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Strange Pittsburgh Matches

Posted By: Bill Riles
Date: Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 3:35 p.m.

I've not yet finished entering all of my recorded Pittsburgh matches into Snowie but, consistent with some of the discussions yesterday on luck and winning, all of my matches I've examined to date are far from the usual fare.

I previously posted the "Dire Straits" position where I was down 0-7/11 and had six men back as my opponent was bearing off with a two cube -- and I win the match !!

In a 3-game, 120-move Last Chance match my opponent played a very nice 3.7 error rate and never had a prayer. My winning formula combined a personal record best tournament error rate of 1.6 with a +39 luck rating. That combination will win most any match -- if I could only come close to duplicating it occasionally.

However, the really strange match was against Chuck Bower in the first round Consolation. It was a 9 point match that required six games to complete. The first game I played horribly (16.5 error rate) but got extremely lucky (+51 luck rating) and won two points. The second game I played okay (5.7 er) but got extremely lucky (+35) and won another two points for a 4-0/9 lead. The middle two games were fairly unremarkable, with the match then 6-2/9. The fifth game Chuck played okay (7.2 er) but was extremely lucky (+51) and won four points tieing the match at 6-6/9. And, in the final game, Chuck played horribly (20.5 er vs my 0.8 er) but got extremely lucky (+31) and won four points and the match. The end of this game was posted earlier as a recube decision.

Anyway, such an odd match. Essentially, I played horribly early in the match but was also extremely lucky and built a nice lead. Throughout the match my play improved with each game and my luck got worse with each game. Chuck, conversely, played very well early in the match but was extremely unlucky to fall far behind. However, throughout the match his play worsened and his luck improved to the extreme. He won 4 points in each of the last two games to win the match.

In the end, if one just looks at the composite statistics, it appears a fairly well-played (5.4 & 7.3 ers), close match (Chuck won at DMP), with even dice (+/-4 luck rating). But if you examine the details ........

Such a strange game we play.

Messages In This Thread

• Strange Pittsburgh Matches
  Bill Riles -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 3:35 p.m.
  • Strange Pittsburgh Matches
    Rich Munitz -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 3:56 p.m.
    • Strange Pittsburgh Matches
      Bill Riles -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 4:14 p.m.
    • Strange Pittsburgh Matches
      Bob Koca -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 4:51 p.m.
  • Strange Pittsburgh Matches
    Tad Bright -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 7:35 p.m.
  • Strange Pittsburgh Matches
    Chuck Bower -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 10:37 p.m.
    • Strange Pittsburgh Matches
      Bill Riles -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 10:55 p.m.
  • Strange Pittsburgh Matches - No prayer
    Bill Finneran -- Monday, 2 March 2009, at 5:38 p.m.