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BGonline.org Forums
GIANTS'2012 REVIEW(very long)
Posted By: Victor Ashkenazi In Response To: GIANTS'2012 REVIEW(very long) (Iancho Hristov)
Date: Monday, 23 January 2012, at 5:19 p.m.
I thought to add some personal view on players based on years playing on BG professional sites (where people play for money). That world which once was pretty wide (truemoneygames, partygammon, Play 65, Gamesgrid and others), now shrunk to relatevely small playing field (compare to the past) playing on Play 65. Players there forced to play under big time and money pressure and I think it's a very strong indication of how good the player is. Not coincidently in my opinion, same players do very well in live torunaments. It's not a deep anlysis of playing field, just attempt to give credit to top players I personally played against through the years.
1. Falafel. Mike in my humble opinion is the strongest and most consistent money game player in the world. Despite being friends since his days in NY, we played hundreds (if not thousands) money games online. I don't know anyone who plays as strong and consistent. 2. Mochy. We played number of matches on TMG (people who played there probably remember my nick socrat). To put it short: don't remember the match that Mochy played worse than 4ER. Steady positional game. Very stong match player. 3. Lars Trabolt. Could be the most successful online player. Was not surprised at all when saw his great results in consecutive Monte Carlo tournaments. 4. Ralf Jonas. Another very consistent, naturally talented player. 5. Steve Sax. Also very strong and consistent.
What joins these players is ability to bring their best game under big pressure.I think it's one of the most important qualities in sports, which often separates winning and losing between otherwise close opponents.
Of course this is not by any means complete analysis of Ineternet backgammon, just few names that stuck in my memory. There are I'm sure many other deserving players. I would add couple of strong German players to the list (Player_one and BGdaniel nicks on play 65), but don't know their real names. I'd like also to through Arkady Tsinis name into consideration. Though mostly in poker these days (people who follow poker know he won World Series event this summer), he also shows very good backgammon results. His cash in percentage in tournaments is very high. Very competetive, plays his best under pressure, very difficult to beat. And I love MCG game (who first called him donkey?). From old guns, I wouldn't be original and vote for Senk. One of the most talented and original players. And Malcolm Davis, which strength I had a chance to experience face to face in Vegas. In quarters there (in 2007) we played very intense match (which I was lucky to win in dmp). Malcolm played with 2.6 ER, staying strong through the long and grueling match.
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