2008-01-14 23:43:29
Cardplayer's Player of the Year (POY) Ranking System is Severely Flawed
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Someone today sent me an email, and in that email they asked me to look at the current 2008 Cardplayer.com Player of the Year standings. "Do you see anything strange?" they asked.
I went over to Cardplayer.com and saw the current top three in the 2008 Player of the Year race. It was listed as follows:
1. Bertrand Grospellier, 1,440 points, $2,000,000 winnings
2. Michael Samuel, 1,440 points, $59,897 winnings
3. Chris Blaich, 1,200 points, $30,914 winnings
Edit: Cardplayer.com apparently goofed and listed the tournament that Michael Samuel won as a $2500 buyin, when it was actually a $500 buyin. Samuel is no longer tied for first because of this. However, the article of this article regarding the way that Cardplayer.com ranks tournaments still stands. What if this tournament had been a $2500 buy-in? He'd still be tied with "ElkY."
So we have a tie for first in the 2008 POY race between Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Michael Samuel. Both have 1,440 points. One took down an event with 419 entrants and a $210k prize pool. The other one took down an event with 1,136 entrants, a buy-in of $7800 and a total prize pool of $8.86 million dollars. One was a preliminary event, and one was an EPT main event. How can they possibly be tied for #1? "ElkY" won $2 million dollars, and Michael Samuel won under $60k.
So how did Cardplayer.com come up with the same amount of points for both Michael Samuel and Bertrand Grospellier even though Grospellier won millions in an EPT main event and Samuel won $60k in a preliminary event? Surely it must be a mistake?
It's not. According to their site, Cardplayer figures out the number of points based on three criteria:
1. Place finished at final table.
2. Amount of buy-in.
3. Number of entrants.
First off, Cardplayer awards points for each of the players at the final table. First place gets 120, second place gets 100, and so on.
Then, they assign "points" based on the amount of the buy-in and the amount of entrants. These points are multiplied by the points given for the final table criteria to arrive at the final amount. This is where Cardplayer.com runs into a problem, because the ranges are far too wide.
A buy-in of $300-$999 receives one point, a buy-in of $1k - $2499 receives two points, and a buyin of $2500 to $9999 receives three points. So, the EPT main event had a buyin of $7800 and this smaller event had a buy-in of $2500, yet they are weighted the same.
Then, for criteria #3, the same amount of points (4) is given to fields with a total of between 395 - 1,999 players. So whether a field has 1998 players or 396 players, Cardplayer.com gives the same weighting. Again, this is far too wide of a range.
So according to their points system right now, an event with a buyin of $9k and a field of 1700 hundred players will pay out the same number of POY points as an event with a buyin of $3k and a field of 400 players.
So in the case of "ElkY" and Michael Samuel, we arrive at 1,440 points for both players by multiplying 120 points for the first place finish times 3 points for an event with a buyin of between $2500 - $9999, times 4 points for an event with a field of between 395 - 1999 entrants.
And with that, Grospellier and Samuel are tied for the lead in the 2008 Player of the Year race.
Filed Under: Miscellaneous Poker Articles
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