Progressive ace pot

[JC17393]

I'm curious about a particular type of progressive ace pot which I've come across at a few courses around here but is something I can't say I've seen or heard of anywhere else.

It's a simple progressive pot. Each week there are no aces, the pot carries over in full to the next week. However, to buy into the ace pot, you have to pay for every week of carry over that you haven't already paid before. So if you've played (and paid) every week since the last time it was hit, it's just $1 to buy in each week. But if you're playing for the first time in week 8 of the ace pot, the cost to buy in is $8. If it's week 15, it is $15. And so on.

On the one hand, I can see it as discouraging ace pot scavengers from jumping in once it gets big then bailing once it's hit. On the other, if the pot grows for too long, it discourages new or occasional players from coming out at all and can stagnate numbers.

So I guess my question is two-fold...is this a common practice elsewhere and am I wrong to be bothered by it as someone who is only an occasional league player due to the nature of my schedule? What do others think?

 

[Nemmers]

I've never seen or even heard of this format for ace pools before. It has a certain amount of logic to it if the course is short and aces are fairly common; however, if aces are rare (e.g. 15 weeks pass before anyone hits one) I can also see it being a detriment. Depending on the size of the pot it might encourage more participation though. People buy lottery tickets every day, after all.

To answer your questions: No, it's not a common way to run an ace pool. As for it bothering you, that's completely subjective. You can't help that it bothers you, but if you don't like the format you don't have to participate. You can always start your own ace pool too, so you have options. That's one of the perks of running your own league...you can run it however you want and if people don't like it, too bad. They can always start their own.

 

[corin_brown]

As for it bothering you, that's completely subjective. You can't help that it bothers you, but if you don't like the format you don't have to participate. You can always start your own ace pool too, so you have options. That's one of the perks of running your own league...you can run it however you want and if people don't like it, too bad. They can always start their own.

I love this reply. This is the best thing I've read all week.:clap::thmbup::clap::thmbup::clap::thmbup:

 

[Discette]

I'm curious about a particular type of progressive ace pot which I've come across at a few courses around here but is something I can't say I've seen or heard of anywhere else.

It's a simple progressive pot. Each week there are no aces, the pot carries over in full to the next week. However, to buy into the ace pot, you have to pay for every week of carry over that you haven't already paid before. So if you've played (and paid) every week since the last time it was hit, it's just $1 to buy in each week. But if you're playing for the first time in week 8 of the ace pot, the cost to buy in is $8. If it's week 15, it is $15. And so on.

On the one hand, I can see it as discouraging ace pot scavengers from jumping in once it gets big then bailing once it's hit. On the other, if the pot grows for too long, it discourages new or occasional players from coming out at all and can stagnate numbers.

So I guess my question is two-fold...is this a common practice elsewhere and am I wrong to be bothered by it as someone who is only an occasional league player due to the nature of my schedule? What do others think?

They had an Ace Fund like this in Austin, Minnesota for the Sunday Ace League. However, I don't think you could "buy in". You could only win as much of the Ace Pot as the number of weeks you played. If Ace pot was 20 weeks in the making and you only played 11 weeks, you could only win 11/20 of the Ace Pot. This was to keep players in the Big City from coming to town some Sunday and walking away with $1,000.00 for only showing up one time. And I don't think they let you buy in, you HAD to play every week if you wanted to keep 100% in the fund. I loved and hated this league as the last year I played this league it seemed Sunday was always the coldest and worst weather of the week. However, I was vested and continued to play in the below zero crappy weather just to keep up my chances at that $1,000.00 Ace Pot!

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

Our club keeps an ace pot for both local courses so you can't hit an easier ace on one course and win all the money. They also cap the ace pot at $200 to prevent poachers and the extra money rolls over to start the new ace pot when one is hit.

 

[DavidSauls]

Around here it's just the simple, pay $1 and you're in, hit the ace and win whatever's in the pot. So, yes, you can roll in from out of town, play once, and walk away with a pocketful of money.

The most heavily attended weekly is on a course where aces are readily available, so it shouldn't accumulate too much. Though sometimes it does.

The argument was made that this formula encourages attendance, particularly when the pot gets higher, and the extra attendance (1) is better for play and (2) boosts the ace pot. Though an out-of-towner might win, odds favor a local doing it, and getting some of that out-of-town money.

 

[esdubya]

It's got to be a lot of bookkeeping to keep track of who attends which week for the exclusive ace pot model. Most leagues I've seen in this area don't want to be bothered with that, so typically it is $2 or $1 and you are in the running for the entire pot, whether it's your first week there or you have been to every one.

What is common though is to payout a percentage of what is in the kitty, such as 50% or 75% of the total ace pot value. This is just to keep things in there after a hit. A cap can be a nice predictable way to regulate things, but it's also fun to have one get up really high and become kind of a spectacle with extra ordinary attendance numbers.

