How do optional brackets work?

The Oahu Junior Bowlers Tour (OJBT) is proud to provide another opportunity for bowlers to earn scholarships: optional brackets!

But how do they work?

• Bowlers sign up after checking-in and receiving their recap sheets. Each optional bracket (for up to 8 bowlers) is $5.

  • Bowlers can enter as many optional brackets as they want! Any unfilled optional brackets will be refunded.

• After qualifying warm-up finishes, software will randomize the optional brackets within divisions.

  • If there are enough bowlers for a bracket with 1-2 byes, byes will be assigned in the first round (see Bracket 3 below).

  • The same 8 bowlers may be placed in two different optional brackets, but challenge different people in the first round (see Brackets 1 & 2 below).

• Bowlers will bowl, as usual, their qualifying set. For regular tour stops, that's four games on four different pairs.

  • Optional brackets will be conducted in games 1, 2, and 3 (see below).

  • While game 4 doesn't count towards your optional brackets, it still counts towards your qualifying set. Don't give up!

• The winner of each optional bracket will receive $25. The runner-up will win up to $15; if there are byes, the amount is lessened.

  • In our example optional brackets:

    • Toby wins $25 in Bracket 1 (win), $15 in Bracket 2 (runner-up, full bracket), and $10 in Bracket 3 (runner-up, 1 bye) for a total of $50

    • Pi‘i wins $15 in Bracket 1 (runner-up, full bracket)

    • Jolene wins $25 in Bracket 2 (win)

    • Lani wins $25 in Bracket 3 (win)

• After all the optional brackets are finalized, full results will be available to view here on the website and at the tournament site.

• Optional bracket winnings do not count towards the OJBT scholarship rankings.

FAQs

1. Where do the winnings go?

   • Winnings will be deposited into bowlers' SMART accounts.

2. What happens if a bracket doesn't run?

   • Bowlers will receive a cash refund for optional brackets that don't run. This usually happens if there are fewer than 5 bowlers available for an optional bracket.

3. What happens if bowlers tie?

   • All bowlers will advance to the next round. This means in most cases, three bowlers will compete in an optional bracket match if the optional bracket did not finish.

   • If bowlers tie at the end of the optional bracket (i.e. in the cashers round), bowlers will split the winnings evenly.