Melvin Casselberry, Walt Collins, Ken Gutermuth and Glen Pearce compete in 1861.	York Dobyns, Tom McCorry and Finnish railroad magnate Antero Kuusi vie in 1846.
Mark Geary and Kelly Krieble try their luck in 1880.	Elissa Hoeger and Eric Brosius expand their holdings in 1846.

61 rail gamers, the most since 1994, filled the Limerock room to overflowing, playing seven 8xx series games in four preliminary heats, a semi, and a Final. 14 newcomers entered their first 8xx tournament, with four taking preliminary wins. To no one's surprise, Bruce Beard rebounded from last year's upset loss to reclaim his title, winning for the eighth time in nine years.

The round length was restored to six hours (from five), expanding the tournament back to three days. The games played were the same as last year, with 1880, 18EU, and 1846 chosen by respondents to add to 1830, 1856, 1861, and 1870. All were in competition for all rounds, but 1830 was the default game in the elimination rounds. Preliminary heats were informally designated as 1830, 1856/18EU, 1846/1861, and 1870/1880, respectively, to guarantee at least one game of each in the tournament. A total of 42 preliminary round games were played, with 1830 the most popular, by 16-6-6 over 1846 and 1880. There were also five games of 1861, four of 1856, three of 18EU, and two of 1870 played during the preliminary heats. Four 1830 games and one 1870 game ended in bankruptcy.

13 tables of 51 players contested the first heat Saturday morning. Five 1830 games, two 1861, 1846, and 1880 games, and single tables of 1856 and 18EU got the event underway. The results from Heat 1 are shown below:

1830 Games
Stephen Yu (9573) Carolyn Caton (8449) F de Bellefeuille (8218) Grant LaDue (4884)
Antero Kuusi (2671) Pete Gathmann (1856) Nicola Bradford (1787) Dominic Blais (548)
Frank Visco (8507) Lane Newbury (7001) Bill Peeck (6422) Craig Reece (5936)
Anthony Lainesse (8351) M Kumlander (6443) Bruce Hodgins (5547) Jon Anderson (4336)
Doug Galullo (9647) Henry Dove (8367) Kurt Kramer (8159) Eric Engelmann (6895)
1861 Games
Jeff Tolleson (7108) Steve Koleszar (5821) Anthony Daw (5581) Rich Atwater (4892)
Rick Dutton (5712) Mark McCandless (5168) Akihisa Tabei (4947) Glen Pearce (3620)
1856 Game
Andy Roosen (9080) Dan Farrow (7657) Dan Mathias (5663) Wayne Schmittberger (5486)
1846 Games
Peter Eldridge (6893) Eric Brosius (6178) Kelly Krieble (5212) Herbert Gratz (4326)
Walt Collins (8811) Vien Bounma (7993) Bob Mazzi (6809)
18EU Game
Barrington Beavis (8125) Mark Geary (8115) Kevin Karg (7644) Jim McCarthy (6149)
1880 Games
Spencer Hamblen (7341) M Casselberry (6182) Pierre LeBoeuf (6065) Jason Ley (4860)
Bruce Beard (6159) Richard Goldbaum (5542) Rich Irving (5399) Tom McCorry (4917)

Another ten tables were contested in the second heat, with returnees winning eight times.
1830 Games
Mikaela Kumlander (1290) Akihisa Tabei (1270) Pierre LeBoeuf (1107) Chris Palermo (120)
Anthony Lainesse (8594) Henry Dove (8036) Eric Engelmann (6835) Pete Gathmann (5846)
F de Bellefeuille (1198) L Newbury (1074)(1302*) Rick Dutton (622) Brian Stone (214)
Mark Geary (10807) Kurt Kramer (9476) Dominic Blais (8630) Dan Mathias (7590)
1861 Game
Spencer Hamblen (7317) Jason Ley (6477) Rich Atwater (6314) Stephen Yu (5339)
1856 Game
Barrington Beavis (9207) D Galullo (8070) Grant LaDue (7627) Glen Pearce (6106) Bill Peeck (5735)
1880 Games
Antero Kuusi (10064) Eric Brosius (9048) Frank Visco (8841) Jeff Tolleson (8094)
Walt Collins (8285) Anthony Daw (8181) Carolyn Caton (7992) Richard Goldbaum (900)
1870 Game
Kevin Karg (3658) Andy Roosen (3330) R Irving (2995) M McCandless (2369) Kelly Krieble (216)
1846 Game
Bruce Beard (10324) Dan Farrow (6719) M Casselberry (6366) Bob Mazzi (5540)

The third preliminary heat began Sunday with ten tables, playing six of the featured games. All four 1830 games had four players.

