So how can OnePocket.org do more to support One Pocket?

NH Steve

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OK, we are already a pretty darn good resource to learn the game. We also have greatly improved being a good place to learn about upcoming tournaments and live streams, many thanks to those who keep an eye out for upcoming stuff and for cincy who updates our events calendar. We also recently updated rules and I believe we are (and have been) the standard for rules -- even if other rules with tweaks are used for specific events.

But I see a couple of areas we might be able to help more

  • One category that we could be doing more is to create and organize some specific resources for leagues or TD's -- resources that are prepared and organized here on the site somewhere, such that a room owner or organizer could access them and "plug and play" for their own event or league if they start thinking they wold like to launch something or promote something. I'm thinking about things like tournament formats that include reasonable expectations for timetables for completion for example. Also simple one page rule summaries such that a TD might use with their announcement, etc. One obvious thing to go along with this would be handicapping help, or handicapping software that uses the standard sort of win/lose/score records to automatically keep a rolling ranking for a specific group of players. I am not an app programmer, so that would not be me coming up with that particular tool. Kind of an in-house Fargo, so to speak.

  • Another category is a biggie, and I really don't know how to go about this, but I have a few basic ideas, but the question is, can we somehow figure out a way for our onepocket.org community to offer a way to significantly support more major tournament? As in, how can we *possibly* help raise support and money for more major One Pocket tournaments? By "a few basic ideas", I mean that for one of those ideas, we could offer some kind of premium onepocket.org membership that raised money to support tournaments. Or we could possibly create our own "Make it Happen" kind of thing -- where people willing to chip in a significant $$$ could help sponsor a major tournament. Or another idea, what if we could approach the PPV streamers and work out some kind of cross-platform package that gave us access to all of their One Pocket events, but that also put money in a tournament "added money" account to help them promote One Pocket?? Like poolactionTV, accustats, and omega, etc....

Well those are some thoughts and questions since i am home with a bug that I sure hope is not Covid but has kept me home for a few days lol. I am feeling better today or I would not have had the focus to write this :)
 

NH Steve

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This is how the chess rating systems work btw -- in general description I found on chess.com -- and I hear that Fargo is similar:

There are two main rating systems, and each one has its merits.​
The Elo System (used by the United States Chess Federation, FIDE, and many other online chess sites) is popular for two reason - it has been around for a long time, and it is simple. The idea is this: given two chess players of different strengths, we should be able to calculate the % chance that the better player will win the game. For example, Garry Kasparov has ~100% chance of beating my 4-year-old daughter. But he may only have a ~60% chance of beating another Grandmaster. So when playing that other Grandmaster, if he wins 6 games out of 10, his rating would stay the same. If he won 7 or more, it would go up, and 5 of less, his rating would go down. Basically, the wider the spread of the ratings, the higher percentage of games the higher rated player is expected to win. So to calculate a person's rating after playing a few games you calculate the average ratings of his opponents, and then how many games he was expected to win, and then plug it into a formula that spits out the new rating. Simple enough. Well, it turns out, that is maybe TOO simple.​
The Glicko System (used by Chess.com, the Australian Chess Federation, and some other online sites) is a more modern approach that builds on some of the concepts above, but uses a more complicated formula. (This only makes sense now that we have computers that can calculate this stuff in the blink of an eye - when Elo created his system they were doing it on paper!) It is a bit trickier than the Elo system, so pay attention. With the Elo system you have to assume that everyone's rating is just as sure as everyone else's rating. So my rating is as accurate as your rating. But that is just not true. For example, if this is your first game on Chess.com and you start at 1200, how do we really know what your rating is? We don't. But if I have played 1,000 games on this site, you would be much more sure that my current rating is accurate. So the Glicko system gives everyone not only a rating, but an "RD", called a Rating Deviation. Basically what that number means is "I AM 95% SURE YOUR RATING IS BETWEEN X and Y." (Nerd Fact: In technical terms this is called a "confidence interval".) If this if your first game on Chess.com I might say, "I am 95% sure that your rating is somewhere between 400 and 2400". Well that is a REALLY big range! And that is represented by a really big RD, or Rating Deviation. If you have played 1,000 games and your rating is currently 1600 I might say "I am 95% sure your rating is between 1550 and 1650". So you would have a low RD. As you play more games, your RD gets lower. To add one extra wrinkle in there, the more recent your games, the lower your RD. Your RD gets bigger over time (because maybe you have gotten better or worse over time - I'm just less sure of what your actual rating is if I haven't seen you play recently). Now, how does this affect ratings? Well, if you have a big RD, then your rating can move up and down more drastically because your rating is less accurate. But if you have a small RD then your rating will move up and down more slowly because your rating is more accurate. The opposite is true for your opponent! If they have a HIGH RD, then your rating will change LESS when you win or lose because their rating is less accurate. But if they have a LOW RD, then your rating will move MORE because their rating is more accurate.​
 

