... chip pool:

Last year, Jim Gardner ran a Kentucky Derby chip pool. Unfortunately, Jim has taken a vacation from active chipping and will not be back to do so again this year. So, unless someone else just HAS to do it, I thought I'd organize a pool this year. (The fact that I won 20 chips last year in Jim's pool has absolutely NOTHING to do with this decision! <g>)

Rather than just arbitrarily assign each entrant a horse, however, and to make it possible to accommodate any number of participants, I'm going to do this a little differently than Jim did (hope this isn't too complicated!).

So, here are the rules:

1) Each entrant will put up one $5 chip (must be a nice collectible; not necessarily mint, but a chip you would like to have in your own collection). The exact chip must be specified in the entry email.

2) Entries will be accepted by email only (for my ease of keeping track of them), though I have no problem with posting of entry information on the BB (for reasons that will be obvious, most of you won't want to do this anyway). Please put "KENTUCKY DERBY POOL ENTRY" in the subject line of your entry email.

3) Entries will be accepted any time up to and including ten minutes before post time (this will allow modifications for late scratches). The race will be held on Saturday, May 6, 2000, but I don't know the post time yet (last year they went off at 5:29 KST). Timely submission will be determined by the time on the email entry.

4) Entries can be changed at any time up to the same deadline. Just send a new email.

5) Each participant must select the top three finishers in order: first, second and third; or, as the horsey folks say, win, place and show. If you need help handicapping the race, you can try the official Derby website at:

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/

6) I will score the entries as if each person had placed a $2 bet on each of the horses selected to finish in the top three. In other words, I will determine the payout each entrant would receive if he'd placed a $2 bet to win on the horse he (or she! Katie) picks to finish first, a $2 bet to place on the second place pick and a $2 bet to show on the third place pick.

7) As a tie-breaker, each entrant must also pick the finishing time of the winning horse to the nearest one-hundredth of a second (last year's winning time was 2:03.29 on a fast track; the Derby record is held by Secretariat, who ran 1:59 2/5 in 1973). Winning times in other years are also available at the derby site listed above (up until last year, the times were given in fifths of a second). The tie-breaker will be the closest prediction to the actual time, regardless of whether faster or slower. If that doesn't break any tie, I'll split the prize or prizes involved.

8) Payoffs will be as follows:
----------- 1st --- 1/2 of all chips
----------- 2nd --- 1/3 of all chips
----------- 3rd --- 1/6 of all chips
Fractions will round in favor of the higher place. Example: if there are 14 entries, the winner will get 7 chips, 2nd will get 5 and 3rd will get 2.

9) Anyone who wants to increase his risk may submit more than one entry at a cost of one $5 chip for each entry.

10) To insure there is no hanky-panky, I will not enter the contest myself. <g>

We still have lots of time, so if anyone sees any problems with this proposal (other than its complexity), let me know and I'll consider changing the rules.

Any and all comments welcome. ----- jim o\-S