In his Card Player blog, Gus Hansen, the Danish backgammon and poker superstar, writes about his experiences as a participant – and not just a participant, a finalist! – at the World Series of Backgammon final stop the Riviera Cup, and a presenter at the WSOB final (which, as you recall, included 3 Play65 qualifiers). And that’s what he had to say: 

From WSOP to WSOB

Gus arrived to the WSOB Riviera Cup in Cannes, the French Riviera, straight from the WSOP (World Series of Poker) in Las Vegas, where he experienced "disappointing exit from the Main Event". It seems like Mr. Hansen put all his hopes in the WSOP, while playing backgammon at the WSOB was plain fun. Or in other words, his words: "I have a lot of fun playing in the events, and this time I was suddenly getting somewhere. After a couple of days of match play I found myself in the final of the event up against Bob Koca from the US." Despite being a favorite the entire final match, Gus stayed behind the entire game. Eventually, Koca won in a Double Match Point and earned his seat at the WSOB championship, in which Gus Hansen served as a kibitzer, for the enjoyment of the fascinated spectators.

So, what happened to the 3 Play65 qualifiers who had made it into the final of the 2007-8 World Series of Backgammon in Cannes?

As you recall, Play65 sent 3 players to the 2008 WSOB final at the Palm Beach Casino in the French Riviera. The 3 players - Andrew Plater of England, Athanasios Lagopatis of Germany and Aron Korper of the Netherlands – were the winners of the special qualifying tournaments held on Play65 throughout May, June and July. This trio got to play against the world’s top ranked backgammon players and against online and live qualifiers as themselves.

Aron Korper, who played a live backgammon game for the first time, was defeated 3-2 by Falafel Natanzon, the Israeli backgammon player who was named 2007 Giant of Backgammon, and dropped out of the competition. Athanasios Lagopatis, who was placed against Rida Hassan, number 1 on World Series of Backgammon ranking list, lost 3-0 and left the tour. Andrew Plater played against John Hurst, the winner of the UK Masters, the first stop of the 2007-8 World Series of Backgammon, won 3-2 and progressed to the quarter finals.

On the quarter finals of the WSOB finale, Andrew Plater faced French Frederick Andrieu, another super satellite qualifier, and lost 3-0. Frederick Andrieu, on the other hand, moved up to the semi finals and then to the finals, beat American Robert (Bob) Koca and won the prestigious WSOB Championship title and the grand prize - €100,000.

In addition, two members of Play65 Danish team, who previously represented our backgammon site at the 2008 WSOB Nordic Open, played the WSOB Final as part of the 8 top ranked players in the world. Jacob Simonsen made it to the quarter finals, where he lost to the 2008 WSOB finalist, Bob Koca. At the same time, Karsten Bredahl lost to Falafel, yet became the number 1 ranked player in the world with 1750.8 rating points.

Since photographing during the WSOB final was prohibited, here are some more pics from the Riviera Cup:

The last stop of this year World Series of Backgammon is going on since Thursday, July 17 at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France. The final table is due for today and the 2007-8 WSOB final table, with 16 players – 8 of them are the highest ranked players in the series and the 8 are online qualifiers including 3 who won on Play65 tournaments - is scheduled for tomorrow.

Similar to the Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championship, and apparently any other international backgammon tournament, the Dane people stood out above the jumble of nations and languages with backgammon stars such as Lars Trabolt (straight from Monte Carlo where he was crowned World Champion) and Gus Hansen (who arrived from a poker tourney in Las Vegas directly to the quarter finals), Pia Jeppesen (who beat her American counterparts in a row and dropped out of the competition at the quarter finals, following her loss to Gus Hansen, whom she had to pleasure to face, for the first time in her career) and Kenny Nissen (head of the Dansk Backgammon Forbund, the Denish Backgammon Federation). However, despite the Danish superiority, the Danish team did not win the annual Nations Cup. Germany team, headed by Gots, took the trophy to their homeland.

Today, the semi-finals are about to take place. Unfortunately, Falafel Natanzon is out of the competition. After losing to Jakob Holdt-Simonsen on the first round and moving to the Consolation, our man at the Riviera Cup was defeated, again by Holdt-Simonsen, at the 7th round. Yet, he left us with pictures of him playing against Gus Hansen and wearing Play65 cup.

Gus Hansen vs. Falafel Natanzon at the WSOB Riviera Cup

As for now, the competition lies between Robert Lindbom of Sweden who will battle against American Robert Koca and Gus Hansen who will be playing English Nicky Check.

The 33rd annual World Backgammon Championship ended up yesterday at the Fairmount Hotel in Monaco, Monte Carlo. The new World Backgammon Championship is Lars Trabolt of Denmark, who beat Portuguese Mario Sequieira 25-12 in the 25-point final match.

