Answer: The club incurs a few minor expenses, most notably the maintenance of this web site. We have to pay for the name www.sdgammon.org as well as for the hosting of the web site.
There may also be some other things the club will purchase -- perhaps some club scoring sheets, or club dice cups. These will be minor expenses.
Any money left over at the end of the year will be awarded to the winners of the Tournament of Champions. The top 16 people in the master point list will be invited to the tournament. There will be no entry fee to this tournament.
Question: Are your tournaments single elimination or double elimination? Do you have a consolation bracket? How many spots pay out?
Answer: We institute a single elimination tournament with no consolation bracket. However, if you lose, you may buy back into the tournament for $10. Typically, the top three spots pay out: 60% for first place, 20% for second place, and 20% for third place.
Question: What's the deal with the $10 food coupon? I don't really want to buy dinner there.
Answer: The Embassy Suites is very generous in allowing us to hold our BCSD club play at their hotel cafe. The deal that we have in place is that we promise that all of our club members will spend a minimum of $10 at the cafe each time they participate in the tournament. The tournament director will collect a $20 entry fee from you -- $10 is for your food ticket, and $10 goes into the tournament prize fund. You'll be given a coupon, which is worth $10 at the cafe.
Question: What percentage of the tournament prize fund is returned as prizes.
Answer: The club keeps $5 each tournament. All other money collected as the tournament prize fund will be returned as prizes. The club funds itself through this $5 fee.
Question: Why do you have a side pool? Do I have to enter? What's the fee to enter?
Answer: A side pool is a typical feature of a backgammon tournament. It is completely optional. What we do is that anybody who wishes to enter the side pool will put in an additional $10. This is placed in a separate pot, and it's winner-take-all. The person in the side pool who advances the farthest in the tournament wins the entire side pool.
Question: Do you play with the Crawford rule? What about the Jacoby rule? The Holland rule? Can you really have more than five checkers on a point? Can I beaver, raccoon, otter, etc.? Do you count backgammons? What about automatic doubles?
Answer: We play by standard backgammon rules, as commonly accepted throughout the world. We follow the United States Backgammon Tournament Rules. We use the Crawford rule. We do not use the Jacoby rule, beavers, raccoons, otters, etc. in our tournaments, as these features are typically used only for money or heads-up play. We do not use the Holland rule (really, almost nobody does). Yes, you can have more than five checkers on a point -- that's a standard backgammon rule. Yes, backgammons count, and are worth triple the cube value. This is also a standard backgammon rule. We do not use automatic doubles in match play (this is a standard backgammon rule). In the chouettes at our club, we generally do not use automatic doubles, but of course as is always the case in chouettes, the rules are up to the players!
Note that most of these rule clarifications are about the doubling cube... one question that some people ask is, "Do you use the doubling cube?" The answer is: you better believe it!!! Backgammon without the doubling cube is like American football without the passing game. Yeah, you can play it, but what's the point?
Question: Do the club members play chouettes? If I only want to play chouettes and not enter the tournaments, do I still have to pay the membership fee?
Answer: Yes, we play chouettes! Chouettes are a great way to have a little side action and to learn about backgammon. We ask that people arrive by 6 p.m., so that we can get the tournament organized in time for a 6:30 p.m. start. This is an excellent time to order some food and jump into a chouette. Some people arrive before 6 p.m. and play. Make sure you understand the rules (such as regarding consultation) and stakes of the chouette you're in before you play! And yes, you should pay a membership fee to be involved in any BCSD activities, including chouettes.
Question: I've never played with a clock before... why is the club instituting the use of clocks?
Answer: At this time, we're not going to universally insist upon the use of clocks, although it's certainly possible that in the future, we will. The tournament director can, however, insist that a match be played with a clock if he deems that one or both of the players in a match are playing too slowly.
We do encourage the use of clocks -- they help keep the action moving along, which makes for a better tournament for everybody! Backgammon is a game that should be played reasonably quickly -- this isn't chess. At times, you may need to stop and think about a cube decision or even a checker play, but at the same time, there are many moves which you just don't need to think about. If you roll 4-2 on the opening roll, you should be making your move immediately. There's just nothing to think about, and anybody who does is really wasting everybody's time.
If you play with a clock, and you play at a reasonable speed, you'll probably never run into serious time trouble, let alone lose on time.
Question: Hey, that looks pretty cool, actually. What clock should I get and where can I get one?
Answer: If you want to buy a clock, we recommend the Excalibur Game Time II. Perhaps the cheapest way to acquire one is to bid for one on eBay. Do so at your own risk -- although the risk is probably minimal.
If you're leery about bidding on eBay, check out Backgammon a la Carte run by Carol Joy Cole. Carol is very reputable, and you can get a pretty good deal on a clock. She sells plenty of other backgammon equipment, including precision dice, boards, and plenty of excellent books written by world class backgammon players.
Question: So how do the clocks work? How many minutes do you get? What happens if you run out of time?
Answer: We follow the Unified Backgammon Tournament Clock Rules. Since the club (and some of the members) own digital clocks, in those rules, you should note the rules that refer to BRONSTEIN CLOCKS.