1830 Games
Henry Dove (1384) Stephen Yu (1063) Dominic Blais (803) Barrington Beavis (220)
Akihisa Tabei (8594) Anthony Lainesse (6707) Mark Sciera (6346) Bill Peeck (4524)
Kurt Kramer (10328) Noah Engelmann (8267) Lane Newbury (8164) Dan Farrow (7080)
F de Bellefeuille (12006) Eric Engelmann (8318) Jim McCarthy (7971) Nicola Bradford (7346)
1846 Games
Tom McCorry (7630) York Dobyns (6671) Antero Kuusi (5342)
Eric Brosius (10194) Elissa Hoeger (6330) Carolyn Caton (6274)
18EU Game
Kevin Karg (8600) Pierre LeBoeuf (7969) Anthony Daw (7081) Wayne Schmittberger (4964)
1861 Game
Glen Pearce (7968) Walt Collins (7302) Ken Gutermuth (6992) F Visco (5488) Melvin Casselberry (3410)
1880 Game
Rick Dutton (8992) Kelly Krieble (8213) Mark Geary (8097)
1856 Game
Bruce Beard (7996) Andy Roosen (7692) Dan Mathias (7665) Bob Mazzi (7433)

Sunday afternoon's heat was the last chance to win a slot in the semifinal. The first three heats already yielded 22 winners, leaving no room for alternates to advance. 37 players reported for three games of 1830, and one each of the other six games.

1830 Games
M Kumlander (9143) Bill Peeck (8425) Mark Sciera (7225) N Engelmann (7022)
A Lainesse (8476) F de Bellefeuille (7212) Akihisa Tabei (7152) L Newbury (6855) Henry Dove (2196)
E Engelmann (8301) Jason Levine (8160) Dominic Blais (6940) Frank McNally (6837)
1846 Game
Rick Dutton (9245) Vien Bounma (7610) York Dobyns (4520) Antero Kuusi (518)
1880 Game
Stephen Yu (6172) Tom McCorry (5396) Richard Goldbaum (5000) Frank Visco (3703)
1861 Game
Bruce Beard (8037) Trella Bromley (7606) Walt Collins (6870) Jim McCarthy (5445)
1856 Game
Kevin Karg (10871) Barrington Beavis (10030) Glen Pearce (8828) Anthony Daw (7716)
18EU Game
Ken Gutermuth (9469) Pierre LeBoeuf (8909) Eric Brosius (7371) Carolyn Caton (6608)
1870 Game
Mark Geary (9124) Andy Roosen (7898) Kelly Krieble (6829) Elissa Hoeger (5315)

The 42 (three more than last year) heat games produced one quadruple winner (assistant GM Bruce Beard), three triple winners (Anthony L, Rick D, and Kevin), and nine double winners. As usual, not all winners appeared for the Monday semifinal, leaving 22 winners to compete. The semifinals were expanded to five games to accommodate all the winners, with three tables of four and two tables of five players. The players were seeded into the semifinals based on the results of preliminary play and the multiple entry-single elimination tie-breaking criteria established by the WBC. Where players remained tied, they were placed according to their best margin of victory percentage over the runnerup score. Bruce claimed the top seed by sweeping his preliminary round games. Best margin of victory percentage seeded spots 5-8, 11-17, 18-20, and 21-25, ordering the players as shown below (no-shows are indicated by dashes in the last column). Eleven players from last year's semifinal made it to this year's expanded semis. Players were allowed to pick which game to play in the semifinal, with the default of 1830 chosen if the players could not agree. The end result was that all five games played were 1830. The resulting seeding was 1st - 11th - 12th and 21st in Game 1, 2nd - 10th -13th and 19th in Game 2, 3rd - 9th - 14th and 20th in Game 3, 4th - 8th - 15th - 16th, and 18th in Game 4, and Game 5 pitting 5th - 6th - 7th -17th and 22nd.

