Forum Archive : Tournaments

Calcutta auctions From:   Roland Scheicher Address:   roland_scheicher@yahoo.de Date:   2 December 1998 Subject:   How to organize a Calcutta auction Forum:   rec.games.backgammon Google:   36656DA1.76E6CCCE@xss.co.at How to organize a Calcutta auction? I try to organize a backgammon tournament and therfore I want to get some information about auctions. Of course the auction pool should become as large as possible, but this depends very much on the behaviour of the participants. Now for the questions: (1) Should the players be auctioned with the favourites at the beginning or at the end? There are disadvantages for both ways: starting with the newbies may be boring and thus people will leave the auction early before the good players are put up and there may be too little competitive bidding - on the other hand starting with the favourites will limit the prices for the further players (since if we start with the top favourite which is sold for a low price no one else will pay much for a less good player and the auction won't be interesting at all). (2) Which kind of auction is usually used? I suppose the best choice is the "Classic auction" as it is used by Sotheby's or Christie`s. Greetings Roland Scheicher scheicher@xss.co.at Chuck Bower  writes: At the large tournaments I've attended, the auctions tend along roughly the same lines. In fact, it seems like calcutta auctions at BG tournaments have a lot in common with other kinds of more general auctions I've attended. Some comments: (I assume that you want to get as large of an auction pool as possible....) a) One "trick" is to start with a "highest bidder gets choice" lot. The advantage can be seen from a simple example: suppose bidder A wants to buy player 1, and bidder B wants player 2. If they know that they are after different players they won't compete against each other. But for a "high bidder's choice" lot, they don't necessarily know that they want different players, so they will compete, pushing up the price. Typically there will be only a couple of these "choice" lots. Once the baseline price is established they revert to specified lots. b) You definitely want to establish a HIGH PRICE groundwork first. That is, if your best lots go cheaply, no one will want to pay a high price for a weak lot later. (This is often the reason auctioneers start with the "high bidder choice" lot detailed in -a- above.) c) Group less-than-top-rated players in a lots. Some auctions will have maybe 25% of lots being single (and thus the "best" players) maybe 25% of lots being two-player teams (the "near experts") and the remainder of lots being 3-4 player teams (the unknowns or dark-horses). Of course here you want to have a good way of knowing the strength of the individual players! d) For bidless lots, you want some kind of provision. One option is for the Club (or promoters) to buy each lot that doesn't start with a predetermined minimum bid. Some auctioneers have a "sack" and all lots which don't get a minimum bid go into the sack. At the end the sack is auctioned as a single lot. e) I've seen auctions where the buyers names get thrown in a hat and there is a drawing for some prize. The idea is that it will encourage more bidders. (I don't know how well this works. Obviously it is going to depend on the drawing prize.) f) most BG calcuttas have "buy backs" where the individual players have the right to buy a portion of the calcutta lot from the actual buyer (up to a limit). The advantage here is that the buyer can usually count on his/her total investment to be reduced. Typical buybacks guarantee that the buyer gets at least 25-33%. (E.g. single player lot buyback max of 65%. Two player lot--each can buy back 35% of team. Three player --each player can buy back 25% of team. Etc.) Hope this helps. Chuck bower@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu c_ray on FIBS Roland Scheicher  writes: Some remarks on the order of auction In a classic Calcutta auction contestants are put up for auction in random order. If all participants make optimal bids, the pool size is independent of the order. (see Sridhar Seshadri, Zur Shapira, Christopher L. Tucci: Venture capital investing and the "Calcutta Auction", http://www.ceistorvergata.it/conferenze&convegni/banking&finance/ XII_conference/10DICEMBRE/tucci_uniroma2.pdf Of course, "Highest bidder's choice lots" imply that the favourites are sold first, nevertheless the inverse order is also common: "One variation that has become more popular as the Calcutta Auction is used more in conjunction with March Madness (NCAA basket ball) is that the teams are bid on in reverse order of their seeds instead of random order. This allows bidders to have a better idea of how the bidding will grow as the auction proceeds, and ensures that when bidding reaches the favorites to win, the participants will have a pretty good idea of what the final pot size will be." (Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcutta_%28gambling%29") Kind regards Roland   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

Tournaments

Adjusting to face-to-face play  (Paul Epstein+, Feb 2006) 

Adjusting to face-to-face play  (Daniel Murphy, June 1999) 

Avoiding disputes  (Kit Woolsey+, Oct 2007) 

Baffle box to roll dice  (Ken Bame, Mar 2012) 

Calcutta auctions  (David Moeser, Nov 2001) 

Calcutta auctions  (Roland Scheicher+, Dec 1998) 

