Monday, October 20, 2008

The Last Word

Bowman Takes Division A

Brian Bowman won the second annual Burning River Blowout, with a final record of 10 1/2 - 4 1/2, +861.  Bowman locked in his victory with a 379-339 victory over Winter in the final round.  Bowman was at or near the top of the division throughout the tournament, often vying with Jason Idalski for the top spot.  But, Bowman moved into position for the win in Round 14, and sealed the deal with the last game.  Bowman demonstrated again that his ascension into the elite levels of SCRABBLE play is no fluke, but a well-deserved accomplishment of a quality player.  Brian Bowman also had the high loss for the tournament (430), and appeared a number of times on the high win list.

Jeff Clark won his final game against Jason Idalski to finish in second place.  Clark finished at 9 - 6, +327.  Clark was up and down at different points in the tournament, but retained his usual evenhanded demeanor, and took advantage of opportunities to advance as they were presented to him.  Clark gained an estimated 19 ratings points, to move to 1717.

Winter came in third, matching Idalski for win-loss record, but surpassing him in cum.  Winter finished at 8 1/2 - 6 1/2, +484, while Idalski finished at 8 1/2 - 6 1/2, -484.  Winter started 0 - 4, but performed well thereafter, and put himself in position to take the final money spot.  Winter also had the high game for the tournament (602), but was ineligible for the high game prize due to his in-the-money finish.  Bowman had the second highest game (574) but was similarly ineligible.

Division A money winners:
$500 - Brian Bowman - 1st place
$250 - Jeff Clark - 2nd place
$100 - Winter - 3rd place
$10 - Steve Krieger - high game out of the money (549)
$10 - Kelly McKenzie (2 at 428) and Kevin McCarthy (428) - high loss out of the money

15 Rounds Just Long Enough for Long

Rob Long ended Gerry Smith's long reign atop Division B with a final round victory over Smith to win the Division B title, with a record of 11 - 4, +626.  After a 4 - 4 start on Saturday, Long went undefeated on Sunday to move into position to win and then close the deal.  Rob Long had the high loss (414) and the third-highest win (507), but was ineligible for both prizes due to his finish in the money.

Gerry Smith (10 1/2 - 4 1/2, +214) played well throughout the tournament, working her way up to lead the Division by Round 6, then holding the top spot through the penultimate round, giving way only to Rob Long in the final matchup.

Connie Breitbeil (9 1/2 - 5 1/2, +463) was at or near the top of the standings throughout the tournament, and clinched a money spot by the end of Round 14.  With a victory in the final round, Breitbeil would have finished in second place, but her 21 point defeat in the final match relegated her to third.  Breitbeil also had the second-highest win in the division (515), but was ineligible to win.

Pete Zeigler had the high game in the division (572), but declined the prize as he played just to make the division even after Walter Konicki's planned withdrawal from the tourney.

Division B money winners:
$375 - Rob Long - 1st place
$175 - Gerry Smith - 2nd place
$100 - Connie Breitbeil - 3rd place
$10 - Gary Perman - high game out of the money (503)
$10 - Frank Lee - high loss out of the money (413)

Welcome to Ohio, Heather!

It was a clean sweep for Northeast Ohio players in Division C.  All five of the money finishers call the greater Cleveland area home.

Heather Steffy celebrated her relatively new status as a resident of the Great State of Ohio with a victory in Division C.  Steffy (11 - 4, +666) defeated Joyce Stock in the final KOTH game to garner a victory in the tournament.  Like Division B winner Long, Steffy started the day with an even 4 - 4 record, and won every game on Sunday to finish at 11 - 4.  Steffy also tied Pat Hardwick for the highest loss in the division (410), but was ineligible for the prize money as a place finisher.

Joyce Stock (11 - 4, +343) equalled Steffy in win-loss record, but could not match her cum, and finished in second place.  Stock was 5 - 3 after Saturday's games, and lost only to Steffy on Sunday to finish in the silver medal position.

