September 2025 Backgammon Tournament Results

We had a nice turnout for this month’s tournament – 14 players, including a couple of new folks and a couple we haven’t seen in a while. We nearly had 15, but one person locked the keys in the car and couldn’t make it…

We had two brackets, one of 6, and one of 8. In a change, I labeled the bracket of people who didn’t enter the side pool the “A” bracket this time. Round 1 had Joel over Chris, Tim over newcomer Steve, and Mark A over newcomer Nate. Tim later played Nate in the consolation bracket, and told me he learned that Nate had found out about the club from one of our Tour of Patio events – 3 years ago. So getting out there does work to recruit new players, eventually. Anyway – eventually Joel won the bracket over Mark A, with Tim taking the Consolation bracket.

In the “B” bracket, round 1 had Howard over Nick, Bodger over Jeremy C (back for his second event in two weeks), Ed over Larry, and me over Kyle. Howard went on to win the bracket, defeating me in the final. Kyle made up for his slow start by winning the Consolation bracket.

Here’s a cube decision from my first game with Kyle – so the score is 0-0 in a match to 5. Kyle threw this cube out there while I was taking a bite of my sandwich, and it gave me something new to chew on…

I had to kind of talk this one out. Kyle does still have two checkers back, and a lot of ground to cover before he gets them around, so it’s not a “too good” kind of situation. But I am on the bar, and Kyle has a lot of rolls that point on my blot in his homeboard. Ultimately, I reasoned that if I had two on the bar, I would clearly pass – and it was reasonably likely that would be the case after his next move, so I should let it go. And that’s correct! XG reckons that I have 28.5% winning chances, which is not so bad. But Kyle has 38% gammon chances, which is a lot. Taking would have been a -0.403 pentablunder.

It was a good day of backgammon. Next regular tournament is scheduled for October 19 – see you there!

-Mark

2025 Championship Qualifier #3 Results

We had a good turnout for the penultimate qualifier of 2025 – 14 players came to participate in the tournament. There were an additional 8 or so players who were there for Sande’s casual meetup at the same time, and so backgammon definitely took over the space for the day.

Leah & Kashic, by default, took the top spots for the Women’s qualifier. Rather than have them just play each other, I dealt them into the overall bracket, which then played out 3 rounds to determine the finalists; but due to the length of the matches, they did not settle a first/second for the day.

First round had Howard over Dave, Leah over Larry, Pete over Kashic, me over Bodger, Jeremy C (a newcomer) over Tim, Jim over Joel, and Steve over Chris. Second round had Leah over Howard, Pete over Steve, Jeremy over Jim, and I took the bye. I used the break to go hobnob with the casual meetup crew, and play a few games against Mark A, who showed up to play and hang out but wasn’t feeling well enough to compete.

Then the critical round 3, where Jeremy (C not K) took me out to take a spot in the championship off his first tournament appearance! Pretty impressive, really – watch out for this guy!

The other finalist spot came down to Leah versus Pete. Now, neither of them had brought a board, so they started out playing on Tim’s board, since he was taking part in the chouette that broke out after round 1 finished. But then Tim had to leave, and so they finished on my board, since I was done losing by then. I did go ahead and record the second half of their match, but I haven’t transcribed it yet. However, I can tell you that the winner was Leah!

With that, Leah has spots in both the men’s and the women’s championship tournament, which we’ll navigate somehow. There is precedent – in our first ever championship qualifier many years ago now, Molly A won a spot in the men’s championship. Leah has declared that she’s going to win both events and also Player of the Year, so – notice given. She is, in fact, currently leading the race for Player of the Year as well, just ahead of Jim and Howard. Trifecta, anybody?

We will have our normal monthly tournament next weekend, and so I hope to see you all back there again. Until then!

-Mark

Tour of Patios #4 Results

We had a nice turnout for today’s Tour of Patios – 15 players came out – although Leah technically arrived too late to play in a tournament, she got into some good chouette action. Congratulations to Joel, Bodger, Larry, Jim, and Pete for winning a bracket each.

Andres decided that bringing just his kids wasn’t enough, and brought his parents as well this time. His mom kicked my butt, winning 5-0 in our match! They are truly a backgammon family to watch out for…

Newcomer Chris did respectably, making it to the final of his bracket, and staying to observe the chouette action afterwards. And he bought one of the t-shirts. Did you know we still have t-shirts available? It’s true, but the stock is beginning to dwindle. Funds from the t-shirt sales go to support the group’s meetup charges and the blog hosting fees, so ask me for one if you don’t already have one…

We have one more Tour event coming up in a couple of weeks, then next month we return to the fall version of our regular tournament series. I got the third championship qualifier onto the calendar as well – the fourth will likely be in November, with the championship ideally in December. So sign up for those!

Tour of Patios #1-3 Results

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

Back in Action!

