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cnollfan
11-29-2008, 10:59 PM
Was anybody playing in the Twin Spires handicapping contest that was cancelled today well into the program? If so, your thoughts?

Steve 'StatMan'
11-29-2008, 11:12 PM
I wasn't in the contest - looked at the Twin Spires website, they had technical problems and contestants weren't able to get their selections in. Too bad for everyone, except for those who were well behind I guess. Yeah, I'd hate to have been on or near the lead when they had to cancel. Website says they cancelled and all players will receive a full refund. It also says they will be rescheduling the event.

http://www.twinspires.com/content/bvqe2

zoobird
11-30-2008, 06:33 AM
I wasn't in the contest - looked at the Twin Spires website, they had technical problems and contestants weren't able to get their selections in. Too bad for everyone, except for those who were well behind I guess. Yeah, I'd hate to have been on or near the lead when they had to cancel. Website says they cancelled and all players will receive a full refund. It also says they will be rescheduling the event.

http://www.twinspires.com/content/bvqe2

I wasn't in the contest, but I'd imagine that anyone who was and who was near the lead will be thinking twice about participating in another contest run by them.

Zman179
11-30-2008, 07:40 AM
I wasn't in the contest, but I'd imagine that anyone who was and who was near the lead will be thinking twice about participating in another contest run by them.

No they won't. Many of these professional contest players would sell their mother in order to get a trip to Vegas. :lol:

Bobzilla
11-30-2008, 08:07 AM
Seems to me heads will roll in the Twin Spires IT department this week. I was participating in the BVQE yesterday and it appeared to me I was able to edit my selections throughout much of the contest, at least during the earlier stages. I was beginning to wonder what was going on when I attempted to get leaderboard updates and the board wasn't being updated.

I feel bad for those whose selections yesterday would have qualified them for a berth in the NHC, especially those who were able to bring home HANGOVER CURE, winner of Hawthorne race 8. It seems like in the majority of these contests there is at least one "capper"; Hangover Cure was yesterday's. I would hope Twin Spires offers some kind of meaningful consolation to those whose picks, at least the ones successfully registered, would have qualified them for a trip to the NHC.

On a different front I'm beginning to wonder what it is those in charge of conducting these contests such as TS and NHC Qualify.com have against New York. I have no problem playing Far Grounds, Hawthorne and Hollywood but considering some of yesterday's stakes races at Aqueduct I'm curious as to why at least a few of New York's later races could not have been part of the contest. I understand there has to be time zone sensitivity to those on the west coast, but the Remsen and Cigar Mile were being run after the contest had already started. Seems to me that, at least this past year, California has been disproportionately represented in these contests. Nothing against having Cali races in these contests as I want to play them too, but not to the point where there are so many of them that East Coast races can't be fairly represented as well. At least there was an equal representation of the three surfaces with yesterday's races.

Spectacular Sid
11-30-2008, 10:05 AM
Paulick has a pretty good story about on his website

(paulickreport.com)http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/twinspirescom-problems-cause-contest-cancellation/


The funniest line was "Saturday’s problem, on top of the Derby Day online wagering malfunction, comes from a company that hired a CEO in Bob Evans with a tech-savvy reputation and has a “think tank” division based in California’s Silicon Valley."

A think tank in Silicon Valley...Is he kidding me?

And these guys want to buy TVG!

garyoz
11-30-2008, 10:23 AM
Geez, feel like I was given a mulligan. I was hanging around in the mid-40's in the standings but wouldn't of made it into the final 20. Besides the technical problems, the choice of races was terrible. 8 of the 15 from HOL. Can't figure out why they didn't include any from AQU--the Cigar mile or the 10th--both had relatively good payoffs--were after the 3:30 start. The contest was like playing a HOL pick-6 (sans the 10th).

Happy to get my entry fee back, and I'll pass on the redo.

Steve 'StatMan'
11-30-2008, 04:51 PM
From the Paulick article:

Midway through Saturday’s 15-race contest, many of the 550 entrants were unable to make their online selections. Instead they got an error message saying “database connection failed; too many connections.” The problem went on for at least five races, and there was no communication from TwinSpires.com to participants. “Obviously, it was not pleasant for the players,” one contestant wrote to the Paulick Report.

With many, but not all, affected, and the problem going on for mulitple races, hard to say the people listed in the standings as being ahead would really be ahead. But also hard to convince those people thinking they were in the lead or should have been in the lead that they might not have been.

Not good at all.

Also interesting, as one player quoted in the article said about canceling his wagering account. With the ADW disputes and limited signals, one needs to see if some of the tracks they really want to bet are exclusive, and therefore not betable right now elsewhere, and therefore have to make a decision as to who understandably want to avoid/cutback/punish the offending ADW/tournament provider, or themselves and their handicapping/wagering/enjoyment of the game.

What a mess, with the ADW Exclusivity wars complicating it further.