There'll be no diving for this cigar.

MARX BROTHERS QUOTES TO USE DURING BACKGAMMON GAMES

"The trustees may as well keep their seats; there’ll be no diving for this cigar."
-Groucho as Professor Quincy Wagstaff in Horsefeathers. Quote while covering or moving to safety a previously endangered blot.

The Roll Roll

Happy Full Moon. 

The roll of 6-5 is used on a move commonly called the Lover's Leap in the United States, but beyond that fantastic name, there isn't a widely accepted set of names for each roll or move. Here's one list of names that my friends and I have been working on for several years. It began with Brendan and Jake writing a secret list for a 909 backgammon party and promptly losing it. Leslie wrote a replacement list, and this morphed over time to what we have below. They reflect certain qualities of the dice or gameplay, life in the Sonoran Desert,  our favorite movies and music, and some are good, old fashioned inside jokes. The list is still a work in progress, so feel free to chime in!

6-6 The Bluebird of Happiness
6-5 Honeymoon Heights
6-4 Postage
6-3 The Hot Gates
6-2 Cabin Fever
6-1 The Princess and the Pea
5-5 God Giveth and God Taketh Away
5-4 The Goat's Oath
5-3 Scorpion
5-2 Made for Killing
5-1 God’s Teva
4-4 Desert Rain
4-3 Jungle Madness
4-2 Even Steven Segal
4-1 Banzai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banzai)
3-3 The Mexican Hat Dance
3-2 Tito’s Roll (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clave_(rhythm))
3-1 The Foreman's Coffee
2-2 Hobbits
2-1 The (insert unlucky opponent's last name here) Special
1-1 The Incan Wall


Here's a brief explanation of each name:

6-6 The Bluebird of Happiness: My mother, Melissa Weller, sometimes told one of my siblings or me "You get the Bluebird of Happiness" when we did something fantastic. 6-6 is usually fantastic.

6-5 Honeymoon Heights: While it can be rolled at other times besides the opening, the 6-5 is most known for giving you the Lover's Leap, jumping from 24 to 13.

6-4 Postage: "Postage" refers to both Jake and Alex's epic decade long game of post-card gammon, hitting a blot from a long way off, and a movie quote from The Emperor's New Groove that used to really get Alex screaming about the goat's oath.

6-3 The Hot Gates: Sometimes you're on the bar and your opponent has made the 6 and the 3 point, and then you roll the 6-3, and your numbers count for nothing, just as in the movie 300.

6-2 Cabin Fever: In honor of Muppet Treasure Island

6-1 The Princess and the Pea: The six is the princess and the one is the pea. Around the time of the backgammon party that these names were created for, Jake and Stevie put a shot put under Alex's pillow as a prank, only to find out the next morning that he slept the whole night without feeling it!

5-5 God Giveth and God Taketh Away: Double 5s is a fantastic 20 pip move, until you roll it at the worst possible time and are forced into a horrible move.

5-4 The Goat's Oath: Jake Padilla, one of the original Roll Roll authors, was teaching his new friend Emmaly Wiederhost how to play backgammon. Jake told her the names of each of the rolls as they were rolled, Emmaly assumed he was making it all up, and in a fit of anger spat out "Oh, well the 6-4 is named the Goat's Oath!" Somehow along the way, the Goat's Oath was changed to the 5-4, but to this day, Emmaly still swears that she'll "take a bullet for a Goat's Oath", whatever that means.

5-3 Scorpion: In honor of one of Earth's oldest creatures

5-2 Made for Killing: This is the first name of the 909 cannon. In our early days of playing, my friends and sisters noticed that very often the 5-2 was used to hit blots. Someone said "5-2, made for killing!", and a myth was born. This roll has spawned paintings, game play strategies and superstitions, fabricated historical legends, a Halloween costume, and a custom set of dice.

5-1 God’s Teva: Named in honor of a rock formation in Papago Park, Arizona

4-4 Desert Rain: Double fours is often a roll of sweet relief, like rain in the desert.

4-3 Jungle Madness: Named in honor of Brendan Lake's late night forays into poetic insanity.

4-2 Even Steven Segal: This name reflects the time when Jake and Alex thought Steven Segal was cool and the even nature of 4 and 2.

4-1 Banzai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banzai): When Stevie read a Bill Robertie book and started busting a more aggressive and sometimes reckless style of play, particularly using a 4-1 to colonize both golden points, Alex gave him the name Banzai. This is a Japanese war cry meaning "ten thousand years".

3-3 The Mexican Hat Dance: Shh, shh, shh. Sliding your pieces on the board makes the rhythm of the Mexican Hat Dance.

