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Eric Sokolowsky, Angela Collinson,
and Vassili Kyrkos |
David Meyaard, Peter Eldridge, Paul
Klayder and Rob Drozd |
Bigger Than Ever!
Despite having only two qualifying heats, Alhambra shattered
its attendance records by a wide margin. The first heat filled
18 tables and the second 20 - all 5-player affairs. Since only
25 can advance, tie-breakers were huge. For those wishing to
advance, a win in their first try versus a win in their second
attempt as well as the margin of victory were paramount.
First Heat Results:
· Michael Shea won Table 1 with a score of 85. His was
the smallest margin of victory in the heat - only one point over
Tom Marco. With this many players would it be enough?
· Ken Gutermuth won Table 2 with the next smallest margin
of victory in the heat - 2 points over Kevin Shaud.
· Bryan Berkenstock won Table 3 by 4 points over Jess
Shea.
· Ashley Worley had the highest overall score of 120 in
this heat with a margin of victory of 20% over Thomas Lind. Despite
having the highest score, she did not have the highest margin
of victory.
· Peter Eldridge, WBC's reigning Sportsman of the Year,
had the honor of the highest margin of victory of 29% over Nessa
Savarick with a score of 105 to Nessa's 75. This guaranteed his
advancement.
· Paul Klayder enjoyed the second highest margin of victory
by 27% over chariot master John Jacoby.
· Andrew George scored the third highest margin of victory
over Rob Larkins with a score of 110.
· Devon Miller won her Table with a score of 115. In this
game Lou Traini had the lowest score of the heat (40) but would
redeem himself in the next heat.
· Pete Gathmann won his table with a score of 108 and
in the process ended defending champ Bruce DuBoff's title defense.
· Two-time champ Vassili Kyrkos reigned again over Michael
Mullins.
· Luke Koleszar, the 2010 Alhambra Champion, pulled out
to an early lead to win his table over Pam Gutermuth.
· Bob Laird had 0 points after the first scoring round,
but won his table anyway going away 89-81 over GM Debbie Gutermuth.
· Eric Sokolowsky, the Math Trade honcho, won his table
96 - 91over Len Scensny with a score of 91 with the smallest
overall wall length of 4. Len had a wall length of 16 in the
last round so Eric had to make up at least 12 points elsewhere
to cover this difference which was done by securing the lead
in both Green and Purple buildings which are the highest paying
and hardest to keep building leader.
· Angela Collinson, Alex Henning, Maria Calandrino, Rebecca
Hebner, and Richard Fetzer all won their tables to add four ladies
to the contenders.
Second Heat:
Since there was an increase in the number of tables in the first
round, a player winning in their second heat was not guaranteed
advancement, but would need to win a better margin of victory
tie-breaker.
· Ashley Worley, Pete Gathmann, Eric Sokolowsky, and Ken
Gutermuth all secured advancement by winning again in the second
heat.
· Michael Wojke won his table with the lowest margin of
victory in the heat by virtue of a tiebreaker over Charles Faella.
This was his second heat and with the smallest margin of victory
he was on the bubble as the last potential qualifier.
· Laura DeWalt didn't fare much better - having won her
second attempt by only 3 points over Grant LaDue.
· Lou Traini's 4-point margin of victory over Yoel Weiss
was also in alternate territory, but it was a huge improvement
over his first heat low score.
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Alan Elkner, Pete Stein, Robert Drozd, and Theodore Mullally
all won with low margin of victories, but since this was their
first attempt they placed higher on the qualifier list.
· Jeff Mullet had the honor of the highest margin of victory
of 29% over Norwegian Vidar Aas and stamped his ticket to the
next round.
· Craig Moffit won with the next highest margin of victory
(28%) over Albert Schwartz and the highest overall score (164)
in the heat.
· Michael Mullins and David Maynard won their tables with
a 9 wall length which was the smallest amongst the winners in
this heat.
· The other second heat winners were Rod Davidson, Robert
Larkins, John Faella, Nessa Savarick, and Chris Kalmbacher who
all won on their second try with fairly average margins of victory
which would put them in the middle of second heat winners for
possible advancement.
There were 34 different winners from the two heats which could
have meant nine would be denied a chance to continue. However,
as usually happens, six did not appear, leaving only three individuals
who would be disappointed by their tie-breaker standing.
· Table 1 had Ashley Worley, Alex Henning, Devon Miller,
Craig Moffit, and Mike Mullins. Ashley had won both her earlier
heats to advance and must have used up all her luck in doing
so, fading to fourth. Alex won the battle of the ladies to reach
the Final.
· Table 2 was contested by Eric Sokolowsky, Angela Collinson,
Vassili Kykros, Jeff Mullet, and Rob Larkins. Vassili would not
be able to add to his Alhambra titles - coming in last. Eric,
who like Ashley had won in both his earlier heats, also ran out
of gas. Jeff was able to gain and hold a very large lead over
Robert to advance.
· Table 3 was manned by Alan Elkner, Pete Gathmann, Rebecca
Hebner, John Faella, and Michael Shea who finished in that order
when Alan got out to a large early lead and held on for the win.
· Ken Gutermuth reigned at Table 4 for his third straight
win and thus became the only repeating laurelist. Andrew George
was second, followed by Bryan Berkenstock, Maria Calandrino,
and Nessa Savarick.
· Table 5 proved to be the most closely contested with
only a 16-point difference between the lowest and the highest
score. Peter Eldridge's sportsmanship karma had not yet worn
off as his 87 led Paul Klayder's 84, Robert Drozd's 80, Richard
Fetzer's 72 and David Meyaard's 71. He joined Ken as the only
finalists with previous ALH Final experience.
Jeff Mullet forged an early lead in the Final with 12 points.
It was still anyone's game as Alex Henning, Alan Elkner, and
Ken Gutermuth all had 7 points and Peter Eldridge had 6. After
the second scoring round, Jeff had still maintained his lead
with a score of 44 by having an 11 wall length and having the
lead in the highest scoring purple buildings. Alan had also built
an 11 wall length and Peter had a 10 wall length which helped
both narrow Jeff's lead. At this point, Alan and Peter were tied
for second with a score of 35 followed byAlex at 27 and Ken with
21 points and a stunted wall length (3). Before the last scoring
round, Peter had obtained a handful of cards and was not purchasing
any additional buildings which would pull him down to fourth
place. Ken was able to add to his wall and gain the lead in some
buildings, but would not be able to make up the gap in scores
from the second scoring round and finished in last place. At
this point, Jeff was running out of steam. He was able to keep
his lead in the purple buildings, but would not add to his walls
and did not have much else in scoring. This would leave him in
third. So it came down to a battle between Alex and Alan. At
the end of the game, Alan had an 18 wall length while Alex had
only a 10 wall length. This 8 point gap and the 8 point lead
Alan had after the second scoring round would make a 16-point
victory for Alan - the new Alhambra champ.
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Maria Calandrino and Nessa Savarick
help combat the shrinking female minority participation at WBC. |
GM Debbie Gutermuth lends her camera
to someone else long enough to pose with her finalists. |
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