Well, that’s a wrap on 2025! We had 12 players come out for our final tournament of the year. I say “final”, but there’s a grey area – the 2025 Men’s Championship has yet to be played, but it is scheduled for January 10th, 2026; so I decided results from that event would count towards the Player of the Year chase for 2026, not 2025.
There were three newcomers at today’s tournament too, Bill, Jeff, and Karen. I slightly rigged the first round of the bracket to make sure they were each playing an experienced tournament player. So, round 1 had Joel playing Bill, Tim playing Jeff, Bodger playing Karen, and Mark A playing Steve H, with the first listed player winning in all cases. Jeff went on to do well in the consolation bracket, though, making it to the final. In the main bracket, Tim ended up winning over Mark A, while Bodger won the consolation.
In the high-rollers bracket, since there were only 4 players, we went with 7 point matches. Round 1, Dave beat me and Howard beat Larry. This was a big deal for Howard, he’s had poor luck against Larry all year. Howard then beat out Dave, and Larry beat Dave as well to take 2nd.
With that, we have a last minute twist in the race for Player of the Year! Leah had it all but locked up, with 12 net wins (that is, 14 wins in 16 matches, so 14 wins minus 2 losses…). Going into today, Howard had 10 net wins. By winning the bracket, he’s tied Leah in net wins! And, in case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the higher participation level. Howard got to his 12 net wins over 54 matches for the year – over triple Leah’s count! And so congratulations to Howard Markowitz – Portland Metro Backgammon Club’s Player of the Year for 2025!
Granted, not the greatest honor Howard has ever won in backgammon, it’s still pretty good!
I have set the regular tournament series to continue on the 3rd Sunday of the month through May. There’s a new casual meetup starting on the 3rd Thursday of the month as well, and I will soon be scheduling the 1st 2026 Championship Qualifier as well as bringing back the Portlandia Spring Classic high equity event. So, tons of backgammon planned for 2026. Hope to see you all there!
-Mark