The Danish backgammon players are considered the best players in the world, so if Play65 team won the team championship ofthe Danish Backgammon Federation (DBgF), does that make them the best backgammon players in the world?

Play65 Team won the 2009-2010 Danish Team Backgammon Championship held last Saturday. Play65 Team (also known as the Mama Boyz) won 3-1 against their biggest competitor, DBgF leading Team, Nemo, and grabbed the DM title for the first time since its founding, leaving behind both the current golden medalists (Nemo, now holding the silver medal) and representatives of another online backgammon room (Team Ladbrokes Backgammon, Bronze).

The Danish Backgammon Federation was the organizer of the backgammon team championship, the league games that proceeded the championship and other backgammon events, most notably the international Nordic Open backgammon championship. The Nordic Open started 22 years ago as a local gathering of the lively Scandinavian backgammon scene, is now one of the biggest backgammon events in the world, attracting players from as far as the US and Japan. By the way, qualifiers for the 2010 Nordic Open are taking place at Play65 this week, don’t miss it….

Play65 invites you to qualify for all three flights in 2010 Nordic Open – championship, advanced and intermediate.

All qualifiers start today, March 8, and will go on until March 12. The winners of the championship and advanced qualifiers would be rewarded with a free entry to the final, on March 13, where the first prize is a prize package to the 22nd Nordic Open backgammon tournament that will take place on Copenhagen, Denmark from April 1 to April 5. A second round of Play65 Nordic Open qualifiers will begin on March 15 and end with a final on March 20.

1.

Play65 closes February with a large backgammon tournament – Backgammon Arena €4000 on February 28th, 2010 20:00 GMT. Entry fees are €45, and there are satellites everyday 18:30 and 21:30*. Winner gets €1200!

* For free entry to the daily satellites, deposit $€₤100 and enter the coupon code: BGARENA

2.

Should backgammon be in the Olympics? The instinctive answer would be no, but if curling is sports, and ESPN dared to suggest to include poker among the Olympic Games, we can contemplate the idea as well.

Most of the poker players who discussed this half-amused notion with the ESPN columnist, agreed that poker does not belong to the Olympics. Poker, like backgammon, is not really a physical activity, it involves some amount of luck, and its skill element finds expression only in the long run - after a week long tournaments marathon or its 27-points match backgammon equivalent.

Poker author Nolan Dalla thinks otherwise:

"I have just two words for anyone opposed to poker as an Olympic sport: synchronized swimming."

athletes in action

Play65 is inviting you for a special backgammon tournament for Valentine’s Day

DON’T PLAY WITH YOURSELF ON VALENTINE‘S DAY

PLAY WITH REAL PEOPLE!

The tournament will be on February 13th* at 20:00 GMT

Prize pool starts from $1000 with $300 guaranteed to the winner.

* Technically Play65 Valentine’s tournament is at Valentine’s Day eve, so you can still play with yourself on Valentine’s Day, buy pink teddy bears, soak your partner’s body with aromatic message oils, go for a moonlit snowshoe tour or a romantic dinner & movie, etc.

Play65 is happy to introduce a new tournament, Pacific Time $300+, plus new and improved satellite tournaments.

Play65 Goes Pacific

The new $300+ Pacific Time tournament will take place every Saturday at 18:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time); Europeans and Middle Easterns can set the alarm clock to 02:00 (GMT) on Sunday. The entry free for the tournament is only $5 and the prize pool split between the top 16 players; the winner will go home with at least $112.

moonjazz

New Satellite Tournaments

Play65 satellite tournaments now allow more players to win great prizes: entry fees to a bigger event or cash prizes. For example, if the number of entrants to a satellite was higher than the required minimum, then the finalist wins the rest of the prize pool (minus commission). If the number of players is twice the minimum – the winner and the finalist get free entry to the bigger tournament. If the number of players is bigger than twice the minimum, then the two finalist receive free entries and the semi-finalists share the rest of the prize pool.

Note that there are two types of satellite tournaments in Play65:

Sit & Gos - with undetermined time and limited number of participants – can be found in the game lobby by clicking on the Sit and Go tab -> Satellite tab
And Event satellites – with predetermined date and time, unlimited number of participants and a prize pool that grows according to the number of players - available on the Satellites tab in the Tournaments tab in the game lobby.

Play65 Team is currently topping the elite division of the Danish Backgammon League, one of the strongest backgammon leagues in the world and the habitat of many world champions. The Play65 Team have outplayed the very strong Nemo team, consists of backgammon champions such as Mads Andersen, Morten Lassen, Katja Spillum and random guests like Bob Wachtel and Gustav Hansen.

