A funny thing happened on today’s Silver Lining Week 2.0 Kickoff. The All-For-One evening 7:15pm open game, featuring world champions and Barry Crane winners, only had 6 tables. The real party was in the 0-800, which I’m calling the Silver Rush game.
With only 15 minutes to go, there was over triple the demand in the 0-800 with James game. In the final minutes, at least one pair defected down after scoping out the scene.
A Silly Masterpoint Formula Fix
Under the normal ACBL formula, the masterpoint prize pool from the open game includes the table count of all concurrent limited games (the masterpoints trickle up). The theory is, whoever wins the open game with 6 tables would have also won it if we forced everyone into one huge 27 table game.
Unfortunately, the logic doesn’t yet apply to Virtual Private Club games, but I’m assured from sources within ACBL that a software update is coming very soon. In the meantime, don’t feel too bad for the pros – they still took advantage of the Howell movement trick (6 tables magically becomes 12).
Also, the entire formula will soon change to be based on strength of field – so you get an extra bonus when all of your opponents seem to have over 20,000 masterpoints.
Why 0-800, Who Plays It, And Who Is James?
Actually, I’m not sure why the limit is 0-800, when almost all gold rush games and limited games have forever been 0-750. My guess is the usual supply-and-demand reason – someone between 750-799 must really want it. Maybe we just go super gold rush, 0-1250?
Anyway, the Evening Honors and Aces limited program brought me many fond memories and will always hold a special place in my heart: whiteboard exercises with Tom, lessons with Georgia, weekends with Stephanie, duplicate and discussion with Yefim, and 20 Boards for $20 Bucks with James. You can even count mornings with Marin and Kerry, as pseudo-limited, friendly games. I’ve done them all, and often on the Evening EZ Pass (not available yet for online games, but maybe it’s an idea worth trying).
We like it because it’s a crowd of players, all still in the developing stages of our game. We’ve graduated from the newplicate. We can hold our own if we have to play open. But we still make a ton of mistakes, all the time and every time we play. Come join when you can!