Full details, including personal experience of Falafel, Play65 blog correspondent (and number 4 at the Super Jackpot!) at the prestigious backgammon event, will be published soon. In the meantime, some pictures:

 Lars Trabolt, the 2008 World Backgammon Champion lifts the trophy and his 1 year old daughter

 The Japanese players leaving the trophies ceremony wearing traditional customs

 Play65 protects players from the blazing Monte Carlo sun

The 11th backgammon quiz, online since yesterday, brings up an odd story from 2004, directed indirectly to backgammon. Once upon a time in 2004, a local policeman was arrested in Patras, Greece while playing backgammon. The quiz asks about the cause of his arrest – was it due to an act of illegal parking, bank robbery, illegal fishing or stealing of an ambulance? If you know the answer, submit it and get into the weekly $20 bonus draw. 

Last week’s Play65 quiz brought up an even odder seeming story. As you may recall, it asked about a film festival in which a Salt Backgammon Tournament was held in the company of a huge salt backgammon sculpture. The right answer was Venice film festival, but it is only part of the answer.

Salt Backgammon Tournament

The Salt Backgammon Tournament, or "Una Notte di Sale" in Italy’s local language, was part of an installation made by Bettina Werner, a New York artist who is recognized with her salt crystal works of art. 

The Salt Backgammon Tournament took place during the 2005 Venice Film Festival at the ancient monastery in the Lido of Venice in the presence of some of Werner’s creations: huge backgammon board and dice composed of Sicilian salt. The winner of the special VIP backgammon tournament, the American shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, took home a $5,000 salt sculpture of a backgammon board.

The 2005 Venice Film Festival Salt Backgammon Tournament wasn’t the first time Bettina Werner artworks were involved in a backgammon competition, as equipment as well as the top prize. The artist has been making backgammon boards out of salt since 1994; since then, she was involved in several charity backgammon tournaments in which her famed salty boards were offered as a trophy.

The last of Play65 WSOB qualifiers was held last Sunday, and the third player to occupy a seat at the 2008 WSOB final at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes on the 21st of July, is a Dutch player named Aron Korper who is known in Play65 as matahari8 who will be celebrating his 50th birthday next month! Can’t think of a better way to celebrate a man’s first jubilee!  Aron Korper will be joining the other two winners Andrew Plater of England and Athanasios Lagopatis of Germany, who will be playing and mingling, probably for the first time, against the world’s top backgammon players. Good luck you all and have a great time!

Here is a story that happened in a live backgammon tournament that cannot take place when playing online: 

A backgammon player named Badri Tsertsvadze got caught last week at the final day of the Partouche Gammon Tour in France with a crooked dice. The dice was found missing the number 2 but with extra pair of 5s. Needless to mention how this supposedly slight modification changes the player’s possibilities and opens him an entirely new world of good rolls. So the alleged crook was taken to the police by the Partouche Casino Security where he was charged with attempted fraud and another court discussion in his case was set to December. 

This attempt fraud story raises more questions: is it possible that the guy was playing with the wonder dice in other tournaments (including ones where he made some respectable achievements such as the 1st place at the French Open Masters, Last Chance winning at the 19th City Of Venice International Backgammon Tournament, among others)? And if so, which backgammon association can deal with this and protect the players from this kind of abuse? 

Therefore, Eric Guedj, the director of the PartoucheGammon Tour, decided to take advantage of this unpleasant circumstance and to invite his colleagues to form a new, stronger backgammon body, who will keep up his promise of fair and honest play in all backgammon tournaments. 

When playing backgammon online, things are not always quite so clean. Online players can do terrible things to one another, from calling out names to disconnecting right before losing, but at least you can be certain that the dice won’t be manipulated by your opponent.

crooked dice cooked rice

Our acquaintance, Phil Simborg, reports from the Chicago Open ABT Tournament:

I am sad to report that I lost in the Open and am playing last chance (I did win the first two rounds including a win over the great Herb Roman in Round 2).

In the Open Div, the Semis are Sam Pottle vs. John Jennings and Chris Yep vs. Alan Grunwald   (I own John and Alan in the Calcutta along with my partner, Scott Casty, who is in the finals of Intermediate, and we own him as well!)

In one of my later matches, this interesting positions came up.   Black trails 0-4 in a match to15 and is on roll.  Cube action?

Think you’re good enough to play at the World Series of Backgammon?

If your answer is yes…

1. Go to Play65 Backgammon Site

2. Download the software: Free Backgammon Download

3. Play on Play65 WSOB qualifiers

and…
win it to get a free entrance to the WSOB Championship Final in Cannes.
and get a chance to win €100.000. That’s right:

 €100.000 in CASH!!!

* Play65 WSOB package includes: 
- A flight to Cannes, France.
- 5 Days accomodation.
- A FREE entrance to the world series of backgammon finale
(WSOB final in Cannes is schedueled to July 22nd, flight is on July 17th).