Important Pool Notice

Hey gang,

I’ve been thinking about a couple things for the last few weeks and debating on the direction in which we should go with the pool.  Obviously we have had issues in Abacoa with problems at Rooney’s and lack of follow-through at Jumby Bay.  Now comes whatever has been going on over by Paddy Mac’s and the Cigar store (one of our top places) and people need to back off for a bit.  This does not bode well for us; we are a friendly office pool and we keep everything legal and legit but a great number of people cannot see past that.  When the comment is made “it can’t be legit” or “no one would volunteer their time and not take anything off the top,” each of those say a great deal more about the character of those making the comment then it does those of us who stay above it.  The appreciation and understanding has slipped as of late, too.

This has always been a fun pool which happens to be the largest one in town and certainly the only truly legitimate, winner-take-all pot.  My original intention 10 years ago was to “make every game important” so that everything could be enjoyed on Sunday and you would have a vested interest in each outcome.  A great deal of us still have that mentality; plenty of us have been around for years and we know who we are.  Our core crew still exists and they get everything done on time and they do the right thing.  I even had picks turned in when I woke up today (Tuesday) for the Thursday deadline.  Others still like to stretch things out and convince themselves the world is out to get them and we’re evil and the whole thing is a scam.  As I have always said, please do not play if you are one of those people - the last thing we want is for you to win the damn thing to be proved wrong.

Now let’s look at things from my end.  I volunteered my time way back when we had pots in the 80-150 range.  I wrote the original program back when we had 18 people playing each week.  There was not a lot of time nor effort invested at that point.  Since then we expanded to emailing spreadsheets.  When people didn’t understand how to use email (or even write down the proper address) we switched to the website version, solely to overcome other people’s technological shortcomings.  I have attempted to streamline this entire process, including our primary focus on full disclosure.  May I fully disclose how disappointing things have been on my end this season?

Let’s be direct: last season we had the right type of people winning the pots and, despite the recession which was much worse and much more worry-some then, still did the right thing.  This season has slipped.  We like getting more people involved but the type of players has collectively devolved this year.  If you just took offense to that comment then you are one of the people about which I am typing.  If you read that and felt nothing, then you are in my sector of pool players.  I have people helping me out because this has turned into 15-20 hours of work per week, not including set-up, program writing, pre-season sheet creation, constant website updates, drive time, etc.  Barry is the only one who fully grasped the simplicity of using the spreadsheet template, making things mutually beneficial in terms of time and effort.  I asked for people to turn sheets in early (by Friday) to help us get a head start; we had 56% turned in on Saturday last week.  The gratitude in terms of gratuity has fallen by a shocking 77% from last season.  Whether it be ignorance or insult, the result remains the same.  I am not angry with anyone; I am just practical.

Emily and I are running two very successful businesses with the football pool as a fun side project on the weekends.  The fun has been replaced with bitterness and frustration from people who cannot grasp something as simple as how this pool is run.  Some weeks are better than others but let’s face it, it’s just not worth it to see a 1.7% flip back and have someone act like they are doing you a favor.

I know everyone tells me I should take something off the top but I refuse to take the route that everyone else follows.  I feel that betrays the trust and understanding we collectively have.  However, that can go both ways.  Looking ahead, I am out of town multiple weekends, I have a group of people who can never turn things in early for whatever reason, Todd can help but I am not pulling him away from his family on a holiday or his wife’s birthday - plus when I gave him 100% of the tip while I was out of town it was far FAR below what he deserved for that amount of work.  Add to that the people who have to call with stupid problems so I can have my volunteer work interfere with my actual, professional travel and work and this is simply not an intelligent thing to do anymore.

I know we have a bunch of people who do the right thing.  Unfortunately, they all seem to be just as good at picking games as I have been as of late so I have not been able to call them on Tuesdays to congratulate them.  This past week we were able to set the record for pot size and I while I believe in karma I certainly did not experience anything remotely close to it tonight with the payout.

ALL that being said, you know where I am coming from and you know where I stand.  Week 10 is due on Thursday night and that will be the last Steve Pogo pool of the season.  Hey, we can’t win them all and going out right after a record pot does feel like Elway going out on top (I guess that would make this week feel like the Pro Bowl.)

I will take care of all my pre-paid people so no one has anything to worry about there.  I appreciate everything my collectors have done for all of us this season in making this possible.  I also appreciate Barry, Al, and Kim who each did the right thing with their winnings.  Big shouts outs to Todd and Barry for entering into the spreadsheet, everyone who pre-paid and emails weekly, and all those who take the time to drive and drop off picks; all of them are in good standing with the main group.

So where do we go from here?  Well, website hits will plummet after this weekend but I’ll still be on here, blogging away with whatever comes to mind.  I’ll still direct people to other pools or Super Bowl Squares or March Madness Brackets or anything along those lines.

So long as we’re all clear, the Cliff Note’s version is that I barely had the time to do all of this anyway and the reward has been nothing in comparison to the time and effort put in by a group of us.  Go ahead, start sending the hate mail. 

I’ll be back on here Thursday night with the spreadsheet for Week 10, then Monday with possibilities and Tuesday with the winner.

Later kiddies!

- Steve Pogo