Blind doubles pairs bowlers at random and scores them as a team. The appeal is that anybody can end up with anybody; the administration is a draw, a set of combined scores and a payout structure that has to be defensible.
Blind doubles — also called blind draw doubles — is a side pot in which bowlers enter individually and are then paired at random. Each pair's scores are added together, and the highest combined total wins.
Nobody picks their partner, which is the entire point. A 150-average bowler can be drawn with the best bowler in the building, and frequently is. That makes it the most democratic format on a side-action card and the one most likely to be bought by people who never buy brackets, because their own average is not the only thing that decides the outcome.
Partner matching is automatic. The program makes the draw, so the pairing is not something a person did privately with a list — which matters, because a private draw is a rumour factory even when it is completely honest.
This is the same credibility question that mystery pots raise, and it has the same answer: the operator should not be the mechanism. Bowlers accept a draw they can see was made impartially; they will eventually question one that came out of somebody's notebook, particularly if a strong pairing keeps recurring.
Scores are combined per pair automatically as they are entered. You set how many positions pay per game, and the payouts are calculated from the pool that was actually collected.
Blind doubles pays a pair, and a pair has to split what it wins. J&K Brackets Pro rounds every paying place up to the next even dollar so the split is clean — two bowlers walking away with equal cash and no odd dollar to argue over at the settle-up table.
That rounding is applied per place rather than being forced to make the pool come out exactly, which means the printed payout sheet is the number you actually hand over. It is a small behaviour that removes a recurring annoyance from a format that otherwise runs itself.
An odd number of entries is normal and handled rather than left for you to improvise at the desk. Decide in advance what you want to happen to the unpaired entry — most houses either refund it or carry a blind score — and publish that with the entry fee, the same way you publish the tie rule.
This runs inside the same session as your brackets and side pots. You are not exporting to a second tool or keeping a separate sheet — entries, scores, counts and payouts all live in one place, and the printed reports come out of the same program, so the drawer reconciles against one set of session totals rather than several.
The free demo is the complete program, not a limited trial — every feature unlocked, capped at 16 bowlers per session so you can see exactly how it works.
Download the free demo See pricingA side pot where bowlers enter individually and are paired at random rather than choosing a partner. Each pair's scores are combined and the highest total wins. It is also called blind draw doubles.
By random draw. In J&K Brackets Pro the program makes the draw, so the pairing is not something a person assembled privately from a list — which matters for the credibility of the format even when the operator is entirely honest.
It is handled rather than improvised at the desk. Decide in advance whether the unpaired entry is refunded or carries a blind score, and publish that alongside the entry fee.
Evenly, which is why the rounding matters. J&K Brackets Pro rounds every paying place up to the next even dollar so the pair can split without an odd dollar left over, and the printed payout sheet shows the number you actually hand across.
Because their own average is not the only thing that decides it. A lower-average bowler drawn with a strong partner has a genuine chance, which brings in entrants who would not buy brackets or scratch pots.