Team Play65 also known as "Mama Boyz" has been representing Play65 at the Danish Backgammon Federation tournaments since 2008. 2009 was the team’s championship year, as it ended with their overplaying the team “Nemo” and winning the Danish Team Tournament. For the opening of backgammon tournaments season in Denmark, it is about time you’ll meet the team members.
Karsten Bredahl is Team Play65 captain, backgammon player and teacher, two times Nordic Open champion and the highest rated players in Denmark.
Karsten has been playing at the Danish Backgammon Federation from 1993, and since then he had achieved 55 results, more than any other member, including two Nordic Open championships and four Danish team tournament wins (including the last one with Play65). In 2007, he achieved the highest rating in Denmark, a record that has not been broken yet. On top of playing backgammon, he also teaches the games to students in local backgammon clubs.
Casper Brandenborg aka Scraperband, has been playing backgammon since the mid 1990s, almost exclusively in live events. He had finished second at the 2007 Danish Singles Championship and was part of Team Play65 during the championship year.
Claes Norreen aka Kalibalak (which means "watch out" in Arabic)
The champions of The Danish Backgammon Team Tournament 2009-10, which finished in March, became (as most players are aware of) the very strong team from the Mama Boyz Club sponsored by Play65: Team Play65.
Team Play65 started the season with 2 defeats (only 2 victories of 8 possible matches) but from round 3 their name were written all over the Team Tournament and after 88 matches to 17 points they ended up with 54 victories and winner of the title as Danish Champions. None of the players on the team had a negativ score, and the topscore of the team (capt. Karsten Bredahl) also became the topscorer of the entire elitedivision with 16 wins (in 21 matches) which was 3 wins more than Mik Larsen, who ended up on 2nd place with 13 wins (in 22 matches).
But last season is long gone by now and during the Summer Lars Chr. Bentzon (aka Busti) made Denmark proud by becoming the 5th Danish World Champion.
Furthermore the next season of team backgammon begins in only 4 weeks so who can remember what happened 6 months ago?!
Now is the time to forget about vacations, work and families. Backgammon is all that matters from now on. The teams in the Danish Team Tournament can look forward to thousands of exiting 17-pointers during the next 6 month! Positions will arise and debates will take place in the Danish forum…
528 of these matches will take place in the elitedivision and the defending champions from Team Play65 will do whatever is in their power to win the title again and make Play65 proud but they are up against the strongest players in the world so it is going to be a tough call and very exciting.
Play65 is holding special qualifiers for the Swiss Backgammon Open, where you can win tickets to the Main and the Intermediate divisions of the Swiss Open 2010, that will take place along the Backgammon Swiss Championship between 27 and 29 of August 2010 at the Casino Barrière in Montreux on the French-speaking western-side of Switzerland. Play65 also sponsors the drinks served during the welcome cocktail on Friday 19:30. Organized by the Swiss Backgammon Association, the Swiss Open and Backgammon Swiss Championships are expected to be attended by some of the top players in backgammon.
Play65 Swiss Open qualifiers will start tomorrow, on August 2 at 19:00 (GMT) and continue to run daily until August 7; €9 entry fee, 6 players minimum, first prize - free entry to the final qualifier on August 8 19:30 (entry fee: €50, first prize: free €375 seat to the Swiss Open Championship). To win free €140 seat to the Swiss Open Intermediate division, you can enter Play65 freeroll on August 7, at 19:30; no entry fees, 8 players minimum.
Play65 Swiss Open Bonuses
For this special occasion, Play65 is offering special bonuses for first time depositors and frequent players alike.
First depositors can deposit minimum $50 and maximum $150, insert the bonus code GAMEON65, and have their first deposit matched back with a 100% bonus.
Play65 frequent players can enter the bonus code Swiss50 and earn 100% bonus, up to $150.
The 35th World Backgammon Championship took place this July in Monte Carlo. The champion is Lars "Buster" Bentzon of Denmark, member of the Danish Backgammon Federation who is best known as Gus Hansen’s close friend and former manager. Bentzon becomes the fifth Dane who wins the world championship, but unlike most of his fellow countrymen he says he does not plan to pursuit a career in poker. The semi finalist and the only famous player who had reached the top four, Pia Jeppesen, was also from Denmark.
This year, the World Backgammon Championship was attended by only 158 players, less than the 178 who played last year and even less than the 238 who played in 2005, for example. Several players claim that it is the timing (alongside the WSOP no-limit Hold’em championship) and the location (far, expensive and isolated from any other backgammon activities) are to blame in the low attendance rates. If this video is representative, it seems like there is more backgammon action in the World Series of Poker:
Play65 backgammon allows you to connect to Facebook (and/or other popular social networks including Myspace, Twitter, Yahoo, Linkedin, Google and Wordpress) using Play65 login info. That way, you can share your online backgammon achievements with your friends; brag about winning games and raising rating levels; announce on logging in, enrolling to tournaments or creating private tournaments (and at the same opportunity, inviting them to join).
To connect your Play65 account with your social network/s account/s, simply login to Play65. Note that below the usual login window there is a new box, where you can select a social network and login (or register with Play65 login details if you do not have an account), by clicking the corresponding icon.
If you do have a social network account – insert your social network login info, click OK and connect your accounts. From now on, a Play65 login would connect you to your Facebook friends, your Twitter followers, your Wordpress blog readers or other online social network contact persons.
