Next week is New York City’s last STaC week of 2019! Most of us have friends who invite us to play in Woodbridge or Allendale every few months. Most of us politely decline. Why cross rivers and state lines when you can earn silver in the comfort of your own club?
We all love our local Sectional Tournaments at the Clubs. They award those elusive silver pigmented Masterpoints, but they also pay a mysterious STaC bonus. You know what I’m talking about – the lovely email you receive the next day titled “Your STaC Results are Ready”.
What exactly IS the bonus? Some clubs say it is double points, some say triple points. Turns out they are all wrong! The official formula from ACBL looks daunting. Here is part of it below:
Thankfully, almost all open, single-session pair games during STaC week simplify into one nice and neat formula with only one variable, the table count:
STaC Pairs First Place: 1.875 + 0.1875 * Number_of_tables
For those playing in a single session swiss instead of pairs, you get a bit less per table, because you aren’t competing against as many teams per table, so it is easier to win.
STaC Swiss First Place: 1.50 + 0.15 * Number_of_tables
What if you are playing a 0-750 game? Then you multiply by the Gold Rush multiple, which is 52.5%. Somewhere along the way, someone at ACBL decided that seemed fair.
Let’s use STaC results from the summer as an example. Monday Afternoon June 3, 2019, the Cavendish Results suggest that the winning pair earned 1.78 masterpoints (well done David Gurvich and Rica Tarnoff with a 69.35% game).
http://clubresults.acbl.org/Results/227306/2019/06/190603A.HTM
However, the winners waited in suspense for that “next day email” to deliver the good news. The STaC combines sections and tables from other NYC clubs such as Aces, Pride of Judea, and Sephardic; bringing the total table count to 60. First place overall becomes:
1.875 + 0.1875 * 60 = 13.13 Silver Points
Not a bad haul for 24 boards at the club! Second place got 75% of first, third place gets 75% of second, and so on. Lower strats are slightly more complex, but we’ve seen enough formulas for one day. Good luck everyone this upcoming STaC!
