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Aug-27-12
 | | WannaBe: I see, that someone put one chess bux on Mexico, was it <Nako> or <Golden Executive>?? =) |
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| Aug-27-12 | | NakoSonorense: God no! It was <technical draw>. |
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| Aug-28-12 | | Golden Executive: What?
Damn!
I already doubled <TD>´s bet on Mexican Team. Septiembre es el mes de la patria! |
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Aug-28-12
 | | Sneaky: Who's the underdog in Canada-Turkmenistan? I've learn from previous legs, it can be a disastrous mistake to underestimate a nation that ends in -stan. |
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| Aug-29-12 | | bubuli55: If possible please place bettings on teams with equal odds. Thank you. :) |
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| Aug-29-12 | | bubuli55: I mean at least at this stage of the Olympiad. Later Russia vs China that kind |
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Aug-30-12
| | Sneaky: I can't believe I accidentally put 500 on Venezuela. I meant to put it on the USA. Oh well, I made up for that fingerfehler with my bet on England. |
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| Aug-30-12 | | bubuli55: Russia vs China
Now! :) thx cg |
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| Sep-01-12 | | WinKing: I'm pretty sure tomorrow is a rest day. Gives us a little more time to contemplate our wagers. In other words how much are we willing to lose? ;) |
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Sep-02-12
 | | Chessgames Bookie: So sorry, nice to know I can take the day off too. I'll set the betting windows to be open again. Cheers! |
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Sep-02-12
 | | OBIT: OK, I have to object to the reopening of the betting windows. Some of us (me, for example) wait on some of the bets to see if the odds stay above an acceptable threshold. If you close the windows and then reopen them, obviously the odds on these bets can change substantially, which kills the whole strategy. I have already been burned once by this. |
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| Sep-03-12 | | brankat: <I have already been burned once by this.> Only once? Lucky You! :-) |
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| Sep-03-12 | | dakgootje: I just assumed the lines would open again, so didn't bet yet ;) |
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Sep-03-12
 | | SwitchingQuylthulg: <dakgootje: I just assumed the lines would open again, so didn't bet yet ;)> Same here (well, I did make a couple bets, but I based my strategy on the assumption betting would open again...) In situations like this there's never a way for <Bookie> to please everybody - or a way for us players to be completely secure - but since bets will be reopened much more often than not, it makes sense to prepare for that! |
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Sep-03-12
| | OBIT: OK, I see... the smart money players who have been doing this for years waited on their bets, which would explain why the payoffs for a few teams seemed to be unusually good an hour before the original closing time. After the windows reopened, they jumped in with their wagers and knocked these juicy payoffs down more than 25%. I see, off example, Italy's payoff dropped 35%, Germany's dropped 30%, and Armenia's dropped 26%. You all DO see why this is a bad idea, don't you? It's the equivalent of playing a basketball game, then, after the final buzzer has sounded, having a ref decide it would be fun to play another eight minutes. <SwitchingQuylthulg> There IS a fair way to do this, and that is to stay with the closing time once it has been set. Another option might be to allow players to cancel their bets if the windows are reopened, although I can see how that might lead to radical swings in the odds. To avoid these problems in the first place, I would submit the ChessBookie do better research on when rounds start. |
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Sep-03-12
| | Chessgames Bookie: <OK, I have to object to the reopening of the betting windows.> Your point is taken, however let me outline the opposing viewpoint: One of the problems with not re-opening windows is that occasionally we close a window at a grossly incorrect time due to a typo. It would seem silly to not simply correct the closing time and move on. For example: Remember during Biel when we would have as many as three upcoming rounds, all set up in advance? (Swiss events make that impossible but round-robins allow for that.) There was one case where I had all the round 7 bets closing once round 6 began, purely by accident. It seemed obvious the only right thing to do was to reset the proper closing-times. I know that's a different situation than re-opening a window for the convenience of people who weren't able to get their bets in on time, but if we really want to codify this into the rules of the game we have to be specific about exactly what is allowed. In any case please know that I understand your frustration by tripping up your strategy -- one of the main goals of this game is to allow people to pursue a variety of gambling strategies. |
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Sep-04-12
| | OBIT: <Chess Bookie> In any endeavor that involves capital risk - it could be investment in a stock, a bet on a horse, anything - the assumption is that everyone has access to the same information. If someone has information unavailable to the general public, e.g. an insider trader, it is considered unethical, even illegal, for him to use that information. When you reopen the windows in the Chess Bookie game, you create a scenario where the players who failed to place their bets before the original deadline have a substantial advantage over the players who diligently got their bets in on time. Their advantage, of course, is that they know more about how the betting pool is allocated. Some of the experienced players realize this, and so they intentionally held off placing any bets until after the betting windows had reopened. <SwitchingQuylthugl> certainly exploited this glitch masterly. He admits he waited on his bets, figuring the windows would be reopened, and he picked up over 8,500 chessbucks in his betting that day. Would you call that a "gambling strategy," or was it exploitation of a situation not described in the rules? |
