February 2022 Backgammon Tournament Results

We had a phenomenal turnout for today’s tournament – 24 players divided into 3 brackets! Would have been 25, but I told Richard that he was too late when he showed up at 1:03… sorry Richard! There were 9 or 10 new players, plus a handful of people we haven’t seen since pre-pandemic days. In spite of being a bit of a mob scene, the tournament ran pretty smoothly, and I believe a good time was had by all…

Prior to the tournament starting, I did have a special moment for the award ceremony, presenting Bodger with a genuine trophy for his performance as “Player of the Year” for 2021. In case you are wondering, the criteria I used was two-fold: you had to have at least 10 tournament matches for the year, and then have the best record of wins/losses of those players. Criteria for 2022 might be slightly higher, as I expect we will have 4-5 more tournaments than last year, so I may bump the minimum match count to 15 or so – time will tell I suppose. Bodger is off to a roaring start again this year, with a current 5 out of 6 record. I am including the Martin Memorial tournament in results this year, which is how he (and a few of us) have more than 3 or 4 matches after our first regular tournament…

Also, as an FYI, exciting to me at least: the club is officially back in the black! I had been running the club at a loss most of the last 5 years, but after today’s rake, the club has a surplus for the first time in a long time. If we keep having turnouts like today’s, that will even hold up after our next meetup dues… I intend to use the surplus for more door prizes or some kind of end of the year party or I don’t know what exactly. More trophies. More fun. That’s what it’s all about.

Anyway, on to the results:

As usual, I put the players who wanted into the side pool(s) into a single bracket to concentrate the higher equity. We also had a couple of players who were just in the main pool playing in that bracket as well, which ended up leading to some complications in the payout at the end… Anyway, in the first round: I beat out Tim, Brad defeated David, Jeremy took out Ed, and Nathan topped Andres. After the second round (in which Nathan came back from a 2-1 deficit to gammon me in the Crawford game!), Nathan and Brad were playing for 1st/2nd. Except – complication – Nathan was not in the side pools and Brad was only in the first side pool. So they were playing for 1st/2nd in the main, but Brad had a lock on 1st in the 1st side pool. In the consolation bracket, it came down to David versus Jeremy, who were both in both side pools. So the consolation winner got the tie for 2nd in the main, 2nd in the 1st side pool, and 1st in the 2nd side pool, while the consolation loser got 2nd in the 2nd side pool. Easy as pie, right? Nathan took 1st, Brad and David got the 2nd places, and Jeremy got the consolation of 2nd in the 2nd, which he proceeded to lose in the post-tournament chouette. So he broke even for the day…

In the “B” bracket, round one had Sandee over Bob, Alec over Robert, Mark (not me, the other Mark) over JB, and Rick over Kyle. Mark and Sandee went on to duke it out for the top bracket, and Rick and Kyle faced off for a second time in the consolation bracket. Mark had first timer’s luck and ended up with the overall win for the bracket, and Rick showed that he was consistent at least against Kyle, beating him a second time for the tie for 2nd.

In the “C” bracket, we had Matt T beating out newcomer Issa, newcomer Matt H beating out newcomer Steve (not really a newcomer, he came to the last chouette, but it was his first tournament), Bodger beating out newcomer Joe, and newcomer Lor beating out newcomer Katherine. What I am trying to get across here is that there were a lot of newcomers in the “C” bracket. Also two different guys named Matt. I try to keep it confusing for everyone… Matt T lost out to Bodger in the final of the top bracket, while Matt H lost out to Joe in the consolation bracket.

We were asked to move from the side of the patio with the heaters to the side of the patio with better lighting at about a quarter to 3, and the party that showed up for the original side took the volume of the place up multiple notches. Fortunately that was late enough in the tournament that many people were free to leave if they wanted, but I was impressed at how many stuck around to keep playing and chatting. When I left (around 4:30), that was mostly the end of the post-tournament chouette, but there were still a handful of folks finishing a drink and playing a bit. March should be significantly warmer if we’re playing outside, and the mask mandate is scheduled to be lifted by then – so I will hopefully see you all again then!

-Mark