We had a great turnout for today’s Chouette – 9 people total. Mark F kept order on the “Advanced” board, where 5 brave souls played for $10/point; while I (mostly) played with 3 others on the “Beginner’s” board at $0.50/point. I say “mostly”, because I did get in about 4 games on the “Advanced” board, both before and after the “Beginner’s” board ran. Martin, Mark S, and Bryan were all still going when I left at 6:30, too!
The action was hot on the “Advanced” board, of course, with Martin coming out well ahead but decent showings for a few others as well. Martin and Bryan are both off to Vegas later this week for the US Open, and so we all wish them good luck.
The “Beginner’s” board was far more relaxed – couple of times people took a double that was probably a technical pass in an attempt to get the box. I had a good run as the box at the outset, which left me well up through the later rotation. Michael provided the board for the first bit, then we switched to Julie’s board when he needed to head out. Paul made his return appearance and I can assure you he hasn’t gotten rusty while he was traveling – he walked away with $0.50 in winnings!
Here’s one position we ended up arguing about for a good little while. At the “Beginner’s” table, we had full consultation at all times, including occasionally the box helping the field or vice versa… Anyway, the argument was, do you come out or do you stay on the opponent’s 4 point?
Julie was the captain, and wanted to come out past the bar. Paul and I were not so sure, and thought staying in provided more chance of a hit. Julie went with the escape, and good thing – staying back is a blunder! Black is not in good shape, but has 31% winning chance if he comes out, only 16% chance if he stays back.
Later, in the following position, I offered Julie the cube. Good move? Would you take?
I figured that I needed 5’s to get out, there’s a decent chance that won’t happen, and so this looks like a double/take. Julie disagreed, and dropped. Well, I was off! My winning chances are about 73% according to GnuBG, but my gammon chances are 41%, making this position too good to double! I clearly need to work on my probability estimates. Then again, with the Jacoby rule, it’s a proper double but still a drop. Lucky me, I wasn’t on the receiving side of that cube decision.
We’ll be back at Lucky Lab for a chouette next month, probably earlier in the month, as the second Sunday tournament will be moving to the third Sunday to not conflict with Mother’s Day, and then following that is Memorial Day. So yeah, the schedule will shift a bit. See you then!
-Mark