3-2 Tito’s Roll (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clave_(rhythm)) A 3-2 or a 2-3 clave rhythm is one of the backbones of the Mambo, just as Tito Puente's mambos were one of the backbone's of our lives when we were learning backgammon.

3-1 The Foreman's Coffee: When you roll a 3-1 opener, you can make your golden point, widely considered the best opening roll. Brendan said this was like a cup of coffee that wakes up the foreman who then wakes up everyone else.

2-2 Hobbits: Four little moves of two spaces have a striking similarity to Sam, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin from The Lord of the Rings.

2-1 The (insert unlucky opponent's last name here) Special: Back when Alex and Stevie were playing the 909 point tournament, Stevie often rolled this pittle of a roll when he was trying to run at the end of games. This happened so much that Alex named the roll after him, "The Weller Special". This trash talking has since spread to other unlucky opponents.

1-1 The Incan Wall: The Inca were masters of masonry. Walls that still stand today were made without mortar and have rocks nestled so tightly that not even a cockroach can squeeze between the cracks. Among other things, double 1s is a fantastic way to fill the cracks in your wall during game play.

Summer Solstice Survey!

Hello, happy Solstice! Stay up all night! Fill out this survey about when you learned to play backgammon or taught someone else to play!

Here's a link to the form if you don't like the layout of what you see below!!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_R24E0sP9Sw9VwVBjtjdsq5Y9WDGW4MIgCCzCVGH874/viewform

Names of Points

The fifth point in your home board is known far and wide to be the most valuable point on the board at the start of the game, and for this reason, it's called The Golden Point.  Besides the Gold, all the other points on the backgammon board have generally been known only by their numerical nomenclatures.  However, each point does have a proper name.  Previously only known to the keepers of esoteric backgammon lore, these names will finally see the light of day.

Starting from the Golden Point and moving in toward home, we come to the Copper, the Nickel, the Cadmium/Talc, and finally, the Iron Point.  The Adamantium sits between the Gold and the Bar.  The Adamantium starts with 5 pieces and is believed to be the strongest point on the board. Some players believe the Adamantium to be invincible even while harboring a blot.

Moving to the outer boad, we find the Bar Point located directly adjacent to The Bar. One space further out is the Fool’s Gold.  Judging by it's location two spaces from the bar, you may believe in the value of this point, but you’re a fool for doing so. Following this foolish pattern, all the outer board points can be referred to as the Fool’s Version of their inner board mirror.

Iron Point
Cadmium Point/Nickel-Cadmium Point/Tungsten Point/Disputed Territory
Nickel Point
Copper Point
Golden Point
Adamantium Point

THE BAR

Bar Point/Fool’s Adamantium
Fool’s Golden Point
Fool’s Copper Point
Fool’s Nickel Point
Fool’s Cadmium Point/Fool’s Nickel-Cadmium Point/Fool’s Tungsten Point/Fool’s Disputed Territory
Fool’s Iron Point

Happy First Quarter,
Sleeve of Crete

Seven Deadly Rolls

Backgammon is a game of sin. It has been banned on five continents during three different millenia.   Cut it one way, spin it another, but that table is drenched with sin at each roll tossed, with each point made, under each pip gained, and in each blot hit.  Don’t fear sin, but do watch it.  Know your sins.  As backgammon is a primal game, we must look at the seminal sins.  The Seven Deadly Sins have clear avatars in the six doubles plus the 5-2, and the now forgotten nine sins are represented by adding the 2-1 and 4-1.  Be careful, and watch these rolls.  If you roll each of the Seven Deadly Sins in one game, the cube automatically turns to 64!

The Seven Seminal Sins

6-6 Greed
 5-5 Gluttony
 4-4 Pride
 3-3 Lust
 2-2 Envy
 1-1 Sloth
 5-2 Wrath

The two demoted sins, formerly a part of the nine deadly sins:

4-1 Vainglory (unjustified boasting)
 2-1 Acedia (apathy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

Excerpt From: Sleeve of Crete. “909 Backgammon Teaser.” Desert Mast Press. 2012


Happy New Moon!

SHNUBBLING

The Strong Arm

Backgammon is a game of startling turnarounds, crushing defeats, nightmare endings, last second heroics, getting yourself in a mess of trouble, and then learning your lesson the hard way when you get backgammoned on a 4 point cube that you had no business offering or accepting.  It often comes down to an exciting ending that toys with your emotions. At times, the game can even be cheap, underhanded, rude, or downright bastardly.  Nothing exemplifies this more than The Strong Arm, a deus ex machine bridge that saves boatloads of hopeless backgame pieces and turns backgammons into victories and friends into enemies.