Pat Hardwick (10 - 5, +1036) amassed an impressive spread en route to her third-place finish in the division.  Harwick needed a win in her final game against Midge Skwire to move up in the standings, and came in with a 450 - 361 victory to add some final padding to her impressive cum.  Hardwick also had the high loss tie (410) and the second-highest win (497) for the game, but was ineligible to cash in for those.

Midge Skwire (10 - 5, +498) held onto fourth place despite her final round loss to Hardwick.  Skwire was a fixture at or near the top of the standings throughout the tourney, but fell off the pace in the wake of the second-day surges by other Northeast Ohio players.  Skwire also had the third highest win for the division (490), but was ineligible to cash in.

Eileen Popich (10 - 5, +465) took fifth place and the last money spot in Division C.  Popich was up and down in the standings throughout the tournament, but kept herself in position to finish in the money and sealed the deal with her final game.  Popich also had the high game for the division (545), but was ineligible.

Division C money winners:
$275 - Heather Steffy - 1st place
$175 - Joyce Stock - 2nd place
$130 - Pat Hardwick - 3rd place
$90 - Midge Skwire - 4th place
$70 - Eileen Popich - 5th place
$10 - Aldonia Chappell - high win out of the money (488)
$10 - Michael Bassett - high loss out of the money (408)

Additional Prize Winners:

$10 - Eileen Popich - high play - REPLAYED for 176 points
$10 - Midge Skwire - low-probability, natural, valid 7-letter bingo - PONTOON
$10 - Joyce Stock - low-probability, natural, valid 8-letter bingo - WALLEYES
$10 - Steve Krieger - OBAMA word with most letters from Obama and highest score - BOATMAN
$10 - Dan Stock - McCAIN word with most letters from McCain and highest score - CHEATING
$10 - George Viebranz - random drawing from correct entries in the Morning Bulleting Quiz (a ploy cooked up by the directors to try to ensure that contestants would read the written announcements before the tournament)

Thank You and Good Night

Thanks are due to the 40 players who participated in the tournament, and were generally a joy to work with.  The atmosphere was collegial throughout the event and the competitors played with heart and intensity, but also a sense of good will and fair play.  As with any tourney, the players make the event, and this was a great one.  Players were regularly offering me help and encouragement, and it was much appreciated.  It was an honor to serve as the on-site director of the second Burning River Blowout.

Thanks also to Pete Zeigler, who provided the impetus for the event, drove the promotion and registration process, and was a constant guide through the planning process.  Pete was also very gracious in putting his rating on the line to give Division B players an opportunity to avoid taking a bye on day 2.

Thanks as well go to George Viebranz and Dan Stock, who provided computers for challenges, and to Dan and Joyce stock for providing so many goodies for the contestants and bringing back lunch for me both days.  Tournaments would be much tougher without the kind and selfless assistance of folks like these, and Northeast Ohio is lucky to have so many of them around.

Jason Idalski did a great job running the Trivia Bowl on Saturday night (with the singular exception of his failure to choose only questions for which I, and I alone, knew the answer).  Thanks so much, Jason!

I would be remiss if I didn't thank two folks who made this tournament the smooth running event it turned out to be.  John Chew has created a gem with the tsh program.  His program is feature-packed, fast and easy to use, and can be resident in memory without impeding computing performance.  Additionally, John is always so willing to be available for help and advice, and very quickly addressed a minor problem I had with an unusual pairings situation.  Thanks so much, John.

Finally, I would like to thank my good friend, Dale Pease.  Dale provides free web hosting and access to his awesome website content management tool, siteMpower, for the www.neoscrabble.com website.  Two of the newest tools, a blog utility and photo gallery, helped me immensely with providing live coverage for the event.  SiteMpower is truly an amazing tool, and if you are interested in website content management, I would commend to you www.siteMpower.com.

