[johnu]

Mbodell, on 2017-June-25, 13:20, said:

Stratification may also present challenges for this event in a couple of ways: 1, BBO often moves their strats around in ACBL tournaments to fit the field and this might be more difficult if each 18 person comparison section is a different field strength; 2, it will make more clear that the tournament isn't seeded (which I assume it isn't) where some player will have 90% of their comparisons against A strat players and someone else will have 90% of their comparisons against C strat players.

Every board needs to be seeded separately for all the comparison groups to be fair. The usual question is how do you seed all these players? Some may be infrequent ACBL players who are world class players from other parts of the world who may not have earned enough point (or the right kind of points) to be Life Masters. Others may be up and coming players, or infrequent players, who play at a top level but don't have a lot of points. On the other end, you can have players who have 10K+ points but whose best days are long ago.

[mycroft]

No event that has a cut can be stratified in the ACBL (to my knowledge). That put paid to our traditional Saturday sectional open pairs and consolation.

I miss it, especially for the C pairs. The first time I qualified was one of my first real bridge accomplishments I still remember.

Of course, that could be because of the 35% I had in the second session, after we got rid of all the players that were at my level...

[barmar]

mycroft, on 2017-June-26, 09:21, said:

No event that has a cut can be stratified in the ACBL (to my knowledge). That put paid to our traditional Saturday sectional open pairs and consolation.

There's no cut in the NABC Online Individual. Everyone plays all 4 days.

[Phil]

Mbodell, on 2017-June-25, 00:12, said:

The 4 session championship pairs at the Santa Clara regional (d21) is not stratified. Neither is the 4 session championship swiss in the Sacramento regional (d21). So there can be some regional events that aren't stratified still.

Yeah, 4 session games (rare as they are) seem to be the exception.

[johnu]

Even 2 session pairs seem to be getting rarer at sectionals.

[diana_eva]

This weekend, July 1st - 2nd, we'll run the first free practice tournament for the upcoming ACBL NABC Online Individual: http://webutil.bridg...tch.php?id=3928

[jeffford76]

johnu, on 2017-June-28, 22:08, said:

Even 2 session pairs seem to be getting rarer at sectionals.

If you like two session games, you should communicate that to your unit board.

[diana_eva]

• The second Free NABC Practice Tournament series will be held July 5-6 (Wed-Thurs). This one is for ACBL members only.
• If you wish to participate in this second practice tournament please make sure you have a valid ACBL number on file with BBO by July 4 (Tues). You can update your ACBL number by clicking ACBL World > Update ACBL number.
• This practice tourney will use Advanced Robots
• You will find the tournament in ACBL World.
• More details here

[johnu]

Is there going to be one big section for all the players, or are something like 50-70 players going to be grouped into sections with multiple sections?

[barmar]

johnu, on 2017-July-05, 21:51, said:

Is there going to be one big section for all the players, or are something like 50-70 players going to be grouped into sections with multiple sections?

One big section for everyone, just like our existing daylong tourneys.

[johnu]

barmar, on 2017-July-06, 09:35, said:

One big section for everyone, just like our existing daylong tourneys.

What an monumentally bad design decision by the ACBL Did the ACBL masterpoint printing machines run out of ink? Looking at the ACBL masterpoint formula page, for a single session, only the top 25 places can get masterpoints). (and top 50 for a 4 session event)

Some people were predicting 10000 entries. You would have to place in the top 1/4% to get any section masterpoints at all. Maybe 1000 is more realistic. You would have to place in the top 2.5% to get any masterpoints.

In "regular" games, 35% are eligible for masterpoints. You just need a little more than average to have a good chance of picking up a section award. The top 2.5% in a 16 table (32 pairs) game means you would have to finish in 1st place to get any award at all.

There is zero incentive for good expert and below to enter since they don't have a realistic chance of winning any masterpoints. After throwing $40 down the drain and not getting close to earning any masterpoints, I don't expect many of those players to ever play in this type of event again, even if the ACBL sweetens the deal on masterpoint awards.