Imagine yourself with 3 pieces in your opponent’s home board behind an impenetrable wall advancing with devastating timing.  Your homeboard is the projects. Points 6, 5, and 4 are vacant lots paved with broken glass and loogies; Points 3, 2, and 1 are severely overcrowded.  You’ve got no hope, right? Even if you hit your opponent’s blot, they’d slip right off the bar, wouldn't they, those jerks?! What to do? Fear not and use the Strong Arm!

If you connect your pieces across the board, that is if you connect stacks on two points directly opposite each other (the 1 and the 24 or the 2 and the 23 for example), you’ve Strong Armed. Don't try to keep your pieces spread out. If you've got pieces in your opponents home, stack up on the point across from them! The moment your pieces touch across the board, a bridge is built between them, a Strong Arm extends and rescues your children who were so far from home. You still occupy both points, in fact each of your pieces in the Arm occupies both points at once. They can move forward from either point. Pieces that were in your opponent’s home board can move forward in your own home board, or if you want, you can still take the long way home and more them forward from your opponent’s homeboard. But that would be silly. The Strong Arm is for winning. Flex your muscles, bear off, and steel your jaw in case someone spits in your eye. Strong Arm- them's fightin' words!

Excerpt From: Sleeve of Crete. “909 Backgammon Teaser.” Desert Mast Press, 2012.

Board Making: Scrap Marble

The 3 Elements of Backgammon are Rules, Luck, and Imagination.  The Skill of Boardmaking is a physical construction of the rules, perhaps imaginative, perhaps not. It spreads the game to new places, whether you've found yourself without a board to play on or if you're making a gift for a pupil.

Scrap Board: Marble, Brick, Shale (??)

Back in April I was strolling through the streets of Pereira talking on the phone to my mom and my sister, when I spied some marble scraps in the grass.  I stuffed them in my backpack with no plan but much aesthetic pleasure at both their look and feel. A few weeks later, I realized they'd be perfect for a backgammon board.  I sketched the board triangles on a paper, penciled them in on the slabs, and then began wandering around my apartment looking for sharp implements. Two manual can openers, a dull pocket knife, and a broken bread slicer later, I had my board! The pieces are also made of scrap rock, one is a brickish tile and the other is a flakey shale tile. I also picked up some wood chips that I migh chop up to make another team.  I found a large hexagonal and screwy nut for the doubling device.  

Dawn and Katrina are visiting from the USA, and we played a few games on the board to much glee!  Two fantastic features are the "crevasse" bar and the bear off landing area.  The dice also bounce off the marble quite delightfully.

Make some boards, teach your friends to play and give them board presents, leave boards at your favorite boardless bars!

Happy full moon!
-Weamo

CONSTRUCTION PICTURES

Love and Hate

by Stevie Weller

I've got a bit of a reputation as being the best backgammon player in the world. Maybe it's because I won the August 2006 monthly Phoenix Tournament, or maybe it was when I won the Wooden Dragon at Bandon Beach, OR in 2009, but I think that after I won the 909 Point Tournament against

Alex Vittal, everyone's been afraid to play me. I'm getting way too much credit, though. I'm really not that great. Vittal swears I should take my game to Vegas, but betting money on a game just seems like it would ruin the fun and my luck. Thomas Boltz once picked me up at the Phoenix airport (Skyharbor) on his bicycle. While I was waiting for him, a taxi driver saw the backgammon board in my hands and challenged me to a game at $10 a point. I said I'd play him but not for money. Of course, I won. I bet that if I'd bet anything, I'd have lost the game and the money.

I was the 5-2 (a backgammon monster) at a Halloween party in 2011. I brought a board, and I played a few strangers. One of them claimed that no one could beat him two out of three games. That was lgood enough to get my blood broiling. I won the first, but he won the next two. Now, if you know a thing or two about backgammon, you'll know that three games is an insignificant sample size, and that anyone can win two out of three games. But that really didn't matter to me then because he won two games, I lost, and I would probably never see him again. There was no way I could regain my honor. Which brings up the question that all of this has been driving at, what are we playing for?

Some people play for money, to make friends, for the challenge, or simply to win. I like playing backgammon for two reasons, love and hate. My sister, Erin Weller, once owned a board with "LOVE" and "HATE" stitched on either side of the case.

Backgammon is certainly a game of love. How many people do I love? About as many people as I've played backgammon with. My first memory of the game is my father explaining it to my sisters and I, sitting together on the rug of our living room. From 2006 to 2012, backgammon was the national past time of my roommates and I. It's the induction ritual of the cult I belong to. Every time my family has a reunion, we play backgammon. And playing backgammon is a marvelous way to flirt. My sister's girlfriend proposed to her over a game of backgammon, right after rolling a 6-5, no less! Whatever type of love it may be, familial, romantic, or friendly, backgammon expresses it.