Dallas Johnson

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Yet Another Correction

Looking over my Round 14 mishap with the live coverage, I see that I messed up the situation in Division C as well.  I said that Heather Steffy needed a sizable win over Joyce to win the tournament, depending upon what happened in the Midge Skwire - Pat Hardwick game.  But Heather actually had the higher spread, and really just needed to win and avoid a blowout by Midge in her game.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Final Standings Now Posted

I'm sorry for the delay.  The final results of the tournament are now posted on the Pairings and Standings page.  I will add a final recap and photos of the awards ceremony in a few minutes.

Thanks for visiting the live coverage.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Correction

Brad Mills pointed out that my commentary is wrong.  It's in the comments to the Round 14 recap, but in case you missed it, Brian Bowman will win the tournament unless Winter achieves a blowout victory against him.

Thanks for the catch, Brad.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Round 14 Recap

Brian Bowman is back in first position with a record of 9 1/2 - 4 1/2, +821.  He plays Winter (8 1/2 - 5 1/2, +524) in the final match, and the winner will win Division A and Bowman will win the tournament unless Winter is able to win the final game by a margin of 149 or greater.  Jason Idalski needs a win over Jeff Clark to finish in the money, and realistically a win by Bowman to finish higher than 3rd.  At this point, he is probably more concerned about his own win, as he stands at 1745 currently by tsh calculations, and has a shot at cresting the 1750 barrier with a win, which has been a goal of his for some time.

Division B is a similarly tight race.  Gerry Smith (10 1/2 - 3 1/2, +260) has a 1/2 game lead over Rob Long (10 - 4, +580), and the winner of their Round 15 game will win the division.  Connie Breitbeil is guaranteed at least a third place finish, and with the right set of circumstances, can finish as high as second.

Division C is a three-way battle.  Joyce Stock and Heather Steffy are competing in the final round.  A win by Joyce gives her the division title.  Heather needs a blow-out win can win by beating Joyce, so long as Midge Skwire doesn't win by a margin of victory 63 points higher than hers.  Heather could also potentially finish out of the money altogether if she loses.  Midge Skwire stands in 3rd place, and is playing Pat Hardwick.  With a close victory by Steffy and a victory over Hardwick, Skwire can still win the tournament if she amasses sufficient spread points.  Hardwick will likely finish in the money, and could finish as high as second if she wins her final game.  Linda Ianetti, Eileen Popich, and Terry Schroeder also have a shot at the lower money spots, although spread will likely be a factor.

Final results and the awards ceremony are next.  In the meantime, I have photos of the top money matches posted to the Photo Gallery.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Round 13 Recap

Well, as it turns out, I have a little more time between rounds, not less.  Since I have to make everyone wait for me to compute standings and pairings before a new round can begin, a lot of the work that I did during play is now being done after many players have finished.

Division B has required a concerted effort to keep straight, with our unconventional practice of tracking Pete's games for ratings purposes, but counting a bye for his opponent for tournament standings purposes.  I couldn't have done this without tsh, because I have been modifying the Word version of the ratings each round, while tracking the modified standings of the players with a "Pete bye" in an Excel spreadsheet.  What I probably should have done, though, was just counted the bye in the tournament standings, and adjusted for the Pete games after the tournament was over for ratings purposes.  I just now thought of that.  Oh well, live and learn.

And speaking of Division B, after Round 13 Gerry Smith and Rob Long are separated by a mere half game.  They are paired with others this round, so a lot could still happen.  But, if they both win, they will face off for the championship in Round 15.  Connie Breitbeil and Gary Perman remain in contention as well, depending upon how this round finishes, and others could still finish in the money.

Results slips are coming in.  More later.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Division B Standings Clarification

As stated earlier, Division B now includes Pete Ziegler.  Because he is rated outside the parameters of that division, the players who play him are credited with a bye in the tournament, even though the game counts for ratings purposes.  So, the actual tournament standings vary from the tsh reports, which show the standings for ratings purposes.  If you're confused at this point, you're in good company, because Division B isn't sure about all of this either.