The site was, alas, down for a month or so due to a MySQL migration that I did not plan for, so sorry to all of you who were getting error messages. The big news (in my opinion) while the site was down is – my book is now published! If you haven’t heard, I wrote Rigged Dice: A Backgammon Adventure, along with the companion Solution Manual. Currently, the only two ways to get a copy are:

a) Contact me in person, or

b) Go to Amazon: Rigged Dice and Solution Manual respectively. Amazon knows you want to add both to your cart, so… Go get it!

May 2025 Backgammon Tournament Results

We had a good turnout for this month’s event – 16 players, making for two perfect 8 person brackets. I appreciate everyone’s cooperation, it made for a very smooth running day!

There was much excitement as well, as I was able to distribute those cool new t-shirts! I wore my red one (yes, I got one of each), and got complimented on it by the bartender before the event even started. They’re that cool looking. If you didn’t pre-order, don’t despair, I got some extras and will sell them off on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the “A” bracket, round one had Bodger over Dave, Kyle over Larry, Jeremy over Howard, and me over Tim. I had a good day. Tim got taken out in a 2 game match, but my second round (against Bodger) and final (against Jeremy) I had to stage come from behind wins post-Crawford. Still, 3-0. Howard and Dave both fought their ways through the full consolation to meet in the final, with Howard coming out on top there.

In the “B” bracket, round one had Andres over Stan, newcomer Brian over Ben, Gabe over Ed, and Mark A over Steve. Andres went on to win the bracket over Mark A, with Steve coming out on top of the consolation bracket.

The 2nd Championship Qualifier is right around the corner, and then I need to get the Tour of Patios on the calendar, so much more backgammon action coming soon!

-Mark

April 2025 Backgammon Tournament Results

We had a nice showing for this month’s event – 17 players said “to heck with the sunshine and warm weather, I’ma play!” and made their way to Lucky Lab. Traffic did delay a good number of them, however, so we got off to a slightly late start, to the consternation of a handful who had obligations to leave early. But we actually finished about the normal time.

I had moved this month’s event up a week as well, which meant we were on the same day as Sande’s casual meetup, so there were more like 23 or 24 backgammon players in the place. It gave me the opportunity to get pictures of some of the casual players for the Instagram…

In the “A” bracket, round 1 had Kyle over Bodger, Larry over Howard, Dave over Tim, and me (eventually) over Mark H. Dave went on to win the bracket over Kyle, and Howard fought his way back to revenge himself on Larry in the Consolation. 

In the “B” bracket, we had one first round bye due to the odd number, which went to Mark A. Round 1 saw Julie over Andres, Ed over first timer Gabe (Andres’ son), Jim over Ben (also Andres’ son, and so Gabe’s brother), and Leah (happy birthday!) over Joel. In the final, Ed came out on top over Mark A, and Julie won the Consolation over Leah.

I wore the proto-type t-shirt with the Portland Metro Backgammon Club logo to the event, and got people to weigh in on the color options I’ve been exploring. Keep an eye out for a survey/pre-order opportunity in the very near future! My goal is to get an order placed in time for people to get them at the May regular tournament (so you can then wear it to the Chicago Open ABT tournament, if you happen to be going to that). Until then, remember, better to be lucky than good! 🙂

-Mark

March 2025 Backgammon Tournament Results

We had a nice turnout for this month’s regular tournament – 17 players made it in for an afternoon of backgammon. Before I get to the results, I’m going to digress for a bit on tournament structure & how the payouts work.

As most of you know, the tournament has an entry fee, and then 2 side pools. The side pools are completely optional, they exist for the sake of players who feel like putting a little more capital at risk for the event. Both the side pools are for the same amount. What I have been doing for the last year plus is, if you are in at least one side pool, you are put in the “A” bracket, which plays 5 point matches instead of 3 point matches. In order to build relatively even brackets, I then also sometimes pulled in people who were not in a side pool, but there was a “pay to play” element there. Put more at risk, you have a little more time in each match to let your skill cancel the luck element.

Anyway, before the tournament started, I was chatting about all that with Howard, and he asked what would I do if more than 8 people wanted to be in the side pools. I said that had never happened, but that I would cross that bridge when we got there.

So, yeah, I jinxed myself. Of the 17 players, 9 wanted to be in the side pool.

Running a 9 person bracket is fine, it basically means there’s one play-in round, and the way I structure things that’s not so hard to do. But on the spur of the moment, I decided to keep it simple; so I dropped out of the side pools to create an easy 8-person bracket for that one, and played in the 3 point match “B” bracket.

So, results: In the “A” bracket, round 1 had David R over first-timer Farhad, Mark H over Dave C, Howard over Tim (in the longest single match of the afternoon – about 90 minutes to finish!), and Larry over Joel. Because the Howard/Tim match-up ran so long, there was a good amount of waiting for later rounds, especially in the consolation bracket – I appreciate everyone’s patience. Anyway, in the final, Larry came out on top over Howard. In the consolation bracket, David R and Farhad had a re-match. I left the prize money with them and asked for a text reporting results, but as of press time I haven’t heard what happened.

