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July 30, 2007
Backgammon Ends
Saturday brought with it the second day of Tournament Play.
(It also brought with it another All American Breakfast with scrambled eggs, ham, home fries and a dry English Muffin. Given that the Brits are noted for their dry senses of humor, a joke begs to be made about Lady Penelope being a dry English Muffin. Unfortunately, that joke rides the edge of inappropriateness and will remain overlooked here at WADLL. Please feel free to make the joke yourself, tonight, with whatever nationality muffin you happen to be dining with.)
I had not slept well Friday night. Lack of sleep, combined with my stellar-level of play from the day before, suggested that the best Backgammon strategy I might employ would be the two-matches-and-out strategy that I'd used the night before so that I might be able to sneak off for a nap before the post-tourney dinner.
Names were put in a can and drawn out to set the brackets. I drew Mavin in the first round. Someone, in an effort to build my confidence, I'm sure, took me aside and told me that Mavin was a very good player; I'm pretty sure that someone was Lady Penelope and this would be just one of many confidence-building strategies she would employ over the weekend.
Somehow I beat Mavin. "I'm sorry," I said, "You don't deserve to lose to me." I genuinely felt bad for giving Mavin a loss as I was sure I was short for the tourney.
My next opponent was Little Rose. Someone, in an effort to build my confidence, I'm sure, took me aside and told me that Little Rose was a very good player; this would have been another of Lady Penelope's confidence-building moments.
Somehow I beat Little Rose. I apologized again, before being shuffled off to, I believe, Big Woman. And she beat me.
Prior to the next round Wolfin, the Canadian gal, approached me and said she hoped she drew me in the upcoming match. "Is it because I'm a delight to be around? Or is it because you think I'd be easier to beat than Mr. Patient might be?" Her Canadianess kept her from being hurtful, but I got the distinct impression it had nothing to do with how delightful I might be.
Wolfin would be paired against Mr. P. (and beat him) while I would be paired against Sscorpio.
By the time I was playing Sscorpio I'd played more Backgammon in a single afternoon than I had in all the 25 years since college and I was starting to feel a bit of pressure. I was no longer playing for me, but for the people I'd somehow beaten. I needed to…
Wait, I forgot to mention something from yesterday. Jack, the Dutchman (who goes my Len), gave me my first loss in the first tourney. He eventually won the whole thing and, I'm pretty sure, this means I finished second in that tourney. However, I seem to be the only one from the Backgammon group who believes this; even Lady P., who was always trying to boost my confidence, refused to give me this point.
And, speaking of things I forgot to mention: Lady P. and I were the official representatives that went into the beer distributor's. As we were talking with the helpful beerperson he stopped and asked, "Where are you two from?" with a tone that almost suggested he thought we might be neighbors. The answers, of course, are "Ohio" and "England." The whole thing struck us both as being funny.
Alright, back to the main story (as these things go on WADLL).
Anyway, I felt I needed to play as well as I could so that the people I'd been lucky enough to defeat would more easily be able to wipe away the sting of getting beaten by some joker that had been dragged in off the street.
This is a picture of me playing Sscorpio. Notice the concentration on my face; even if you've been reading WADLL from day one you've probably never seen that face. I have relatives who have never seen that face. When I was taking the SATs, well, you get the point.
In the end I beat Sscorpio.
My next match was against Wolfin. The Midwesterner vs. the Canadian. The Second-Most-Polite Player vs. The Most-Polite Player. The Thrilly in Philly.
At one point the match was one-to-one.
As we played the other players would stop by and watch. These folks play all the time, think about every move and employ strategies when they play. I just knew they were watching each move I made and thinking, to themselves, how they would have done it. It made me pretty nervous.
Naturally my final game with Wolfin seemed to have the most spectators. This was also the game where shit just seemed to go to hell for me and where Wolfin proved that while Canadians may be very polite, when it comes to being polite or winning at Backgammon, they choose winning. At one point the board looked so bad for me that if you were to have stopped to watch you'd have wondered how I'd gotten so far in the tournament. You could tell by looking at the board that the game was drawing to a close, and I still had six men on Wofin's side of the board. One of the other players made the good-natured remark that it looked like I had a pretty good back-game going.
I had mentally accepted the fact that I'd lost but was just a bit sad that my last game was going to look so bad. And then I got some very good dice. I want to say I got double sixes and double fives and likely another set of good doubles all in a row.
And I won and apologized. (Someone would later take me aside and explain that some players intentionally work to leave some of their men on the opponent's side of the board for strategic purposes. That's what the back-game comment was all about.)
I was now in the money, and playing for one of the top three places.
My next match was against Nas1 (see the photo below). He brought to the game with him a focus and clarity that I had not noticed after the first tournament when we were all sitting around chatting and drinking Moosehead. He also beat me handily enough during the first game of the match that he got two points, making it unnecessary to play a second game. We shook hands at the end of the match and said "good game" to each other. I couldn't help but notice he didn't apologize for beating me.
I came in third in the tournament. When you consider the second-place finish from the night before, it was a pretty big weekend.
How is it I did so well? I got some really good dice. I didn't make as many boneheaded moves as I could have. I had my lucky shirt on.
Posted by delmer at July 30, 2007 5:48 PM
Comments
Lucky shirt or MIRACLE shirt? :-)
Posted by: Dave2 at July 31, 2007 11:44 PM
I was thinking 'lucky' right up to the end of the tournament ... it was then that I'd noticed that two stains -- one in the form of the Virgin Mary, and the other in the shape of Jesus -- had spontaneously formed in the arm pit area. I'm leaning toward 'miracle' now.
Posted by: delmer at August 1, 2007 8:33 AM
Luck?? No way....Just admit that your sleeples friday night was from analising what to do to win. Luckely the tourney ended and you did not have another sleeples night. Or none of us would have had a chance of winning anymore.......
Posted by: Jack at August 1, 2007 5:54 PM