There wasn’t any snow or ice to keep us from the bar today! We had 11 people play in the tournament, a pretty decent turnout. An extra special thanks goes out to Demi, who was planning to just hang around while Bryan played, but who let me twist her arm into playing when it turned out that I had filled out the 11 person bracket with only 10 players. I am actually pending final results, because with such a large pool, play ran a little long – so I left the #1/#2 players to duke it out without me.
My best story of the tournament is newcomer Trish, who found out about the existence of the backgammon meetup group only last Wednesday – when I ran into her completely at random with a board on the table in front of her. Backgammon is out there more than you’d think – if you run into someone with a board, tell them about the group! We’re always wanting more players.
There was a good number of side games and conversation going the whole time through, I believe it was about the liveliest meetup in a year. Old-timer Reid was the walk-on beast to beat, although we tried to liquor him up enough to give the rest of us a chance. But the other one to watch was new-comer Tim, whose wife Emily also played. They must have some pretty fierce competitions going at home because they were both forces to be reckoned with. Tim won a couple of games, then dropped to the consolation bracket, only to fight his way back up to the final match. As a result, he definitely won for getting the most backgammon for his money, playing a total of 6 matches! By 6:30, it was down to these two to duke it out. I had promised to be home by 6:30, and so had to bail at that point. A good half-dozen people were still hanging around to share stories and watch the final battle. I will update this post once one of them tells me who won, to indicate the final rankings of everyone.
Thanks again to everyone for the great turnout, and hope to see some of you next week for the Chouette!
Update: Tim came back to win! Well done! Here’s the table of results with a whole lot of new people getting Elo scores…
| Player | Initial Elo Rating | Matches Played | Matches Won | Final Elo Rating |
| Mark | 1617.3 | 4 | 2 | 1600.73 |
| Tim | 1500.0 | 6 | 5 | 1553.18 |
| Reid | 1500.0 | 4 | 3 | 1531.87 |
| Spencer | 1500.0 | 4 | 2 | 1509.27 |
| David | 1500.0 | 4 | 2 | 1500.11 |
| Emily | 1500.0 | 4 | 2 | 1486.67 |
| Bryan | 1500.0 | 4 | 2 | 1486.16 |
| Todd | 1500.0 | 1 | 0 | 1486.14 |
| Julie | 1513.8 | 2 | 0 | 1484.99 |
| Trish | 1500.0 | 3 | 1 | 1476.62 |
| Demi | 1500.0 | 2 | 0 | 1472.29 |