Originally posted under Pokercast but it looks like that Forum has been retired:

I've been working on a WSOP Fantasy Pool so we can continue with the tradition even though the pokercast is no longer. I've messaged 2+2 to see if they are OK with this but so far no reply.
My concept is to make the pool more fun and also easier to keep track of the scoring (no more 3rd party secret formulas!).
If people are still interested then maybe you can add a comment and 2+2 will see there is still interest in this and give us the OK to proceed.
p.s. Xander Biscuits says he'll play but his hands will be full come June so he cannot do more than that. I'll run the pool but maybe we need someone to hold the $?

I'll play

2+2 usually allows pools/the exchange of $$$/etc. Their only caveat is they are in no way responsible if you get scammed.

Thanks JMurder3. I'm just trying to be extra careful here because I was warned when I tried to run a pool a few years back.
Maybe the sticking point might be "no attachments": entrants will need a list of players that they can select from. This would need to be an attachment or a link. In previous years this pool had attachments stored on google.

How does this work exactly? I'm always interested in throwing my money away

Here's a condensed version of the rules:
Last year, if we ran the pool this way, anyone who picked Joe Cada (Shelby Township, Michigan) would have won.
Throughout the WSOP, entry tickets to the Main Event are awarded to players making deep runs in the other tournaments. You gather up entry tickets based on who you picked with your entry fee. Then the Main Event starts and all of your players start off on a LAST LONGER! Like Joe Cada last year, if one of your selections lasts longer, you win!

That's the easy part (the scoring). Here's the easy or difficult part (your choice), the player selecting:
This year we're sending everyone home to their hometown. You select any city town or village and get all the players (who cashed in 2018) from that town. For example, if you select Toronto you get Daniel Negreanu, Mike Leah, Ari Engel, Sorel Mizzi and every other Torontonian). Entry fee is $20 for which you can make 20 selections. Spread the money around as you choose ($5 on Toronto, $3 on Philadelphia, $1 on Tulsa etc). If you have no idea what to do, give us $20 and we'll give you 40 random towns.

So, there are more details but basically that's it. Make this pool as easy (get 40 random picks and check in July if you won) or as hard (spend days trying to figure out the optimum 20 picks) as you like.

Sounds good, i'm in for 20 quid

Looks like the pool is a go (JMurder3 is a moderator so he must know of what he speaks). Still need a way to get the player lists out to people. And someone reliable to hold the money? I'd do it but people don't know me from Adam.
For now, I'll keep working on the player list and get back to you when it's completed.

I'm happy to hold the money for everyone, not sure if i'm well known enough though.

And of course i'm British so might be a palaver dealing with $ but I don't mind

Another problem solved: I just realized that I was posting attachments during the last two Pokercast WSOP fantasy pools (when I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to!). So, I guess that rule is not enforced when there is a legit reason for the attachment. We should have no problem getting player and team lists out to everyone.

We need someone Canadian to hold the money.

They can accept stars and also accept PayPal from Americans without having the ridiculous fees that are involved.

I personally trust FerencL with my $20. He's been an entrant in the last couple of years to the fantasy league, active poster in the PokerCast forum and also has done all the scoring for it for the last 2 years.

This is not the same thing as me vouching for him, but I repeat that I do trust him as far as $20 goes.

Thanks for the words of support Xander Biscuits.
Yes, I have a Stars and a Paypal account. However, I only used Paypal to send my $20 to the Pokercast pool. I'll need to do a bit of research to see how it works.
Thanks again Xander.

The player list is rounding into shape. Here is the early morning line on which cities will have the best change of being the winning city. It's based on # of 2018 cashes (assuming that all cashes are equal - which they are not).

Las Vegas 27/1
Los Angeles 67/1
New York City 87/1
Chicago 88/1
Houston 112/1
Brooklyn 125/1
San Diego 137/1
London 138/1
Toronto 157/1
San Francisco 168/1

I would expect Toronto to do better (Leah, Negreanu etc) and Philadelphia to be in the top 10 (Hennigan, Volpe etc). Las Vegas should be worse (lots of locals flooding the Colossus and Giant).
The odds of Joe Cada repeating would be 2010/1.

I'm almost ready to announce the players (just need to check a few more players who didn't enter any city on their WSOP entry slip) so here are the rules. Let me know if there is something you don't understand, or don't like. These rules aren't set in stone yet.

SCORING
--------
All WSOP Las Vegas tournaments are in play except the casino employees, the tag team and all online tournaments.
For every tournament, add the buyin amount + the number of entrants. Divide by 1000. Round to the nearest integer. This is the number of passes to the Main Event that will be given out to the top finishers (one pass per player).
When the Main Event is run, all pass holders who are on a team are entered in a "last longer". The team of the player winning the "last longer" is the winning team.
Note: not all tournaments are completed when the Main Event starts. It's possible to get a pass after the Main Event starts. That player still qualifies for the last longer.
If you selected that team then you win. We divide the total entry $ by the number of entries that had the winning team.
If nobody selected the winning team then the money goes to whomever has entries on the last longer in the Poker Players Championship. That's right, people who have winning tickets on the PPC last longer get to anti-sweat the Main Event (hope an unselected player lasts longer).
Note: a pass from the PPC only qualifies you for the Main Event. A Main Event pass only qualifies you for the PPC.
If nobody has the PPC last longer, then it's the #2 in the Main Event, #2 in the PPC and so on.
When a player who already has a pass wins another pass, the extra pass goes to players on the same team in the order listed (I will supply a list of all players).

