Las Vegas (LAS) PBeM Reports Updated January 4, 2024

2023 PBeM Tournament

 

Over the three rounds of the 2023 Las Vegas PBEM tournament, thirty-six players completed a total of fifty games. The tournament consisted of two rounds of four simultaneous games, followed by a single game final. Within each round, players were ranked according to a 1000-100-10-1 scoring system to determine advancement to the next stage.

Michael Swinson was the only player to earn three wins in the first round. Eleven players won two games to advance to the semifinal. Haakon Monsen was the only single-game winner to advance. As in 2022, 1210 points was the cutoff for qualification to the next round.

Three players earned two victories in the semifinal round: Anthony Lainesse, Michael Swinson, and Eric Freeman. All three advanced to the final alongside Chris Wildes and Ray Wolff. Samantha Raszewski beat out Bruce Monnin for 6th place laurels via the tiebreaker.

Heading into the last round of the final, only 30 points separated the top three. Anthony occupied first place with 300, followed by Chris at 280 and Michael with 270. Ray and Eric sat a bit further back at 180 each. All five players spent their first turns visiting different casinos, with Ray (2 dice on 2) and Chris (4 dice on 5) each aiming for 90 point locations. Anthony then moved on to Ray’s location, equaling him there, while both the 4 and 6 casinos became contested. Chris ended the round first, having placed four dice on each of two locations which would earn 140 if he won both. Ray and Anthony fought each other on both the 1 and 5 casinos, bouncing one another on the 1 while Anthony narrowly earned the 90 on number 5. Michael and Eric battled over the 70 on casino 6, and while Michael ultimately prevailed, he spent 5 dice to do so and was unable to earn any other bills in the round. Chris was luckily able to avoid any confrontations and the 140 gained vaulted him into first place, winning the game and the tournament.

The top 6 finishers were:

  1. Chris Wildes
  2. Anthony Lainesse
  3. Michael Swinson
  4. Eric Freeman
  5. Ray Wolff
  6. Samantha Raszewski
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Chris Bert had the highest winning score with 710, while Jon Senn and Samantha Raszewski tied for the lowest winning score with 390. Andy Latto and Mark Runyon both had the highest score in a losing effort at 480. Two games ended in a tie for first place, with Ray Wolff losing the tiebreaker in both instances.

Congratulations to all of the laurelists and thank you to everyone who participated in the event.

 


2022 PBeM Tournament

  Thirty players completed a total of forty-four games over three rounds in the 2022 Las Vegas PBEM tournament. The tournament consisted of two rounds of four simultaneous games, followed by a single game final. Within each round, players were ranked according to a 1000-100-10-1 scoring system to determine advancement to the next stage.

Two players finished the first round with three wins: DJ Borton and Michael McKibbin. An additional nine other players won two games in Round 1. Thirteen players advanced to the semifinal, and a point total of 1210 (one win, two second place, and one third-place finish) was required to advance.

DJ continued to lead the field in the semifinal round, winning three games again. He was joined in the final by Ray Wolff, WBC Las Vegas GM Adam Hurd, and 2021 PBEM champion Kirk Porteous, who each won two semifinal games. Kevin Wojtaszczyk edged out Grant LaDue for the last spot in the final, advancing by .06 on the tiebreaker.

After the first round of the final, Ray held a 180-120 lead over Kevin, aided by DJ and Adam canceling one another out on the 4s and awarding Ray 60 for a single die. Kirk put a dent in that lead in Round 2, earning 160 after Adam, Ray, and Kevin all clashed on the 2s to award him 80. However, Ray’s second round 100 limited the damage and continued to push his lead against the rest of the field.

Adam was able to rally in Round 3 to score 140. However, that only moved him up to 4th place. Ray continued to press his advantage, earning the second highest total again with 90. The scores heading into the last round were: Ray-370, Kirk-320, DJ-240, Adam-200, and Kevin-170.

The first three players in Round 4 all placed on the 5s, which held a single 90 card: Ray (1 die), Kevin (3 dice), and Kirk (4 dice). DJ and Adam began to battle over the other 90 on the 3s with two dice apiece. Ray thought better of trying to contest the 5s and moved on to less crowded casinos. He began placing dice on the 2s and 4s, which would net him 90 between them. Surprisingly, neither Kevin nor Kirk rolled another 5, giving that bill to Kirk and allowing him to try to eat into Ray’s lead elsewhere. Kirk placed two dice on the 6s, but his last roll turned up double 3s, which continued to be contested by DJ and Adam. DJ quickly placed a sixth die there to discourage any dreams Kirk might have had about sneaking away with the top prize at that casino. Kevin was able to get the only two dice on the 1s to take 60 there. Kirk needed some lucky rolls from his opponents to block Ray, but by the time Ray was placing his last two dice he had locked up the championship.

The top 6 finishers, in order, were Ray Wolff, Kirk Porteous, DJ Borton, Kevin Wojtaszczyk, Adam Hurd, and Grant LaDue.

Chris Wildes had the highest winning score with 630, while Rob Kircher achieved the lowest winning score with 370. Paul Klayder had the highest score in a losing effort at 490. Only two games ended in a tie for first place.

Regarding statistics related to the initial turn order, Seats 2 and 3 each won 13 games, followed by Seat 4 (10) and Seat 1 (8). Seat 3 earned the highest average finish at 2.40, followed by Seat 2 (2.43), Seat 4 (2.45), and Seat 1 (2.70). Seat 1 did produce the highest average score with 391, but all seats averaged between 385-391.

Once again congratulations to Ray and to all the laurelists and thank you to everyone who participated in the event.

 


2021 PBeM Tournament

  Bruce Monnin’s late entry brought our total number of Las Vegas participants to 30. That raised the semifinal number from 10 to 15. Good thing, because one of the finalists, Rob Kircher, would not have made the cut otherwise. That’s the second tournament I have run in a year where he was the last semifinal qualifier and made the final. As we say in swimming, if you have a lane, you have a chance.

The other finalists were Kirk Porteous (with three first-round wins), Andrew Drummond (tying Rob Kircher with two first-round wins), and Dominic Blais and Chris Wildes, each with one win and two second-place finishes. Here is the recap of the final, as told by the winner:

It was very close and could have gone several ways in the last round. Going into the final round, Andrew and I were tied at $310 and Rob was at $300. Chris was back at $250 and Dominic at $200. Rob and I sort of went mano a mano after a $70K loner on the sixes and I ended up winning that with 6 dice on the sixes to his five to claim the $70K. Rob had two dice left to my one and had he rolled a six, then I would have finished 4th or 5th. Andrew had locked up a $50K and was looking like he would finish with $380 also but Rob knocked him out of the additional $20K. Both Dominic and Chris had good 4th rounds to tighten the match at the end. I was certainly the rookie playing against WBC royalty in this match so I am humbled to be able to win a really tight and well played game by all.

Only $60k separated the first place and fifth place players. The tie for 3rd place had to be broken by the second tiebreaker (number of $90k bills) – Chris had one and Dominic had none.

Top six finishers were:

  1. Kirk Porteous
  2. Andrew Drummond
  3. Chris Wildes
  4. Domini Blais
  5. Rob Kircher
  6. Nancy Arsenault

There were two other semifinal game winners who were just a hair outside of winning laurels: Max Jamelli and Michael McKibbin.

Thanks to everyone who played. I will be turning this one over to Chris Wildes next year.