Moundball is a side-betting game typically played by spectators at Major League Baseball games. Often played to pass the time during slow games, Moundball has a simple ruleset and requires little to no equipment. The game is turn-based, with the goal of having the ball remain on the mound at the end of a player's half inning turn. The game was invented and patented by Frank Bonelli from the Kings Park, New York during the summer of 1977. Frank also invented the classic cocktail 'The Frankie B' consisting of Stoli O, soda, splash of orange, splash of cranberry.[citation needed] He is now retired and he travels around the country teaching fans the basic rules of the game.[citation needed]
Playing the Game[edit]
Congressman Robert Aderholt received some snacks at his Washington office on Feb. 5, 2021, after winning a bet with Ohio Congressman Troy Balderson over the college football championship game. Patent Calculator A ‘Patent’ consists of 7 bets across 3 selections. The bet is made up of 3 singles, 3 doubles and 1 treble. Only one selection needs to win to get a return. Lucky 15 Calculator A ‘Lucky 15’ is made up of 15 bets across 4 selections – 6 doubles, 6 singles, 4 trebles and one accumulator. One winner gives you a return. Shop for Adult Roll Away Beds at Walmart.com. Simply activate the Odds Boost button and watch your potential winnings roll up! Bet Back on 2nd or 3rd as Bonus Cash at Neds! Back a Horse with Neds and if it Runs 2nd or 3rd, get your Bet Back as Bonus Cash! Power Up your Racing odds! Freebitco.in Fully Automated Free Roll Collector Script that collects your free bitcoin, bonus and activates additional rewards for you every hour automatically. It is activated by the page when the timer runs down. You must go to the FREE BTC tab and click 'Play Without CaPtcha'. Then you just leave the page open and let the script do all the.
At the start of the game, each player places their ante into a cup or hat. (The money can also be held in a pocket or hand, or the game can be played with mental IOUs or for simple points.) The game begins in the top of the first inning, with the player closest to the aisle holding the cup for the length of the half inning. Alternately, players may draw numbers or otherwise randomly determine the order.
At the end of the half inning, the player from the fielding team to record the last out will typically throw or roll the ball towards the mound, where the opposing pitcher might easily retrieve it. This is the seminal moment of gameplay, as the ball will usually reach the mound, roll up on the slope of dirt, and roll back towards the grass due to gravity or momentum.
Winning A Turn[edit]
Should the ball stay on the dirt of the mound, the player holding the cup is declared the winner, and collects all money in the cup. If the ball should roll back onto the grass, or fail to reach the mound at all, that player has lost the round, and the cup passes to the next player. The money in the cup carries over, as in a skins game in golf, and each player must add more money to the cup. If a player is not in his or her seat holding the cup at the time of the winning or losing event, the other players are not obligated to inform him or her of a winning moundball. It is each player's sole responsibility to pay attention to the moundball results on their own particular turn.
Moving to the Next Turn[edit]
Each time the ball stays on the mound, the player whose turn it is to hold the cup wins all of the money contained therein. Each time the ball does not stay on the mound, the money in the cup increments by one dollar per player. Either way, the game continues with each player adding a dollar to the cup as the teams switch fields between half innings, and the cup passing to the next player for their turn. As the moundball players leave their seats periodically to use the restroom or go to the concession stand, it is important to retain the same order of turns to maintain fairness. At the end of the baseball game, any money remaining in the cup is returned to the players equally. Some games may be ended early in order to limit the number of turns to a multiple of the number of players - e.g. the game might end after the 8th inning so that four players each had four chances to win over 16 half innings. Only games consisting of 2, 3 or 6 players naturally result in a fair number of turns over 9 innings (18 half innings), although the baseball tradition of skipping the bottom of the ninth when the home team is ahead can affect fairness in any case.
Rule Variations[edit]
In the era since the last MLB strike in 1994, Commissioner Bud Selig has encouraged professional baseball players towards behavior seen as growing fan interest and positive feelings towards the game. Among the behaviors encouraged in recent years are signing more autographs and tossing more balls into the stands when an inning ends. This has served to severely depress the number of winning turns in moundball, as a ball thrown into the stands has no chance of remaining on the mound. To cope with this change, the definition of a potential winning moundball has grown in many cases to include a ball thrown towards the mound by the home plate umpire, thereby replacing a ball thrown into the stands by a player on the fielding team. One other rule variation has been invented by the SUNY Delhi Men's golf team and has become a popular addition to the game. Although rare, there is an off chance that 2 balls will be thrown back to the mound, one by a player and one by the umpire. In the unlikely event that both balls stay on the mound, the holder of the cup will receive double the amount in the cup.
