March Madness Coming Soon…

March Madness baby. The best sporting event of the year. Unpredictable. Single elimination. Hugely emotional. Lots of games. And of course, gambling.

Wait a minute, didn’t I say previously that I don’t really gamble? True, very true. But there’s something about an NCAA basketball pool (there’s an exception to every rule). And it’s not really about the money, it’s just fun.

So once again I will be hosting a pool. The rules are the same as every year (detailed below). I use CBS Sportsline. The URL is:

http://fish2007.mayhem.sportsline.com/e

The group password is fish.

The rules are as follows:

$10 to play

50% to the winner

30% for 2nd place

20% for 3rd place

I will collect money via PayPal. PayPal charges a small fee, so I’ll ask for something like $10.58. Don’t worry about payment up front. I’ll make the requests after people have signed up. I’ve been informed that PayPal frowns on this sort of thing, so you’ll probably get a request for payment for something like “pet grooming”. If you are in the NY office or will see me in person you can pay cash.

The pool is weighted for picking upsets. Points are determined by multiplying the seed of the winner by the round value:

1st round: 1 point

2nd round: 2 points

3rd round: 4 points

4th round: 8 points

Semi Final: 16 points

Final: 32 points

So if a 12 seed wins in the second round it’s worth 24 points. But getting the final four right is worth a lot of points also, so you can’t just go upset crazy. Typically you need to get the ultimate winner right. This is, in my opinion, by far the most interesting way to run a pool.

That’s it. Invite your friends. Wake the neighbors and phone the kids. It’s all about bragging rights. The great thing about an NCAA pool is that it’s so unpredictable that someone who knows nothing about hoops often wins. My favorite betting strategy for someone who didn’t follow hoops involved comparing the mascots and picking the one that would win in a fight (sorry Maryland fans).

The madness begins soon…