Report from Reno
January 18-21, 2008
by Jim Cowling
| Sat. Jan. 19, 2008 | Wireless isn't cheap in the hotel, so I can't really
provide a detailed update. Things are not going well. I'm 1 win, 7 losses for the main tournament. I'm getting my ass handed to me by ultra-mega-experts. I've lost three games by over 250. And it's not that I'm playing especially badly. It's that at the highest levels, there are fewer turns in the game -- the experts will run out the bag in 13 turns. You can't afford to waste a turn on a 10-point play. If you can't average 25-30 points per turn, you might as well go home.... Jerry Lerman beat me 522-283. Then I lose 504-238 (!) Greg Heidler beat me 558-251. And then at the night game 509-286. I just don't get sub-300 scores. But I also play against people who will give me 17 turns to play.... And my luck has been terrible. Vowelitis out the wazoo. Racks like ZOOLNUH. Still, I beat Carla Cree 434-288. So I entered the night tournament, which is 3 games at 7:30 on both Sat and Sun. I went 1 win, 2 losses tonight. So I need to win 3 more games out of the 11 remaining day games, and 1 more game out of the 3 remaining night games, or my rating will drop. As it stands, I have no hope of winning any money, including the performance prize. I also lost $200 playing poker Friday night. So I've stopped gambling. :) The cheeseburgers are great, though! Evan is also doing poorly; he is also 1-7, and 1-2 in the night game. We're the only locals in the night game. I think Val is 2-6 [cw: actually 3-5], Erika is 3-5 [1-7] and Michele Eisele is something like 3-5 or 4-4 [4-4]. I didn't have time to get full results.
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| Sun. Jan 20, 2008 | Here are the details: Division 1 only, because nobody cares about the other divisions. After 16 games: 1. Dave Wiegand 13-3, +1449 2. Nathan Benedict, 13-3, +1318 3. Carl Johnson, 13-3, +1000 4. Lester Schonbrun, 13-3, +811 5. Lisa Odom, 12-4, +562 Vancouver players: Michele Eisele, 32/86. 9-7, -81 Jill Turney, 41/86, 8-8, +90 Evan Kramer, 63/86, 7-9, -407 Erika Werdal, 74/86, 5-11, -456 Val Gallant, 78/86, 5-11, -933 Jim Cowling, 85/86, 3-13, -1122 In the night tournament (6 games): Jim Cowling, 6/16, 4-2, -78 Evan Kramer was 2-4, placing and spread unknown. So, yeah, I won more games in the night tournament than I have won so far in the main event. Three games to go. I won't be sending an update until I get home Monday night.
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| Tue. Jan 22, 2008 | I'm too burned out still to provide a real
report yet, but... 1. Dave Wiegand, 15-4, +1653 2. Nathan Benedict, 15-4, +1452 3. Lestern Schonbrun, 15-4, +891 4. Mark Milan, 14-5, +831 5. Joel Sherman, 13-6, +1780 6. Joey Mallick, 13-6, +1234 Vancouver-area finishers (all in Division 1, out of 86 players): 41st: Evan Kramer, 10-9, -167 49th: Jill Turney, 9-10, -17 52nd: Michele Eisele, 9-10, -300 74th: Val Gallant, 7-12, -651 79th: Erika Werdal, 6-13, -511 83rd: Jim Cowling, 5-14, -949 One of us played the Early Bird: Division 4 (of 8 divisions): 8th (of 10): Michele Eisele, 3-5, -247 In addition, some of us played the night bird, Of 18 players: 8th: Jim Cowling, 4-2, -78 14th: Evan Kramer, 2-4, +101
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