Last weekend’s first chance to qualify for the 2017 The BIG One, won by Joel Wincowski, was a big success, selling out quickly. Sunday is your second chance to advance to what we think is the highest-expectation tourney you’ll find anywhere. So you could say that that is our biggest tourney this weekend. But others might argue for Sunday’s First Chance opportunity to win an all-inclusive seat at the rich Kentucky Derby Betting Challenge. Of course, cash game specialists would laugh and say the weekend’s best game is Saturday’s $25,000 Guaranteed event.

We’ll just lay out the weekend schedule for you now, and let you decide.

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The highlight of the tournament year – the National Handicapping Championship — is less than three weeks away. Since so many of you will be taking part, I thought you might enjoy a peek behind the scenes at how mandatory races are selected there.

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It’s always a thrill to do well in a multi-player tournament – whether onsite or online. To succeed, your handicapping insights must be keen, and you probably need a fair dose of luck at one or more points in the competition. Sometimes you get one without the other and you wind up with nothing. You need it to be “your day”.

The problem is, it’s near impossible to know in advance when it’s going to be “your day”.

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The title tells it. This weekend is your first chance to qualify for the 2017 The BIG One, scheduled for Sept. 23-24 at Laurel Park. Last year’s event awarded prizes worth some $376,000 (including 28 seats to major tourneys) to a field that numbered just 51. The big (excuse the pun) first qualifier is on Sunday, January 8. But this event (a Pick & Pray as are most of this weekend’s featured contests) is just one of many important – and new – tourneys taking place this weekend.

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Congratulations to all of the Surfside winners! (Top two non-double-qualified players each day won NHC seats.)

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In terms of volume, we didn’t run THAT many tourneys last weekend, and yet each day brought us something special or unique that served to make several high-quality games even more memorable.

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BRIS Past Performances for the 2-day Flo-Cal Faceoff may be accessed via Google Docs here:

Day One Past Performances

Day Two Available at Conclusion of Day One

The year ends with a bang on Saturday as HorseTourneys hosts a 15-race, $50,000 Guaranteed event on New Year’s Eve. But it’s just one tourney amid many excellent ones this weekend. Let’s begin our look with Friday’s action.

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I’ve seen players enter the same set of picks in two different tourneys and win both contests, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen what Bill Shurman did last Friday.

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With Christmas Eve and Christmas Day falling on the weekend this year, we’ve re-jiggered our normal schedule to still give you a weekend’s worth of exciting action – but on Friday and Monday, instead of Saturday and Sunday. And, other than Exacta Box and Survivor games, almost everything will be run in Pick & Pray format so you don’t need to be chained to your computer to play.

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