Sunday, March 15, 2015

2015 NCAA Tournament Suicide Pool



March Madness 2015 Suicide Pool

The game that separates the men/women from the boys/girls.  Last year the pot got up to $2,500 or so, and the winner took home $1,250.  Let’s push it over $3k this year.

First, remind me of all the links and stuff I need.  I’m going to ask about it, so just put it up here.

Good call.  Here’s a quick reference for all the links you should need:

Entry Fee: $20/person (multiple entries allowed still)


Wait wait wait, before you start into your convoluted rules, did you change anything?  I played this stupid game last year, so just give me the changes so I can get on with my day!

Ok ok no need to yell here.  If you participated in the NFL Playoff Suicide Pool, you might remember the Google Forms I started using.  It worked so well that I’m bringing it here too.  Here’s how it works:


  • Every day, I will create a Google form that will be used by participants to choose their team for that day.  The first day will ask for a handful of information.  Subsequent days will not ask for as much info.  Trust me when I say all info is necessary.
  • Subsequent days will only ask for your entry name, email address, and your pick.  Please enter your entry name as I have entered it on the Leaderboard.  If you know anything about excel, you know how finicky computers are with matching things up if you don’t spell things the same way. 
  • If you want to change your pick for a day, just use the same form and pick again.  I can see timestamps on my end, and I’ll just take the latest one.

I enjoy running this pool, but it takes up a lot of time if I have to correct entries for people.  I’d prefer to keep doing it this way as opposed to running things through a website that takes 5% off the backend, so with a little help from you all, I can keep running this thing for free.

Finally, do not email, text, call, direct message, or facebook message me picks.  I will ignore them.

And with that, now to the rules proper…

Rules

  • Choose one team each day that you think will win for that particular day.
  • If your team wins, congrats, you move on to the next day of picks (assuming you can still pick a team.  If not, see next rule).  If not, you are out.  If you forget to pick one day, you will receive the “best” team available to you in the last set of games.  The “best” team will be determined by whatever spread I find first, probably Bovada.
  • Once you have a chosen a team, you cannot choose that team again for the rest of the contest.  If you use Kentucky to beat Manhattan in round one, Kentucky will not be an available option if they are still alive in the Elite 8.  If you ever get to a point where you cannot pick a team b/c you have used all the teams playing that day, then your entry will be treated like an entry who could pick that day and lost.
  • This comes up every year as a point of contention, but just to reiterate – even if someone does not have a pick, you still have to pick correctly for that day to finish ahead of them.  Picking to the point where you run out of teams is an acceptable strategy.
  • Multiple entries are allowed – buy early, buy often

Deadlines

  • Day One purchase and pick deadline is prior to tip for the last set of games of the evening, which usually occurs around 9:00 PM EDT.  If you lose at noon, go ahead and rebuy on day one – 10 people did that last year when Aaron Craft blew the last game of his 17 year Ohio St career.
  • Daily pick deadlines for rounds 1 and 2 are prior to tip for the last set of games for that day.  For the Sweet 16 and later, the deadline is prior to tip of the first game of the day.  Each form will have the deadline on there.

Winner/Tiebreaker 

The order of finish is first determined by the total number of winning picks made.  In the event of a tie, the tie will be broken in the following manner…

  • Highest combined total of all seeds selected
    • Ex: You and I get knocked out on Day 6.  Because I’m awesome, I had that 12 seed that won in round one.  My combined seed picking total is 28, and yours is 26.  I win.
  • Highest individual seed selected, and then second highest individual seed, etc.
    • Ex. You and I get knocked out Day 6, but both of our combined seed totals are 28.  I had my 12 seed, but your highest seed you picked was a 10 seed.  I win again.  (This was the tie-breaker we had to get to in 2012, so make sure you UNDERSTAND THIS RULE.)
  • Highest individual seed selected by round, and then second highest individual seed by round, etc.
    • Ex. You and I get knocked out Day 6, both of our combined seed totals are 28, and we have happened to have every seed we’ve chosen be the exact same.  However, you picked a 10 seed to win in round 1 (which they did), but I had my 10 seed to win in round 2 (which they did).  Once again you lose.  You’re really bad at this.  (If you don’t understand this rule, that’s fine.  Odds are it will not come in to play.)
  • If this does not result in a tie being broken, the pot will be split evenly.

Referral Pool

As usual, we will be running the referral pool this year.  Anyone who referred another person (or “referred themselves” by buying multiple entries) will have one entry in the referral sidepot.  The total of this sidepot will equal 25% of the referred entries.  For those buying multiple entries, your “1” entry is your referral pool entry.  Please be aware of that when picking.  Only the top 2 will be paid in the referral pool.

Payment

  • Entry cost: $20
  • Money must be in my grubby hands in some form before you make your pick.  The pool was big enough last year that I feel like I can big-time you all like this.  You can do this one of two ways:
    • PayPal – Probably the easiest to track and you don’t have to track me down.  The paypal ID is above.  In addition, when paying on PayPal, CHOOSE THAT IT IS A PERSONAL PAYMENT!  Otherwise, PayPal will take a commission.  If you do not have a PayPal account, sign up now so it can check your bank account.  Again, this is the preferred method of payment.  Not only does it guarantee I get the money, it also GETS YOU PAID FASTER IF YOU WIN!!!
    • Find my and physically hand me cash or a check.  I literally have to have the payment in my hand.  Do not call me and say “I’ll get you Sunday.”  Not happening.  Unless that Sunday is the Sunday before the tournament starts.
  • Payouts will be determined at the end based on number of entries.  We will not pay out beyond 5 spots. 


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