I don't hate anyone I've played backgammon with, but I hate losing, especially to my arch rivals! Currently, I'm engaged in an epic battle of 25 point matches against the Michael Phelan on Dailygammon.com. He won our first match with a 25-8 walloping. I've got a slight in total points at the moment, but there's no telling how long that will last before I find myself on the wrong end of an 8 cube gammon.

My first nemesis was Alexander Vittal. I told you we played a 909 point match. It lasted eight months, and boy oh boy, did I mop the floor with him! To be fair, he was completely new to the game, and I had already read the complete works of Jacoby and Crawford (backgammoners so powerful they each have a rule named after them). We started in January of 2006, and Alex struck out to an early lead that reached its peak around Superbowl Sunday. But at about 50-49, I took off, never to be caught again. As my lead grew and grew, Alex became desperate and frustrated, throwing our scoring plank into the fire pit several times, only to fish it out and demand another game (which I would win). I admit, I took great pleasure from the victories. From the time I etched the final 909th tally mark, Alex has not only derided me as winning that match on pure luck, he has also beaten me just about as many times as I have beaten him. He now claims to be better than me. I scoffing and point to my victory in the 909 tournament, but that only goes so far. History is empty without current events. A victory over Alex today isn't as good as that win in the 909 Tournament, but it is very nice, almost like restoring order to something that has been put out of place. Vittal has attempted to design at a match to test scientifically who was the better player, which ended in a draw. Honestly though, I know who the better player is. I will, however, admit that Vittal is much better at verbal combat, coming up with stinking jems such as "you've no business winning this game", "underhanded, cheap, and rude", "chair whiz", and the legendary "ass clip".

I still remember the name of the man who beat me two out of three games that Halloween night. We're facebook friends, in fact. Why do I care that I lost to him? I could beat him if we played a longer match. Do I really believe what he said, that he can beat anyone in two out of three games? Do I even believe that he believes it? I mean, who does he play against? Any one good? Probably not. Does he even know who Falafel, Bill Robertie, Nack Ballard, or Neil Kazaros are? Is it possible that the only reason I'm writing this book is just so I can say "HA! Take that. You may have beaten me in two out of three games that one night, but have you ever written a backgammon book? No? I didn't think so! Take that!" Yes, that is entirely possible. A nemesis is a powerful force.

Money is lifeless honey that has no taste. Fame is fleeting, and even while you have it, it's anticlimactic. Solving problems and improving your skills does sharpen your mind, and it is satisfying all on it's own, but what good is any of this without someone to share it with? Our opponents are the reasons we play. The pieces on the table are another brush that paints life's greatest experiences in us, bringing us together with our dear friends and family in love and in hate.

Touraj Daryaee- Backgammon in Ancient Persia

The moon is new on Thursday.  Here's a real historical paper by Touraj Daryaee from UC Irvine and the truth about Kurt "Smitty" Collins.  

I'm sitting here in this cafe, my internet at home is disconnected, a final paper for an online class is due at midnight, I've got a serious case of the coffee jitters, and if I don't leave soon, URABANANA, a very mysterious local restaurant, might close!  Look guys, I need to cut to the chase.

I've previously spread lies about fake backgammon mythology and history, and yesterday I found an authentic and really really interesting academic paper about backgammon (and chess) in ancient Persia.  My hate for internet lies/rumors and my joy at finding this study made me very ashamed of everything I've written about Kurt Smitty Collins.  Anyway, I'll have to refine my thoughts on that later.

Touraj Daryaee, a professor at UC Irvine, published "Mind, Body, and the Cosmos: Chess and Backgammon in Ancient Persia" in the Fall issue of the Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies in 2002.  I've found it posted in a few different formats online.  Daryaee has posted a PDF scan of the journal article with pictures on his personal website. Sasanika, a scholarly organization devoted to the study of the Sasanian Persian Empire (of which Daryaee is a member,) has a PDF of the paper on their site which is much more readable, but it does not include the pictures from the original journal article.  The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies website has the complete paper in html format, along with some pictures that are not in the original article.

First Quarter Moon: E. Bob Oboe Update, Some more about Dailygammon.com

The E Bob Oboe Memorial Online Tournament of Friends or Friends of Friends.
As you may have heard, the tournament is progressing very slowly. Many of the first round matches have not begun yet. However, unless you specifically forfeit, you won't be kicked out of the tournament. While I personally enjoy the aesthetic commitment to a long, drawn out, single elimination tournament bracket that depends on one match to finish before another can begin, I am open to hearing others opinions about the tournament organization and rules. Perhaps we could establish a time limit for each match. Or, to preserve the integrity of the tournament, we could leave it as is, but begin another tournament or league with different rules. One possibility is a round robin tournament, in which you play each other player one time and a loss does not knock you out.

