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BGonline.org Forums
French Open update
Posted By: Coolrey
Date: Saturday, 31 October 2009, at 4:29 a.m.
Winners: Sassan Taher/ Ray Fogerlund
2nd: French team
Semifinalists: German team of Jurgen Orlowski and Christian Planz, and American team of Alan Grunwald/ Bob Wachtel.
After making a VERY improbable rally from 5-12*/13 in round one vs. Stick and MCG, Sassan and I promptly got behind 5-11/13 to the team of Al Hodis and Gary Bauer.
Our take point was about 5% and Hodis/Bauer doubled in a holding game position where they were about 77% favorites to win the game. They volunteered an immediate shot and we missed it. Later they rolled their worst number trying to clear the bar and 7 points when they had 3 men on their 6 point and two on the bar: 55. Sassan produced a 31, which hit and made a six prime on our side of the board. That sewed up the game and we were even able to get a shot at a second checker and a potential gammon (on 4, of course). We failed to gammon them, but the momentum had swung and we won our second match at DMP.
We decided that this was both a stressful and difficult path to victory, even though one has to appreciate it's efficiency. We began to roll better... and won our quarterfinal cruising. Mainly because Sassan won two games in which our opponent had borne off 8 checkers before we hit him in the bearoff.
Then in the Semi-final we met former French Open Champion Jurgen Orlowski and his young partner Christian Planz. They recorded the match as we played, and sent me the file later. Gnu said that we had "Good dice, man" and that they had "Bad dice, man". Gnu's analysis of their play was 3.1 or something... very respectable.
When I asked Gnu to evaluate our play, it held it's nose. We played 7.9.
We ultimately won that match 13-1. After jumping off to a quick 6-0 lead in two games despite an early double in game 1... I went into leverage limiting mode, which might partially explain the 5 missed doubles below our cash point. At 10-0, we passed a position that was a .750 blunder to drop... But they had a 3 point board, we were on the roof and had 4 other checkers exposed to a triple shot. I figured it was a take, but I didn't feel that was the type of game we wanted to be playing at that score. I consulted with Sassan and we opted to throw them that bone, and let Sassan finish them off. We took a cube in the next game and won... and then we won the Crawford game, to reach the finals.
Hedging was not discussed in the final, the first game of which I think Sassan rolled the worst one game dice I have seen in 30 years of backgammon. At least we limited the damage to 2 points with a play that MCG said was a blunder. We could have hit loose with the worst possible 4 point board but they had a 5 point board and I refused to get gammoned in that game, (we would have to leave 3 other blots open to do it).
I immediately fired Sassan as the roller and then we ran off 9 straight points with me rolling. They got as close as 8-10/17, but we finished them off 17-10 when Sassan rolled well enough to gammon them on their own cube @ 13-10/17.
I doubt if our ER in the final will be much better than the Semifinal, but I WILL be bringing home a Trophy valued at nearly $1000 US. Chiva told me that the three trophies for the French Open winner and the European doubles winners cost him about 2500 Euros. I can't wait to see them!
Sassan teamed with Ed O'Laughlin to win the European Doubles last year also. I guess he is 10-0 now in this event.
As usual, the luckiest team won the tournament. I actually felt sorry for MCG and Stick who outplayed us easily, as did the Germans. However, since I had gotten crushed in each of the last 4 ABT events... I don't feel like apologizing.
It's nice to take a free trip to Paris!
Backgammon IS a stupid game, though. We were late starting in the French Open and my opponent suggested a wager of 1K euros. What am I supposed to say after winning the doubles but yes??? My dice were hot and I took a 13-2/15 lead before losing the last 9 games in a row... and the match.
Who else could end up mad within 2 hours of winning the top prize in a prestigious event???
Stick won his first round match in the FO, while MCG was down 13-5/15 to Orlowski. Stick was down 2-8/15 in round 2 and MCG was still playing in his first match. I dunno if they had byes or how the other Americans were doing. My gf and I took off for a walk through the streets of Enghien Les Baines after that. It's 4 am Satruday morning here and I can't sleep. Jet lag. I expect more of the same in Vegas next week... See you there?
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