[dldkay]

Why isnt it possible to stratify the ACBL Tournaments? It is a little discouraging to have to face four pairs of EXs in 6 rounds. Club games are stratified and all ACBL members have their MPs posted. It would seem to be a much fairer way to run the tourneys.

[bearmum]

dldkay, on Jun 28 2005, 05:16 PM, said:

Why isnt it possible to stratify the ACBL Tournaments?  It is a little discouraging to have to face four pairs of EXs in 6 rounds.  Club games are stratified and all ACBL members have their MPs posted.  It would seem to be a much fairer way to run the tourneys.

sounds good to me - but not being a member of ACBL (since we no longer live in US) and therefore not prepared to pay to play in the ACBL games I would like to ask IF ACBL numbers are a pre-requisite to play in the ACBL events? [and if not why not?]
If they are then it surely should be easy to stratify the event ??

[uday]

ACBL numbers are not currently a requirement -- acbl games are open.

We tried stratification and had to back off. The number of nonmembers involved makes stratification difficult/impossible.

We'll no doubt re-introduce stratification in the future, perhaps with an acbl-members-obly game.

[Winstonm]

I understand that everyone is different and has different reasons for playing, so this applies only to myself: I don't understand the fascination with stratification - or maybe I don't understand it.

From my first days in bridge, the greatness of the game IMO was that unlike any other game the opportunity existed for a minimum entry fee to sit down and face a world champion. I can't imagine not wanting to get this chance.

WinstonM

[joker_gib]

Winstonm, on Jun 28 2005, 04:32 PM, said:

I understand that everyone is different and has different reasons for playing, so this applies only to myself: I don't understand the fascination with stratification - or maybe I don't understand it.

A lot of persons want to win !

They don't mind if the field was weak, if they made mistakes or if they were lucky !

I personnaly prefer to be last (OK, not last ) in a very strong field than win in the country of blinds !

Alain

[Elianna]

Winstonm, on Jun 28 2005, 07:32 AM, said:

From my first days in bridge, the greatness of the game IMO was that unlike any other game the opportunity existed for a minimum entry fee to sit down and face a world champion. I can't imagine not wanting to get this chance.

I think that what people want is to PLAY against a WC, but only have their scores be judged against other people of their own peer group.

[bearmum]

Elianna, on Jun 29 2005, 07:33 AM, said:

Winstonm, on Jun 28 2005, 07:32 AM, said:

From my first days in bridge, the greatness of the game IMO was that unlike any other game the opportunity existed for a minimum entry fee to sit down and face a world champion.  I can't imagine not wanting to get this chance.

I think that what people want is to PLAY against a WC, but only have their scores be judged against other people of their own peer group.

Well said

[barmar]

This is the difference between stratification and flighting. In flighting, you only play against people of your same experience level (although most flighted events allow players to enter a higher flight if they wish, if they want to challenge themselves).

In stratification, everyone plays together, but the rankings are based on experience level. Actually, you're ranked in your own experience level group *and* in the higher ones. So if a novice manages to beat a bunch of life masters, he'll get credit for it. But a novice can also get credit just for being the best novice in the field -- LMs who beat all the novices don't impact the ranking within the novice strat.

[Winstonm]

barmar, on Jun 29 2005, 02:28 PM, said:

This is the difference between stratification and flighting.  In flighting, you only play against people of your same experience level (although most flighted events allow players to enter a higher flight if they wish, if they want to challenge themselves).

In stratification, everyone plays together, but the rankings are based on experience level.  Actually, you're ranked in your own experience level group *and* in the higher ones.  So if a novice manages to beat a bunch of life masters, he'll get credit for it.  But a novice can also get credit just for being the best novice in the field -- LMs who beat all the novices don't impact the ranking within the novice strat.

Thanks for the explanation. I would think that with strats that seeding would be a nightmare to accomplish yet absolutely mandatory. Seeding is hard enough with mostly known players; how to accomplish this in a random online tournament is beyond my imagination to obtain.