If you do not have a social network account – you can open one now using the same username, password and email you use when logging in to Play65, then click Allow when asked by the chosen network to approve your request. From now on, you can login to your new social network simply by clicking Play65 icon on your desktop.
As long as the World Cup 2010 goes on, Play65 continues to give away the special backgammon bonus – 40% on up to $150 deposit, using the bonus code "wc2010" - we will keep on trying to find connections between backgammon and soccer (or football).
A recent finding is the fact that soccer, like backgammon, has bots. Watch them play:
While backgammon bots constantly beat world-class players (and a primitive one even defeated the just crowned world champion Luigi Villa in 1979), in fact, no backgammon champ can do without them, the soccer playing robots still cannot fill the real players shoes, literally. Their developers, however, set their hopes high for winning the 2050 World Cup, reports the Guardian from the ongoing RoboCup in Singapore.
So gamblers, which has bigger odds: humanoids winning the World Cup or backgammon played at the Olympic Games?
Bob Wachtel Interview
Backgammon giant and Play65 bots buster Robert (Bob) Wachtel has been interviewed on Phil Simborg site, and shared additional information on top of those shared in his 2009 Play65 interview; his dream backgammon tournament (one match a day, a simple consolation tournament, both single-elimination, in a warm and exotic location), his view of today’s backgammon comparing to the pre-bots era (“like the difference between reading a story that that you know the ending to and one that you don’t, or perhaps like reading a novel and reading the Cliff’s Notes to it.”), his unique philosophical beliefs (a dogmatic atheist and anti-tribalist) and his strange fascination with Doris Duke death.
New on Play65 backgammon platform: from now, you can add avatars to your personal profile and let your opponents whether you are a shark or a pigeon, a frog or a gorilla. Play65 offers selection of about 15 original avatars you can upload to your profile, simply by right clicking Setting. Of course, if you do not want to play a backgammon game when both opponents are wearing the same avatar, you can change an avatar temporarily or permanently.
Play65 avatars, for example
Play65 also gets ready to the World Cup that starts tomorrow with a special backgammon bonus (40% up to $150, only during the WC period), and a special tournament that will take place right before the final.
Play65 offers special 40% bonus for the World Cup period (11/6 – 11/7). All you need to do is make a deposit and insert the bonus code "wc2010". Play65 World Cup bonus is limited to a maximum of 150 (in any currency) and to one bonus per account.
More on Backgammon and Football (or Soccer)
Play65 World Cup Bonus is not the first crossroad of backgammon and football.
- Backgammon and football have both been played on Lost, along with ping pong, poker, tic-tac-toe and other sports and board games, but none of them has received such free publicity as backgammon and its parent game the ancient Egyptian Senet.
- Play65 once sponsored an Israeli fifth league football club, Hapoel play65 Kiryat Shalom, planned to be the first interactive football team in history, the first to be managed entirely by its fans via online social networks.
- Two world-class backgammon experts, Frank Frigo and Chuck Bower, have developed a computer software called Zeus, designed to analyze American football games the same way backgammon bots such as Snowie and GNU analyze backgammon matches.
- The Green Bay Packers keep a backgammon table in their locker room, what turned backgammon automatically into the team’s #1 pastime, at least for the present season.
- For Marc Olsen, the a midfielder for Denmark 1st Division, backgammon is not just a favorite pastime, as he already published a backgammon book and joined the celebrated Danish team at the Denmark vs. the World backgammon match held at the last Nordic Open.
Mary Hickey, the winner of Play65 US Open satellites, is the second US Backgammon Open Champion. After beating backgammon giant Falafel 7-6 at the Play65 satellites final, Hickey, also known as Mamabear64, fought Dorn Bishop at the 17-point US Open championship final, not minding even a 9-point lagging – and won.
US Open Championship is Mary Hickey’s highest backgammon achievement so far, and it awards her with about $9,000 first prize, free entry to the next World Backgammon Tour event (the Swedish Open, in Stockholm, Sweden on September 2010) and a chance to win over $50000 at the tour grand finale. And it all begun with a $60 Play65 tournament…
The fact the US Open is won for the second time by a woman backgammon player is also worth mentioning. Last year, the US Open backgammon tournament was launched with the winning of Carol Joy Cole, who beat former World Backgammon Champion Joe Russell at the final, and this year - Mary Hickey, who overcame a field of 44 players including some past and present giants (not including the giants she beat on Play65 to free enter the event). My guess is that next year the field will be filled with backgammon giantesses.
Play65 has completed its first successful collaboration with Backgammon in London, the largest backgammon club in London and is heading up for the next one.
Backgammon in London tournament
Play65 and Backgammon in London first joint event held on 4th May 4th, with Play65 contributing extra £200 to the total prize fund, which grew up to a sum of £2869 that was shared between the winners of the evening Swiss tournaments, knockouts and jackpots ( while the small time winners were awarded with Play65 backgammon boards).
Sean Williams (?) playing backgammon on Play65 board
The next backgammon tournament in the series will be held, again, on the first Tuesday of the next month, on 1 June at the Lockside Lounge on Camden, starting at 18:00 with Swiss tournaments and continuing with knockouts for latecomers and the traditional "Camden auction", Backgammon in London answer to Play65’s online backgammon satellites.
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