Many of the matches have taken place on Dailygammon.com, and while I've yet to play my first tournament match, I've started playing on this site. They host regular tournaments of various lengths, and there is a robust community of regular players. You can also challenge other players to individual matches, and I've played a few matches against other E Bob Tournament participants, including two 25 point matches against TheMichaelPhelan. That's his Daily Gammon handle, mine's Sleevie. I give you now a direct hyperlink to my Daily Gammon page, where you can challenge me to a match AND see my all time statistics versus my #1 Daily Gammon Arch Rival, TheMichaelPhelan. http://www.dailygammon.com/bg/user/15026

I love Daily Gammon right now, but a few things about how it runs took me a little bit to figure out:
-You do need to register for an account to access any part of the site, and they don't give you a password right away; you've got to wait for the admins to email it to you, (at max 24 hours).
-There are no email notifications about games, invitations, messages, or turns. The only way to know anything about your account is to go to the site.

-Each action you take in a game (rolling, doubling, submitting moves) is submitted to the server and saved. So if you roll your dice, get a 6-2, but then you have to run to take your spinach puffs out of the oven, and you don't come back to the game until the next day, it will still be exactly the same with that 6-2 waiting for you, even if your computer shut down in the meanwhile.
-To make the matches move faster, the computer running the site uses a clever method ("computer guessing") to give you likely scenarios and ask you what you will do. You often take more than one turn in one sitting. Above the board it may say "What will you do if the game proceeds this way?" I can explain it in greater detail, and you can read about it in the Dailygammon help section. Let me assure you that it is fair, it's not magic, and you are not playing against the computer.
-When you're making a move in a game, the game is not sent back to your opponent until you come to the two bubbles that say "Next Game" and "To Top" and press one of them. Once you do get to that point and press one of those options, the game is sent back to your opponent.

Ratings and Experience
Your Daily Gammon page lists your rating and experience, both based on the FIBS rating system explained here: http://www.fibs.com/ratings.html#explained
-Only official Daily Gammon tournaments count in the ratings and experience. So when TheMichaelPhelan beat me in our two 25 point matches, our ratings and experience did not change, but when I beat him in Round 1 of the Strawberry Stratified 2434 15 point tournament, our ratings and experience did change. That's why some people in the E Bob Oboe tournament have experience of 0 despite playing matches on Daily Gammon.
-Your experience will increase by the number of points to win a match after the match finishes.
-Your rating will go up or down based on experience, the compared rating of you and your opponent, and on the points to win the match.
-If experience and compared ratings were not a factor, and you won a 5 point match with a score of 5 to 4, your rating would go up 5 points, and your opponent's rating would drop 5 points. If you lose a match, you don't get any credit for the points you had in the match. You lost. A 21-20 loss will affect you exactly the same as a 21-0 loss.
-A forfeited match will affect your experience and your rating.

-You can export finished matches and analyze them with backgammon computer software. GNU Gammon does this, and it is free.

Enjoy the moon! In a few days it will be new.

A Tale of Love and Backgammon

by B

A: An early college sweetheart, though we finally broke up before I went abroad. I returned from studying abroad to find he had a new girlfriend, new friends, and a new game: backgammon. I resisted.

W: Just a kid, barely able to drink. Four years younger but with a noticeable crush on me. The crush was mildly reciprocated. I offered to let him crash on my couch. He offered to teach me tavla, the Turkish version of backgammon. I agreed, and enjoyed. He had been traveling with only a backpack and he smelled like dust, body odor, and unwashed clothes. His nails were too long. The crush was over.

B: We played on the weekends. He taught me not to be a Turkish bastard in the game, while he acted as one in daily life. After we broke up, a phone call: let’s get together and play backgammon. I relented. A few hours later, in bed together, I cursed the game.

V: He claimed he was too good to play me, but I beat him. He won't hesitate to be a Turkish bastard when the game depends on it. He doesn’t know how to use a doubling cube. He’s the most annoying winner and the sorest loser I’ve ever met. We’re getting married this summer.

Full Moon, Scant Post

Well well well!

Here is a quite small post of backgammon content:

stevieweller.tumblr.com has been posting a few pilfered Instagram photographs, including #catgammon, #oldgammon, and #backgammonhearth!  That's right people, actual pictures of backgammon boards with fireplaces!!!  Seriously, people, #backgammon on Instagram is just fantastic.

