Pickology

Dominating Office Pools

Pick 5 Hockey Pool on Hosted Pools

The Pick 5 Hockey Pool is our newest offering at HostedPools.  It’s a variation on a basic Pick’em Hockey Pool, where you only select 5 games each weekend instead of the full slate of games on the schedule.  On the football side, it’s become quite a popular set up, as there is a huge one run by one of the Vegas Hotels for serious money, dubbed the SuperContest.  We have had a number of requests to add the format for hockey, and we’ve heard the suggestions and added it.

Pick 5 Hockey Pool Basics

For each weekend of the NHL regular season, you pick the winners of 5 different games for the weekend.  Each pick you make is on the ‘puck line’ or spread as it’s more commonly known on the football side, so if you take the favourite, they have to win, and cover the spread for you to earn a point.  If you take the underdog, and they lose by less than the spread, you earn a point. If the team you pick “pushes” (the home team score plus the spread value, equals the visitors score), you earn a half a point for that game.

On HostedPools, our deadlines are always at 1pm (Eastern) on Sundays, but we allow you to select a team from an earlier game as long as your pick is in prior to the listed game time.

Pick 5 Football Pool Options

The Spread

Pick 5 Hockey Pools generally use The Puck Line (Spread), but if you have more casual fans/entrants, you could always make them pick 5 games straight up.  We generally advise using the straight up option for hockey pools to begin with.

Overtime/Shootout

Some pools will consider the game complete at the end of regulation, or overtime for scoring purposes.  Our preference is to use the final score, but more serious pools like to have the option.

   Set Up Your Pick 5 Hockey Pool

Survivor Hockey Pool on Hosted Pools

The Survivor Hockey Pool, sometimes called a Knockout or Elimination Hockey Pool, is very similar to it’s Football counterpart, but it tends to be a little tougher to pick, as hockey is a little more unpredictable game to game to football.  As a result it’s good to incorporate the multiple life options.  It’s a format where one person will often set up multiple entries to take a shot at the winner take all prize.

Survivor Hockey Pool Basics

For each weekend of the NHL regular season, you pick a team to win their specified game that weekend.  If they win, you proceed to the following week.  If they lose, you are eliminated from the pool.    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 weekend Survivor Hockey Pools are always at Noon (Eastern) on Saturdays.

Survivor Hockey Pool Options

Multiple Lives/Strikes

You can set up your Survivor 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.

Pick Losers

You can flip your Survivor Hockey Pool on its head by making your entrants pick against teams instead of for them.  So the team picked would have to lose their game in order to proceed to the following week.

   Set Up Your Survivor Hockey Pool

Loser Hockey Pool on Hosted Pools

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.

   Set Up Your Loser Hockey Pool

About Pickology

Pickology is the official blog of HostedPools.
Our mission is to make your office pool the best it can be. We provide the management tools and information for organizing office football and hockey pools. Our goal is to be the ultimate one stop destination for anyone with an interest in or questions about office pools.
We also aim to share strategies and analysis to help you win your office pool.

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