Moundball Strategy[edit]
Since players rely on individuals over whom they have no control, there is little possible strategy to moundball once the game begins. One potential approach is to use prior knowledge to maneuver a turn at the start of the game so the player always holds the cup when a particular team is in the field - a strategy only possible when an even number of players is present. This might be based on the knowledge that a particular team is less likely to throw the ball in the stands, or that the starting pitcher is a strikeout artist (meaning the ball is likely to end innings in the catcher's glove - the closest player to the mound). It is also important to note which dugout is assigned to which team, as many balls will end in the first baseman's glove, and the first baseman often must cross the mound area to reach the visitor's dugout.
Some professional baseball players are also thought to be playing their own version of moundball, meaning that they will put forth an extra effort to get the ball to stay on the mound. Though this is particularly true of catchers, fielders at other positions have shown outstanding ability as well. Larry Walker is among the more notable recent players who had a distinct skill at delivering winning moundballs from out in right field. It could be considered cheating to ask a professional with whom one has a prior relationship to make an extra effort to throw winning moundballs, although that is no guarantee of victory.
Roll up the Rim, Tim Hortons’ iconic seasonal sweepstakes, is back … sort of. Just days before the launch of this year’s contest, the coffee chain took the unprecedented decision to eliminate the use of its regular promotional paper cups because of concerns about COVID-19.
Roll Up Netting
As a researcher of health statistics, I agree with the company’s statement that it’s not “the right time” for their staff to collect winning rolled-up rims “that have been in people’s mouths during this current public health environment.”
Changes had already been planned for this year’s game, including a digital element, fewer prizes and a more complex game structure. After removing the physical cups, Tim Hortons has scrambled to reconfigure the contest even further.
All these changes mean players this year face a probability puzzle, one that turns the traditional game into a casino-style slot machine.
So how can you be a high roller (or at least win a free coffee)? As a statistician, I think about these things.
A familiar contest to Canadians
For over three decades, Roll up the Rim followed a familiar format: buy a coffee in a promotional paper cup, roll up the cup’s rim and maybe (just maybe) win a prize.
With millions of free coffees and doughnuts available each year — along with a comparatively tiny pool of major prizes, including TVs, cars and cash — players became accustomed to the heavily advertised 1-in-6 chance of winning.
These odds were easy to verify: Tim Hortons produced a pre-specified number of promotional cups, of which a pre-specified number were winners. If there were 60 million cups of which 10 million were winners, then picking a cup at random gave you a 1-in-6 shot at a prize.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Tim Hortons planned to use physical cups for only the first half of the four-week contest — part of the company’s plan to cut down on waste. The company had previously stated that this year, paper cups would come with lower odds: just one out of every nine would be marked as a winner.
Tim Hortons has hastily replaced this element of the game with an at-the-register instant win component. Customers will, with those same 1-in-9 odds, be told at the point of sale if they’ve won a coffee coupon. But buyer beware: those odds are per-transaction, not per-beverage purchased on the same order. Available during the first two weeks of the contest (March 11-24), Tim Hortons estimates this will lead to some $1 million a day in complimentary hot beverages. That $14 million total approximately equals the value of all minor prizes (beverages and baked goods) originally assigned to the physical cup component of the promotion.
So what about the big ticket items? The TVs, cars and cash? For those, you’ll need to play another new element to the game.
All about the app
This year’s contest was always about one thing: driving consumers to Tims Rewards, the company’s loyalty app. In addition to the at-the-register component, players with the company’s rewards app also earn “digital rolls.” A standard purchase earns one digital roll, while bringing in a reusable cup earns three digital rolls. (The company has suspended the use of reusable cups also over concerns about COVID-19. Customers will get three digital rolls if they bring in a reusable cup, but the drink will be served in a paper cup.)
