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HURL Pick 'em - How to play

Overview

HURL Pick 'em is a game in which you can place or take bets on events related to ultimate in Halifax, or events of interest to members of the HURL community. Any player in the game may at any time act as either a gambler or a bookie, or both.

The game is divided into a number of weeks, and each event is associated with a particular week. Each week runs from Saturday at 5:00 p.m. to the following Saturday. The current round of the game will run for sixteen weeks, with Week 1 starting on Saturday, December 1, 2007 and Week 16 ending on Saturday, March 22, 2008. Note that there is also a "Week 0" prior to Week 1 in which events and bets are made for Week 1.

Each player starts the game with $10,000 (not real money). The winner of the game will be the player with the most money at the conclusion of the game. The winner will receive a Broken! T-shirt.

Playing as a bookie

As a bookie, you may create one event per week for other players to gamble on. The event may be a HURL league game, some other "bettable" event related to Halifax ultimate, or anything else you think may be of interest to the HURL community. Creativity is encouraged.

Events can be created (or edited) by the bookie for a particular week up to 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday preceding the week. Example: Events for Week 1 can be created (or edited) any time before 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 29. Betting on the event then takes place on Friday and Saturday. The identity of the bookie for an event is hidden until betting closes.

When creating an event, you must provide the following information:

• Name - a brief but descriptive name for the event. Example: Sefalopro vs. Multiple Scoregasms.
• Time of conclusion - your best estimate of when the result of the event will be known.
• Vigorish - the percentage you will take from winning bets.
• Outcomes - a list of up to five possible outcomes for the event, in unambiguous English (do not use betting lines), with odds in percentage form for each. The vigorish and the odds you assign each outcome determine the payout for that outcome (see "Event payouts" below). Generally the outcomes should be mutually exclusive, but in the case where one outcome is more specific than another, the more specific one shall be considered to be the result if its conditions are fulfilled. The outcomes should cover every possible happenstance, with the exception of the cancellation of the event.
• Supplementary information - any additional information you wish to provide about the event, which may include one or more URLs. In the case of an obscure event, this information is mandatory.

As a bookie, you are also responsible for entering the results of your events. This must be done within 48 hours of the time of conclusion of the event. The burden is on you to find out the result of the event, so you would be wise to choose an event where you will have firsthand knowledge of the result, or you are sure you will be able to discover the result within 48 hours. If a result occurs that is not covered by your possible outcomes, you must select "None of the above", and all bets on the event will be paid as winners. If the event itself is cancelled, you will be able to select "Cancelled", and no payouts will be made on any bets.

At result entry time, you will also be able to provide additional information about the result, including one or more URLs. In general, for almost any event you should provide a link to a reputable website where the result can be verified. This is not necessary for HURL league games (but still encouraged) as all players of the game should be able to verify the results on their own.

All cash transfers resulting from the event will occur immediately after you enter the result, so be careful that you are entering the correct result.

Bookie bonuses

Each week there will be $3000 for each event contributed to a pool of "bookie bonus" money. After betting closes for the week this bonus money will be split amongst the bookies, with each bookie's share determined by the relative amount of money wagered on his or her event.

Event payouts

No cash is transferred between the gambler and the bookie until the result of the event has been entered. Example: If a gambler makes a $1000 bet on an event neither his account balance nor the balance of the bookie will change until the event has a result. If the bet is a losing bet, the $1000 will simply get transferred to the bookie. For a winning bet, the amount transferred from the bookie to the gambler will be $1000 times the payout, where the payout for an outcome is calculated as:

((1 / odds) - 1) less the vigorish

Playing as a gambler

Each week on Friday and Saturday (before 5:00 p.m.) you can place bets on one or more of the events in the upcoming week. The amount of a bet may be any multiple of $200 up to $2000. A $0 bet may be placed if you want to attempt to predict the result of an event without risking any money. Only one bet may be placed on each event. You can change your bets at any time before 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.

See "Event payouts" for an explanation of how winnings and losses are transferred.

Salary

As noted previously, you receive $10,000 at the start of the game. For each week that you participate in the game you will receive an additional $5000 in "salary". To be considered to have participated in a week, you must do at least one of the following:

• place a non-zero bet on one or more events in that week.
• create an event for the week that at least one gambler places a non-zero bet on.

Rules infractions

Unlike ultimate, in HURL Pick 'em there are penalties for breaking the rules. Here is a list of rules infractions and their corresponding penalties:

Other rules infractions may be penalized at the discretion of the moderator.