diana_eva Posted June 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2017 This weekend, July 1st - 2nd, we'll run the first free practice tournament for the upcoming ACBL NABC Online Individual: http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/news_fetch.php?id=3928 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffford76 Posted July 3, 2017 Report Share Posted July 3, 2017 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diana_eva Posted July 3, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2017 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 RobotsYou will find the tournament in ACBL World. More details here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnu Posted July 6, 2017 Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted July 6, 2017 Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnu Posted July 6, 2017 Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 One big section for everyone, just like our existing daylong tourneys. What an monumentally bad design decision by the ACBL :blink: 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted July 6, 2017 Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 What an monumentally bad design decision by the ACBL :blink: 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.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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnu Posted July 6, 2017 Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diana_eva Posted July 6, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrc242 Posted July 9, 2017 Report Share Posted July 9, 2017 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdanforth Posted July 9, 2017 Report Share Posted July 9, 2017 (edited) 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] Edited July 9, 2017 by diana_eva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted July 9, 2017 Report Share Posted July 9, 2017 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diana_eva Posted July 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2017 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: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnu Posted July 9, 2017 Report Share Posted July 9, 2017 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 :o 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted July 10, 2017 Report Share Posted July 10, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnu Posted July 10, 2017 Report Share Posted July 10, 2017 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. My guess is that whoever set up the times didn't even consider that players are playing from multiple time zones. If you think Pacific time zone players are disadvantaged, think about anybody playing from Alaska or Hawaii. And I don't understand why the times couldn't be adjusted even now. All somebody has to do is edit the web pages with the tournament dates and times and send out an email (and BBO will have to make adjustments to the start and end times). The only disadvantage I can see is that results from each session will be sent out later than originally planned by a few hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrc242 Posted July 10, 2017 Report Share Posted July 10, 2017 My guess is that whoever set up the times didn't even consider that players are playing from multiple time zones. If you think Pacific time zone players are disadvantaged, think about anybody playing from Alaska or Hawaii. And I don't understand why the times couldn't be adjusted even now. All somebody has to do is edit the web pages with the tournament dates and times and send out an email (and BBO will have to make adjustments to the start and end times). The only disadvantage I can see is that results from each session will be sent out later than originally planned by a few hours. Yeah, this doesn't make any sense to me. Also, I suspect that a large number of non-retired ACBL players play regularly on BBO, especially with the disappearance of evening club games, so they're really missing their key demographic who live on the West Coast or beyond. People talk about east coast bias in sports reporting all the time, I've thought it was overblown in the past. This is the first time I can say I've seen it live and in person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbodell Posted July 11, 2017 Report Share Posted July 11, 2017 FWIW I know I'm not necessarily normal in my schedule but I actually like the times. In the free practice I played around midnight or 1am West Coast time. I plan to play from Toronto and will be likewise playing in the shortly after midnight or 1 am time period, possibly later if I were to play zip KO, so for me if it were 3am-3am that would be worse and 6am-6am would not be great. I figure it will take me about an hour, maybe slightly more, to play each session, so I do prefer playing them before going to sleep, since I'm likely to wake up around noon on NABC days and not want to play before or during in person NABC events. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted July 11, 2017 Report Share Posted July 11, 2017 My guess is that whoever set up the times didn't even consider that players are playing from multiple time zones. Or rather that some time zones would be disadvantaged, even though they can play during any 3-hour window in the day. No one at ACBL or BBO noticed this was an issue, nor did anyone in the forum suggest it early on in discussions.And I don't understand why the times couldn't be adjusted even now. All somebody has to do is edit the web pages with the tournament dates and times and send out an email (and BBO will have to make adjustments to the start and end times). The only disadvantage I can see is that results from each session will be sent out later than originally planned by a few hours.The problem isn't technical, it's that players have already signed up based on the existing CoC -- we don't think it would be appropriate to change them now. And is it really that big a problem? 3 hours is the normal time for a club duplicate of 24 boards, but online bridge in general, and robot bridge specifically, generally goes faster. So most people won't need the full 3 hours that they're given. If they start at 6:30 or 7pm they should have little trouble finishing before the deadline, or they can play at 9pm and finish before bedtime. The Alaska/Hawaii people should have no problem. Each session starts at 6pm their time, so they have the whole evening to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnu Posted July 11, 2017 Report Share Posted July 11, 2017 The problem isn't technical, it's that players have already signed up based on the existing CoC -- we don't think it would be appropriate to change them now. And is it really that big a problem? 3 hours is the normal time for a club duplicate of 24 boards, but online bridge in general, and robot bridge specifically, generally goes faster. So most people won't need the full 3 hours that they're given. If they start at 6:30 or 7pm they should have little trouble finishing before the deadline, or they can play at 9pm and finish before bedtime. The Alaska/Hawaii people should have no problem. Each session starts at 6pm their time, so they have the whole evening to play. CoC! Really! I doubt many people have actually read the conditions of contest, and even if they did, why would they object to a liberalization of the playing hours? You could keep the midnight start times and have an overlap where the previous day's session and the current day's session are going on at the same time. More work for BBO and maybe not worth the effort. A lot of people leave for work first thing in the morning, and with meetings and rush projects may be at work until 7PM, 8, or hours later, not getting home until it's too late to play. True, they can try to play the night before if they have time. Still, on the east coast, moderately late nighters can play before they go to bed, or play earlier in the evening the next day so they have a lot more flexibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diana_eva Posted July 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 Fourth and last Free NABC Practice Tournament is held this weekend (Friday, July 14 though Sunday, July 16) on BBO in conjunction with the ACBL and awards free entry to the NABC Online to top 10 winners overall. Details here. More good news:The award payout for the NABC Online Individual has been significantly increased. ACBL has just confirmed an increase in the total number of awards, to 67 places for each daily session and 187 places for the overalls.Points earned in the NABC Online will count towards the Mini-McKenney Race (masterpoint race for points earned at ACBL sanctioned tournaments and clubs, excluding online), as well as the Fishbein Trophy (awarded to the player who wins the most masterpoints at the Summer NABC).This does mean the points earned in this event do not count towards the Ace of Clubs (for points won at a local sanctioned club) and Online Race (for most points won online). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A2003 Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 Is there a carry over ? If so, how is it calculated? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 Is there a carry over ? If so, how is it calculated?100% carryover -- the overall award is simply your average percentage across all 4 sessions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olegru Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 Is it possible to include at least one GIB in competition? Or at least at this practice one? Very curious:1. How would robot perform compare to humans?2. How big difference will be between robots, depending on the sets of board they got? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnu Posted July 14, 2017 Report Share Posted July 14, 2017 Is it possible to include at least one GIB in competition? Or at least at this practice one? Very curious:1. How would robot perform compare to humans?2. How big difference will be between robots, depending on the sets of board they got? Good idea. Maybe 10+ GIBS playing South to give a better idea of the spread on percentages based on different boards. I'm not sure who plays the $1 robot games, but surely the NABC game will be a lot tougher competition. Edit: Have robots play the same boards as the 10 human leaders instead of random boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.