournaments around me, I often see the highest ranked players go for the highest bids.

Also, even the fairest system that uses a crude scale (like C, B, A, AA, AAA, or say 4-10) will always have a wide range between the top of any category and the bottom (a "strong A" will be much better than a "weak A"). So someone who is legitimately at the top of their range is a threat to go deep if the handicapping is working well. These types of handicaps also seem to be "sticky" - established players are slow to be moved up (e.g., if Joe's been a B for 5 years and starts playing like an A, it may take a while before he's move up) and established players are also often very slow to move down.

All of that said, of course the system can be imperfect or corrupt, which is a whole other thing.
 
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