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Congrats and Calcutta story (long :)

Posted By: Chuck Bower
Date: Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 4:56 p.m.

In Response To: Bravo Stick (Stick)

Sincere congratulations. I was pulling for you, except in your matches with Matt where I remained neutral (two friends -- I don't play favorites). Of course I'm not one who believes in ESP so it doesn't really matter who I pull for.

There were ~16 calcutta teams in the open. About six teams had two players ("seeded" players like Neil, Kit, Sax, etc.) The other 10 teams were four player lots except for one three player lot. I don't like it when they do this but you could see how the promoters ranked the non-seeded players -- A,B,C,D -- because of the way they were listed on the scoresheet. I was a 'B', Stick was an 'A'. (I don't mind being listed 'B' but it's a tougher pill to swallow seeing Stick ahead of me. :)

For some reason they started the auction (same was true of the Advanced auction) by choosing a team from the middle of the field. Often if they're going to take "blind bids" (= highest bidder gets to choose the team he buys AFTER winning the bid) they start the auction with a blind bid. Furthermore if they're not going to start the auction with a blind bid they choose team 1 on the list. Or if they don't want to start with a seeded team they take the first non-seeded team in the sequential order. But for some reason they decided to choose team #11 which was Stick's team. Maybe Sam will comment.

Anyway, always in these Calcuttas you don't really know the scale until a few bids have been made. I mean you could bid $1000 on the first round and find everybody later buying teams for much less. Or vice versa. Often a blind bidding round starts the auction so as to set the scale high (or that is the theory -- not everyone agrees with this 'trick').

I don't remember who was on Stick's team (my sheet is at home) but, hopefully not insulting anyone, it wasn't a strong team. Jack Fagan (~84 years of age -- and still playing a decent game!) won the bidding for team 11 for $340. That turned out to be the cheapest lot in the entire field of 16 Calcutta teams, and I don't recall it being close. For example, my team of (in order:) Patrick Gibson, me, Larry Liebster, and Matt R. (OK, if I'm right about the ABCD then Matt was doubly insulted, being a 'D' player and being behind LL :) went for $700. We were the third most expensive team. The average (I didn't work it out) was probably $550 or so.

Stick slept through the auction (in his room, not the playing room) and when I saw him I recommended he buy back based upon the odds he was getting, regardless of the quality of the remainder of his team. (So he owes me for that, too!)

Messages In This Thread

• Bravo Stick
  neilkaz -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 1:13 a.m.
  • Bravo Stick
    lucky player -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 1:26 a.m.
    • Bravo Stick
      Caryl Stephanson -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 2:14 a.m.
      • Bravo Stick
        John O'Hagan -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 6:04 p.m.
  • Bravo Stick
    mamabear -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 1:40 a.m.
  • Bravo Stick
    Mislav Radica -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 7:42 a.m.
  • Bravo Stick
    Stick -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 9:44 a.m.
    • Bravo Stick
      MandM1951 -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 12:43 p.m.
    • Congrats and Calcutta story (long :)
      Chuck Bower -- Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at 4:56 p.m.
      • Congrats and Calcutta story (long :)
        Chuck Bower -- Thursday, 6 September 2007, at 5:03 p.m.