 

[hellbound]

Played one local club that would cap the ace pool for non members to what was collected that week. This way if they hit it it was only worth 40 or so. By forcing them to buy into the club it gain a few dollars for the year end party. Current double I attend we cap it a 50.00. Pitch and putt course and at most it has gotten to around 150.00 Our idea was anything over that amont would be saved for other course improvements and or materials for running doubles. Worked well enough that it self feeds us the needed dollars for score cards and pencils.

 

[araytx]

I know that one group or series of events that do it like this --
Buy a $20 club membership and you're in for $1 every time you show up. You get to play for the entire ace pot up to the capped number. Roll in from wherever you can still pay $1 for the ace pot, but you're only eligible door 50% or 40% depending on where they cap it. Or you can buy a club membership.

 

[osborne]

the local league started requiring club membership to be eligible for the ace pot. Not a format I like at all.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

They had an Ace Fund like this in Austin, Minnesota for the Sunday Ace League. However, I don't think you could "buy in". You could only win as much of the Ace Pot as the number of weeks you played. If Ace pot was 20 weeks in the making and you only played 11 weeks, you could only win 11/20 of the Ace Pot. This was to keep players in the Big City from coming to town some Sunday and walking away with $1,000.00 for only showing up one time. And I don't think they let you buy in, you HAD to play every week if you wanted to keep 100% in the fund. I loved and hated this league as the last year I played this league it seemed Sunday was always the coldest and worst weather of the week. However, I was vested and continued to play in the below zero crappy weather just to keep up my chances at that $1,000.00 Ace Pot!

This isn't true, at least not any more and hasn't been for 5 years or so if it ever was that way before. I play this league occasionally, and yes, you can buy all in at any time. This Sunday I believe it's up to $20 to buy in (20 weeks since an ace has been hit) and the pot is over $500. One time I paid $7 to get caught up, hit the ace, and walked away with $50 or so. I appreciate this kind of league, but yes it does discourage me from playing if I haven't invested any $$ along the way, $20 is a big gamble, but they do also allow you to play for just that day's pool for $1 as well, but wouldn't that be a bummer to hit an ace, at a league with a $500 ace pot, and walk away with $8..

 

[biscoe]

"Ace pot scavengers" are about equal to "baggers" as an actual problem in dg- which is to say not at all.

 

[Pwingles]

At one league I play in, they started doing a general ace pot and a seperate ace pot for every basket.

$1 goes to the general, and $1 goes to the basket bounty. Basically a dollar goes toward each hole in numerical order. So for example, day 1 of your league, 10 people attend. Holes 1 thru 10 have $1 each into their respective bounties. The next week, you would simply start at hole 11, and add a buck to each hole, and after 18, just start back at hole 1.

 

[topcide]

"Ace pot scavengers" are about equal to "baggers" as an actual problem in dg- which is to say not at all.

Except I see both as issues.

As far as the ace pot scavenger goes- I have seen it in action. In one of the local leagues a pot grew pretty big for a couple weeks in a row and was a few hundred bucks. People started rolling in from pretty long distances that had never played the league before- which would be fine- except many of them were just making hard runs at the chains every hole with lines that they would NEVER consider taking, and not caring about their actual play during the round. Is their really anything inherently "wrong" with that? I guess it depends on your perspective. I know it would be ****ty to get randomly drawn as their partner.

I also heard of a league in the area that had a rule that once a pool broke $100 you were only eligible to win 50% of it if it was your first time ever being at the league. Personally i think that is a fair way to do it.

 

[Captain Bad]

We have an ace pot that runs like this and it will often reach over $1000. As the pot builds so does attendance. The league is played on two easy courses with lots of ace-able holes, so folks come out of the woodworks hoping to cash in. You can call that ace scavenging I suppose, but it's still exciting and fun trying to hit the ace and large crowds make for exciting league weeks. I'm a big fan of this kind of pot.

 

[1978]

Seems like a nightmare (for my non organized brain) to keep track of who paid when.

 

[ArgyleG86]

Our club does percentage based payouts. If you've paid 7/7 weeks the pot has been active you get 100%, etc. We also allow members to back pay for any missed weeks, non-members don't get that option.

 

[davetherocketguy]

I just started running a league and was presented with all of these issues. I explain the way we do the ace pot like this:

- $1 is what buys you the right to whatever is in the pot should you get an ace over the next 18 holes regardless of how much you have or have not contributed previously.

- $50 is the limit to the payout regardless of what is actually in the pot. This reduces the likelyhood of a pro swooping in from out of town and snipering our pot. Not sure if I like this or not. High ace pools do seem to attract crowds so it's a take the good with the bad I guess...

I can see the progressive pot idea working though. I had an ace pool run similar to the above and half way through the season the guy running it was like, "Well I've contributed $10 so I don't feel that I should have to pay any more blah blah blah...." As I've tried to explain to him, that $1 only gets you 18 holes. If you've spent $10 then that means you've had 10x the opportunities to get an ace....Interesting thread.