2006 TENNIS POKER RULES!



CHOOSING AND CHANGING THE TEAM

:) You choose the five tennis players who will represent your hand of five cards.

:) You can select any combination of five tennis players without any limitation about their ranking.

:) You will be allowed to change your picks before each leg starts in the "new entrants and team changes" thread, usually at the top of this forum.



CARD VALUES

:) The card values will be decided by the results of your players in the WTA Tour singles tournaments, according to this scoring system:

Draws of 128
Result / Score
Win / A
Final / K
Semifinal / Q - J
Quarterfinal / 10 - 9
4th round / 8 - 7
3rd round / 6 - 5
2nd round / 4 - 3
1st round / 2

Draws of 64
Result / Score
Win / A
Final / K
Semifinal / Q - J
Quarterfinal / 10 - 7
3rd round / 6 - 5
2nd round / 4 - 3
1st round / 2

Draws of 32
Result / Score
Win / A
Final / K
Semifinal / Q - J
Quarterfinal / 10 - 7
2nd round / 6 - 3
1st round / 2

:) Different values are given to players losing in the same round according to their position in the draw: playing with or near a higher seed means a higher value.

:) Each tennis tournament will be considered to represent one of the different suits of the cards.

:) The rounds of Tennis Poker generally last more than a week; if any tennis player competes in more than one tournament, just her best result will count for this game.



TENNIS POKER TOURNAMENTS

:) Each Tennis Poker tournament will start and finish within the same leg.

:) The posters will face each other in a draw of 48, with 40 direct entries (16 seeds with a first round bye), 4 wild cards (given to the posters with the best results in the previous tournament) and 4 qualifiers.

:) In each match, the poster with the best combination according to traditional poker rules, wins. Hands are ranked as follows, from high to low:

1 - Straight Flush: five cards in order, all of the same suit.
2 - Four of a Kind: four cards of the same rank.
3 - Full House: a three of a kind and a pair.
4 - Flush: a hand where all the cards are of the same suit.
5 - Straight: five cards in order.
6 - Three of a Kind: three cards of the same rank.
7 - Two Pair: two distinct pairs.
8 - Pair: two cards with the same value.
9 - Highest Card: if there isn’t any combination, then just the highest card is considered.

If you are not familiar with the card game, you can find more info in the "Standard Poker Hand Ranking" section in this page:

http://www.pagat.com/vying/pokerrank.html




THE RANKING

:) The ranking is based on your yearly performances thorughout the past 12 months: the points earned in the last 8 legs will be counted, with points from last year’s season dropping off as new torunaments are completed.

:) You’ll be given a certain amount of points based on how good your combination is (the performance score) and how far you go in the tournaments, with a bonus for those who are able to beat a poster who is higher ranked.

:) For each match you win in a tournament, you collect 50 pts.

:) If you beat any opponent who is ranked higher than you, you are given a bonus of other 50 pts.

:) Posters will also receive a bonus of 25 pts for each win in the qualifying round.

:) The performance score is calculated summing up the values of the five cards and multiplicating for a factor according to the poker combination you’ve scored.

Card values
Ace - 14
King - 13
Queen - 12
Jack - 11
10 - 10
9 - 9
and so on...

Combination factors
30 - Straight Flush
15 - Four of a Kind
10 - Full House
7 - Flush
5 - Straight
4 - Three of a Kind
3 - Two Pairs
2 - Pair
1 - No combination

Examples. :)

No combination
A / K / 10 / 8 / 5
(14 + 13 + 10 + 8 + 5) x 1 = 50

Pair
Q / Q / 4 / 3 / 2
(12 + 12 + 4 + 3 + 2) x 2 = 66

Two pairs
10 / 10 / 5 / 5 / 2
(10 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 2) x 3 = 96

Three of a kind
A / A / A / 10 / 8
(14 + 14 + 14 + 10 + 8) x 4 = 240

Straight flush
A / K / Q / J / 10
(14 + 13 + 12 + 11 + 10) x 30 = 1800



THE CALENDAR

The 2006 Tennis Poker season will include 8 legs:

1st leg: January 2nd - February 12th
Gold Coast, Auckland, Sydney, Hobart, Canberra, Australian Open, Tokyo, Paris, Pattaya City

2nd leg: February 13th - March 19th
Antwerp, Bangalore, Dubai, Memphis, Bogota, Doha, Acapulco, Indian Wells

3rd leg: March 20th - May 7th
Miami, Amelia Island, Charleston, Warsaw, Estoril

4th leg: May 8th - June 11th
Berlin, Prague, Rome, Rabat, Strasbourg, Istanbul, French Open

5th leg: June 12th - July 23th
Birmingham, Modena, Eastbourne, s'Hertogenbosch, Wimbledon, Cincinnati, Palermo