Here are the tournament modified round-by-round standings for Division B for rounds 9 - 13:

TOURNAMENT ADJUSTED
Division B Round 9 Ratings

Rnk Won-Lost Spread OldR NewR +-R Player Last
1 8.0-1.0 +377 1389 1433 +44 SMITH, GERRY (B3) W:407-393:B6
2 6.0-3.0 +325 1195 1256 +61 BREITBEIL, CONNIE (B9) L:324-397:B1
3 6.0-3.0 +189 1507 1492 -15 PERMAN, GARY (B1) W:397-324:B9
4 5.0-4.0 +146 1459 1429 -30 LONG, ROB (B2) W:374-323:B5
5 5.0-4.0 +136 1155 1210 +55 SMITH, KAREN (B12) W:417-356:B7
6 5.0-4.0 +98 1308 1316 +8 PITZER, WILMA (B6) L:393-407:B3
7 4.0-5.0 +114 1386 1355 -31 LEE, FRANK (B4) W:454-269:B8
8 4.0-5.0 -209 1166 1170 +4 DAY, PATRICIA (B11) L:302-461:B13(BYE WIN)
9 4.0-5.0 -226 1217 1230 +13 GREENE, LOIS (B8) L:269-454:B4
10 3.0-6.0 -427 1233 1219 -14 MELVIN, CHERYL (B7) L:356-417:B12
11 2.0-7.0 -267 1350 1283 -67 KOSELKE, PHYLLIS (B5) L:323-374:B2
12 1.0-8.0 -241 1582 1583 +1 ZEIGLER, PETE (B13) W:461-302:B11
 

TOURNAMENT ADJUSTED
Division B Round 10 Ratings

Rnk Won-Lost Spread OldR NewR +-R Player Last
1 8.0-2.0 +170 1389 1425 +36 SMITH, GERRY (B3) L:300-507:B2
2 7.0-3.0 +494 1195 1273 +78 BREITBEIL, CONNIE (B9) W:515-346:B7
3 7.0-3.0 +328 1507 1494 -13 PERMAN, GARY (B1) W:449-310:B11
4 6.0-4.0 +353 1459 1436 -23 LONG, ROB (B2) W:507-300:B3
5 5.0-5.0 +164 1386 1350 -36 LEE, FRANK (B4) L:238-473:B13 (BYE WIN)
6 5.0-5.0 +90 1155 1197 +42 SMITH, KAREN (B12) L:371-417:B8
7 5.0-5.0 +0 1308 1307 -1 PITZER, WILMA (B6) L:287-385:B5
8 5.0-5.0 -180 1217 1239 +22 GREENE, LOIS (B8) W:417-371:B12
9 4.0-6.0 -348 1166 1168 +2 DAY, PATRICIA (B11) L:310-449:B1
10 3.0-7.0 -169 1350 1292 -58 KOSELKE, PHYLLIS (B5) W:385-287:B6
11 3.0-7.0 -596 1233 1208 -25 MELVIN, CHERYL (B7) L:346-515:B9
12 2.0-8.0 -6 1582 1588 +6 ZEIGLER, PETE (B13) W:473-238:B4
 

