Ragged Aces Poker Group

The Ragged Aces Tournament structure is based on the Poker Superstars tournaments where players earn points in each game during the season, and use those points to purchase chips in the championship game.

Unlike Poker Superstars, we are also awarding points for the year long average a player has over the season of tournaments in order to balance out the disparity in number of games that can be played by different players.

To help close the gap that is created by "zero point" games where someone was unable to play, or those one or two bad games everyone has in a season. We're only going to count the best 10 games per season of each player to determine their starting chip values.

The Championship game will have 24 chip stacks guaranteed reguardless of whether we get 24 players to show or not. Late players will play their stacks as they have been blinded down.

Dead stacks will be combined into a pool of chips and divided evenly to each table where they will be "anted" in an amount equal to the BBx#of players represented by the dead stacks.

Ex: we have 6 dead stacks before the tournament begins (a dead stack being a player that we know will not be playing or be replaced). We combine the stacks to create a pool of $18,000 and divide by 3 so each table gets $6,000 in chips. Each hand, the tables ante in 2xBB (representing 2 dead stacks each) until the dead money is gone.

If the tables combine and dead money is still available, the stacks will be combined and divided by 2 and antes paid the same way until they are gone. This dead money going into each hand at the beginning of the tournament will make the early hands more juicy and contested.

Players will buy in to the championship game the same as other games during the year, but we also hold over $10-$30 from each season tournament (based on the number of players) to sweeten the pot in the championship so that if we don't get a full turn-out, the championship is still a significant win. The winner of the championship will be awarded the Ragged Aces Championship Trophy as well as the first prize money.

Starting chips are calculated with a base value of 3000 chips from the buy-in with two bonus amounts based on accumulated points from the players top ten tournaments and the average place of the player throughout those tournaments. The starting chip value is thus the measure of your standing against everyone in our league this season and will be the starting value of chips you will get when championship play begins. Seating at the championship will also be based on your season standings with the initial placement giving advantage to the shorter stacks.

Since this is the culmination of the season, we are rewarding the best players with the most chips but reducing the advantage of playing every game without completely eliminating it (we don't want someone to have a bigger advantage by only playing one or two tournaments which going strictly on average would do).

The calculation of Championship Accumulated Points we use the following formula for the best 10 tournaments in which the player participated:
2 * (<total players in top ten tournaments> - <total places placed in top ten tournaments> + <total number of tournaments counted>) 

The Championship Chip Value for each player is calculated by multiplying the accumulated points by the championship chip multiplier (currently set at 15 chips per point):
<accumulated points>*<championship chip multiplier> 

24 is the maximum number of players that can play in any one tournament and we are using the number of players in each of the tournaments the player played in to determine the strength of the position and reward the players that do well in bigger tournaments.

Examples:
Player A has played in 5 tournaments and placed 9, 8, 5, 7, and 1. The total number of players in each tournament was 12, 20, 9, 11, and 8 over those 5 tournaments (average of 12 players per tournament). Player A’s accumulated points would be: 2*(60 - 30 + 5) = 70 or 1050 chips 

Player B has played in 7 tournaments and placed 5, 15, 19, 3, 18, 17, and 2. The total number of players was 22, 15, 21, 16, 20, 18, and 14 over those 7 tournaments (average of 18 players per tournament). Player B’s accumulated points would be: 2*(126 - 79 + 7) = 108 or 1620 chips 

The Average Place is a number calculated in two halves.  The first half is based on the straight average of the best 10 tournaments played by the player.  The second half is that average weighted by the strength of the average (what percentage of 10 games played).  Each average point is worth $35 in championship chips and the total is rounded up to the nearest 10:
(875 - (<Ave Place> * 35)) + (((<games counted> * 10) / 100) * (875 - (<Ave Place> * 35))) 

Examples:
Player A’s average over 5 tournaments is: 30 / 5 = 6.00
His average bonus would then be calculated as: 665 + 333 = 998 (1000) 

Player B’s average over 7 tournaments is: 79 / 7 = 11.29
Her average bonus would then be calculated as: 480 + 336 = 816 (820) 

The Championship Total Chips is a formula combining the above numbers with the baseline buy-in chips (currently 3,000) rounded up to the nearest ten dollars (smallest chip):
<championship chips> + <average bonus> + <baseline chips>

Examples:
Player A’s championship chip value is: 1050 + 1000 + 3000 = $5050

Player B’s championship chip value is: 1620 + 820 + 3000 = $5440

At minimum a player would have the standard chips for their buy-in (3,000) which will give them a fighting chance at the tournament if they were unable to accumulate any bonus chips during the season.