Day 3 Survivor Pool Recap 2022

 Once again, this Tourney Pool is brought to you by Thorough Crowd!

If you didn't see it, and you probably didn't, Thorough Crowd got another winner last night when Cairo Driver broke her maiden in her second start for us since being claimed!

Wow, what a great picture! If you want to get involved in owning a few horses it's easy and probably less expensive than ya think! And with racing at Keeneland and Churchill Downs coming up, plus runners in Indiana and on the East Coast, it's a perfect time to get involved as spring and summer racing get in full swing!

https://thoroughcrowd.com/contact/

Now, on to the Tourney Pool.

It was a bloodbath.

From the initial 737 entries, we are down to just 109 combatant. Yesterday was devastating as we lost 182 entries, that's 62% of our survivors that went down. St. Peter's, the little team that could from Jersey City, was to blame for over 100 of those as Matt McMahan decided he'd rather pick out his new job than coach another week at Murray State!

Today doesn't seem to get much easier for the 109 entrants still competing. We will get payouts figured out after today and see how many we have moving on to week 2!

Day 1 Survivor Pool Recap 2022

This Day 1 Survivor Pool recap is brought to you by Thorough Crowd!

We have Cairo Driver running at Turfway Park Saturday night, so let's hope she gets a win! And, if you haven't signed up for our Thorough Crowd email list yet I would love for you to join us on the grand adventure of Thoroughbred ownership at super reasonable prices: https://thoroughcrowd.com/contact/

Tourney Pool Central Link for the Lazy

Now onto the recap:

It sounds so simple....pick one winner a day. ONE WINNER. How hard can that possibly be?

Well, apparently it's a freaking nightmare.

We ended up with 734 entries in this year's contest, falling just short of $15,000 in the pool. Compared to the 576 entries last year, we are way up, so thanks for getting in and making this a huge contest! But, while we began with 734 entries, we'll only have 431 entries moving on to day 2. So, 303 entries failed, on Day 1, when options were abundant. This is supposed to be an easy day.

Some people lost taking shots at big seeds in an effort to get some of those delicious tie breaker points, like the 60 entries burned on South Dakota St., 51 entries that trusted Indiana was truly back, and another 44 entries were lost on the vaunted Mountain West Conference that amassed an exciting 0-4 Tournament record. 

And, while it sucks to lose picking a double digit seed....it really sucks when you "play it safe" and still come out looking like a jabroney. Like the 46 entries that put their faith in Connecticut or the 55 entries burned in Iowa's annual forgetting how to play basketball when it matters. And, some people even decided to take the ultimate safe path choosing a 2 seed against a 15 seed....even those entries were lost, along with the sanity of a state.

To the 431 entries that live to fight on Day 2, I wish you the best of luck. The path is fraught with dangers and perils will abound. But, if you trust your instincts and believe in yourself...you'll probably still lose, but you'll lose with dignity, or you won't. What do I know?

Good luck y'all, here's to a wonderful Day 2!

2022 NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool Central

 Ok, here should be everything you need for the rest of the tournament! Bookmark this forever (or until, like, 3 weeks from now) to see anything and everything you need!

SIGN UP TO OWN HORSES WITH US! - https://thoroughcrowd.com/contact/

We had 17% winners and over 50% In The Money finishes along with over $125,000 in earnings in 2021. We're the fastest growing Thoroughbred partnership in America* for a reason!

*This statement has not been fact checked/probably isn't true, but, really, we're pretty good.

Survivor Pool Leaderboard

Day 2+ Pick Form (This form will be the only form you'll need for the remainder of the tournament)

Daily Recaps

Day 1 Recap

No Day 2 Recap - David was unhappy with something that happened I suppose.

Day 3 Recap

2022 NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool

Here we are again, Christmas Eve for basketball dorks. And like Santa Claus we are here to come down your chimney, take your cookies, drink your non-dairy milk alternative, and bring you a little joy in the form of the 

2022 NCAA Survivor Pool

The one pool to rule them all!

Typically I rant and rave with a long winded nonsensical opening to the annual festivities. But this year I am dedicating the kick off to the Survivor Pool's 2022 sponsor:

www.thoroughcrowd.com

Yes, that's right, we have a sponsor! Our sponsor is us. We are Thorough Crowd.

QUESTION: But, David, what the heck is a Thorough Crowd?