1) Bruce Beard Won 4 games 1
2) Anthony Lainesse Won 1st, 2nd, & 4th games 2
3) Rick Dutton Won 1st, 3rd, & 4th games 3
4) Kevin Karg Won 2nd, 3rd, & 4th games 4
5) Antero Kuusi Won 1st & 2nd games, best percentage of 143.9% 5
6) Barrington Beavis Won 1st & 2nd games, best percentage of 114% 6
7) Peter Eldridge Won 1st & 2nd games, best percentage of 114% 7
8) Walt Collins Won 1st & 2nd games, best percentage of 110.2% 8
9) Stephen Yu Won 1st & 4th games 9
10) Francois de Bellefeuille 2nd & 3rd games 10
11) Mark Geary Won 2nd & 4th games, best percentage of 115.5% 11
12) Mikaela Kumlander Won 2nd & 4th games, best percentage of 108.5% 12
13) Jeff Tolleson Won 1st game by 122.1% 13
14) Frank Visco Won 1st game by 121.5% 14
15) Spencer Hamblen* Won 1st game by 118.7% (a 2nd win was found later) 15
16) Andy Roosen Won 1st game by 118.6% 16
17) Doug Galullo Won 1st game by 115.3%, did not show for semifinal ---
18) Ken Gutermuth Won 2nd game by 119.7% 17
19) Tom McCorry Won 2nd game by 114.4% 18
20) Rich Atwater* Won 2nd game by 113%, did not show for semifinal ---
21) Eric Brosius Won 3rd game by 161% ---
22) Akihisa Tabei Won 3rd game by 134.4% 19
23) Henry Dove Won 3rd game by 130.2% 20
24) Kurt Kramer Won 3rd game by 124.9%, did not show for semifinal ---
25) Glen Pearce Won 3rd game by 109.1% 21
26) Eric Engelmann Won 4th game by 101.7% 22

The first 1830 semi featured top seed Bruce against returnees Glen and Mark G and newcomer Mikaela. Though Mark was able to get two of the three 5 trains (with Glen getting the other), other factors determined the outcome. Mikaela chose a "death spiral" strategy (shuttling a diesel between her two companies), rather than an immediate bankruptcy. In the final stock round, Mikaela was able to dump one of her two companies with no train. The stock was sold in such a way that Bruce was able to avoid inheriting the company; he was able to dump it after it was dumped on him. Glen had to buy an $1100 diesel with personal cash, that he only got to run twice. Despite the advantage Mark and Glen got initially with the cheaper permanent trains, Bruce was still able to win easily over Mark.

At the second table, Anthony went bankrupt. The third board matched Rick D against returnees Henry and Frank V and newcomer Stephen. As the third table got to the endgame, Henry forced one of his companies to buy the last 6 train, causing Frank to go bankrupt when he had to buy a diesel. The bankruptcy enabled Stephen to come away with the win. Table 4 was the first of the 5-player games, with newcomer Kevin meeting returnees Tom, Walt, Spencer, and Andy. A contentious endgame resulted when Kevin threatened to force his own bankruptcy if his "suitcased" CanPac was connected by track. Unable to get guarantees that Montreal would remain isolated, Kevin made the connection and did indeed go bankrupt, so Tom eased past Walt by only $84, with Spencer and Andy also finishing close to the win. The other 5-player game with another newcomer, Eric E, matched against four returning players, Peter E, Ken, Barrington, and Antero. Again, the four veterans had a close finish, with Peter getting by Ken to make the Final.

