Fornatale: The difference between feeders and qualifiers

Players new to DRF Tournaments will often ask, “What exactly is a feeder and how do feeders differ from qualifiers?”

In tournament lingo, a qualifier is a contest in which a player can win directly into a big event. For example, last Monday DRFT ran qualifiers for Monmouth’s Pick Your Prize contest and the Saratoga Betting Challenges. Monmouth’s contest has a $2,000 buy-in and Saratoga is offering two separate contests on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 9-10, with $1,000 and $2,000 buy-ins respectively.

Players also have the option to win their way in to these qualifiers. These events are feeders. Sometimes there are two levels of feeders, allowing players to win into the contest world’s biggest events even though their initial amount of risk is just pocket change. In a two-stage feeder, the second leg is typically called a “round-one contest” or “round-one feeder.” These events will have larger buy-ins and bigger prizes than a regular feeder. But make no mistake, plenty of players start out in low-roller feeders and still have success.

Consider the case of Brian Ivery. Ivery, 44, first got into contests after hearing about them more than a year ago on Steve Byk’s At The Races radio show. “I’d had a bad day on a Saturday and then I saw an ad in the Form for a chance to play for $11 on Sunday,” said the 44-year-old contractor from Ithaca, N.Y. “That got me going, and I’ve been playing ever since.”

This past weekend on DRFT, Ivery went straight through his conditions in three days, so to speak, to win his entries for the upcoming Saratoga contests. On Saturday, he won an $11 feeder that got him his $95 entry for Sunday. Sunday’s contest was a higher-level feeder, a $95 round-one contest in which one in five entries wins a $410 entry for Monday’s qualifier. Ivery was best of 11 entries in the round one.

Then on Monday, he consolidated his gains by parlaying his initial $11 investment into a prize package worth $3,500: Saratoga seats for both days, plus $500 in travel money.

Ivery usually handicaps at night while unwinding, and sometimes multi-tasking – for example, watching the NBA Finals in the background. As mostly a horizontal player and win-place bettor, contests fit his style nicely. He typically focuses on a horse he thinks will win, as opposed to horses that might run in with the winner. His busy lifestyle – he has three kids – makes all-in contests in which all picks must be in before the race, appealing as well. “I can be running around and check in on the leaderboard and races when I can,” he said.

Speaking of feeders, there are two important ones on DRFT on Saturday. First up is a round-one qualifier for the World Championship of Handicapping, in which players put up $95, with one in seven entries advancing to the $580 Belmont Day qualifier June 9. The WCH is DRF’s big-money online championship event with no takeout in the finals.

Saturday’s other featured game is a round-one feeder for the Del Mar Challenge. Players put up $114, with one in five advancing to the $495 qualifier on Sunday, June 10.

Go to tournaments.drf.com for more details on these and other games.