In the “B” bracket, round 1, I won over Mark A, Jim won over Bodger, Cam over Steve, and Ed over visiting player Breeze (in for a vacation from Bali, sounds backwards?). Stan got the first round bye. The final had Jim over Ed, Jim’s third win in three appearances BTW. In the consolation bracket, I ended up winning over Stan, in what was also a re-match. 

The next tournament will be on March 29th, our first Championship Qualifier – RSVP today if you haven’t already. See you then!

-Mark

February 2025 Backgammon Tournament Results

We had a fair showing for this month’s event – 13 players came out for the afternoon. Lucky Lab was extremely crowded, with a MTG tournament going on. But we squeezed in to the tables that were available and had a good time.

In the “A” bracket, round 1 had Larry over Nathan, Bodger over Joel, Kyle over Howard, and me over the bye. Honestly, I abused my director’s position to take the bye, so that I could eat my lunch – the table I was at barely held the board so I would have been holding my sandwich in my lap otherwise. But I then paid for it by losing my two matches in blowouts. In the final, Larry came out on top over Kyle, and Nathan took the consolation bracket over Bodger.

In the “B” bracket, we only had 6 players, and so it finished fairly quickly. Round 1 had Stan over newcomer Stephen, Tim over Mark A, and newcomer Jim B over Julie. Jim went on to win the bracket over Tim, and Stan (who claims to have never previously won a match) taking the consolation bracket over Stephen. 

All in all, a good day. There was a lot of discussion about the upcoming BMAB event, which is just around the corner now. If you are registered for it, you should get an email from me in a week or so with logistical information. If you’re not… well, time is definitely running out! 

-Mark

Non-Alamo Backgammon Tournament Results

We had a nice showing for this weekend’s “Let’s Do a High Equity Event Because Texas ABT Got Cancelled” event. 7 people played in the High Roller, and 4 in the Low Roller, and it made for a busy afternoon of Backgammon!

I arrived at Lucky Lab about 5 minutes before noon, and found 6 people standing around waiting for me. So yeah, people were eager to play. 

For the Low Roller, since there were only 4, I went with a Round Robin structure, so each player got 3 matches. Bodger and Nathan each went 2-1, and split the prize money; Kyle and Larry you should be able to guess their records. The format worked well, though, and everyone told me they enjoyed it. 

For the High Roller, we went with the double elimination Swiss approach. In round 1, Dave got the bye, which did not count as a win, but did count as a not-loss. I had my one win of the day, somehow coming out over Paul; Max beat Howard, and Tim beat Jeremy. In round 2, Paul got the bye, and the winners were Dave, Tim, and Howard. Round 3 had Dave versus Tim in the undefeated face-off, and Paul and Howard took Max and myself out. Tim beat out Dave, and so we went into the critical round 4.

So for round 4, we had Tim (3-0) facing off against Howard (3-1). This set up a couple of very different outcomes that were possible. If Tim won, he would be 4-0, and Howard would be eliminated. But if Howard won, they both would be 3-1. Meanwhile, Dave and Paul were both 1-1 because they had both had a bye, so the winner of their match would have a 2-1 record and the other would be eliminated. This made the outcome of the Tim-Howard match have a significant impact on the payout of the Dave-Paul match! It made sense to pay out either 2 or 3 places for the main, but I planned to only pay 2 places for the side pool, so if Howard won, he and Tim would split the side pool; but if Howard lost, 2nd in the side pool would go to the winner of the Dave-Paul match. Everyone follow that logic? Good, good.

Dave and Paul had a heck of a match. Repeatedly, Dave ended up hitting Paul during the bearoff, to either save the gammon, or to even win the game. They went back and forth, going all the way to DMP, and Paul turned the tables on Dave, hitting him during the bearoff! But Dave was able to recover, and ended up winning!

Meanwhile, Tim took an early lead over Howard. Leading 3-0, Tim made a dubious decision to take a 4 cube. I assume it was a dubious decision, anyway, because when I wandered over to look, Tim was holding the 4 cube with 2 on the bar… But he somehow saved the gammon, and was suddenly the trailer. Howard took another couple of points, and suddenly they were in the Crawford game. With his back against the wall, Tim rallied, and then they were playing a post-Crawford game, Howard holding the cube, leading 6-4. At this point, all the rest of us were hovering around the table, watching the action. It was an intense game, went right down to the wire; but Howard pulled it off and handed Tim his one defeat of the day!

We also did have a good number of spectators show up, some intentionally, some by happenstance. There was a very large social event going on through the afternoon, and a couple of people stopped by to watch and chat. Thanks to Dave for playing ambassador and to Tim for giving a little tutorial to folks watching his matches, I think we might end up picking up a couple of new members to the club… Also Jan, who was in town for the weekend and who I’ve got a current match against on Dailygammon stopped by, which was cool. Backgammon – bringing people together. It’s a beautiful thing. See you at the next one!

-Mark