Danielson Series: Which Tournament to Choose?

There's many personal reasons that help us decide what tournaments we want to play in.

And I was lucky to get in the head of Danielson to see how and why he decided to play in a certain tournament one weekend.

Normally, he just plays in the tournament that is being held that weekend, but last Fall there were THREE tournaments on the same weekend. Pretty fortunate he had to suffer to make a tough choice, huh?  lol.

But, he had to weigh what each tournament offered (or didn't) and then figure out why he wanted to play.

One tournament was on bar tables and players had to have a Fargo under 640 to be able to play. The problem with that handicapped tournament was, the Tournament Director lets players play who didn't have "established" Fargo ratings and he would let them play due to "known ability" from word of mouth. Turns out, the top 3 players of the two previous tournaments were all unranked and "unestablished." Danielson didn't want any part of that again.

Another tournament was not handicapped at all. And it drew the top players from the area, because most top players do not want to play in handicapped events, they have a better chance cashing when they play everyone even. Danielson didn't want any part of playing all the top guys even.

Then there was the third tournament. This one also only allowed players who were ranked under 644 Fargo, but if players were not "established" in the Fargo system, that TD wouldn't let them play. Further, the other handicap tourney that weekend was winner break. This event was alternate breaks. Danielson WANTED a part of that, lol.

He said, "So if I play...I'm going to give myself the best odds...and alternate breaks with confirmed handicaps sounds best to me."

I was a tad surprised as that tournament was the farthest out of all of them, but he choose the tourney he thought he could place the highest in.  If you have choices, wouldn't you do the same thing?