BKGM.COM is more fantastic.  I don't even know how much this is true, cause I haven't yet read everything on  this site, Backgammon Galore!  Did I already talk about Backgammon Galore! in another post?  I certainly hope so.  It is the best backgammon website, IMHO.

I will close with a tale.  Once upon a time, there lived some gods.  We know about them because they were worshiped by the ancient Egyptians.  Now, at this time there was some royal family drama, and maybe there was a king who refused to die, ah, it was Amen-Re. I forget all the details, but Thoth, the god of Th, told him that Nut was going to give birth and one of these kids would take his place, to which Amen-Re replied "Nut won't give birth in any month! Lock it in!!"

So of course, Thoth went to the Moon, where he found Khons playing backgammon or something like it and listening to "Yourself or Someone Like You".  The two threw down for a few high stakes games, and Thoth came away a big winner.  His prize? Moonlight.  Enough of it to create 5 days.  And just to be the smart-alex that he was and had always been, Thoth made these five days exist outside of any month (all twelve of which had exactly 30 days).  Take that, Amen-Re.  The babies who're going to take your place as the new rulers of Egyptnow have a landing pad on the calendar. Here, sign their birthday card, will ya?

The connection between backgammon and the moon is inexplicably strong to this very day, but our calendar has reverted to an odd collection of months with 28, 30, 31, and sometimes 29 days. If you stare long enough at the moon while holding a backgammon board, or perhaps if you take a long bike ride all alone in the middle of the night, you might come to the conclusion that perhaps each of our 12 months should once again have 30 days, and the leftover 5ish days in one year should be just that that, left over and out of any months.  Days outside of months, a powerful loophole.

And with that, I will say that I am writing this in a state of late night space madness, and I'm going to schedule this blog to auto post this, because on the 22nd of this month I'm leaving on a trip to the Jungle.
When does Jungle Madness become Space Madness/
When does Jungle Madness become Space Madness/
When does Jungle Madness become Space Madness/
When does Jungle Madness become Space Madness/
When does Jungle Madness become Space Madness/
When does Jungle Madness become Space Madness/
When does Jungle Madness become Space Madness?

E Bob Oboe Tournament Update

I've got to make this quick:

Four matches have been finished! Congrats to Beth L, Kyle S, Lauren B, and Erin W!  As far as I know, there are three other matches in progress.

If you haven't started playing your match yet, consider doing so soon :)!  This tournament is anti-pressure, so consider that a suggestion.  Additionally, if you no longer want to play, then please let us know.  I'm going on vacation for 5 days, but after that I'll start emailing people who may have not started their games to check in on their commitment.

If you are in the loser's bracket, look for your next match up in one week!

Doubles,
Stevie

E Bob Oboe Tournament Bracket

See it here: Bracket

The tournament can officially begin as you now have your match ups!  If you feel pressured, please don't.  I'm hoping everyone will really take their time and this tournament will last at least 3 months.

Send me an email; wafflewednesday at gmail dot com, and I'll email you the email of your opponent.  You can then figure out the details of when you will play.  And if you need any help, I'll help.  Try to finish your match in a week, but if it takes longer, that's ok.

Some people have an extra game to play.  We have 36 people signed up for the tournament, and these extra games were necessary to make the bracket work out evenly.

Alexander Vittal had the honor of being the first one to lose, and he's started the Consolation for Losers bracket.  So if you lose but you want to keep playing, you can!

Remember, we're playing 5 point matches using the doubling cube and counting gammons and backgammons.  Let me know if you have any questions about this.

March Madness: The Cube

Tonight at midnight (Colombia) the bracket will be released!

Here's a basic intro to the doubling cube. We will play 5 point matches, and we will use the cube and count gammons and backgammons. (And remember the Crawford game: once you get 4 points, you get one game with no doubling for a chance to win. After that game, doubling is legal again.)

E Bob Oboe Tournament: First Game!

Well folks, the official bracket will not be released until Friday, and there's still time to sign up (or drop out) for/of the tournament. But last night the first match of the tournament happened!!

In a match that was 7 years in the making, Beth Lokken defeated Alexander Vittal with a score of 5-1. They played three games, each winning a 1pointer, and then Beth scored a 4 point game for the match victory. I don't know what happened in that game, who doubled, any gammons or any other details. Actually, I was in the Seahorse Grotto at the same time as they were playing, but for some reason I couldn't watch their game.

A quick back story. In January of 2006, I started playing backgammon with my friends in Arizona. Beth refused to lean how to play for several years. Then she moved to Turkey, and that quickly changed. Now she is engaged to a man from Turkey, and she's added backgammon to her long list of games in which she can kick your butt!! And thanks to the modern scruples of her fiancee and her fierce competitive streak, she's not afraid to hit your blot and run to a safe point.

