Las Vegas Tournament by Phil Simborg
Following our newly born tradition of 1st person tournament coverage, Play65 blog is happy to host a special guest post by Phil Simborg, a legendary backgammon writer and a professional backgammon player who reports, especially for Play65 blog, on the last Las Vegas backgammon tournament.
Las Vegas Tournament Report
By Phil Simborg
Though I didn’t win the tournament, it was a most exciting one for me as I did win the 2 point Mimi match side event, and I enjoyed the competition, the trophy, and the money.
Many of the top players in the world were in attendance in this highly prestigious event which was extremely well-run by Howard Markowitz and his staff.
In the main event, I had one of the most exciting tournament as well, as I beat some of the best players in the world including Nack Ballard, Bill Robertie, and Perry Gartner. My luck failed me toward the end, and that left the door open for one of the all-time great players, Joe Russell, to advance to the finals.
In the finals he met a top local player from Las Vegas, Drew Giavannis, and Drew won a most exciting finals 17-14.
In the Super Jackpot, my good friend John O’Hagan defeated Nack Ballard.
John O’Hagan vs. Nack Ballard
In the finals of my mini match, I had a very tough play to make. It is double match play, and I was black and it looked like I was about to win easily when I rolled the ONLY NUMBER that leaves a shot, 6-5. The question is, should I take two checkers off or should I move a checker to the ace point. What would you do?
Answer: The right play is to move the checker to the ace point. If he does roll a 1, he still has to get by your 4-prime, and he might even roll a 1 with a 4 which gives you a double shot in his inner board. If he rolls a 6, he’s out of your hair and you probably win the race easily.
There was a big crowd watching, and a lot of side bets, and a couple of the best players in the world bet on the wrong play. Myself, over the board, I wasn’t sure, so to everyone’s amazement, I flipped a coin! It came up heads, I made the wrong play and got hit! The good news is that I rolled 6-6 and went on to win the game.