Well Timmy, I'm glad you asked. Thorough Crowd offers the world's greatest Thoroughbred racing partnerships. What makes them the world's greatest partnerships? Here's a few cool facts about Thorough Crowd

• We use data driven strategies to select undervalued horses
• We don't charge any crazy upfront fees or price markups (most people charge 3x or 4x the cost of a horse, we charge what the horse cost because that's what the horse cost...)
• We treat our horses with the best possible care we can
• We keep the pricing affordable so that anyone can be involved (we're talking like $100/share on some horses)
• We win races at tracks like Churchill Downs (no Keeneland wins yet, but we'll have 5 or 6 runners there in April) and have an overall strike rate similar to groups spending 10x more than us...

If you enjoy Tourney Pools and have ever watched a horse race, the least you can do is sign up for our Thorough Crowd email list: https://thoroughcrowd.com/contact/

Did you sign up?

No? Well, go do that then come back here.

All done?

That was awesome of you and I really appreciate it. I hope you have great luck in the Survivor Pool and that every team you pick stays out of foul trouble and hits their threes.

Ok, with our sponsorship note out of the way, that brings us to the Pool. We just wrapped up our biggest Conference Tournament Pool ever, and we expect to have $12,000+ in the Survivor Pool this year. Tell your friends, tell your family, let your kids enter (it teaches money management and risk analysis probably), maybe let your pet have an entry or two (that one octopus picks soccer games), everyone should play!

Well, I guess that's enough preamble, here are the rules:

I've done this for over a decade; are there any big changes?!

No major rules changes, but with payment through Venmo - A LOT of people are sending their Venmo payments to the wrong person. I put a Venmo link below so it's easier to send payments, and y'all still mess this up (it's not hard and you should feel bad). If you screw up I'm telling the similarly named guy to me to pocket $5 per missed payment sent to him as a mea culpa. That extra $5 is your responsibility to cover when you send it back.

THIS IS THE CORRECT VENMO THERE IS ONE L IN PHILIP, DON'T MESS THIS UP!: https://www.venmo.com/u/Philip-Crone

So, here's the rules:

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/entry (no limit on entries per person, buy 2, buy 10, hell, buy 20, I might.)

• Website: tourneypools.blogspot.com – the leaderboard and all updates will be posted here.  If you have a question where ANYTHING is, go here before asking, because odds are it’s here.
• Entry Form: Embedded in the bottom for Day 1. The Day 2+ form will be linked to the scoreboard post on Friday. 
• Email: tourneypools@gmail.com – I’m constantly monitoring this and can get back to you fairly quickly.  All forms this year ask for email addresses so you can receive a receipt of your pick.  If you got that receipt back, then I have your pick.
• Paypal ID: paypal.me/philipcrone (MAKE SURE TO CHOOSE PERSONAL PAYMENT)
• Once again, the correct PhiLip: Venmo ID: https://www.venmo.com/u/Philip-Crone
• Zelle - steelcard30@gmail.com - a lot of banks use Zelle, so if you're terrified to give your information to anyone else, Zelle probably has it already, so feel free to use that if you're extra nervous about anything.

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 or try to pick the same team again, you're out.  Look, I've made this thing as automated as possible; I can't hold your hand on everything.
• Once you have a chosen a team, you cannot choose that team again for the rest of the contest.  If you use Baylor to beat Hartford in round 1, you cannot use Baylor again for the remainder of the tournament.  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
• How to submit picks:
•  Every day, I will release 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, and your pick.  Entry names will be in a drop-down list, so simply find your remaining entry (or entries) name(s) and then make your selection.
• 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.

Deadlines

• Day One purchase and pick deadline is prior to tip for the last set of games of the evening, which usually occurs around 10:30 PM EDT.  If you lose at noon, go ahead and re-buy on day one - you will not be alone. AGAIN YOU CAN RE-BUY UNTIL THE LAST GAME TIPS OFF ON DAY ONE!!!
• 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.  

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.  (You'd be surprised how often we get this granular, 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.

Payment

• Entry cost: $20
• Money must be in my grubby hands in some form before you make your pick.  You can do this one of six (really four) ways:
• Venmo - Venmo is a nifty app that lets you quickly send payments to people.  You don't even have to worry about commissions.  It's basically Paypal for dummies.  My Venmo ID is above.
• PayPal – Still 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. 
• Zelle - I'm still not totally sure what Zelle is, but people asked for it, so here ya go.
• Mail - No one has used mail for this in four years so there is no more mail option. If this is distressing let me know.
  