TOURNAMENT ADJUSTED
Division B Round 11 Ratings

Rnk Won-Lost Spread OldR NewR +-R Player Last
1 8.5-2.5 +170 1389 1420 +31 SMITH, GERRY (B3) T:339-339:B9
2 7.5-3.5 +494 1195 1278 +83 BREITBEIL, CONNIE (B9) T:339-339:B3
3 7.0-4.0 +370 1459 1448 -11 LONG, ROB (B2) W:357-340:B1
4 7.0-4.0 +311 1507 1483 -24 PERMAN, GARY (B1) L:340-357:B2
5 6.0-5.0 +217 1386 1356 -30 LEE, FRANK (B4) W:401-348:B8
6 6.0-5.0 +215 1155 1212 +57 SMITH, KAREN (B12) W:390-265:B6
7 5.0-6.0 -125 1308 1293 -15 PITZER, WILMA (B6) L:265-390:B12
8 5.0-6.0 -233 1217 1233 +16 GREENE, LOIS (B8) L:348-401:B4
9 4.0-7.0 -119 1350 1288 -62 KOSELKE, PHYLLIS (B5) L:368-425:B13
10 4.0-7.0 -355 1166 1160 -6 DAY, PATRICIA (B11) L:327-334:B7
11 4.0-7.0 -589 1233 1217 -16 MELVIN, CHERYL (B7) W:334-327:B11
12 3.0-8.0 +51 1582 1592 +10 ZEIGLER, PETE (B13) W:425-368:B5
 

TOURNAMENT ADJUSTED
Division B Round 12 Ratings

Rnk Won-Lost Spread OldR NewR +-R Player Last
1 9.5-2.5 +235 1389 1433 +44 SMITH, GERRY (B3) W:462-397:B1
2 8.0-4.0 +466 1459 1452 -7 LONG, ROB (B2) W:394-298:B9
3 7.5-4.5 +398 1195 1266 +71 BREITBEIL, CONNIE (B9) L:298-394:B2
4 7.0-5.0 +291 1155 1230 +75 SMITH, KAREN (B12) W:441-365:B8
5 7.0-5.0 +261 1386 1363 -23 LEE, FRANK (B4) W:335-291:B6
6 7.0-5.0 +246 1507 1469 -38 PERMAN, GARY (B1) L:397-462:B3
7 5.0-7.0 -169 1308 1285 -23 PITZER, WILMA (B6) L:291-335:B4
8 5.0-7.0 -256 1166 1175 +9 DAY, PATRICIA (B11) W:442-343:B5
9 5.0-7.0 -309 1217 1222 +5 GREENE, LOIS (B8) L:365-441:B12
10 5.0-7.0 -539 1233 1214 -19 MELVIN, CHERYL (B7) L:304-572:B13
11 4.0-8.0 +319 1582 1595 +13 ZEIGLER, PETE (B13) W:572-304:B7
12 4.0-8.0 -218 1350 1273 -77 KOSELKE, PHYLLIS (B5) L:343-442:B11
 

TOURNAMENT ADJUSTED
Division B Round 13 Ratings

Rnk Won-Lost Spread OldR NewR +-R Player Last
1 9.5-3.5 +170 1389 1425 +36 SMITH, GERRY (B3) L:306-371:B2
2 9.0-4.0 +531 1459 1460 +1 LONG, ROB (B2) W:371-306:B3
3 8.5-4.5 +439 1195 1279 +84 BREITBEIL, CONNIE (B9) W:374-333:B12
4 8.0-5.0 +336 1507 1476 -31 PERMAN, GARY (B1) W:503-413:B4
5 7.0-6.0 +250 1155 1214 +59 SMITH, KAREN (B12) L:333-374:B9
6 7.0-6.0 +171 1386 1357 -29 LEE, FRANK (B4) L:413-503:B1
7 5.0-8.0 +397 1582 1597 +15 ZEIGLER, PETE (B13) W:409-331:B8
8 5.0-8.0 -178 1308 1271 -37 PITZER, WILMA (B6) L:374-383:B11
9 6.0-7.0 -259 1217 1219 +2 GREENE, LOIS (B8) L:331-409:B13 (BYE WIN)
10 6.0-7.0 -247 1166 1189 +23 DAY, PATRICIA (B11) W:383-374:B6
11 5.0-8.0 -135 1350 1280 -70 KOSELKE, PHYLLIS (B5) W:452-369:B7
12 5.0-8.0 -622 1233 1207 -26 MELVIN, CHERYL (B7) L:369-452:B5