Casino Night!

OK, time for some fun. Tomorrow is Casino Night: we’re spicing up our usual Monster DYP with $50 added to the pot and a little bit of extra fun.

At the beginning of each match, each table will be dealt 10 playing cards face down. Before each ball, the players flip a card.

If it’s a normal card: you play the ball.

If it’s a card marked as a $1 or $2 money ball: whoever scores that ball keeps the card, and can trade it for cash.

And if it’s a Goalie $2 card: if a goalie scores the ball, they keep the card and can trade it for cash. If one of the forwards scores, the card is worth nothing. Play accordingly.

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Handicap Monster DYP

We run a wide variety of Monster Draw tournament formats, because they are light-hearted and easy to run. We vary the formats so that players can get practice in singles and doubles. Sometimes we play more rounds with a race-to-seven for each match, other times we play fewer rounds with more intense best 2/3 matches.

We’re going to try out something new in the mix: a Handicap Monster DYP. Players are handicapped based on local points. In each round of the DYP, new teams are assigned. The team handicap is the sum of the player handicaps from the local points. For example, a team where one player has 1400 points (handicap 1) and the other player has 2200 points (handicap 3) has a total handicap of 4.

When two teams play each other, they compare the handicaps to figure out how many points each team needs to score. The team with the lower handicap always needs to score 7 points to win. The team with the higher handicap needs to score 7 + the difference between the handicaps, up to a maximum of 10 points.

Examples:

Team A has a handicap of 3, and Team B has a handicap of 5. Team A needs 7 to win, and Team B needs 9 to win.

Team A has a handicap of 1, and Team B has a handicap of 1. Both teams need to score 7 to win.

Team A has a handicap of 2, and Team B has a handicap of 7. Team A needs to score 7 to win, and Team B needs to score 10. Even though the handicap difference is 5 points, the most any team needs to win is 10 points total.

We’ll play rounds like this from 8-10pm, and then start doubles playoffs for the top 8 players. The matches in the playoffs will use the same handicap system as the seeding rounds. Each playoff match is one game, where teams need to score from 7-10 points depending on their handicap.

You can check your handicaps in the Points Book. If you’re a new player, your handicap will start at 0. Once you start winning matches your points will increase, and your handicap too.

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Spooktastic Saturday Tournament

We’ll be playing at California Billiards in Fremont on Saturday, Oct 30. If you come in costume, we’ll waive the $5 table fee.

RSVP on Facebook or add the event to your calendar. Entry fees based on local points.

Tables open at 2 pm.

Open Singles
Get your singles game on.
Each match best 2/3.
More than 10 teams: double elimination tournament.
10 or fewer: Swiss System for seeding, single elimination play-offs for top 4 players.

Entry fees based on local points:

<1000: $5

1000-1999 $10

2000+: $15

Shake-n-Bake
Bring a partner if you’ve got one, draw one if you don’t.

Format may be either Swiss System or a shake-n-bake with a split bracket. We’ll decide day of. If we do Swiss System, bring teams will play to 6 against draw teams.
100% payout. Entry fees based on local points:

Draw side:

<1000: $5

1000+: $10

Bring Side:

<1000: $5

1000-1999: $10

2000+: $15

Safety Precautions

Standard Bayfoos Covid precautions will be in place. Masks required inside, and we’ll collect contact information for contact tracing.

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Bayfoos Local Rankings

Bayfoos has a points system we use for keeping track of local rankings. After our long break during the pandemic, we’ve played enough recent matches to update our local points. We use local points to set entry fees and seedings for tournaments, and pretty soon we’ll try out using them for handicaps as well.

There is a nationally recognized IFP Tour points system. For players who play national tournaments, we use their IFP points as our base. We then adjust local points based on an Elo rating system: you can gain or lose points in every match you play. You also gain points for strong overall finishes in events. Player’s local points are always the higher of their local points vs their IFP Tour points. Note that even though we try to keep the points in sync, there is a lot of drift between local rankings and IFP tour performance due to a “rating inflation” effect. A  player with 2000-2500 points locally usually plays at a 1500-2000 point level on the national tour.

Locally, the critical numbers in our points system are 1000, 2000, and 3000. Players with under 1000 points are fairly new and are working on developing their game; they pay lower entry fees for events. Crossing the 1000 points mark is a badge of honor, but it also means you pay full price entry fees.

Players above 2000 points have a good chance of winning a tournament on any given night. Players above 3000 points are usually ranked Pro or Master nationally, and we love it when these folks come out to play. Sometimes we say “steel sharpens steel”: the competition makes all of us better players.

When comparing Elo ratings, bear in mind that the points difference between two players translates to win probabilities. If two players have no difference in points, the ratings system predicts that they are evenly matched and each player will win 50% of their matches. If there is a 100 point difference, the higher ranked player should win 2/3 matches. A 500 point difference means the higher ranked player should win about 95% of the time! When comparing teams, we add up the points for each player to get the team points.

These comparisons also impact how many points you can gain or lose in a match. Winning or losing against an evenly matched player only transfers a few points at a time. Beating a much higher ranked player transfers more points. This is a self-correcting ranking system: if you keep beating higher ranked players, pretty soon you’ll have a higher rating yourself.

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Summer Points Race Winners

We hosted the two last events of our Summer Points Race yesterday. We had 3 prize categories with 13 events, and even then the race was close!

Brian won the $100 grand prize, with 46.5 points to Mohammed’s 41. Mo played only 12 events and Brian played 13, so this was an even closer match up than the total points indicate. Brian averaged 3.6 points per event; Mo averaged 3.4. Brian is one of the sponsors of the points race, so the $100 grand prize is going to turn into more prize money for a future event.

The Expert prize, $50, was a squeaker. Going into this weekend, Vera had a solid 3 point lead over Nick and a 3.5 point lead over Rishabh. Nick couldn’t play this weekend, but Rishabh had a phenomenal performance, taking 2nd in Singles and 4th in Doubles. It was enough to make up the difference. Rishabh won the Expert prize with 23 points to Vera’s 22.5.

Vera is currently ranked Rookie, so she was also eligible for the $30 free entry prize. She was close to winning the Expert prize, so it’s not surprising she was our top ranked Rookie. Bing and Bharath were next closest, with 16 points each, and Jorge had 15.5.

If you’re curious, check out the full standings to see how close you were to winning. Thank you everyone for playing!

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