This is the fourth installment in Armchair Pool's seven part series on how to manage a hockey pool. For a summary of the entire series, see the blog post entitled "How to organize a hockey pool. A seven part series".
You've done the research, you know the players you want, and your list of sleeper picks looks promising. Last year you made some bad picks late, but
this year is the year that you will pick the ultimate team.
Draft day is filled with so much hope and promise. Hope and promise that is predictably dashed by Christmas as your sleeper pick gets sent to the minors and a groin injury sidelines your star player. Not that I'm bitter about last year or anything.
Regardless, draft day is my favorite day of the hockey pool - and I am not alone. Most poolies look forward to draft day the entire summer. So if you are organizing your hockey pool, you're under a lot of pressure to make sure the day runs smoothly.
Here are some tips to help you out.
Clear the deck
Ok, let's make this clear. Draft day is draft
day - not draft
partial day. Besides the actual draft, there is preparation, cleanup and post draft paperwork. You will be busy all day. So (well ahead of time) explain this to your wife or partner and tell them that they need to clear out for the duration of the day. One year, my wife planned a dinner party for early in the evening because she assumed my draft would be complete. It wasn't complete and "oh my god there are beer bottles everywhere, how are we going to clean this up by ...". Draft
day. Make it clear.
Having the draft at a pub? I still need the whole day dear. Why? I just do. It's hockey. It's complicated.
Seating
Probably, you have between 10 and 15 people to accommodate so this issue is not trivial. If you are going to a pub, make sure you get there early enough to snag a big table. Or better yet, try to make reservations so you have seating for everyone. If the poolies will be converging on your living room for the draft, scrounge up enough chairs beforehand so that everyone has a decent seat. Don't wait until the last minute and be forced to use your 3 year-old's Buzz Lightyear cushion chair. Although, making last year's pool winner sit in a "special" seat it a fun tradition.
Facilities
Undoubtedly most poolies will bring an armful of magazines, papers and in the case of the hardcore poolie - a laptop. So make sure there are tables, desks or something for people to spread out on. And speaking of laptops, if you have wireless internet, make sure you know the security key beforehand so you can get people up and running quickly.
Any other facilities to plan for? Well, serve 15 poolies beer and pizza for 7 hours without restocking the bathroom and a few will become apparant.
Entry Fee
Once the draft starts, there will be no time for collecting money. And once the draft is over, there is usually a max exodus as poolies scurry home to analyze their picks in private. So if your hockey pool has an entry fee, make sure you collect it as people arrive. Be prepared with change and assume that at least one poolie will forget his cash. Be prepared with a list that you can update as people pay so you have a record of who has paid and who owes. If you are using the
Armchair Hockey Pools online manager, there is a place in the Manage Poolies tool that allows you to track who has paid.
Food and Beverages
Drafts can take a long time. A long draft will probably span at least one meal so make sure you take a few food breaks to keep everyone from going squirrely. If you're at a pub, this is not a concern. Beer and wings will be in good supply. If you're at a house, plan to order pizza sometime during the session and make sure there are lots of beverages on hand. Beer of course, but some people don't drink so consider stocking up on pop, bottled water or something to accommodate the sober poolies. Consider including the food and drink in the pool fee. I add $10 to my pool's entry fee to pay for beer and pizza. This saves the poolies from having to remember to bring cash to the draft and it saves me another math headache as I try to collect money for beer and pizza.
Entertainment
As far as entertainment goes, the draft is the main event - unless you are at a bar and then cleavage will play a part. However, if you're at home, you have no cleavage unless you can convince your buddies wives to come over and serve the drinks. I've tried this and it doesn't go over well. In lieu of cleavage, have a muted TV running in the background. Throw on some old Don Cherry highlight videos or the always popular Slapshot and it will help bug eyed poolies take their brains off their player lists for a few seconds and take a break.
Draft Order
Don't wait until draft day to set the draft order. Draw names from a hat ahead of time so people can plan their opening round strategies. There's always a few poolies who don't think beyond Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin in the first round. Giving them a week to come to terms with being the 15th pick will help speed up the first few rounds. Also, consider drafting from from first to last, giving last place a second pick and then back up to first. This takes some of the advantage away from having a high draft position.
Record keeping
As the pool administrator, you are in charge of keeping track of everyone's picks. This is a task that you absolutely cannot screw up. People are emotionally attached to their picks so if you miss some of their players, you will hear about it. If recording the draft on paper, chances are it will be on more than one piece. So plan out how you're going to organize your sheets to avoid ending up with names and players written in all sorts of random places.
If you can, try to enter your picks online so that the picks stay neat and organized. Some hockey pool websites facilitate this better than others.
Armchair Hockey Pools provides a pick player screen that allows you (or a poolie) to navigate to a team and easily add the next player.
Having a backup of the players picked is also a wise move. A lot of players get picked during the draft and it is likely you will make a mistake on a few. An even worse scenario is losing or destroying your master list. Every time I run a draft, I give my poolies a sheet of paper with a space for every draft pick. They are responsible for writing their picks down during the draft and I make them hand their sheets to me at the end. It's a great way to add a little redundancy to your record keeping. It is also useful in forcing some of the less organized poolies to keep track of who they've picked and what positions they still need to fill.
Good luck on draft day!
Tune in next time for Part 5 of our series, "Entering the draft picks". It will give you tips on how to get your hockey pool up and running online quickly after the draft.