evergruven

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I would say the obvious first step would be to form the United States One-Pocket Federation. People and funding. How near are we to that?

getting more organized seems like a good idea
slang memberships, raise money that way
members get perks as an additional incentive
and the perks are 1p-related, so it all goes around
 

evergruven

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Well those are some thoughts and questions since i am home with a bug that I sure hope is not Covid but has kept me home for a few days lol. I am feeling better today or I would not have had the focus to write this :)

want to add thanks steve for caring enough to even just post the thread and glad you're feeling better
I'm pretty new to the game but this place is great and I'm excited to see 1p keep growing 💪
 

gulfportdoc

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The Glicko system sounds interesting. I bet Bob Jewett could come up for a way to adapt that to one-pocket.
Bob devised a pretty good system for 9ball in the old National Pool League, which a bunch of rooms used for their local tournaments. Be that as it may, Bob might be the guy who could tailor something for 1P.

It seems to me that one approach would be to establish the speed of the average 1P players (e.g. 5 on a 10 scale), then figure a way to rate either equal to, above, or below that number, along with a method of honestly assessing it, and allowing for periodic changes.
 

NH Steve

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I would say the obvious first step would be to form the United States One-Pocket Federation. People and funding. How near are we to that?
I would like to think of onepocket.org as already the equivalent of that -- without the need to start some new organization. We already have an organization of people -- the question is, how can we better organize to focus our common interest and resources to do more?
 

jrhendy

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BCA has had certified instructors that you have to spend some time with and learn their methods to become a certified BCA Instructor.
With the growing interest in one pocket, it might be time to look in that direction.

We could probably get some help from Bob Jewett who has been teaching and certifying instructors for years.at his academy. We could have some Onepocket.org certified instructors. The monies made from instruction could be split between the instructor and Onepocket.org. Onepocket.org would set the guidelines for certification and control the process.

Just an idea. Let me know if there is any interest and we can talk it over.
 

NH Steve

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BCA has had certified instructors that you have to spend some time with and learn their methods to become a certified BCA Instructor.
With the growing interest in one pocket, it might be time to look in that direction.

We could probably get some help from Bob Jewett who has been teaching and certifying instructors for years.at his academy. We could have some Onepocket.org certified instructors. The monies made from instruction could be split between the instructor and Onepocket.org. Onepocket.org would set the guidelines for certification and control the process.

Just an idea. Let me know if there is any interest and we can talk it over.

That is an interesting idea John and not one that I had thought of, but now that you mention it I realize I have been approached by players interested in doing more instruction.
 

jrhendy

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That is an interesting idea John and not one that I had thought of, but now that you mention it I realize I have been approached by players interested in doing more instruction.
We can start slow. Get some volunteers from all over the country new people can contact. Maybe give new players who sign up a sticky where they can ask questions and find someone local to help them. If there is enough interest, we can grow. The site can be intimidating for new people and their own sticky would help them get familiar with the site and become more involved over time.
 