These digital rolls will appear to work just like the real thing: tap the screen to “reveal” whether you’ve won. But the reality is subtly — but significantly — different.
First, let’s look at the odds. We already know that for the first two weeks of the contest there is a 1-in-9 chance of getting your hot beverage purchase for free. Your odds have therefore gone down from the 1-in-6 of previous years, but digital rolls offer another chance to win.
Exactly what that chance works out to, however, is harder to compute.
More players means worse odds
The digital element of the contest has 8,620,056 instant win prizes, including all the major prizes originally intended for the physical cups. Depending on how players engage with the app, each purchase could generate zero, one or even three digital rolls. The company has stated the digital odds of winning a beverage or food prize “will be better than the 1-in-9 odds at restaurants.” Based on those odds and assuming all digital prizes are eventually awarded, this suggests Tim Hortons expects around 77 million — or fewer — digital rolls to be played.
But the company cannot know for certain how many coffees it will sell or how many players will use the app. In statistics we often make guesses, and when we do it’s essential we understand what might happen if our guesses are wrong.
Here, if sales are lower than expected — or fewer people use the app — there will be fewer digital rolls and better odds for those who do play. But we can use this 1-in-9 guess to estimate your chances of winning at the various stages of the contest.
For the first two weeks, every customer has a 1-in-9 chance of winning instantly at the register. Players with the app additionally receive a digital roll. If this also comes with 1-in-9 odds, then your chances of winning at least one prize are boosted to better than 1-in-5. The environmentally conscious get three digital rolls for bringing in their reusable cups. These four chances to win (three digital, one at the register) give odds of 1-in-2.7 of winning at least one prize.
If the company’s estimate for the digital game is accurate, then players with the app can expect to win more frequently than in previous years. But remember: your odds get worse the more other people play the digital game — and this dependency ties into another key difference with this new way to “roll.”
A coffee slot machine
When we think about probability, we usually think about random events like the toss of a coin or the throw of a die. Many random events affected which particular cup you ended up with when playing the contest in previous years: maybe you left the house late, or there was traffic, or the guy in front of you ordered the same thing. Your chance of being given a winning cup was always 1-in-6.
The moment that cup was in your hands, however, your outcome became fixed. The words hidden under the rim — regardless of whether it was the delightful WIN/GAGNEZ UN CAFÉ/COFFEE or the dreaded PLEASE PLAY AGAIN/RÉESSAYEZ S.V.P. — would not change. From your perspective, your chances of winning were still, in a sense, 1 in 6. But in reality your chances of winning were 100 per cent or zero per cent. The action of rolling up the rim did not change that probability, it just revealed which of the two outcomes had occurred. (Schrödinger’s coffee, if you will.)
This year, digital rolls are the opposite. These can be played at any time after purchase, and their outcome is not pre-determined. Instead, under the new rules, each of the 8.6 million digital roll prizes are allocated a “winning timeframe”: a short interval of time at some point during the contest period. If you are the first player to play a digital roll during one of these timeframes, you win the associated prize.
Time of play now a factor
This means that, unlike the physical cups of previous years, the outcome of your digital roll is not determined until the moment you choose to play it. Slot machines follow a similar mechanic: hitting the jackpot doesn’t depend on when you last won or if the machine is “due” to pay out. It’s simply about whether you pull the lever at just the right microsecond.
There’s no way to know when to pull a lever on a slot machine and there’s no way to know when to play a digital roll in the Timmies contest.
But with Roll up the Rim, there is one possible way to shift the odds slightly in your favour. We already know that fewer players gives better chances for those that do participate — and it is tempting to speculate about the impact of COVID-19 on this aspect of the game. To do so, however, would be entirely inappropriate and I don’t want to give the impression that something as serious as the coronavirus outbreak should be considered a factor in something as frivolous as a sweepstakes.
Instead, I will make one entirely separate observation.
Neo Geo Roll-up Beta 3.1
To win, you have to be the very first person to play a digital roll during a winning time frame. This means that you’re fractionally more likely to win if fewer people are rolling at the same time as you. The contest rules don’t state whether these time frames are distributed evenly throughout the day, but if they are — and you don’t mind being awake at 4 a.m. — then playing when most of Canada is asleep may be your best bet. After all, you’ll probably need the caffeine.