Also total points is a misnomer as you may be in losing situations where you won't get to keep those points. Available is the points you are guaranteed to have even if you lose every game.

@Gold - one could always click through to a user's profile to see what is available, but I would think the Total points would be more face value informative..

@Draug - the points are yours until you do lose them... as in poker, you don't reduce a player's total each time a bet is made...

Showing how many points are available to play makes much more sense IMHO. When you bet points, they are no longer yours to do with as you will.

@josunice - Your example of poker is completely wrong. Once you place a bet, that money is not yours any more. You, of course, have a chance to win it back, but it now belongs to the pot.

@Jim - so in mid-hand when you push all in and update on your stack would say you have zero chips? I don't believe so... it will count towards your total until you lose.
@Abge - why is available points, which can swing wildly depending on games one is committed to, while total points is your point in time total...
Maybe, then, showing next to the user name the available points is best, but the rankings by available points seems inferior to rankings by total points. Granted, there is a faction of point-haters our there...

Ranking by points is stupid in general, so I really don't care at all about that. But, seeing available points servers an actual function (can you join a game) so it should be highly visible.

You don't play poker, do you? Yes, once my chips cross that line they are no longer mine UNLESS I have the nuts. Then all of the chips are mine. And it does not count toward my total once they are in the middle of the table. That's just the way it is.

Josunice, listen to the choir, they're right on this one.

@Jos - Actually, you do reduce the player's total once their money is in the center on poker. It isn't their money any more and if they fold or lose, it belo0ngs to someone else. Until then, it belongs tot he table, not them. Here, the points belong tot he board untilt he game is over, not the players who bought in.

And yes, when you push all in, your chip count becomes zero. That's why they reflect "all in" on TV poker and why they say you won a, say, $53,000 put when $25,000 of it was yours, $25,000 was your opponent, and $3000 was the blinds you both pushed out. Do you play?

And short of some calculating actual worth based on each given position in every game you are playing's value, Available is the only realistic value to use for rating.

Actually, the biggest misnomer is "total points." What it really means is "this is how many points I had before I joined all of these games." It is the most useless information that we have.

If you wanted to improve the number used for the Hall of Fame ranking, rather than either available or total, it would make sense to use available plus the value of each position in each non-anon game you are in. But then you have to go look at each game and do calculations and whatnot.

Well, the code could run that one pretty easily and keep it in a table that is updated every time a non-anon turn runs.

I was thinkign it could include anon, but that is one more bit of info for the metagamers (as tempting as it is, i won't mention the name that comes to mind:-) ) to use and try to figure out who someone is.