Calcutta auctions  (Anthony R Wuersch, Oct 1994) 

Calcutta problems  (Marty Storer, Dec 2002) 

Clock ethics  (Patrick Gibson+, Mar 2009) 

Clock rules--Digital clocks  (Chuck Bower+, Oct 2003) 

Clock rules--End of turn  (Carlo Melzi+, July 2001) 

Clock rules--How do they work?  (Gregg Cattanach, Oct 2002) 

Clock rules--Illegal move  (Brendan Burgess+, Feb 2000) 

Clock rules--Why forfeit instead of penalty points?  (neilkaz, Sept 2010) 

Clocks and older players  (Stick+, July 2010) 

Clocks--Arguments against them  (Timothy Chow, Jan 2011) 

Clocks--Common arguments against  (Chuck Bower, Feb 2006) 

Clocks--Losing on time  (Jason Lee+, Mar 2004) 

Clocks--Pros and cons  (Michael Strato+, Jan 2004) 

Clocks--Should they be part of the game?  (Kit Woolsey, June 1995) 

Clocks--Why use them  (Stick, Jan 2011) 

Compensating for byes  (Hank Youngerman+, Dec 1998) 

Factors that affect attendance  (Stick, Oct 2009) 

"Fighter's bracket"  (Chuck Bower+, Sept 2010) 

First backgammon tournament  (Mislav Radica+, May 2007) 

First backgammon tournament  (Ed Collins+, Dec 2006) 

Hedging  (Jason Lee+, Apr 2009) 

Hedging  (Marv Porten+, Feb 2009) 

Hedging  (Tad Bright+, Jan 2003) 

Hitting clock instead of rolling  (Bob Glass+, Mar 2010) 

Keeping score during a match  (Gregg Cattanach, June 2007) 

Links to tournament rules  (Daniel Murphy, Oct 2009) 

Major tournament attendance 1998-2008  (Daniel Murphy, July 2008) 

Making notes during play  (Randy Pals+, Aug 2008) 

Manually recording a match  (Kevin P+, Apr 2007) 

Manually recording a match  (gammonus+, Feb 2006) 

Manually recording a match  (Daniel Murphy, Aug 1999) 

New U.S. Rules  (Gregg Cattanach+, Dec 2007) 

Newbie questions  (Donald Kahn, Oct 1999) 

Playing at Monte Carlo  (Achim, July 2007) 

Playing-off 3 remaining players  (Gregg Cattanach+, Apr 2007) 

Recording matches  (Robert Maier, May 2009) 

Recording matches  (Chuck Bower+, Sept 2003) 

Recording matches  (Sean Dakin+, Aug 1999) 

Round robins  (Hank Youngerman, Nov 2001) 

Rules for doubles play (with a partner)  (steve+, May 2012) 

Seeding  (Roland Scheicher+, Dec 1998) 

Skill level  (Kirk J. Rupnik+, Nov 1998) 

Skill levels  (Leonardo Jerkovic, Aug 2012) 

"Stop pots"  (Chuck Bower+, Sept 2010) 

Swiss format  (Osman Guner+, May 2001) 

Swiss format  (Osman Guner, Oct 1998) 

Swiss format  (Hank Youngerman+, Mar 1998) 

Tournament formats  (MikeMadMonk+, May 2003) 

Tournament rules  (Daniel Murphy, Apr 2001) 

Tournament rules links  (Daniel Murphy, Oct 2009) 

Types of events  (Daniel Murphy, Nov 1997) 

Uniform rules and procedures?  (Michael Crane+, Mar 2003) 

Variable side pools  (Art Grater+, July 2011) 

Vegas trip report (fall 2004)  (Gregg Cattanach, Nov 2004) 

Vegas trip report (spring 2005)  (Gregg Cattanach, May 2005) 

Videotaping matches  (André Nicoulin+, Nov 2000) 

What is a "Monrad format"?  (Daniel Murphy, Sept 2000) 

What is a "side pool"?  (Daniel Murphy, Nov 1997) 

From GammOnLine         Long message         Recommended reading         Recent addition

 

Book Suggestions Books Cheating Chouettes Computer Dice Cube Handling Cube Handling in Races Equipment Etiquette Extreme Gammon Fun and frustration GNU Backgammon History Jellyfish Learning Luck versus Skill Magazines & E-zines Match Archives Match Equities Match Play Match Play at 2-away/2-away Miscellaneous Opening Rolls Pip Counting Play Sites Probability and Statistics Programming Propositions Puzzles Ratings Rollouts Rules Rulings Snowie Software Source Code Strategy--Backgames Strategy--Bearing Off Strategy--Checker play Terminology Theory Tournaments Uncategorized Variations