This will likely be one of my shortest recaps since I lost so quickly in everything I had no need to even be there come Sunday. More on that later.
I usually come in a day early to get situated but since I've been traveling so much this year and there were direct flights from CMH (Columbus) to ATL I waited to get in Friday early. Once there I was allowed to check in early which was fantastic because the night before I had got hammered and stayed up almost all night to get on the plane. I needed sleep.
I took an extended nap, woke up, meandered down to the playing room to register for the events. Per usual I was playing in the main and in the Super Jackpot. I was also able to get into doubles this time with ScottyK as there was no overlap with the other two events. There wasn't much going on yet, a few people playing in a chouette, and since I was awake I lingered around and watched. The position below came up and as it was a 3 man chouette, the 2 players holding the cube did not redouble.
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| XGID=-BCCBABa-A--a---A------di-:1:1:1:00:0:0:3:0:10 | ||||
 on roll, cube action? | ||||
is Player 2The game ended after the next sequence and there was some talk about the cube and I told them flat out that it was a pass the turn before. (as shown above) I noted that if it weren't for the gammons maybe I could take this cube but the on roll player simply wins too many for this to possibly be a take. One of the players spoke up and said "What about the taker's gammon wins?" I'm sure I let out some sort of snort or rude laughter but I told them that the taker wins less than 1% gammons.
He was shocked at this estimate and quickly wanted to bet $100 on it. I agreed, we checked, and no surprise ... the taker's gammons don't even approach 1%. I was off to a good start I thought. Hadn't been in the playing room 15 minutes and already starting to earn back that money. This is going to be a good tourney! (it would at least be more equitable than my last trip to Atlanta right!?) I didn't drive this time :)
The tournament itself was very close to the airport which is great for the free shuttle service that runs every 20 minutes. What I ended up it's not great for is location vis-à-vis restaurants or anything of that nature. There is a Ruby Tuesday right across the way from the tournament but outside of that your best option is actually going back to the airport and eating there. Other than that you're in for more or less a 30 minute drive to find food.
Where I was lucky was finding a tennis facility within' 15 minutes easily and ScottyK and I decided to get up before the tournament Saturday and go hit for a couple of hours. On our way there we thought the scenery would finally open up to a nice tennis facility or our Uber driver was taken us to the backwoods to murder us. It could go either way. Luckily over the meadow and through the woods to a tennis facility we went. It had roughly 30 courts, mostly hard court but a few clay and some Paddle courts. The price was ridiculous cheap and while the courts were a little worn it was well maintained and a bargain. Big luckbox in finding this place.
Ah yes, back to bg. In short, won one lost one in doubles, won one(?) maybe somewhere in the main/consolation/LC area and won none in the Super Jackpot. An abysmal showing. The needle of it all is that in both the main and the SJ I got a bye! That's a huge delicious start to any tournament esp. one with a small field. There ended up being only 25 in the main and 10 in the SJ. A disappointing showing. However, we still have a few recorded matches to perhaps drag me from the depths of thinking I'm utterly hopeless.
Can't be too disappointed with those numbers at least. My personal favorite bg story from the weekend was the following position with my opponent having a 52 to play.
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| XGID=-aABCBBBa-----BA-------fg-:1:1:1:52:7:2:0:9:10 | ||||
| to play 52 | ||||
eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.10
Notice the score. OtB my opponent hit and since I'm getting crushed in the match not really being able to see any hope whatsoever and knowing this person and that he's a decent player I decided to give him a hard time in the moment. I asked "Why did you hit?" I didn't see any point to hitting. Make the prime, the game and match are wrapped up. He doesn't need a second checker for anything. While it doesn't likely make much of a difference because either way he'll crush me it did give me a teenie tiny itsy bitsy glimmer of hope. Maybe I could roll an immediate Fogerlund or maybe I could simply anchor back on the ace point or even a simple immediate deuce of any sort keeps me on life support.
Cut to the chase, I, yes, that's I, gammoned him from here!!! The match itself wasn't recorded to give you the entire sequence but it took some time and luckbox dice to slime my way out. It started with a hit and lame entry and progressed from there. Incredible. From about 1% MWC to 40% in an unbelievable sequence. Maybe my weekend wasn't shot just yet! Alas, it was...we got to dmp and I lost yet another match.
I have since showed this position to a couple people and they have also hit. The reason was is that they didn't realize how often they win by simply closing out one checker in this situation. Imagine it gets to something like this after making the six prime, which it almost always does:
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| XGID=aBBCBCC----------------gg-:1:1:1:00:7:2:0:9:10 | ||||
| on roll, cube action? | ||||
eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.10
You win over 97% here! The other man at these score considerations is superfluous.
The only good news of being knocked out of everything so quickly is that I was able to cancel the extra night I was going to stay, change my flight, and run off Sunday morning in order to get back for a semi important tennis match waiting for me in Ohio. I got back in plenty of time and no luck was saving my opponents there as I took out my bg frustration on them.
I played Paul Weaver in the only SJ match I had and unfortunately it wasn't recorded. I will offer you up yet another potential 8 cube problem in a SJ match for me. What would you do?
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| XGID=-BCBCBB-------------abdceA:2:1:1:00:3:7:0:13:10 | ||||
| on roll, cube action? | ||||
eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.10