There should be more than 1 pay day. ;)

Anyway, there is no official date yet, but I'm planning for Pay Day to be around August 20th (2 days before Sinquefield) to August 28th (Rest Day at Sinquefield). Somewhere between does dates.

< When does the summer leg end - on or about the end of Millionaires Chess Open 2015 on Oct 12, 2015 perhaps? >

Again, no official date yet, but I want the last tournmanet of the leg to be the World Cup, so that's October 4th (or earlier).

(grabs popcorn)

< WinKing: Very conservative betting by the members for a final round. A little over 10K bet...thought there would be more wagered. >

Me too!

< Everyone is saving up for the 3rd Sinquefield Cup. ;) >

Your inaugural stint as chessbookie could end with heavy betting in a Caruana/Nakamura/So/Yu Yangyi/Wang Hao/Vallejo slam-bang!

Or it could end with the combo of Topalov/Nakamura/Caruana/Giri/Kramnik/So World Cup thing. ;)

Anyway, I think I'm going to have to turn down the Millionaires tournament. The Summer Leg should (but not explicitly stated) be from July to September. The World Cup <starts> in September, and ends in October, which I can do.

If I do another tournament in October, I'm basically stretching my trial period longer than I want to (FTR, my trial period is probably going to be a shorter than average 85 days; I've completed 18 already).

Plus, I want the next Bookie (whoever that may be) to have some events to make bets on. The 4 days from the end of the World Cup to the beginning of that tournament looks to be a good preseason (although I can't decide on that). I'm pretty sure the Millionaires tournament would be a great way to start their leg.

< I think you may want to end with Millionaires Chess all-in bets but it's all up to you, chief! >

(<SPOILER ALERT>) I'm having to have Pick <Fours> for the World Cup, does that count as all-in bets? ;)

I see the theme seems to be "try a leg, wait 2 legs, and then try again" (under that definition, <wordfunph> should've taken this leg, while I should consider the Spring 2016 leg).

My planning strategy is based more on the idea that Championship leg duty should rotate every year (since that's the most significant leg to miss out on), so that's the first consideration, and then the rest of the Bookies should take the remaining legs while trying not to take two too close to each other (and certainly not consecutive).

As I understood it, <wordfunph> has a new job and probably won't have time for the Bookie again (although if he wants to, I'd be happy to see him back too). <WinKing> has kindly agreed to take the coming Championship leg, so we're set for this year. :)

For <next> year (2016) - if all concerned agree, that is ;) - maybe <Switch> could take a turn at Championship duty? Then a good order would be:

Penguin (Spring) - Annie (Summer) - WinKing (Fall) - Switch (Winter aka Championship)

That's assuming (read: hoping) ;p that both you and WinKing will feel like staying in the Bookie cycle, and Switch is willing to take a championship leg, none of which is as of yet certain. ;s

Why can't I run the Championship leg every year? It's not like I'm ever going to qualify for it, ;)

< As I understood it, <wordfunph> has a new job and probably won't have time for the Bookie again (although if he wants to, I'd be happy to see him back too). >

Me three. I know stats aren't everything, but <wordfunph> has managed to collect the <most> cbs and juice out of all user-bookies to date despite putting out the <fewest> amount of bets. He really knows how to make people cough up their money.

< For <next> year (2016) - if all concerned agree, that is ;) - maybe <Switch> could take a turn at Championship duty? Then a good order would be:

Penguin (Spring) - Annie (Summer) - WinKing (Fall) - Switch (Winter aka Championship)

That's assuming (read: hoping) ;p that both you and WinKing will feel like staying in the Bookie cycle, and Switch is willing to take a championship leg, none of which is as of yet certain. ;s

Note, I would prefer the summer leg since I'm taking this fall leg, but if you really want to stay on summer shift as you mentioned a while back, then I can take the spring leg so you can have summer.>

Very interesting idea. To be honest, I only thought this would be a one-time thing. :p I'll think about it, but it's not going to be anytime soon.

And BTW: if I do run a Spring Leg, I'm holding a preseason (I'm not turning down the opportunity to put up some bets around April Fools' Day).

But one important thing that I fear: inactivity. It seems that in my 4.5 years on this site, I'm rather really active, or inactive. Usually I'm active for a few months at a time, then leave for 6 months-2+ years. I haven't quite found the middle. :p However, I have been active on this site for a year now, so who knows?

Although I would be honoured to be part of this cycle. Perhaps over time, it'll just blend into my daily life.

<Why can't I run the Championship leg every year? It's not like I'm ever going to qualify for it, ;)>

You can, if you want to! ;p

<I know stats aren't everything, but <wordfunph> has managed to collect the <most> cbs and juice out of all user-bookies to date despite putting out the <fewest> amount of bets.>

Now that I think of it, I should consider running for it.

< That's because - as I've also found - sometimes more is less. ;) When you put up too many bets (yes, there is such a thing) - the c$s go too many ways, the pools in each bet are small, and you just dilute interest, because bettors logging in see a lot of bets to study, but just small profits everywhere. >

I'm not going to deny that. For example, on "No Exotics Day", all 4 bets registered over 2K each.

< I've come to think that concentrating the options to a few interesting bets at a time may be better. You know, what the bettors <ask for>, and what's actually <good for them> are not the same thing. ;s >

Well, I just want to make people happy, and allowing them to put their suggestions is one way.

<Chessbookie> I encourage you to keep your head up as I think with the creative betting lines shown so far, you're going to break records as the leg gets through the "majors" (Sinquefield, World Cup), and as the odds show better value for heavy bets, with additional cb cash from pay day.

Here are the unofficial approx. stats for the leg so far:

Total Wager: 183,544
# of bets: 164
Juice: 5,806

The leg is approx. 22% done. Here are the other 4 bookies (combined), and approx. how much they had ~22% through the leg (average):

Total Wager: 479,544
# of bets: 122
Juice: 14,819

<sydbarrett: Nisipeanu-Shankland agreeing to draw in 18 moves. Ugh, dirty move by supposed GMs which is cowardly, and, even more importantly, ruined my bets.>

Experimenting some is good too, I have also tried some ideas that I probably won't be doing again because they didn't seem to be very successful (most notably, cramming in extra games from big tournaments by offering individual bets for the most famous and using the pick-threes and daily doubles for the less well-known players). So not everything will work, but it doesn't hurt to try and see.

On the other hand, some things are best done in a certain way for good reason. I had a teacher (in architectural design) who once said 'we all want to be original, but you'll never see a car manufacturer produce a line of cars with triangular wheels just to be different'.

A few things to say about the bet, HZ Chess Tournament: WINNER.

Firstly, it seems that Kasimdzhanov has been replaced by Jobava. If Jobava plays Board 1 instead of Kasimdzhanov in R1, all bets for Kasimdzhanov will be refunded, and Jobava will be put under "OTHER".

Now as it says in the fine print at the bottom of the bet, I reserve the right to change the closing time, and I did so to 10:30 <cg> time, as that's when chess24 stated the games are due to start.

However, what I have noticed is that there are no live games or even pairings <anywhere>. I even see it has disappeared from 2700chess' list of tournaments.

Depending on what happens, I'll post an announcement on it. Stay tuned for that.

I'm confused. chess24 and chess-results both score it "1-0" (I used chess24), while "chessdom" and "2700chess" both score it as a draw.

Looking at the position, it's hard to tell if it's a draw or not.

I think the best thing to do is wait for all sites to come to a consensus. If it's "1-0", I'll do nothing. If it's "1/2-1/2", I'll go tell <cg>.

I do think there should be a button so that bookies can automatically revert all payoffs by themselves. It would be better for everyone involved. ;)