My three choices for dates and locations are Sept in Chicago, October in Southaven (South Memphis) or early December in Houston.
I prefer not handicapped only to avoid sqabbling/suspicions. Tiered would be fine however.
My perfect format would be 25 players, first come/first served according to entry fee payment. 5 Sections of 5 players (randomly placed). Race to 2 Round Robin in each section. 5 winners play race to 2 Round Robin for the title/places. This probably requires a venue with 10 tables.Two tables assigned to each section... matches could probably be scheduled as the players in that section agree... should be no problem, just four rounds in each section could be completed in one day. Finals section among initial section winners on the second day. All this "one day" stuff if the preference is to complete the whole thing on a Sat and Sun. Three days would be more leisurely, but might knock out some people with real jobs.
To give more people a chance to get "in the money" as we did in Houston, 2nd place finishers in each section could win 150% of entry.
25 players, $100 entry, with
NO money added:
1st -- 550
2nd -- 425
3rd -- 325
4th -- 275
5th -- 200
2nd place finishers in each section: 145 each.
Total -- 2500
All ties broken by: 1st, games won; 2nd, games lost; third, coin flip in determining advance to finals, split the money for others. (Balls made would be more fair, but do we want to keep track of that?)
Oh, BTW, for "social" considerations, we might want to choose a venue where Al K Hall sales are permitted on Sunday since most of us won't be playing that day. Old Al makes rail-birding for some of us (a TINY minority I'm sure) more enjoyable ... maybe just Hendy and Miller.
)
Anything about this any of you don't like, please write a detailed explanation of your thinking and email me at KMA @ GFY.com