1830 Semifinal Games
Bruce Beard (7924) Mark Geary (6309) Glen Pearce (6174) M Kumlander (4401)
Akihisa Tabei (1861) Jeff Tolleson (1548) F de Bellefeuille (1151) Anthony Lainesse (314)
Stephen Yu (1596) Rick Dutton (1039) Henry Dove (783) Frank Visco (300)
T McCorry (3024) W Collins (2940) S Hamblen (2817) A Roosen (2772) K Karg (36)
P Eldridge (7632) K Gutermuth (6897) B Beavis (6691) Antero Kuusi (6618) E Engelmann (3722)

The five semifinal winners advanced to the 1830 Final Monday night. The Final matched four returnees and a newcomer (in turn order) Aki, Bruce, Stephen, Peter E, and Tom. Bruce swept his four preliminary rounds, with Stephen and Peter getting two wins, and Tom and Aki only one. Bruce had won seven consecutive Finals before losing in 2012, and among his opposition only Aki had expeienced the rarified air of the Final before. A relatively quick private round had only two auctions before Bruce pulled the plug. Aki outbid Peter for the C&A, winning it for $217, after he let Tom take the M&H for $125. As the only player without a private, Peter took the B&O private at cost and set the B&O share price at $100. Going first in the stock round, Tom set the Penn's share price at $71 and opened it, with Aki and Bruce each getting a share. Stephen then opened the C&O at $67 and floated it without help. Peter bought B&O shares after Bruce started buying them, and was able to float it. The Penn, B&O, and C&O all floated and began operation in the first round. The B&O bought a pair of two trains in the first OR, but the other two companies bought only one train each, setting up a slow start. Aki then liquated his investments and opened the New Haven, buying the last two trains, the first three, and selling his private to the NH. Stephen got a pair of three trains, and turned his CSL private into $80. Peter had no privates for use in looting his B&O, but he did get the last pair of three trains. Bruce cashed out to open the NYC, but was forced to buy the first 4 train when Peter took the last 3s. This forced the Penn to fall back when the 4 train was bought. Tom had the Penn buy the second 4 train, and also got his $220 rip from selling his M&H private. In the ensuing stock round, Tom opened the B&M at $76, and Aki started (but did not immediately open) the Erie at $100. Bruce took the last company, the CP, at $82. Stephen bought Erie shares to force Aki to open it. Neither the Erie nor the CP bought a 4 train, but Tom had the B&M get the third 4, and Bruce's NYC bought the last "poison" 4. Peter held with the B&O, bought the first 5 train, and discarded one of his 3 trains to the pool when the train limit dropped to two. Aki had his Erie buy the second 5 train, and the 3 train from the NH. Bruce's CP bought the last 5 train, leaving the first 6 train for the NH. Tom had his B&M buy the last 6 train. At this point, the C&O was left without a train, and it looked like buying a diesel would bankrupt Stephen before Bruce had to buy his own diesel. In the following stock round, Peter went first, bought a third NH share, and stole the company from Aki (along with its permanent train). Tom sold his Penn stock down into the brown zone (to $30), daring anyone to steal away a company with only a 4 train. Bruce strategically offered Stephen one of the NYC's two 4 trains for $112, which Steven elected to take. Having forestalled the end by delaying the purchase of the first diesel, Bruce then snapped up the ailing Penn shares on the cheap. Because no one had the money to get the first diesel, Bruce was able to hold onto the Penn for multiple turns, building up his money. Tom finally triggered the endgame by holding with the B&M to buy the diesel, but enough time had elapsed for Bruce to get two diesels without going bankrupt. A late 6 train trade for a diesel allowed Bruce to snap up a fourth permanent train, and also delayed the bank breaking an additional set of operations. The combination of Bruce's greater revenues and quantity of shares held (21-17) was enough to overcome Peter's share value advantage (his B&O share price pegged and stopped increasing the last three operating rounds) and earn Bruce the win.

The final ranking of all the participants is shown below, starting with the Final result. Semifinalists are ranked by order of finish and percentage of the winning score in their semifinal game. Players who were seeded higher, but did not appear for the semis, are moved down below the semifinalists. Non-qualifying players are ranked by the number of seconds, thirds, etc., as well as when their best result occurred, and finally by the percentage of winning score in their best game. A couple of scoring errors were caught after the fact and are reflected in the final results.

This was my last year running the 8xx event at the WBC. I would like to thank everyone for coming again to play in the pre-con, and I hope the event will continue to grow next year. Several people have expressed interest in carrying on, and I am confident it will be in good hands. I will maintain my contact list and will assist in any way I can. It's been a great 14 years, and I hope to see you all again in 2014.