The Play65 Team, also known as the Mama Boyz, were gathered about two years ago, consists of Steen Grønbech, Karsten Bredahl, Michael K. Larsen and others, and it has been representing our online backgammon room in several local and international tournaments including the two recent Nordic Open events, and in one of them even won two team events.

Backgammon Kingdom of Denmark 

The Danish Backgammon Federation is one of the most well-organized and devoted backgammon associations worldwide. Its established leagues system is probably the main reasons for the plenitude of Dane players in backgammon tournaments. The DBgF, started out in 1987 as a small backgammon club in Copenhagen, now has more than 100 branches in the small Nordic country, many of them holding weekly tournaments on top of special annual events.

The Danish Backgammon Federation leagues system includes three hierarchical regional divisions and one elite division, with 12 teams of 8-16 players each. Every team gets to play against all other teams in its division twice a year. The winning teams climb up the ladder and the less successful ones drop to a lower division.

After sending three winning contestants to the Cyprus Backgammon Open (see pictures below), Play65 is now sponsoring the 1st Meribel Backgammon Tournament and giving a special $50 bonus to the Meribel participants with an account on Play65.

The Meribel International Backgammon Tournament will be inaugurated this weekend, from the 10th to the 13th in December, in Meribel, an Alpine village in France with the biggest ski area in the world. The new international backgammon tournament is directed and organized by Backgammon in London team, Mike Main and Clive Kaye, and the French backgammon player Scarlett Serrero will serve as the tournament assistant. Among the players who ensured their participations are the 2009 World Backgammon Champion, Mochy, Chris Ternel, Raj Jansari and many others.

Play65 is happy to sponsor the backgammon event, which collects no registration fees, and gives 100% of the entry fees as prizes (on top of $5000 added money). Play65 is also happy to encourage its players to open ski season with a backgammon tournament and offer them free $50 bonus if they will take part in the Meribel Backgammon Tournament.

As promised, some pictures from the Cyprus Backgammon Open:

Cyprus Qualifiers Winners

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Three Play65 members won backgammon vacations at the beautiful Cyprus capital, Nikosia. The three, David Bar of Israel, aka agaso741, Juergen R. Orlowski (orlowski) and Sven Rumcker (honeydripper), both of Germany, have overcame a field of 16-23 players to win the €500 seats at the upcoming Cyprus Backgammon Open tournament, plus fight and accommodation there. All three winners are 1800+ rated players, and at least one of them - orlowski - is an active tournament player, who had recently finished fourth at the WSOB events in Cannes and Prague, and was the runner up at the WBA French Open consolation.

The 1st Cyprus Backgammon Open is organized by the World Backgammon Association, one of the leading governing bodies of the game, as a replacement for the City of Venice International Backgammon Tournament that closed its shop last year, after about 20 years of activity. Cyprus Backgammon Open is the fourth stop in the European Backgammon Tour 2009, preceded by the Portuguese Open, Georgian Open and the French Open and to be followed by at least one more stop, yet in an unknown location and date.

The Cyprus Open tournament will be divided to two divisions, Masters and Intermediate, with every division consists of consolation and last chance events. The winners of each event will get a set share of the prize pool (including the €5000 added money) and the Masters champion will be granted free entry to the next EBGT event. On top of the main tournaments, the Cyprus tournament will include several side events such as a Sassan-Gammon challenge (a backgammon variation played with 3 dice instead of 2) and jackpots for various amounts.

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Cyprus Backgammon Open Qualifiers on Play65

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

A quick reminder:

The first online qualifier for the 1st Cyprus Backgammon Open is due today at 20:00 GMT on Play65 game lobby, while the second and third qualifiers will take place tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, same time same place.

Entry fees are €55 and the winner gets a €500 free entry to the real-life backgammon tournament, flight and accommodation in Nikosia, Cyprus. The Cyprus Open backgammon tournament is organized by the World Backgammon Association guaranteeing €2,500 + 50% of the prize pool to the main winner, plus free entry to the following stop of European Backgammon Tour, and offering generous prizes to the consolation and last chance winners, as well as other jackpots and side events.

Or, if you don’t want to go to Cyprus:

At the same time with the first Cyprus online qualifier, the second Lucky Strike tournament, out of a marathon of three consecutive tournaments will take place. Entry fees to all three events is $1 and the 1st prizes to the 19:00, 20:00 and 21:00 tournaments are $75, $112.5 or $150 correspondingly; 2nd prizes - $25, $37, and $50.

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