The Loser Hockey Pool, is a variation on the Survivor or Eliminator Hockey Pool, which features more specific rules. It’s a format where one person will often set up multiple entries to take a shot at the winner take all prize.
Loser Hockey Pool Basics
For each Saturday of the NHL regular season, you pick a team to lose their game that day. If they lose, prior to the shoot-out, you proceed to the following week. If they win the game, or lose the game in a shoot-out, you are eliminated from the pool. The origins of the Loser Hockey Pool go back to the days of NHL ties, and still treat shoot-out games as ties/eliminations. Each entry may only select a team once for the duration of the pool. The pool runs until you’re down to only one remaining entry, or the regular season ends.
If the pool makes it to the end of the regular season with multiple entries alive, they would split the prize money equally. Entries may also choose to split the prize once the pool only has a few remaining. We recommend a partial split with entries still playing to be the sole survivor.
On HostedPools, our deadlines for Loser Hockey Pools are always at Noon (Eastern) on Saturdays. We are considering modifying this for the 2015-2016 season, to be puck drop of the first game on the schedule.
Loser Hockey Pool Options
Multiple Lives/Strikes
You can set up your Loser Hockey Pool to allow for multiple chances for each entry, so you’re not eliminated until you’ve accumulated the necessary strikes. It’s a solid option unless you have a very large pool, as these tend to only last a couple months out of a 6 month season. As a result, many pools will allow 2 or 3 strikes, and still run a first half and a second half pool (ask us about our 2nd pool in same season discount!).
Default Picks
Set up a default pick option, so when someone forgets, or is unable to make a pick, they still end up with a selection according to the default pick criteria. HostedPools doesn’t currently have hockey pool defaults, but we are considering adding them for the 2016 season. Pool Managers can however choose their own criteria and set picks as necessary for anyone that hadn’t chosen.