• Crypto/NFT - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA that shit ain't real.
• Find me or one of my designated trusted goons (whoever told you about this pool is probably one of them) and physically hand one of us 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 have never paid beyond 10 spots, but who knows.

2022 NCAA Conference Tournament Pool Results!

 Well, once again nobody hits the optimal lineup (don't ask me exactly what it was, but I know the winner could have had more points had they used Texas A&M), but you did need four conference tournament winners to have a prayer at cracking the top 5. Congrats to our top 5, which appears to include three entries from the same incredibly smart and handsome person. I wonder who this dreamy Don Juan is...

Diaper Dandies1 - $900

The Phillionaires Club2 - $400

The Phillionaires Club3 - $175

Coach K's Retirement Party2 (Tie) - $62.50

The Phillionaires Club1 (Tie) - $62.50

Thanks to all who participated in the March equivalent of our amuse bouche. (Don't know what is? Google it you uncultured swine.) We'll see you back here later today for the main course!

2022 NCAA Conference Tournament Leaderboard

 And we are live! Good luck everyone!

Leaderboard

2022 NCAA Conference Tournament Pool!

It's March which means two thing: 

1. It's going to be 70 degrees today and 18 degrees tomorrow.

2. It's time to get obsessed with/gamble on college basketball!

I can't help you with the first of those. But, friend, we've got you covered on number 2!

Usually I kick off our tournament pools with insane ramblings no one reads...but, this time I hope you take a minute to actually read this!

WE DO NOT MAKE MONEY HOSTING THESE POOLS. One, that would be illegal. Two, we enjoy them. BUT, if you enjoy these pools and want to say thanks there is something that I'd love for you to do, let me explain:

Two years ago we started buying and racing Thoroughbreds with some friends and family under the stable name Thorough Crowd. In 2020 we had 15 starts with 2 wins. In 2021 we had 64 starts and 11 wins, and we plan to keep growing. If you know us at all, and I realize some of you don't with how much our Tourney Pools have grown, you know that Thoroughbred racing has always been a huge part of our lives. When we started Thorough Crowd we wanted to create racing partnerships that operated at a price point where almost anyone can get involved. But beyond that, we want to create partnerships where there are no crazy fees or price gouging, where the horses are prioritized and treated properly, and to still be successful while doing accomplishing those things.

So, if you enjoy these Tourney Pools and want to return a favor to us, then I'd ask you to do the following:

1. If you've ever thought, "It would be cool to own a racehorse" - Great. Thorough Crowd is a perfect way to make that happen. We'll be running horses this spring/summer in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia for sure. We'll probably run in Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois as well. 

2. If you have no interest in owning horses but have friends/family that do, please pass this along to them.

Owning and racing Thoroughbreds was always something I dreamed of doing. And, it's amazing to me that it's something that has happened and that we've been able to have some success with. Last year in 64 starts we had 11 wins (17.2% winners) and 33 of our 64 starters finished in the top 3 (51.6%). For comparison the leading owner in America last year, Godolphin, owned by sheikh Mohammed of Dubai maybe the wealthiest man on the planet a guy that can afford literally any horse in the world, finished the year with 18% winners and 53% in the money. Now, Godolphin is running in some more valuable races obviously, but our percentages and success really are a testament to us finding undervalued horses and placing them properly to have success.

We currently own 11 Thoroughbreds (a few have shares available to purchase) and our goal is to keep growing Thorough Crowd. To bring more new fans and owners to the sport of horse racing. So, I'm hopeful that a few of our Tourney Pool participants might want to get involved and get in on some horses with us. But, I'd also love if you followed us on social media (@ThoroughCrowd on Twitter/IG/Facebook), I'd love if you suggest a friend/family member to check us out, and I'd love for you to reach out with any questions/thoughts/comments/etc. to: David@ThoroughCrowd.com.

www.thoroughcrowd.com (not super up to date, hopefully will get things more current on here soon)

Ok, that ends the Thorough Crowd portion of this message. Now, let's get all the usual links out of the way for the regulars...

