Poker Championship Series (PCS)

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Common Questions

Q. What is the PCS?

Q. How do I start a league?

Q. Is it really FREE?

Q. Who supports this site?

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the PCS?
What type of poker games does the PCS work for?
How do I set-up and run a PCS league for my home game?
What is the origin of the PCS?
Is it really free?
Can I set-up and/or participate in more than one league?
Does the PCS only work for weekly games?
Who supports this site?

Q. What is the PCS?

A. PCS is an acronym representing the Poker Championship Series. It is an online tool that makes it easy to track and rate player performance over a series of Texas Hold’em Tournaments played in a home poker game. It will take your home game to a whole new level of participation and excitement.

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Q. What type of poker games does the PCS work for?

A. The PCS is designed to track player performance in home poker tournaments such as No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments, where player’s are eliminated one by one as they run out of chips until, at the conclusion of the tournament, there is only one player left. It is not limited to just Texas Hold’em and it can be used similarly for any tournament type games. It is not intended to work with regular cash games as the PCS algorithm tracks average finishing rank and wins, in addition to just the money game. If you only play cash games currently, you might consider trying a season of tournaments using the PCS to see how you and your guests like it. You might be surprised how much it adds to your weekly game.

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Q. How do I set-up and run a PCS league for my home game?

A. It’s really pretty simple. The first thing you need to do is register as a league host by creating a league host login and password. You can do this from the PCS homepage. Only league hosts have to register. Players don’t register at all, but they use their email address (as it’s unique by definition) to locate their league upon arriving at the PCS homepage.

Once you’ve registered as a league host, you create a new league from a link on either the PCS homepage or from an existing league homepage. Creating a new league requires the following:

Naming the league
Specifying the number of games in the season (E.g. say a 12 game season)
Specifying the number of games needed to qualify for a PCS ranking (E.g. say 4 games). This minimum number of games encourages participation and thus keeps your weekly game from dying out.
Set your league ranking criteria. For each of the three performance measures (Wins, average finishing rank, and net money won), you can select from three importance levels, which determine the weight each of these bears on the PCS algorithm for your league.
Enter the names of all the initially expected players and their email addresses. Additional players can be added at any time during the season. The email addresses are only used to communicate weekly PCS ranking updates by the league manager, and for players to uniquely identify themselves when searching for their league’s homepage from the PCS homepage.

Once a league is set-up, the league manager simply needs to input the results of each game as the season progresses. Input the date of each game, how each participant placed, how much they each bought in for, how much they each won, and any game notes or comments. The seasonal PCS ranking updates itself each week according to the weekly results, the league’s performance measure weighting, and the PCS algorithm.

That’s it!

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Q. What is the origin of the PCS?

A. The idea for the PCS originated in a San Diego based poker game hosted by Robb Medved and Victor Block. Inspired by the College BCS, the hosts had the original idea to create an equivalent rating system to rate all of the players involved in their weekly Texas Hold’em home game tournaments. They tracked each player’s average finishing position, money winnings, and tournament wins over a series of weekly games, and then combined the three into an algorithm that calculated a PCS ranking for each player. The resulting PCS ranking system took on a life of its own, and quickly turned what was once a casual, occasional poker game into a fiercely competitive and engaging series of PCS seasons, each consisting of 12 weekly Texas Hold’em tournaments.

One of the players in that weekly home game, Stephan Aarstol, happened to be the founder of BuyPokerChips.com, a leading retailer of high-end clay poker chips and related gaming products. Stephan saw first hand how dramatically the PCS changed their local San Diego game and thought an online version of the PCS had the potential to improve the participation and excitement of home poker games everywhere. So he took it online, and made it freely accessible to all.

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Q. Is it really free?

A. Yes, it’s completely free.

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Q. Can I set-up and/or participate in more than one league?

A. Yes. The system is intended to support numerous leagues for each player, and players can be hosts in some and players in others. It is common for league hosts to create many leagues, sometimes simultaneously, but most often to accommodate consecutive seasons for their continuing weekly game.

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Q. Does the PCS only work for weekly games?

A. No, it works for any periodic games and they don’t have to be at regular time intervals at all.

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Q. Who supports this site?

A. The development and operation of the PCS for the home poker community is made possible by financial and technical support from BuyPokerChips.com, a Sidepot Gaming Company.

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