Hopefully everyone finds this very exciting and invigorating. Keep your eyes peeled, the bracket comes out on Friday!!!

Play in a really easy BG Tournament!

**sign up by sending an email to wafflewednesday a@t gmail .d.o.t. com or tweeting at @stevieweller .  Deadline is Midnight Bogotá/EST Thursday night, 3-7-013.**

"really easy": I'm not sure what adjective to use, so I said "easy".  I don't mean to excite people who want to win because the skill level will be low.  I mean to say that it will be easy to participate.   (It is online, which may be tricky, so I'll help people find an online game server that's not complicated.  I'll make that part easy, I promise!)

The idea is to have a tournament that doesn't interfere too much with the rest of your life by taking up an entire weekend or an entire day. Also, you can play from anywhere, and you might know your opponent. There's also no prize money and literally no prestige involved in winning.

Imagine that you're playing a tournament at your family reunion or with a group of friends in someone's house, except it might be online and you might not know the people you're playing against.

Here's how it works: The tournament organizer (me) emails/harasses/recruits people. By next Friday (3-8-13) I'll make a bracket and put it online, and I'll also tell people who they're playing against, introduce them if need be, make sure they know where they're going to play their match (Yahoo Games, Spreadsheets, PostGammon, etc).

I'll also help people who aren't sure how to play online or who don't know how to play.

I guess we do need some rules.
-Play your own game: Don't use any backgammon computer programs that can analyze moves and tell you the probability of which move is best. Don't get help from other people.
-You will have four days to finish your match. Or maybe a week. Or if you don't finish your match and everyone else is done we will start sending you dirty looks. Just don't take forever. Once you have a winner, email the name of the winner to the tournament organizer. Maybe there will also be a publicly editable tournament bracket.
-Matches will be 5 points. The doubling cube will be used. We'll play with the Crawford rule, but not the Jacoby. If you don't know what this means, I'll explain it in another message soon. The Crawford is basically this: if someone is one point away from winning a match (4 points), both players can't use the doubling cube for one game. After that one game, you can use the doubling cube again in that match.
-The tournament will be single elimination, unless people in the losers bracket really want to keep playing, in which case it will be double or triple elimination as the case may be.
-The winner will get something cool as a prize. Maybe. Otherwise they will get something not cool or nothing at all.

Who will be playing? I'm going to invite friends and family, feel free to do the same! The final bracket will be released on Friday March 8th at 12:01 A.M. Bogotá and Eastern Standard Time.

--
Life is good, especially today!

Post Gammon Update

"How long do I think the game will last?  Well considering how long it takes Jake to move, it could be another five years to a decade!" -Alex Vittal, June 2011

As you may or may not know, Alex Vittal and Jake Padilla are currently engaged in a match of backgammon via post cards.  They started in June 2006.  They're still playing their first game.  I'm not going into the whole history; I'm just giving an update on their status.

The latest card to be made public is this: a redouble by Alex to 4 points.  The cube is in Jake's hands!  Will Jake accept the double and make post gammon even more intense, or will he drop and finally bring and end to the saga?  What's more important here, strategy or playing out the game no matter the costs?  Jake has in fact decided, made his move, and mailed it to Alex.

In the picture above Alex is playing the red pieces, and Jake is playing green.  Alex has the next roll of the dice.  Here's another board with the same position as theirs that may be easier to read. Alex is brown here, and Jake is white.  Pay no heed to the dice.

As you can see, things are not looking great for Jake, but lets hope that he took the double! I did a little amateur analysis of Alex's possible moves if he gets a roll from this position. Now the game is, shockingly, near the end, but there are a few scenarios that could send some blots flying for both sides! Am I rooting for Alex or Jake to win? No. Neither, in fact, because a win would mean the end. I'm rooting for a prolonged game! It's already been going on for over 6 years; let's go for ten!

I wont go into great detail just in case Alex reads this before his turn, but here's a summary of what is likely. (Again, Jake has already decided to either accept or decline, and he has mailed his postcard, so any insight is now hindsight to him.) I thought about each roll and what I think Alex would likely do. These are my predictions of what Jake will face if he gets another turn. Out of 36 possible rolls:

Vittal Blot: 10/36
No Vittal Blot: 26/36

Padilla on the Bar: 17/36
No Padilla on the Bar: 19/36

Running Game: 3/36
Almost a Running Game: 14/36
No Running Game: 19/36

Great rolls for Jake: 2/36
Good rolls for Alex that still give Jake hope: 22/36
Great rolls for Alex: 12/36


As soon as we get any other updates from these two, we'll post the photos here! Keep your fingers crossed for an accepted double and more Post Gammon Insanity!


