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Maryland Updates?

Posted By: Barry Silliman
Date: Sunday, 19 October 2008, at 5:26 a.m.

In Response To: Maryland Updates? (Bill Riles)

Hi guys.

I am in the finals in the Open division tomorrow against Bill Versaw.

This is the first time I have ever played at the Open level after going 0 for 11 in cashing at the Advanced level over the past decade.

I decided since I was quite capable of losing at the Advanced level, I would be more than capable of losing at the Open level.

I rolled out of my mind in all four matches all day long. I will be the first to admit I surely made several blunders, mostly with the cube, as my strategy was to be very aggressive with the cube against players stronger than me. Especially in my match against Petko, e.g., in four games he made very strong doubles that I was not at all sure about taking, but since Petko is so strong I decided to take, and all four times I made amazing turnarounds and cubed him out on the recube. Throw in one crushing undoubled gammon blitz and another crushing blitz at the Crawford game and that accounts for the 11 points for the match. I wouldn't be surprised if at least a couple of those four cubes from Petko were drops. I know that I have a LONG way to go to clean up my game, especially with the cube, but right now I am just enjoying this most successful run by far that I've ever had at an ABT event.

I actually went through quite a murderor's row of opponents for my first time at the Open level! Check out the list of opponents I faced:

  • Round 1: Kent Goulding
  • Round 2: Denise Hemingway
  • Round 3: Ed O'Laughlin
  • Round 4: Petko Kostadinov

The field included 31 at the Open level and 40 in the Advanced level

I think that this was a pretty strong field for a tournament of this size. Here are some of the more well known names and boogoliners at the Open level. I apologize if I left somebody out:

  • Viktor Ashkenazi
  • Carol Joy Cole
  • Mike Corbett
  • Dennis Culpepper
  • Joe Freedman
  • Alan Grunwald
  • Kent Goulding
  • Steve Hast
  • Mary Hickey
  • Chris Knapp
  • Neil Kazaross
  • Bob Koca
  • Petko Kostadinov
  • Richard Munitz
  • Ed O'Laughlin
  • Doug Roberts
  • Bill Versaw
  • Antoinette Williams

Bill Versaw beat Mary Hickey in the other semi-finals. To make it even sweeter for me, Versaw and I are in the same Calcutta group, and of course we both bought ourselves back.

Kazaross beat Koca in round 2 I think, and Petko beat Kazaross in the quarters, so I knew heading into my dinner break that if I were to beat O'Laughlin I'd have to face either Neil or Petko. So up until now I may have been lucky as hell, and I'll admit it, but nobody can say I backed into the finals match!

I know I can just as easily go out tomorrow and lose 11-0 as win it, but hey, I've already made a clear profit for the weekend for the first time so I'm happy.

Regarding the timing, Elayne did run a progressive last chance that started today, and I'm glad that for the first time I only had to worry about the main bracket, but we got all Open matches except Sunday's final done today, so I think things went pretty well. The Calcutta did go a little long, and I don't know if it is the economy, but the bids seemed a little lower than in past years, especially in the advanced. 14 teams sold for a total of 2400 in the Advanced and 12 teams sold for a total of 3980 in the Open.

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