In a handicap game, the less experienced or less successful players are assigned a handicap that will allow them to compete more equally with the better players in the game. By using SET and choosing option 8, you may enable the handicap option or revert a handicap game back to a normal game.
Handicap games can be scored two ways. One option is to rank the pairs only on the basis of their score plus their handicap, and masterpoints are awarded based on the ranking. The second option produces two ranks, one for raw score, the other for score plus handicap.
Most clubs have found the second option is more appealing to the experienced players, the first option makes the handicap effect more telling. If 2 ranks are selected, you will get to choose the masterpoint option - MPs are 50% for each rank added together, or the new way, MPs are 100% scratch or 50% handicap, whichever is larger.
The handicap may be on the basis of past performance (you'll be able to select which games count and how many games the computer should consider) or you may manually enter the handicap as matchpoints, to be determined by your own reckoning.
You may allow negative handicaps, which would increase the spread among the pairs.
Once you've decided how your handicap game will be scored, you may enter the NAMES. If you selected handicap based on Past performance, ACBLscore will the do the research to determine the handicaps.