BRLongArm

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Onepocket.org's charter is to grow the game of one pocket: In my mind, there are several ways to do that:

1. Mentor players to learn the game. John Henderson's certified instructors idea is in that vein.
2. Support professional events so that fans can see their heroes play and one pocket play increases naturally We do none of this now.
3. Host a video showing shots and situations that are on demand so players can learn new situations. We could easily formalize the WWYD and make a video tutorial, with members acting as teachers showing the best decision. We could even show the top 3 options, and how the game plays out in each variable. Put it on the Facebook version of onepocket.org so that it gets maximum exposure. We keep the videos in a library accessible only for premium membership on our website. The money we make with the library can help us sponsor pro events. This will draw our members to the website and increase traffic.
 

BRLongArm

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Imagine showing game situations that always come up and our onepocket.org members teaching the "school solution" in each situation. New players would log in to learn what to do. It would drastically increase our traffic to our website and fund our sponsoring of pro events. I recommend Tom Wirth head this project, along with three other members as chosen by Steve. Tom, I know it's a lot, but I think you would like the feedback and you might sell a book or two.
 

cincy_kid

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Onepocket.org's charter is to grow the game of one pocket: In my mind, there are several ways to do that:

1. Mentor players to learn the game. John Henderson's certified instructors idea is in that vein.
2. Support professional events so that fans can see their heroes play and one pocket play increases naturally We do none of this now.
3. Host a video showing shots and situations that are on demand so players can learn new situations. We could easily formalize the WWYD and make a video tutorial, with members acting as teachers showing the best decision. We could even show the top 3 options, and how the game plays out in each variable. Put it on the Facebook version of onepocket.org so that it gets maximum exposure. We keep the videos in a library accessible only for premium membership on our website. The money we make with the library can help us sponsor pro events. This will draw our members to the website and increase traffic.
100% agree on the videos. I wanted to do something similar to this years ago when first working on the new site. Like for example taking this page here: https://www.onepocket.org/getting-started/ and taking all those diagrams Steve put up and convert them to videos of the shots so new players can learn them. Furthermore, adding the common situations new players find themselves in and possible top solutions is taking it further and I love it. This is probably what you meant but if not, I think you should have at least a few people doing the shots to show a slightly different stroke or angle or perspective. Tom would be a great candidate as one of them for sure (if he has the time and desire). Heck, I would like to be one of them too someday when I get my pool table and stream camera set up, but who knows when that will be lol....I digress, great thread Steve and great idea Joe!
 

mr3cushion

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What I've been doing, (and without the benefit of a 3C table) for the last 2 years is doing, 'Zoom' Live video lessons.

Has worked out very well for students and myself.
 

NH Steve

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100% agree on the videos. I wanted to do something similar to this years ago when first working on the new site. Like for example taking this page here: https://www.onepocket.org/getting-started/ and taking all those diagrams Steve put up and convert them to videos of the shots so new players can learn them. Furthermore, adding the common situations new players find themselves in and possible top solutions is taking it further and I love it. This is probably what you meant but if not, I think you should have at least a few people doing the shots to show a slightly different stroke or angle or perspective. Tom would be a great candidate as one of them for sure (if he has the time and desire). Heck, I would like to be one of them too someday when I get my pool table and stream camera set up, but who knows when that will be lol....I digress, great thread Steve and great idea Joe!
Well no worries -- you are guaranteed to be involved because hopefully you can figure out how to host something like that :)
 

mr3cushion

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Well no worries -- you are guaranteed to be involved because hopefully you can figure out how to host something like that :)
With Zoom, as long as the, 'screens' are kept to a minimum (2 or less), there's No fee.

FB Messenger works. Also with, 'What's app.'

Anyone with a computer/Laptop/Smartphone/w/ a camera it's not difficult.
 

Ratamon

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What about developing an app to engage with younger audience? We can discuss the functionality if people think it's a good idea but off the top of my head it may have some of the following:
- tutorials (free videos and paid mentoring);
- schedule of upcoming events, with the possibility to sign up (needs to be negotiated and agreed with organisers)
- player ratings
- 1pkt shop

The AZ app was abandoned some time ago so maybe worth a chat with Mike Howerton to learn from his experience. Tapatalk is absolutely hideous!
 

RedCard

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... and the teaching should be consistent across instructors. The player will modify as necessary as s/he progresses.
 
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