puerto rico   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Henry Dove, MD

2013 Champion

  

 

Event History
2002    Arthur Field     152
2003    Nicholas Anner     217
2004    Barbara Flaxington     176
2005     Bill Murdock     164
2006     Chris Moffa     136
2007    Raphael Lehrer     157
2008    Nick Page     164
2009     Steve Pleva     151
2010    Luke Koleszar     150
2011    David Platnick      140
2012    David Platnick     159
2013    Hnery Dove     133

Euro Quest BPA Event History
2003    Lyman Moquin     57
2004    Arthur Field     44
2005    John Kerr     42
2006     Arthur Field     37
2007    Sam Atabaki     44
2008    Michael Brazinski     43
2009    Richard Shay     39
2010    Barbara Flaxington     44
2011    Ben Scholl     58
2012    Richard Shay     51

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  David Platnick     NY    13    232
  2.  Barb Flaxington    NJ    10    173
  3.  Christian Moffa    NJ    13    112
  4.  John Weber         MD    11    100
  5.  Arthur Field       SC    06     96
  6.  Sceadeau D'Tela    NC    12     70
  7.  Luke Koleszar      VA    10     66
  8.  Bill Murdock       VA    08     64
  9.  Malinda Kyrkos     NY    09     63
 10.  Richard Shay       MA    12     60
 11.  Raphael Lehrer     MD    11     60
 12.  Steve Pleva        CT    09     60
 13.  Nick Page          on    08     60
 14.  Nicholas Anner     NY    03     60
 15.  John Kerr          VA    07     54
 16.  Eric Freeman       PA    12     50
 17.  Lyman Moquin       DC    05     49
 18.  Keith Walsh        NY    11     48
 19.  Alex Bove          PA    11     48
 20.  Sam Atabaki        CA    08     48
 21.  Henry Dove         MD    13     40
 22.  Greg Thatcher      CA    10     36
 23.  Jeremy Osteen      MD    09     36
 24.  Matt Peterson      MN    08     36
 25.  Gary Carr          VA    03     36
 26.  Ben Scholl         PA    12     35
 27.  Edward Fear        NY    11     30
 28.  Aran Warszawski    is    10     30
 29.  Michael Brazinski  MD    08     30
 30.  Andrew Greene      VA    05     30
 31.  Lexi Shea          CT    10     27
 32.  Davyd Field        SC    07     26
 33.  Doug Galullo       MD    12     24
 34.  Rob Barnes         WV    10     24
 35.  Jonathan Tivel     VA    04     24
 36.  Phil Rennert       MD    03     24
 37.  James Robertson    MD    05     22
 38.  Kenneth Horan      PA    11     19
 39.  Geoffrey Pounder   on    09     18
 40.  Aaron Buchanan     VA    04     18
 41.  Lucimara Martins   br    03     18
 42.  Eric Monte         NY    13     16
 43.  Barry Barnes       WV    12     15
 44.  Jason Ley          WA    11     15
 45.  Vassili Kyrkos     NY    07     15
 46.  Paul Klayder       KS    13     12
 47.  Chris Terrell      VA    09     12
 48.  Haim Hochboim      is    09     12
 49.  Andrew Gerb        MD    06     12
 50.  Bruce Reiff        OH    03     12
 51.  Marcy Morelli      PA    12     10
 52.  Laura DeWalt       MD    12      9
 53.  Amy Rule           MD    11      9
 54.  Winton LeMoine     CA    06      8
 55.  Bill Salvatore     MD    03      8
 56.  Eyal Mozes         MD    12      6
 57.  Norman Rule        MD    07      6
 58.  Ted Mullally       NJ    02      6
 59.  Chris LeFevre      AZ    06      5
 60.  Loc Nguyen         PA    13      4
 61.  John Adams         MD    03      4
 62.  Steve Simmons      NJ    02      4
 63.  Kyle Smith         PA    12      3
 64.  Rachel Cox         SC    02      3
 65.  John Downing       VA    07      2
 66.  Tom Browne         PA    02      2