• Buy-in: $20/entry
• Entry Form – Embedded at the bottom. You're welcome. Do not email, text, call, direct message, or facebook message me picks.  I will ignore them.
• Website: tourneypools.blogspot.com – the leaderboard and all updates will be posted here. If you have a question where ANYTHING is, go here before asking, b/c odds are it’s here.
• Email: tourneypools@gmail.com – I’m constantly monitoring this and can get back to you fairly quickly.
• Paypal ID: paypal.me/PhilipCrone
• Venmo ID: @Philip-Crone
• Zelle: steelcard30@gmail.com
• Tournament Bracket Links:
• AAC
  
• ACC
  
• B12
  
• BE
  
• B1G
  
• MWC
  
• P12
  
• SEC
  

This is my umpteenth year of this nonsense. Anything new?

Only rule I'm going to include new for this year is around COVID cancelations.

If a single game is canceled -  I don't find it fair to miss out on points just b/c your opponent couldn't isolate for a while for the most important part of the season. Therefore, whichever teams move on will have that game count as a win for them.

If any of the eight tournaments cancel prior to their finals - I'll cancel the whole pool and refund everyone if there proves to be a material impact on payouts. By this, I mean if the MWC cancels after a couple rounds, but it was more or less a dead choice for everyone involved in payouts, I'll keep the pool going. This one could be a bit tough to figure, but you'll have to trust me. I'm a math major after all.

Ok, and with that, the standard rigamaroll...

The Rules

Participants each pick one team from each of the 8 conference tournaments specified below. Who you can pick will be based on seed in the tournament. Participants can pick only one 1 seed, 1 2 seed, 1 3 seed, 1… you get the idea. Here’s the conference tourneys we will be choosing from:

• AAC (Where Houston isn't the 1 seed so FREE SQUARE!)
• ACC (Don't do it, Louisville fans...)
• Big 12 (which has 10 teams; counting is hard)
• Big East (Hey UCONN is back & nobody noticed!)
• Big Ten (Bloodbath)
• Mountain West (Our A-10 sub who was really good that one time like seven years ago)
• Pac-12 (Minus Arizo-noooooooo)
• SEC (Don't do it, Kentucky fans...)

You may replace a better seeded team w/ a worse seeded team in your 8 team entry if you so choose.  For example, if you do not like any 3 seeds in any conference tournament, you can replace your “3 seed” slot with any other team seeded 4 or higher.  Likewise, this also means that teams higher than an 8 seed are eligible to be used in any slots.

Scoring will be as follows:

• Championship win – 4 points
• Semifinal win – 3 points
• Quarterfinal win – 2 points
• “Quarterquarterfinal”? win – 1 point

This scoring means that only four games maximum will be counted.  Teams playing in a fifth game will not have those wins counted.

Entry Fees & Payouts

• Buy-in price is $20
• Multiple entries are allowed
• Pool will be paid out 100%.  The only way the moderators make money is if we are smart enough to beat you fools down. Which happened last year.  Win your pride back dammit!
• The number of places to be paid out and the allocation of the prize pool in those paid out places will be determined by the moderators once numbers are final and published before the end of the first day of the contest.
• In the event of a tie, participants will split any winnings evenly.  I know I’m famous for my obtrusive tiebreaker rules – I’m taking the lazy way out until someone complains and I fix it next year.
• Deadlines
• All entries & $$$ must be submitted by Wednesday, March 11th, 2019 at 6 PM EDT – There are a handful of games before that, so if you want those games counted, get your entry in!  You may use these teams after they tip and before the deadline, but their points in these games will NOT count toward your total!  Also, the Tuesday ACC games don't get any points. The first Wednesday game tips off at Noon EDT, so if you want to be 100% sure, just get entries in by then. All entries are time stamped when submitted, so don't whine that it was on time.

$$$ can be sent in one of three ways

• You hand it to a moderator in cash or check form
• Mail a check/cash to 1601 Beechwood Ave., New Albany, IN 47150
• Send it via paypal/venmo/zelle to the account listed above - seriously, it's 2021 and you haven't left your house in 365 days; by now, you should have an account on one of these services

No IOU’s will be accepted. This isn’t a charity. Maybe when UNICEF gets into the tournament pool business, you can go there and give them your IOU. Until then, we’re the guys to talk to. 

Congrats on making it to the end!  Your prize?  An entry form!