Congrats russlamar2005

Russlamar2005 is in first place in our American Idol office pool at the end of Week 1, getting all 20 contestant points, plus the bonus points. Wanna join the fun?? It's not too late. Click here to join us.

We realized the pool was a little too easy this week so some rule changes:
American Idol Top 36 pools now limit the maximum points you can put on any one contestant to 7 points until the Top 12 are announced. Why we made the change? We got a lot of feedback that the first week was just too easy, and it proved out in the voting. 63% of the points were placed on one contestant — and we were already seeing a similar pattern for Week 2. After discussing the options with a few pool commissioners we decided to use a mechanism we had used last year with the Top 24 to limit the max points per contestant. We think it adds to the fun since it forces you to move your points around to at least 3 different people. Once the Top 12 begins, those limitations will be removed and you will be able to put points anywhere you want.