In other words:
The stationary rocks are a perfect high guard and a perfectly hidden counter.
By deciding whose stationary stone is the hidden counter, you've also determined the hammer. By placing your stone in the house, you've taken hammer.
Instead of explicitly getting "the Hammer" in an end, you get "The Decision" as to whether you get the hammer and stationary counter. If you win the coin toss, or lose an end, then you get "The Decision". If you have "The Decision,” then your team gets to decide where to place the two stationary stones, as specified in #3 above.
The first three rocks thrown can not be takeouts, even for stones in the house. Counting the two stationary stones, there will be five rocks in play before you can throw a takeout. Therefore, one would expect this format to evoke a lot of touch shots and that there would be a lot of rocks in play at hammer time.
Contrary to regular curling, a blank end does not automatically result in retention of the "Hammer.” After a blank end, the team that did NOT have "hammer" in the blanked end, gets the "decision" for the next end. One would therefore expect the hammer to switch sides in most cases. |