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So who are the best players

Posted By: Coolrey
Date: Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 8:05 p.m.

In Response To: So who are the best players (Stick)

I have often wondered how often I could have won if I played better! Statistics don't lie, and Stick is right about my winning percentage. Geez, it was my idea to formulate a national rating system, for heaven's sake, and the USBGF sprang out of that meeting.

I looked at the same stats and derived a couple conclusions... I actually reached #1 all time on the ABT points list at the end of 2015. Neil Kazaross cashed in NY in January to regain the top spot. As yet Bill Davis has not updated the records on his site, probably because he has been honeymooning and is actively retiring from Backgammon I guess.

What I figure is this:

I will never be the best player.

I am not at the age where I embrace working hard at backgammon, like younger players do... ie: The Vadim Nuniyants', David Pressers, Keene Marin, Stick Rice' a few years back, etc.

Neil Kazaross continues to play and analyze but is somewhat hampered by having learned how to win first. I believe he still prefers winning over playing perfect backgammon. He is very good at both, for the record.

Neil sports a 62% MWP vs my 56% (to my chagrin), proving beyond a shadow of a doubt who belongs at the top.

One will find upon looking deeper into the stats that this is sort of the upper limit for winning percentage. So, you might say that Neil is 10% better than I am, and I would not argue the point.

I like to compete, I can afford to travel and play against the best players at the highest stakes any event has to offer. This I have done for 6 years of retirement. I believe I have stayed in the black over that time, but not by a whole hell of a lot. Therefore this is one good reason why nobody has travelled and played as much as I have, because:

A: They can't afford it B: There is no money to be made at it C: They are not driven to compete

Some of the players with higher winning percentages and carefully crafted reputations don't play in some events.

I rarely see Neil enter a masters event, though he would do well there. I think he used to work, only was interested in the events (ABT) that had lists and championships attached to them and he didn't need the money. He also did not want to be tired for the ABT event. Sometimes now his health is flagging, and as for myself I get tired and need naps, lol. I just turned 60!

I needed to cash in one or the other event to make expenses, on the other hand, so I played. I don't know how much that caused my MWP to suffer, but I can tell you I have been getting killed in Masters level events the last few years. You go play Ed O, or Malcolm and make a profit brothers and sisters!

LOL.

I clearly can't hack it, so I am looking for a job now. I went and got my Commercial Drivers License. I don't need to work, because my pension pays me well but if I work a low paying job I can make $100K per year, while playing backgammon I will:

1. Get a trophy most years 2. Make a silver dollar in the process 3. Make enough to pay my mortgage one month a year, overall.

Still, I am in the top 5 of the Larsen Silliman Rating system. Perhaps flawed, and not perfect but so what? At last posting there were 4 players rated higher there...

Akiko, Dorn, Mochy, and Neil.

Not you or anybody else reading this either. They system rates you by points per ABT event. Everyone reading this has played in those. Stick got killed in the last one he entered, btw. I applaud the work by Ken and Barry on this.

I believe that I could work harder and bring my PR down. I am quite sure that I don't like doing the work, though. My MWP might be better if I skipped playing the big boys, as many self celebrated players do. They play doubles instead... and those results don't enter the big picture. There are more bozos in the ABT events than in the masters, so if you always enter the masters you will not achieve the highest possible MWP available. They rate the masters events, too.

My hat is dirty, because it spends more time in the ring than yours does. I put up, while many shut up. I enter the dual duel every year. That has not helped my MWP, I am sure. I did beat Mochy on PR once, have you???

I could list a number of great players who have not dared to do such a thing. Maybe they are allergic to Japanese people? Or, perhaps they just get the Asian flu each year in February. Their respective MWPs have not suffered by losing to Mochy, Michy, Petko, Saba and Akiko, tyvm.

This year, the Japanese went to Gibraltar, and a whole new group of Americans played.

Steve Sax and Bob Wachtel did themselves proud. I still don't know who won, because I don't come here much... However, it looks like I am still on your minds!

I will never be the best player in the world, and I am okay with that. You do not want to draw me in your next match. I am okay with that too.

Have a nice day, BGOers.

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