We had a decent turnout for today’s Tour of Patios – 11 players came out, and we managed to run 4 full 4-person brackets. The pace has been falling off as the summer has progressed – Tour of Patios #1 had 7 full brackets, #2 had 5 full brackets, and now just 4…
I haven’t been keeping up on posting results, so this will actually memorialize the first three events.
Our first event was at Victoria, and we had brackets won by Nathan, Tim, Dave, Leah, Bodger, Howard, and Joel. We had several newcomers/long gap returners – Suzi (who was from out of town), Kyle L, Zach, Pete, Janelle, and Chris, plus a lot of the usual suspects. It was a shockingly cold day for this one, and thank goodness Victoria’s has overhead heaters, although it would have been nice if they had a setting lower than thermonuclear.
The second event was at The Hilt, and we had brackets won by Pete (at his second event…), Bodger (twice!), Joel, and me. Kyle L, Janelle, and Chris made their second (ever or in a long while) appearances as well, plus Noah who hasn’t been in an age. I had copies of my book for sale at this one, and many people picked one up – thank you all. Plus Janelle and Chris bought a t-shirt, which supports the club, and so thank you for that as well.
Today’s event was at Bar Bar, incorrectly labeled as Mississippi Station on meetup. We had brackets won by Julie, Larry, Leah, and Howard. Today’s newcomers were Logan (who picked up a t-shirt as well), and Jeff, who learned about the group from seeing Paul on Jeopardy! Turns out that was some effective advertising for backgammon and our group that Paul did there – everyone should be on notice that any national television time they get I expect you to mention the club if you can. Thank you in advance.
Here’s a position that came up in my match against Julie – you know, the one where she crushed me to win the bracket. Things were going her way, and she rolled well, but felt conflicted about the right move to play.
She was looking at three moves. The first was 13/3, the quiet play. The second was 8/4 8/2, also quiet but also constructive, although it gives up her landing point on her 8 point. And the third was 11/5* 8/4, the bold play. She said she had Howard’s voice in her head, saying “Don’t be scared, don’t be scared”, but also her own voice in her head, saying “Don’t be stupid, don’t be stupid!” Ultimately, she went with one of the quiet plays, which is good, because the bold play is a massive blunder! It never hurts to look at a play, unless you talk yourself into it. Well played, Julie.
Next one will be in just a couple of weeks, August 9th, at The Zipper. See you there!
-Mark