Yesterday was the first day of the Endless Summer Regional, offering ACBL gold pigmented masterpoints for online bridge. With so many different stratification levels, you might wonder which event would be most popular. Based on yesterday, the verdict is clear!
The Super Gold Rush, open to players with up to 1250 points, attracted 552 tables – more than 1100 entries and possibly the largest event in history.
Special congrats to GNYBA pair Damon Suden and Anthony Chiocchi, winning overall 5th place and stratification 2nd place. If the name sounds familiar, Team Suden is the current top seeded team in the District 24 Grand National Teams Flight C standings, along with teammates Mo Oehlerking and Marla Lawson.
Point Reduction Motion Already In Effect?
For those who care about masterpoint formulas, what should 1st place in a regional Super Gold Rush with 552 tables award? It should be 32.30 gold points. Instead, the winners received 25.84 – still a very respectable amount for an online gold rush, but what’s going on?
The national ACBL Board of Directors held a vote in their June special meeting on whether to reduce the online gold, red, and silver masterpoints awarded by 20%, and reduce awards for online 18-board silver point games by 25%. According to the meeting minutes, the Board spent an hour and twenty minutes discussing these two issues, and ultimately the motion was deferred to August or September.
However, according to my calculations the 20% reduction is already in effect. Let’s walk through the formula:
B: 552 tables = log (552/4)
R: Regional Rating = 14
S: Two sessions = 1.5
M: Super Gold Rush Limit of 1250 MPS = 0.575
T: Pairs Event = 1.25
P: No restrictions other than masterpoints, should be 1.00
First Overall = log (552/4) * 14 * 1.5 * 0.575 * 1.25 * 1.00 = 32.30
However, it seems the reduction applies, awarding only 25.84
Normal Gold Rush Also Reduced
The reduction applied to the normal gold rush as well, which had 374 tables. A normal gold rush has the M-factor at 0.525 instead of the 0.575 of the Super Gold Rush. For the astute, the super gold rush pays about 9.5% more than a regular gold rush.
log (374/4) * 14 * 1.5 * 0.525 * 1.25 = 27.16
Instead, it paid exactly 20% less, which is 21.73.
Previous Regional Was Not Reduced
Compare that to the first online regional held at the end of April, when the formula paid the full amount for the online gold rush with 391 tables. First overall received 27.43 as expected.