ENTERING:
----------
There will be a specific start day and end day for entries. I'll supply info on how to transfer money.

ENTERING (the easy way):
--------------------------
Send in $20 (PokerStars) or $21 (Paypal) and I'll award you all the players on 40 teams. The teams will be randomly selected by random.org.
Note: random.org will select a random cash from 2018 and that player's team will be added to your 40. That way, it is much more likely that you will be awarded Las Vegas than Fargo (for example) because Las Vegas had more cashes.

ENTERING (the hard way):
-------------------------
Do your research, send me $20 (PokerStars) or $21 (Paypal) and a list of 20 teams. You need not submit 20 different teams: you can make multiple entries for specific teams (as long as the total is 20). If you have multiple entries for the winning team then you get a multiple share of the winnings. Then sit back and...(see SCORING).

I'm going to have to read that a few more times before I fully get my head around it I think

Seems like a fun summer sweat from a first glance though

Yeah same here lol, does look interesting though I love watching the WSOP every year this will just make it better

Should definitely do this again next year as i'll be playing in the Main Event

I think my list is complete. I was looking through the 2018 results for missing cities and fixing up misspelt or abbreviated cities. There were 16,954 cashes of which I have cities for 16,366.
There were 4048 different towns/cities. 10467 different players cashed. Of those, 54 made a deep run (got a ticket) and cashed in the ME. Joe Cada who finished 5th would have been the last longer winner.
Before I give you the complete list you might want to see what a "quick pick" random 40 looks like. With this quick pick option I'm hoping we can get at least 100 entries this year. Makes a wonderful gift for your friend or relative! Players in your homegame might want one. I set up a program to run this and here are the first 40 generated (just an example):
Agoura Hills CAUnited States
Bakersfield CAUnited States
Beijing - China
Calgary - Canada
Crown Point INUnited States
Denver COUnited States
Dublin OHUnited States
Eagan MNUnited States
El Dorado ARUnited States
Ellensburg WAUnited States
Fargo NDUnited States
Germantown TNUnited States
Hillsboro ORUnited States
Honolulu HIUnited States
Kalamazoo MIUnited States
Las Vegas NVUnited States
Las Vegas NVUnited States
Las Vegas NVUnited States
London - United Kingdom
Los Angeles CAUnited States
Los Angeles CAUnited States
Moraga CAUnited States
North Platte NEUnited States
Palatine ILUnited States
Plainfield ILUnited States
Post Falls IDUnited States
Prague - Czech Republic
Rancho Mirage CAUnited States
Renton WAUnited States
Richardson TXUnited States
San Angelo TXUnited States
San Diego CAUnited States
Santa Rosa CAUnited States
Shelby NCUnited States
Stary Oskol - Russia
Sylvania Southgate - Australia
Travelers Rest SCUnited States
Vaughn - Canada
West Hollywood CAUnited States
Weston MAUnited States

Created player files but spotted more spelling mistakes so I'm going through the list one more time.
Here are a couple of files that are available:
Top 200 Players from last year's WSOP
Top 200 Cities from last year's WSOP

Finally, here's the complete team rosters.
Having a little trouble with PayPal. It looks like there is a $3 charge on every transfer across borders that is "personal" (I'm not selling anything). Does anyone have any info or experience with this kind of payment?

the complete team/player list

Still being held up because I don't know how much to charge if payment is sent via Paypal. I sent a query to PayPal but they refused to answer the question. So, what I'll need is a volunteer. Someone who is sure they are going to enter (and is a non-Canadian). I need you to send US$20 to the "money pool" in PayPal called "WS2+2OP". You don't have to make your selections yet. The benefit for you will be that there won't be any fees for you. Once I find out how much I receive out of the $20 I can use that amount to set the correct entry fee when using Paypal - but we'll waive the fees in your case. But I just need 1 volunteer - don't send anything til I OK your request to volunteer.

I've also found a practical way for me to enter without winning (a fellow winning who also runs the pool is always fishy!) I'll submit 2 entries (a regular one and a quick pick) but I'll put them in the name of "Doctors Without Borders" so any winnings will go to charity. I'll also guarantee 50 entries ($1000) and if we fall short I'll just purchase the extra entries as above with any winnings going to the Doctors Without Borders charity. Now with the guarantee I don't think we'll have any trouble getting 50 entries.

Have you started PMing all the entrants from the last couple of years?
Can you find the old threads in the archive?

Not yet. I'm still waiting til I find out how much I should be asking if payment is by PayPal.
I see the list from last year but I wouldn't know where to look for previous year entries.

Xander Biscuits is right, I think I'll need to PM last year's entrants to get a volunteer to enter using PayPal.
For now, I'll just accept payment by PokerStars. My PokerStars name is the same as my 2+2 name. My avatar is a picture of Franz "Ferenc" Liszt.
I'll limit everyone to just one regular entry (20 picks per entry) but you can go crazy with the random "quick picks" (40 picks per entry).
I'll start accepting entries on Tuesday (the 19th).
Probably better to wait awhile before doing your regular entries (more info available later on) although there is a bit of an advantage in being one of the first out of the gate (deter others from taking your picks).
I don't see any advantage either way for the quick picks so put those entries in whenever.
I'll keep you up-to-date on the picks so you'll always know how many have already taken your favourite city/player.

Some of the info has been scattered over different posts.
Here is all the info and all rules in one place.

I'm not sure I know what's going on but it's only $20 so I'm in. To whom do I PayPal the $20? or, is it $21?