6th leg: July 24th - August 27th
Stanford, Budapest, San Diego, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Montreal, New Haven, Forest Hills

7th leg: August 28th - October 8th
US Open, Bali, Beijing, Kolkata, Portoroz, Luxembourg, Guangzhou, Seoul, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Tashkent

8th leg: October 9th - end of the season
Moscow, Bangkok, Zurich, Tel Aviv, Linz, Hasselt, Quebec City, Madrid



THE SPARE CARDS

Injuries and withdrawals have deeply affected the game. Though each leg lasts at least three or four weeks, it has become more and more frequent for the players to be out of the game for a month or more. So, I think it was a good idea to have a couple of players sitting on the bench and ready to enter play if they are needed.
The spare cards (chosen randomly among the higher ranked and not selected players) are assigned to posters completely by chance in order to replace a scoreless tennis player with another one in all the hands which included her, so that all the posters who picked a certain player will get the same value as a replacement.



THE JOKER

The poster who loses in the first round of a Tennis Poker tournament to the eventual winner, in the following leg, will be able to substitute the card with the lowest value with the joker (@), a card which can be given any value and may help to score better combinations.
If the winner is a seed wih a first round bye, the joker is given to the second round opponent.
If the winner is a qualifier, the best poster who failed to enter the main draw gets the joker.



Thank you, good luck! :wavey:

I don't know if I can ask questions here? (but I will anyway :o). Is their a joker in the first leg?

Rocketta, the 8th leg winner, had a bye in the first round and faced Mary Cherry in the second round; so, the joker in the first leg of the 2003 season will go to Mary Cherry, who will be able to replace the lowest card in the hand with any value in order to score the best possible combination. :)

...and, if you have any doubt, feel free to ask any question. :D

Please, note that the rule about the main draw size has changed:

http://www.wtaworld.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51411

Thank you, good luck! :wavey:

I've edited the first post with the 2004 calendar. :yeah:

Rules for the singles tournaments will remain the same in the next season. :)

We may have something new in the doubles, and there will be a special event for the Olympics; I'll add all the info when we are ready to start. ;)

I've edited the first post adding the 2005 calendar. :)

No rule changes at all for next year's season, but I will add a few info about Fed Cup and the doubles tour. :)

DOUBLES

The doubles tour will be back next year without any changes: the performance of each pair will be measured by the geometric mean of the ranking points earned by the two posters in the Tennis Poker singles tournaments. :)
Of course all the posters who sign up for the doubles event must have a valid set of five players for the singles. :)

As in the past seasons, pairs will face each other round by round and, of course, the winner will be the doubles pair who collected more points. The draw size will depend on how many pairs join the game. Empty spots will be filled with first round byes and we may need a qualifying round.

Ranking points are assigned considering how far each pair goes in the draw (50 pts per round + 50 bonus pts for a win against higher-ranked pair) and how good the combinations are (geometric mean of the singles ranking points).
If an old partnership ends, each player will bring to the new pair a half of the points earned in the 2004 season with the previous partner.

As in the singles tournament, once you've signed up correctly in the proper thread, you'll be automatically re-admitted leg after leg throughout the whole season. Anyway, partner changes and new entrants will be always allowed during the season. ;)

FED CUP

No great changes for this season's team event: two nations will face each other in 4 singles and 1 doubles and the team with at least 3 wins out of these 5 matches will go through. The number of entries will decide the exact schedule of the matches; we'll start with a round robin in order to let more people enjoy the game for a longer time without any early elimination. ;)
Each team must include at least 2 posters, but no more than 6, in order to let everyone play at least once per leg (4 in the singles and 2 in the doubles). At the beginning of each leg a random draw will decide the order of the 5 matches completely by chance.

The outcome of all the matches will be decided comparing the ranking points earned in the Tennis Poker singles tournaments: the plain value for the 4 singles and the geometric mean of the points scored by the two posters who play as a pair in the doubles. That's why all the posters who sign up for the team event must have a valid set of five players for the singles. Overall total score by the whole team will be used to break ties. :)

Each team will represent a country; a real or even a fantasy one: besides USA, Belgium, Poland, France, Canada and even the European Union, last year we had Catch-22, The United Sanex Oldtimers and the proud team of the AdMeans. :D

A font color will represent your team as well. Please, be sure you choose a color which can be read easily with this board's backgrounds. ;)

I hope you'll enjoy Tennis Poker in 2005. :)

Good luck everyone! :yeah:

I've edited the first post adding the 2006 schedule and adjusting a few sentences to make them even clearer, but there won't be any major change in the 2006 season. :)

All the 2005 players must sign up again for next year's season.

Sign up threads will be available very soon, hopefully later today. ;)

Thank you, good luck! :bounce: