ACBL club game stratification
Lone Locust of the Apocalypse
local club over the last 6 months, on a couple different days of
the week. I didn't pay attention the first three times, but for
the last 3 visits, the stratification A-B-C has been:
1. N-S: 4-4-2; E-W: 0-1-8
2. N-S: 4-5-1; E-W: 4-1-4
3. N-S: 8-2-1; E-W: 2-5-3
Now, I realize it's not really worth getting worked up over
masterpoints, and it's hard for the director when you don't know
in advance who's going to show up on any given night (although a
lot of the field seem like regulars), but is there e.g. any guideline
that club directors should make some attempt to balance the fields?
My recollection at my old club was that the director would have
pairs switch up directions to try to make things more even, but
maybe he was the exception instead of the rule.
Michael Angelo Ravera
First, stratifications can be according to Conditions of Contest, but
assuming that the director is free to use any stratification that he
cares to, it does absolutely no one any good unless 40% or more of the
field is in the top strat in each direction. The trick is then to
stratify at least 40% of the remaining players into the middle strat
while leaving at least 5 total and at 3 in one direction and 2 in the
other in the bottom strat.
So, with 8 pairs, you want 3 As, 2Bs, and 3Cs.
In order to balance out the field, you can pick the minimum number of
tables that you will have and balance out that many and try to give
out the others in proper proportion, but you have to know your players
fairlywell in order to do this.
At tournaments, where you know that you will have at least 20 tables
in the Open event, it's easy to allocate 16 entries out of those 40 to
As and so on. After that, you make up another set of entries and keep
track of what you sell.
One director at our club sets up the first 6 tables in the proportion
(I think that she stripes it so that the players in the same strats
play approximately in the second round) and then makes up another set
of 3 table entries and so on.
Ideally, unless the play is balanced by a Howell movement or an arrow
switch, it should be arranged so that there is no advantage to sit in
ether direction.
dak...@aol.com
sit them N-S stationary.
Give up balancing the rest of our field. N-S will have those 6xA-
strated.
Until it's tournament rating points, I don't care.
Aside, I began before strats --don't award me for being a newby, I'll
earn my own.
sbt
Apocalypse <zo...@ninthbit.com> wrote:
I play about once a week in the club here (came back to the game last
Labor Day). They get around the issue of balancing by direction by
running almost nothing but Howell movements (or 3/4 Howells).
With the number of aged/infirm participants, stationary tables are in a
bit of demand, so it's possiblle that the distribution in your
situation is that of people who don't want to or find it difficult to
move from table to table.
It's hard for me to get my head around the fact that, at 60, I'm one of
the "kids" around here. When I started playing, 90+% of the players
were under 55 (the current age for playing as a Senior)...now, I'd
guess that 90+% are 55 or older.
--
Dennis Cohen
Lone Locust of the Apocalypse
>Until it's tournament rating points, I don't care.
>Aside, I began before strats --don't award me for being a newby, I'll
>earn my own.
I don't particularly care either, but if there are 8 As N-S and 1
A E-W have the 1 A E-W really earned the section top they're probably
going to get?
This site also awards the 3x points with overalls at most club sessions,
so there are implications there too.
Stu G
Apocalypse) wrote:
> "dak...@aol.com" <dak...@aol.com> writes:
> >Until it's tournament rating points, I don't care.
> >Aside, I began before strats --don't award me for being a newby, I'll
> >earn my own.
>
> I don't particularly care either, but if there are 8 As N-S and 1
> A E-W have the 1 A E-W really earned the section top they're probably
> going to get?
There has to be at least 2 entries in a strat to earn a strat MP
award. Of course, the one EW A pair will get the overall MP award for
that direction if they win. So no, I would say it isn't very fair.
But I'd bet the 8 NS A pairs are long time regulars of the club and
insist on sitting N/S. Either that or the B and C players don't want
to score.
>
> This site also awards the 3x points with overalls at most club sessions,
> so there are implications there too.
The major implication is that the ACBL BoD reduced the number of
triple point awards at clubs to one per month per club, except in one
of the 3 months which are designated for special fund games.
-Stu Goodgold
San Jose, CA
Lone Locust of the Apocalypse
>The major implication is that the ACBL BoD reduced the number of
>triple point awards at clubs to one per month per club, except in one
>of the 3 months which are designated for special fund games.
Oh, well quite possibly they've complied with that then; like I said,
my visits are infrequent (more out of a function of having left behind
all my regular partners in my old state and the pool of pickup partners
leaving something to be desired than anything else).
Hank Youngerman
wrote:
I agree, not so much for the monsterpoints but for competitive
balance. I would of course rather be the A pair when all the other
A's are in the other direction, but that's so I play against good
competition, not so I win schmoints.
At the club I usually play at, they seed the top pairs, holding back
their entries, so the top 8 or 10 pairs will always be split into NS
and EW groups. When I was directing, and I think most good TD's do
this, they start out by designating tables as A, B, or C, using their
experience to guide the ratios, and then of course at the end they may
have to adjust. But if the first 4 A's that come in all ask for NS,
they will start giving all the A's EW, or perhaps even refuse a
request by an A for a NS.
Admittedly I am not in the "infirm" category, but I hope I never get
to the point where it's a struggle to move 15 feet every 15 minutes.
As it is now, I get up after every round and walk around a bit anyway.
paul
wrote:
Our club marks each table with a yellow, blue, or red dot (1,4,7 &10
are yellow, etc.) and posts stratifications for those colors. Players
must sit at the proper table, which automatically starts the game with
a fairly balanced field; the directors sometimes move a pair to even
things up. Seems to work pretty well.