[opaque]

These daily daylong tours have hundreds of people playing them over the 24 hour period they run? So they say to prevent cheating were not going to give everyone the same hand.
Since there's only so many points they can hand out at one tournament , Is this reasoning an excuse? Just to make more $ and cram more people into this convoluted mixture of great
hands and set up disasters? Some of the winners of these tours make dozens of points in a day? Do they just have a knack of getting lucky and drawing all the right boards? When
you get your results and you see your down in the minus 700 category and review your traveler , you can't because nobody had that hand, check with a leader and they had a nice slam
dealt to them, (top board) ... not your board? So is dealing different hands really a fair way to compete in a tournament? How to we change the format so BBO can still make money but focus on a fair "deal" .

[smerriman]

Your subject line mentions the Zenith tournament, but I think you're talking about the 'Daylong Reward - 8 random hands' tournament which is completely different and total points scoring (and doesn't even appear to be duplicate with deal pools) - at least, that's the one you just played and matches your story. Yes, these are completely luck based, in the same way that rubber bridge is luck based, but some people still enjoy that, perhaps because it gives even the worst players a chance to come out on top.

If you want a skill-based tournament, don't play the total points games.

[diana_eva]

What smariman says - the game you’re referring to is the 'Daylong Reward - 8 random hands,' which is a total points game and, as the title says, it's luck based rather than skill oriented. You get good hands, you win, you get bad hands, you lose. These games are intentionally more similar to rubber bridge, and are intended to be fun, giving every player a chance to win regardless of skill level.

If you're looking for a more skill-based tournament, I'd recommend trying our duplicate-style games, like the Zenith tournaments or any duplicate scoring game (Matchpoints, IMPs). Those formats tends to focus more on skill rather than luck.