Open Championship 

Eligibility: Open to All Players

Entry Fee: $400, 90% Return

Side Pool: $225

Match Points: All rounds are 9 points Format This event will use the "More Swiss" format

Intermediate

Eligibility: Open Championship level (≤ 8.0 PR) players are not eligible

Entry Fee: $250, 85% Return Side Pool $125

Match Points: All rounds are 9 points

Format: This event will use the "More Swiss" format

Novice

Eligibility: Players in the Novice Division are new to Backgammon and do not have a BMAB rating ≤ 16.0 PR

Entry Fee: $60, 100% Return

Match Points: All rounds are 3 points

Format: This event will use the "More Swiss" format

 More Swiss Format

1. Players will be eliminated when they lose their third match.

2. Byes will be treated as wins.

3. Players with 2 losses are still eligible to cash, but can no longer win the tournament.

​​​​4. A minimum of 10% of the field (rounded) must always be paid in all divisions as per ABT rules.

5. When the tournament starts, we will identify the maximum number of places that we are willing to pay.

--Open Division: We will pay a maximum of 15% of the field rounded. i.e. if we have 100 players, we will pay 10 to 15 places

--Intermediate Division: We will pay a maximum of 20% of the field rounded. i.e. if we have 100 players, we will pay 14 to 20 places

--Novice Division: We will pay a maximum of 30% of the field rounded. i.e. if we have 20 players, we will pay 4 to 6 places

6. If at the end of any round, the number of players with fewer than four losses is less than or equal to the maximum number of places we are willing to pay, we will transition to the "playoff rules"

7. Under the playoff rules:

--Everyone remaining will cash and continue playing until we reach a championship match. Payouts will be determined by the appropriate payout structure.

--All players eliminated with the same record will receive the same prize money.

--If we reach a point where only three players remain eligible to win the tournament and they have equal records we will transition to the USBGF 3-player playoff format listed below and those three players will finish the tournament in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places alone.

--Excluding the times we have reached a 3-player playoff, if we reach a point where only two players remain eligible to win the tournament and both players are eliminated from contention with another loss, those two players will play a championship match and will finish the tournament in 1st and 2nd places alone.

--At the appropriate time the Director will gather the remaining players before posting the next round pairings to explain all the possible scenarios.

Pairing Rules

1. No player can receive a second bye until all remaining players have had at least one bye.

2. Byes are awarded to a player with the worst possible record.

3. Players will be paired against players with as similar a record as possible.

4. Players will be paired against players they have not played in previous rounds.

5. If a player has played a previous round against an opponent with a better record, they will not be paired against a player with a better record again, if possible.

6. If a player has played a previous round against an opponent with a worse record, they will not be paired against a player with a worse record again, if possible.

*As the number of remaining players decreases, the pairing rules become harder to enforce and we will relax them from the bottom up.

Handling 3-Way Ties

Some tournament formats may play down to a 3-way tie. That tie must be broken to determine a tournament winner, as well as second and third places.

All 3-way ties that occur at ABT tournaments must be resolved using the following playoff format, which provides equal equity to each of the three tied players:

1. A standard four player elimination bracket shall be used to determine matches.

2. A bye is awarded to one player randomly chosen from among those who received the fewest byes previously in the event.

3. The phrase “total award” represents the total prize allocated for places 1, 2 and 3.

4. For events using a Swiss or other non-Elimination format (will be used for this Main event only): 

--The two players who did not receive the bye shall each be awarded 1/12 of the total award.

--The remaining 10/12 of the total award shall be divided between places 1, 2, and 3 with ratios 32:20:13 respectively.

5. For events using a standard Elimination format (will be used for all side events):

--The two players who did not receive the bye shall each be awarded 1/10 of the total award.

--The remaining 8/10 of the total award shall be divided between places 1, 2, and 3 with ratios 3:2:1 respectively.