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Cash play tournament at Riviera Cup
Posted By: Eric Guedj In Response To: Cash play tournament at Riviera Cup (Marv Porten)
Date: Tuesday, 13 April 2010, at 11:22 a.m.
Hello Marv, thanks for your comment, which opens a lot of thinking.
In fact, my experience in Televised Backgammon over the past 3 years matches the comment in your post:
You wrote: Which of the following events would be better for television for general audiences: (1) Mochy playing Falafel a 25 point match for $50,000 and a trophy? or (2) Mochy playing Falafel a money game at $100 a point (or $500 or $1000) each player starting with $25,000 (or whatever) and continuing until one player had all the money?
Your question raises another: When a novice audience watches a match in the latest stage (say semis) of a regular event, how can production describe the actual drama (in other words, what is at stake on the current game) with game winning probabilities, match equity, or scores?
I just doesn't work quite right. (I should know because I've tried it in the above (not) mentionned Backgammon TV series.)
The trouble comes from explaining to this novice audience, on screen, that say, a 11/3 lead in a match to 17 is something substantial.
For the normal audience, these are just numbers. In fact, I spotted during live screenings in Cannes Riviera Cup 2 years ago that even the very best players found it hard to follow action and follow the underlying equity swings that may occur.
The real problem comes from the format itself, and the volatility of your equity.
In match play, your equity has a volatility of zero when you start the match, and 100% when your reach DMP. Then if you win the match, and go to the next round, your money equity has doubled, but volatility is back to zero again.
Assuming that TV drama comes from equity swings (or jeopardy), then match play is just not right for TV, for the reasons I've mentionned above.
On the contrary, (and that's why poker shows make good TV), if you watch any game where 25.000 $ is at stake, any amateur player can watch and figure for himself what is at stake; It's 25.000$. Period. No need to overload the screen (and commentator job) with match scores, probabilities, what it means to enter the semis, etc.
Note also that with Cash Play system, an extra dimension arises with the position of Chip Leader, who holds the best chances to win (and also the attention to the short stacks who sweats from his imminient potential elimination) All this makes good TV, and is just not possible with regular match play.
Thanks for your comments, Marv.
Comments on this equity/volatility fonction are very welcome (UBK and Rich M. perharps?)
Eric Guedj
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