-Sleeve

This Moon's Match: Spreadsheet

This Moon's Match

John Bartolomeo and I once played a 5 point match in a car while he was driving.  Our game was interrupted by two police officers.  What I'm about to tell you though was even more dangerous than that.

We go now to the weekend in Colombia.  After watching a movie about people playing Catan, I challenged a few friends to a game of online Catan.  Kyle and I were set to square off Sunday night, but we couldn't get the site to work on his computer, so we played some  backgammon on Yahoo Games.  A day later, I saw John online and challenged him to a game.  We couldn't get Yahoo Games to work on his computer.  "Is there another way?" he asked.

John: can we play gnu backgammon?

Yo: Gno

  i don't think so

 John: hahaha

 Yo: WAIT

  JOHN

  I KNOW

 John: YA?!

19:31 Yo: HAHAHA YES!

 John: POST GAMMON!!! ?????

 Yo: better!

19:32 ok check your google drive in like 15 seconds

I remembered a spreadsheet. 

Once upon a time, Alex Vittal and I were flying together from Spokane to Phoenix, and neither one of us had a backgammon board!  Weird.  I said, Alex, don't worry, I have GNU Gammon on my computer.  But before I knew it, he was on Google Drive creating a board in a shared spreadsheet.  Alex even added two cells that generate random numbers between 1-6 every time the spreadsheet is refreshed (which happens each time it is edited.)  We tried writing some code to make a die, well actually we didn't, we just imagined that someone would be able to do that.  Even though we were stuck with those random cells, they work!

Several months later, I finally put this beauty to use in a game with John.  It has quirks for sure, when he moved his pieces, they often did not show up on my screen (Chrome on Windows 7 starter), but with the chat feature in the spreadsheet we worked it out.  

And I won the game!  A few doubles near the end sealed the deal for me.  So I've got a 2-0 lead in the 2013 Spreadsheet Tournament.

[quote from our instant message where I challenge John.]

19:06 Yo: i challenge you to backgammon!!!

 John: WHAT?!

19:07 OK!!!!!

  I have no idea how!

19:08 Yo: k

  moment

19:09 http://games.yahoo.com/

games/login2?page=bg&ss=1

19:11 go to the seahorse grotto

19:12 John: oh no! do i need to make an account?

 Yo: yes!

John: oh! crap! hold on!

19:13 Yo: K!

19:14 John: haha I am using my friend's old account from high school!

  we played online pool!

  alright!

 Yo: hell yes!

 John: can't believe i remembered the password!

  it's been 10 years!!

19:15 Yo: haha amazing!

 John: haha darn it! it says that since i had to reactivate it, I have to wait 24 hours!

  hold on!

19:16 Yo: what the crap?!

19:19 John: almost there!

19:22 Yo: "Mom omg"

 John: yep!

19:25 waiting for applet to load

  i have filled out 5 passwords

 Yo: hahah excellent

19:28 John: welp, it just installed a million shits on my computer and refuses to load!

  what the heck!

19:29 is there another way we could play?

 Yo: HAHAHA

  ok, yes, probably!

  hmmm,

19:30 try shutting off your browser and then starting it again

 John: can we play gnu backgammon?

Yo: Gno

  i don't think so

 John: hahaha

 Yo: WAIT

  JOHN

  I KNOW

 John: YA?!

19:31 Yo: HAHAHA YES!

 John: POST GAMMON!!! ?????

 Yo: better!

19:32 ok check your google drive in like 15 seconds

  https://docs.google.com/

spreadsheet/ccc?key=

0AjRDtc5aXrXKdFlvWmxrRWhlemdlV

E5FUllIWUpTYnc&usp=sharing

  or just click that

 John: NO WAY!

  HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!?!

19:34 Yo: HAHAHAHAH

  Well alex made it once when we were on the plane together

  we didn't have a board

19:35 OK, so there are notes on the first sheet that you can read for an explanation

  sample

19:36 hmm, neverminde, there are not notes. they were on the other spreadsheet i copied

  but they didn't get copied

 John: ok

  so I just rolled a 6 as an opening roll

  what did you roll?

19:38 hmm I am feeling very lucky today, I believe I will be rolling many double sixes

 Yo: Wait, not yet. OK which page are you on?

19:39 also did you get that the "roll" button really doesn't work?

 John: this virtual board is genius

Yo: and that anytime you edit the sheet the roll change


s

19:41 

also click on "game board"

  

at the bottom

19:43 John: this is incredible!

19:44 

20:15 http://fc08.deviantart.

net/fs70/f/2010/021/b/3/Angel_

Kitties_hugging_by_

KaminariKatsuya.jpg

20:18