Pierre LeBoeuf

1830 Final
Bruce Beard (9039) Akihisa Tabei (8172) Peter Eldridge (8055) Stephen Yu (7866) T McCorry (4382)
6) Walt Collins 2nd (97.2%) in semifinal
7) Ken Gutermuth 2nd (90.4%) in semifinal
8) Jeff Tolleson 2nd (83.2%) in semifinal
9) Mark Geary 2nd (79.6%) in semifinal
10) Rick Dutton 2nd (65.1%) in semifinal
11) Spencer Hamblen 3rd (93.1%) in semifinal
12) Barrington Beavis 3rd (87.7%) in semifinal
13) Glen Pearce 3rd (77.9%) in semifinal rd (61.9%) in semifinal
15) Henry Dove 3rd (49.1%) in semifinal
16) Andrew Roosen 4th (91.7%) in semifinal
17) Antero Kuusi 4th (86.7%) in semifinal
18) Mikaela Kumlander 4th (55.5%) in semifinal
19) Frank Visco 4th (18.8%) in semifinal
20) Anthony Lainesse 4th (16.9%) in semifinal
21) Eric Engelmann 5th (48.8%) in semifinal
22) Kevin Karg 5th (1.2%) in semifinal
23) Doug Galullo Won 1st preliminary, did not show for semifinal
24) Lane Newbury Won 2nd preliminary, did not show for semifinal
25) Eric Brosius Won 3rd preliminary (161%), did not show for semifinal
26) Kurt Kramer Won 3rd preliminary (124.9%), did not show for semifinal
27) Vien Bounma Placed 2nd (90.7%) in only two preliminaries
28) Dan Farrow Placed 2nd in first two preliminaries (84.3%)
29) Pierre LeBoeuf Placed 2nd in 3rd & 4th preliminaries
30) Jason Levine Placed 2nd in only preliminary (98.3%)
31) Trella Bromley Placed 2nd in only preliminary (94.6%)
32) Mark McCandless Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (90.5%)
33) Richard Goldbaum Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (90%)
34) Carolyn Caton Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (88.3%)
35) York Dobyns Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (87.4%)
36) Melvin Casselberry Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (84.2%)
37) Steve Koleszar Placed 2nd in only preliminary (81.9%)
38) Noah Engelmann Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (80%)
39) Pete Gathmann Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (69.5%)
40) Elissa Hoeger Placed 2nd in 1st preliminary (62.1%)
41) Anthony Daw Placed 2nd in 2nd preliminary (98.7%)
42) Jason Ley Placed 2nd in 2nd preliminary (88.5%)
43) Kelly Krieble Placed 2nd in 3rd preliminary
44) Bill Peeck Placed 2nd in 4th preliminary
45) Richard Irving Placed 3rd in only two preliminaries (87.7%)
46) Mark Sciera Placed 3rd in only two preliminaries (79%)
47) Dan Mathias Placed 3rd in 1st & 3rd preliminaries
48) Dominic Blais Placed 3rd in 2nd & 4th preliminaries
49) Bob Mazzi Placed 3rd in only preliminary (77.3%)
50) Nicola Bradford Placed 3rd in 1st preliminary (66.9%)
51) Bruce Hodgins Placed 3rd in only preliminary (66.4%)
52) Rich Atwater Placed 3rd in 2nd preliminary (86.3%)
53) Grant LaDue Placed 3rd in 2nd preliminary (82.8%)
54) Jim McCarthy Placed 3rd in 2nd preliminary (66.4%)
55) Wayne Schmittberger Placed 4th in only two preliminaries (60.4%)
56) Frank McNally Placed 4th in only preliminary (82.4%)
57) Craig Reece Placed 4th in only preliminary (70%)
58) Herbert Gratz Placed 4th in only preliminary (62.8%)
59) Jon Anderson Placed 4th in only preliminary (51.9%)
60) Brian Stone Placed 4th in only preliminary (16.4%)
61) Chris Palermo Placed 4th in only preliminary (9.3%)

Eric Englemann and Nicola Bradford compete in 1830.	Trella Bromley runs into Bruce Beard at her first WBC event.

Finalists Tom McCorry, Akihisa Tabei, Bruce Beard, Stephen Yu and Peter Eldridge.