It's not just sour grapes on my part. I was 8th out of 1459 in the first day of the 2nd practice sessions, and 77th out of 7,779 in the overalls of the 1st practice sessions, although most of the favorites probably didn't play. I could have played better (just like everybody else ) so I think I have at least some chance for an overall finish. Is it worth it? I'm still debating whether to enter. I would have to finish in the top 3 or 4 to win more masterpoints than I would expect to win if I played in 40 $1 robot tournaments.

[barmar]

johnu, on 2017-July-06, 13:10, said:

What an monumentally bad design decision by the ACBL Did the ACBL masterpoint printing machines run out of ink? Looking at the ACBL masterpoint formula page, for a single session, only the top 25 places can get masterpoints). (and top 50 for a 4 session event)

This isn't using the standard ACBL MP formula. They're giving awards to the top 18 in each session, top 48 overall.

Quote

Some people were predicting 10000 entries. You would have to place in the top 1/4% to get any section masterpoints at all. Maybe 1000 is more realistic. You would have to place in the top 2.5% to get any masterpoints.

For comparison, 10K is how many people we got in the free practices, we get about 1K in the regular $0.25 daylongs. While some are suggesting comparable numbers for this, I'd be very surprised. If there are 500 entries, the top 10% get awards.

[johnu]

barmar, on 2017-July-06, 14:18, said:

This isn't using the standard ACBL MP formula. They're giving awards to the top 18 in each session, top 48 overall.

For comparison, 10K is how many people we got in the free practices, we get about 1K in the regular $0.25 daylongs. While some are suggesting comparable numbers for this, I'd be very surprised. If there are 500 entries, the top 10% get awards.

OK, obviously 18 section awards is even worse than 25.

Yes, the smaller the number of entries, the better your chances to win something. Still, the field would have to be 52 or less to allow 35% to get section masterpoints. I think my original guess was 500+. I'm thinking 250 now since $40 is enough to make a lot of people think twice about entering.

[diana_eva]

The third NABC Practice Tournament takes place this weekend, Friday to Sunday (July 7-9). It'll be 8 boards per day, 2 hours to play your set once you have started. Restricted to ACBL members only. Details here.

[mrc242]

The midnight to midnight timing of this tournament is brutal for west coast players who have a day job. If you want to play in the evening, you either have to start at 9:30 pm the day "before", or finish 24 boards by 9pm. Hey, simple solution: have it run from 6AM to 6AM eastern time. Or 3AM to 3am for east coast early birds.

[bdanforth]

I have an I Pad and am not able to register for the acblNacb world wide tournament. Can you help me. Thanks, Barbara Danforth. : [removed email]

This post has been edited by diana_eva: 2017-July-09, 14:33

[barmar]

bdanforth, on 2017-July-09, 13:25, said:

I have an I Pad and am not able to register for the acblNacb world wide tournament. Can you help me. Thanks, Barbara Danforth.

What happens when you try?

[diana_eva]

bdanforth, on 2017-July-09, 13:25, said:

I have an I Pad and am not able to register for the acblNacb world wide tournament. Can you help me. Thanks, Barbara Danforth.

Hi Barbara. Here's a video showing you where to click to register from the mobile app:
https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be

[johnu]

barmar, on 2017-July-06, 14:18, said:

For comparison, 10K is how many people we got in the free practices, we get about 1K in the regular $0.25 daylongs. While some are suggesting comparable numbers for this, I'd be very surprised. If there are 500 entries, the top 10% get awards.

Already 388 early signups on the 1st day of signups!!! and procastinators have until July 23. My guess of ~250/500+ entries may be reached by the end of today The rate of signups will slow down quite a bit after today, but even 500 was a pretty terrible guess. 1500-2000 or more now looks possible. With 2000 entries, less then .1% would get session masterpoints.

[barmar]

mrc242, on 2017-July-09, 11:34, said:

The midnight to midnight timing of this tournament is brutal for west coast players who have a day job. If you want to play in the evening, you either have to start at 9:30 pm the day "before", or finish 24 boards by 9pm. Hey, simple solution: have it run from 6AM to 6AM eastern time. Or 3AM to 3am for east coast early birds.

We'll keep this in mind for the future. Unfortunately, it's too late to change the conditions for this one.

It's not an excuse, but a big majority of ACBL members are retired.