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Sep-04-12
| | Chessgames Bookie: <OBIT>
I'm not striving for an argument but we do want the game to be transparent, fair, and above all fun. And you make some valid points. Continuing: <If someone has information unavailable to the general public, e.g. an insider trader, it is considered unethical, even illegal, for him to use that information.> I would agree with that, but the prime piece of information that Switchy used was the mere fact that September 2nd was a rest-day, which is hardly insider-information. True, he also knew that it was possible (but not guaranteed!) that the window would re-open. Perhaps you knew about the rest day as well, but wrongly assumed that once a window closes it is impossible to reopen. If that is the crux of the misunderstanding, then you have my sympathy, and I think perhaps the best solution is to update the rules to mention that re-opening of windows is a possibility in situations when the closing-time is found to be inaccurate. Bettors will simply have to take that into account when placing last-minute-wagers. Also note that rules do state <It is always YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to be informed of the tournament rules, conditions, players, and other factors that may influence the game. Do not rely entirely on the information window to inform you of the circumstances of the bet. The ChessBookie shall not be held liable for errors or inaccuracies provided in the information window.> |
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Sep-04-12
 | | OhioChessFan: It's all fun and stuff, I quit playing a while back, so no horse in the race, but I sort of agree with <Obit> Per the specific issue, there are some tournaments where it is a <huge> factor whether there is a rest day or not. And as <Obit> correctly points out, there's a big advantage to having all the information in front of you when you make a bet. For all that, the specific point I'd disagree with you is that a relatively harmless error on your part-listing the closing day of betting one day earlier than necessary-should hardly be corrected when the correction is to a relatively great detriment of the many players who in good faith got their bets in before the deadline already posted. |
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Sep-04-12
| | OBIT: As I said in my previous post, the players who deferred betting until the betting windows had reopened obtained a substantial advantage over the players who diligently got their bets in on time. Of course, those who were following the tournament knew about the rest day, but you had to be familiar with the whimsical nature of the Chess Bookie to believe that the windows would reopen. The rules as currently written do not mention this possibility, and to me, "closed" means "closed". And that's all I'm going to say about that. |
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Sep-04-12
| | Chessgames Bookie: Apparently the subject of re-opening a closed betting window is more of a hotbed subject than I envisioned. I'm not sure if a policy change is in order but I can promise that we'll reconsider this issue and then make our stance on the subject perfectly clear. |
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Sep-07-12
| | Chessgames Bookie: Thanks to <Annie K> for the suggestion to recompute the leaderboard at a more useful time. It will now be recomputed at 6:00pm USA/Eastern time, which is almost always after the day's bets have been settled. It will also be recomputed at it's previously "regular" time, which is some ungodly hour of the morning, just in case. This should help people take into account the new standings when making upcoming wagers. Also, note that tomorrow is a rest day for the Olympiad and the windows will close at the correct time on Sunday--which is a full 4 hours earlier than the previous rounds, or 4:00am USA/Eastern. |
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Sep-07-12
| | Chessgames Bookie: About the end of the leg:
For those who don't know, we *roughly* follow a schedule wherein the first three months (January, February, March) are defined as the "Winter leg", then the next three months are "Spring", then the next three (July, August, September) are "Summer." We will alter those boundaries as much as a week or two depending on the tournament schedule. Ergo, sometime in late September or very early October is the expected time to end the leg. I'm checking the schedule now to see what's coming up. I know there is a FIDE Gran Prix (Nakamura, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Topalov, Svidler, etc.) from Sep 20-Oct 3, hopefully there will be something else in between now and then to fill the gap. If anybody has any other ideas, let me know, and soon I can give a firm end-date to the leg. |
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Sep-07-12
 | | Annie K.: Thank you!! :) |
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| Sep-09-12 | | gauer: Has the bookie thought about adding a calendar or calendar suggestion page for tournaments coming up? Maybe a guideline could be is to announce whether a tournament might include round or tournament winner bets a month in advance, and approximately how many tickets could be bet on, relative to the betting floor per ticket. It seems that a few skipped earlier tournament bets earlier on in the leg to await the high payout juice of some of the popular Olympiad rounds. It's also not much fun to watch the bookie promote an organizers tournament that had watched a major contender drop off for (okay, medical) reasons, without being able to see its tournament winner ticket refunded - which is why I have also yet to discard that ticket. This time, the 4am (local time) betting window time interval paid many dividends, due to an early work start time, but many times a bettor misses the knowledge of the interval being posted (which can be a pain for the bookie when the organizer has changed the pairings or schedule). Today turned out to be a fairly great day for my ticket payouts, though, so hooray to my round 11 teams! If the bookie was going to be a bit more lenient in sharing a 2nd loan during the Olympiad, then there probably would have been quite a few more loose bets popping up. |
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