I am so sick of it.

[smokyvocals]

How would you handicap?

Hey, Machine (and everybody),
I think there are some strong ideas in here for a friendly "neighborhood" tournament or two.
One question: How would you handicap the entrants if they weren't familiar to you? Say someone just walked in off the street....
It seems like there'd be a bunch of hootin' and hollerin' if a ringer showed up and cleaned everyone's clock!
ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO QUICKLY HANDICAP A BUNCH OF STRANGERS?

 

[The Machine]

Good call on the moneygrubbers! I will go for easy money...no hesitation. That is why the tourneys should be structured so the guys that will have an easy time may stay away. Point hit on head!

As for the handicapping, it is very tough, if not impossible to handicap strangers. Unless you have an extremely advanced player to do the handicapping. It is not so hard to watch someone even take one shot, and get a good idea of his "speed".

Even so, depending on your field, this will only get you close. I use a very basic ABCD handicap. One wild ball per letter. However, I reserve, the A+, A++, and A+++ for emergencies. I play with an A+++, so I give up wild 56789 to a B player( one ball for each letter and +). Not off the break tho, and races to 4. It gets pretty crazy when I play the D players, because I give them wild 3 and up!! I only win 3-4 of these tourneys out of 32. There are almost always 2 players with huge bragging rights that beat me!

All you can do is be as close as you can, and next time that player comes, you will be exact. My regular players all know I do my best, so they give me benefitof doubt...and don't forget ...there are still 11 other prizes if someone gets an advantageous handicap and places high!