Opinions regarding a former top pro playing in and dominating a Poolroom‘s weekly handicapped tournament?
- Thread starter ChrisinNC
- Start date
This system ended up destroying a long standing weekly tourney we had locally.
Out of the gate I think it started at ~$25 a player. You got to play all day regardless of how you finished. Race to 7 playing 9b. It quickly became handicapped, which no one complained about. Weaker players enjoyed a shorter race rather than extending the strong. That kept the event moving as it could become a long day. Calcutta was awesome. It wasn't uncommon for the winner to walk away with over a $1k for a Sunday weekly tourney.
Clearly this event would pull in players a decent distance away. Wasn't uncommon to see players with a 1.5hr drive. Any of the top 3rd could snap off a win. The content was that strong. ...but of course, like we always do. There were players that would whine about their ability to win. However once you can't win a 7-2 race I don't know why they think they deserve to cash.
...So in an attempt to make the whiners happy. The TD (owner) lowered their entry to $20, then 15, then finally 10. Now none of this really bothered the top 2 3rds of the field. Although the drop in prize pool sucked. However, you'll never guess who found a way to complain. Yep that lower 3rd and now the middle one as well. That middle tier that would only randomly cash, get to enjoy not only pay more but giving up weight. Accepting tiered entry $ and game handicap is different when you know that you're likely to cash regardless. When you odds of doing so are less than 40%, it gets to be very frustrating.
What we saw was a departure of the middle tier before anything else. So now, the lower tier out numbers the middle/upper tier. So once again to make the whiners happy. The TD started increasing the race for the top players. I want to say it reached ~12 racks. That's right a 12-2 race in some instances. It took forever for those matches to play out. Not only because of the required wins, but because the strong player could not take any chances. Now we have a longer day of grinding for less prize pool.
Eventually we then saw the "you won so now you sit" rule come into play. If you won, you couldn't play for 2 weeks. ...and I can't remember when but at some point the event got more expensive for the strong as well. I do recall having to pay $40 at some point.
In the end, the whole thing died. The whiners kept whining, the middle tier was completely gone and maybe 1 or 2 of the local strong players would play if they had nothing else to do. The whiners were never really interested in pool all that much so when packed room became a ghost town sparsely occupied by the usual woah is me bangers. The social aspect also died.
So that's what happens when you have something that works and you start trying to "make it fair". It's a slippery slope you're better off to avoid. In the situation above. The TD could have just as easily said that the lower end are already handicapped and get to enjoy a $10 entry which included pool all day. If they didn't come back (they would have) then at least his room could have kept the notoriety for this event.
I should add that the TD (room owner) ended up going bankrupt over other bad decisions and lost the room. Which has been bought/sold a couple times and is a gainfully sustaining biz.
Honestly, the main reason is that I have a good long-term relationship with the room owner/TD that I don’t want to risk compromising. I’m not sure what’s so hard to understand about that.
Badpenguin
Well-known member
Are the brackets for these tournaments online?
I thought there were no dumb questions!
He's not divulging the characters out of consideration for the participants.
Story is here for our perspectives and comments. We can handle that, right?
Wonpocket5150
New member
Keep raising his handicap until he can’t win. Or just adjust the payout scale and make others get better by chasing him. Nothing makes you better like playing someone better. I got beat playing a onepocket killer for years, learned a ton. None of us are going to get rich playing this game!
Badpenguin
Well-known member
I was giving him plausible deniability, moron.
I hate big event handicap pool.
Weekly handicap with a small entry fee, that’s a different story because those were the first tournaments I ever played in.
Local room weekly handicap I played in for close to 30 years had it so if you won, you would go up in ranking and would have to give out a tougher spot to everyone the following week.
NONE OF THIS FARGO SCORE B.S.
If the match was even this week, next week you were giving everyone you played even, the 8.
And from there the spots would be the 7. Then the 6. Then the 5. Then the 5 and 7. Then the 5,7 and the breaks. Then the 5,7 the breaks and a game on the wire. Then the 5,7 the breaks and 2 on the wire. Then the 5,7, the breaks and 3 on the wire in a race to 5. Slop on all money balls. Blast away and if you sh*t it in, it counted.
Total cripples could win.
But it kept the top players from stealing because if they dominated, you would eventually win your way to a place where winning was super difficult.
And the top slot was capped as was the bottom slot. But winning for the top tier was no prize at all. They would have to perform.
The whole point was to win your way to the top ranks. To improve. Once at the top, everyone knew it was hard as sh*t to win. It was a personal test for the top tier guys.
Tournament went on basically for the life of the pool room which is saying something when compared to modern weeklies.
Crybabies will always cry.
Bend over and take your beatings like you are supposed to and you too can come out on the other end playing better pool.
But in the end, it’s up to the room owner/TD to make it so that someone doesn’t steal. Maybe modifying the handicaps so that they can’t so that it is fair for everyone.
If you go by that number B.S., and the accompanying explanation of who wins what % of the time blah blah blah with no change in handicap to make it harder, you will eventually kill your tournament if someone just keeps on winning.
Weekly handicap with a small entry fee, that’s a different story because those were the first tournaments I ever played in.
Local room weekly handicap I played in for close to 30 years had it so if you won, you would go up in ranking and would have to give out a tougher spot to everyone the following week.
NONE OF THIS FARGO SCORE B.S.
If the match was even this week, next week you were giving everyone you played even, the 8.
And from there the spots would be the 7. Then the 6. Then the 5. Then the 5 and 7. Then the 5,7 and the breaks. Then the 5,7 the breaks and a game on the wire. Then the 5,7 the breaks and 2 on the wire. Then the 5,7, the breaks and 3 on the wire in a race to 5. Slop on all money balls. Blast away and if you sh*t it in, it counted.
Total cripples could win.
But it kept the top players from stealing because if they dominated, you would eventually win your way to a place where winning was super difficult.
And the top slot was capped as was the bottom slot. But winning for the top tier was no prize at all. They would have to perform.
The whole point was to win your way to the top ranks. To improve. Once at the top, everyone knew it was hard as sh*t to win. It was a personal test for the top tier guys.
Tournament went on basically for the life of the pool room which is saying something when compared to modern weeklies.
Crybabies will always cry.
Bend over and take your beatings like you are supposed to and you too can come out on the other end playing better pool.
But in the end, it’s up to the room owner/TD to make it so that someone doesn’t steal. Maybe modifying the handicaps so that they can’t so that it is fair for everyone.
If you go by that number B.S., and the accompanying explanation of who wins what % of the time blah blah blah with no change in handicap to make it harder, you will eventually kill your tournament if someone just keeps on winning.
FYI, the player in question did not play this week after playing the previous 4 weeks and winning 3/4. Whether or not the TD had a word with him/her or if it was just a coincidence, is unknown.
Biloxi Boy
Man With A Golden Arm
I imagine that by now everyone who needs to know does, including the guilty party. In the real world, it is sometime unhealthy to persist once you get told "nunya" -- you just don't keep on -- but we still figuring that part out around here.
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Sounds like the West End New Jersey tournament.
The lowest rated were no slouches and busting their ass to move up.
The more you got the money the more work you had to do.
Full 32 man field every week, $25 entry fee and the Calcutta.
Champs were regulars.
Yeah road players are making a killing in 2024. I'm one of the suckers in this thread and I think I make more than most road players doing the easiest job on earth. If being "too stupid to understand simple probabilities" makes me a little better that's ok with me
Nice, just another cop-out. 'Compromise' what??
I also hope my boss doesn't look at how much they're paying me
I would not come back tomorrow if they weren't paying me.
Or
I like this job only marginally more than I like being homeless.