Month: December 2024

We had a great turnout for today’s event – 23 players. When I was setting out to do the draw, there were 21, and so I pressed Nicki (Howard’s daughter) into playing so that we would have an even number. 8 minutes later, the 23rd player arrived, just as I was finishing the draw. But a 7 person bracket pays better than a 6 person bracket, so no harm done.

There were 8 players who took at least 1 side pool, so we had a full “A” bracket. In round 1, Tim beat me (lucky bastard), Larry beat newcomer Brandon (who I then played in consolation, very good player), Howard took out Ed, and Bodger defeated Dave. Howard went on to win the bracket over Tim, with Larry winning the consolation.

In the “B” bracket, Mary won in the first round against Julie, Nicki took out newcomer Celia (who was there with Stephen as part of his birthday celebration), Mark A beat Nathan, and Leah defeated Brian. In the end, Mark A triumphed over Mary in the final, with Celia coming back to win the consolation.

In the “C” bracket, round 1 had Joel winning over Stan, Stephen (the newcomer and birthday boy) beating out Steve (returning after an extended medical leave), and Jeremy (like me, fresh back from Miami) over newcomer Mark H. Matt got there late, and got the bye. In the end, Jeremy won over Joel, with Steve taking the consolation in a rematch against Stephen.

Many questions were asked about when the next event would be, and I promise to get an update about that out soon.

WordPress is giving me issues with adding pictures, so I won’t show you the position from my match against Brandon where I ought to have doubled (and he ought to have passed), but instead I played on. Worked out for somebody… 

-Mark

I spent last weekend across the country, at the inaugural Miami Open backgammon tournament. Jeremy (who appears to be going to every ABT event, anywhere) was also there; but Paul (who could have turned it into a combo family reunion) was not. Anyway – this was by far the largest backgammon tournament that I have ever attended, with well over 200 players. That was quite amazing.

There were a few other things that made this different from other ABT events as well. The director was Arda, who runs most of the biggest tournaments in Europe, including the Monte Carlo World Championship, and we used his rules (no dice on checkers, “responsible moves” instead of “legal moves” (aka you do not have to tell your opponent if they play illegally in a way that benefits you)) instead of the standard USBGF rules. Also, for some reason, they were not using the USBGF OTS to manage, so no automatic text messages when your opponent was set, etc.

Given the size of the event, and the fact that it was the organizer’s first ABT, there were significant hiccups getting things started. Jen came with me for this one, on grounds that Miami would be a nicer destination than most ABT events, and we took a red-eye flight, landing Thursday morning. The last entry time for the jackpot was supposed to be 11:00, but it took until closer to 1:00 for me to get registered and into the drawing. Friday morning, with the start of the ABT, was a repeat of the day before. Round 1 did start sort of on time, around 11:00, but they were supposed to have rebuys playing by 1:00 and they did not get them started until after 3:00, which set everything back by hours. I won my first round (against Tommy Tallarico, winner of the Intermediate in Monte Carlo and eventual winner of the Miami Intermediate as well, meaning I gave him his only defeat of the weekend…), and so ended up waiting until 7:00 for round 2. In a case of “ice the kicker”, I then lost two in a row, dropping myself into the Last Chance, which did not start until Sunday.

Saturday we went and did some tourist stuff, although I did go back in late afternoon/early evening and get a couple of matches in (losing both). Jeremy was waiting around for his first round opponent in the Juniors event, which had a cut-off of 55. At some point, the director made a call for anyone who wanted to take the spot of Jeremy’s opponent (whose no-show was holding up the whole bracket), and no-one accepted. She then asked if anyone who was 56 wanted it, and I jumped up. Yes, she checked my ID. There were a bunch of jokes about getting fake IDs for the purpose of BG tournaments. Anyway, Jeremy smoked me in that match, and I gave up for the day.

Sunday, I did have a good run in the Last Chance. I won up until the semi-final, when I once again got hit by “ice the kicker” – there was an hour and half delay between my next-to-last and last match, because they had told my opponent that it didn’t have to start until 4:00, and no-one had his contact info. But, we hedged, and so I got at least part of my entry fees back.

 

Overall, no regrets – Miami was a beautiful spot to visit in November, and I am counting this as my first “international” tournament. 🙂