2013 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists:

Dave Platnick, VA
2nd

Eric Monte, NY
3rd

Paul Klayder, KS
4th

Chris Moffa, NJ
5th

Loc Nguyen, NJ
6th

Past Winners

Arthur Field, SC
2002

Nicholas Anner, NY
2003

Barb Flaxington, NJ
2004

Bill Murdock, NY
2005

Chris Moffa, NJ
2006

Raphael Lehrer, MD
2007

Nick Page, on
2008

Steven Pleva, CT
2009

Luke Koleszar, VA
2010

David Platnick, VA
2011-12

Laurie Voisin and Richard Shay

Christian Moffa, Jason Ley and Peter Tu

Redeemed ...

Despite the temporary drop in status from Century to Trial, Puerto Rico still received strong support from its many fans at WBC albeit with its lowest field ever. Whether this was simply the game showing its age or a reaction to its classification is anybody's guess. Regardless, with the only variation in each game being the order the plantations come out and the minds of the players, there are still plenty of comments about how different each play is.

Catherine Raymond ended a game with 22 doubloons and still finished second, but she definitely had the tie-breaker locked. Friends shouldn't let friends have Harbor AND Wharf, but in at least seven games, someone sang, "Harbor & Wharf ship, ship, ship" all the way to victory.

The new GM would like to thank all the players for their patience and support, especially assistant GMs Barb and Chris. Lexi Shea was dragooned into doing sign-ins, but wasn't even playing that round! The first round started with the Newbie and Veteran code pledges, setting the tone for friendly play. A lack of sociability and civility has tarnished Puerto Rico's reputation with new players. That is being fixed right here, at the pinnacle of the game's play. Thank you all for supporting that.

Early 1st Seat Wins!
In the 4-player round games (no bidding) 1st seat pulled an upset:
1st seat: 16 wins, mostly by building (average points for all 1st seat, 40)
2nd seat: 8 wins, seven by building (avg. 40.5)
3rd seat: 13 wins, ten by shipping, two by building, one mixed (avg. 42)
4th seat: 13 wins, six each by building or shipping & one mixed (avg. 42)

Is this a reflection of the building strategy getting better? Maybe, but in the elimination rounds, even with bidding, third & fourth seat won all but two games (Marcy Morelli and champion Henry Dove beat the odds or just played better). So bid higher next year.

In the games with bidding, third seat crushed:
1st seat: 0 wins
2nd seat: 2 wins, 0 points bid & 36 point average. One build & one mixed strategy win.
3rd seat: 7 wins, bids ranged from 1 to 2.5, median of 2, 42.4 points average. Only two wins were shipping. Four were building and one was mixed.
4th seat: 3 wins, bids of 1 to 1.5, 47 points average. one of each strategy.

So what should folks have made Seat 3 bid? The average win was by 3.6, but the median was 1.5, that is, making third seat bid 1.5 higher would have let second place win in half the games third seat won.

Cast of Characters
Many folks make Puerto Rico a regular part of their WBC experience and familiar faces were vying for the top spots. Top-ranked David Platnick almost won for a third straight year. Ben Scholl (#25) and Chris Moffa (#3) made the semifinal. Barb Flaxington (#2) made the Quarterfinal. Luke Koleszar (#7) could only join us for Round 1.

Final Game Synopsis
The Final pit reigning champ David Platnick against three folks who had yet to make a name for themselves in Puerto Rico and if betting were allowed, he would have been a prohibitive favorite. His opposition did not sport a laurel between them. Despite that, everyone was even for the first three turns, but in Turn 4, Henry started shipping. His lead over David varied through Turn 11. Then, David built the Guild Hall while Henry was just short a coin for his own big building. A mayor phase in Turn 12 put David in the lead by a point and David was hoping for an early end. Even though it often does, there were still 12 colonists and only five were needed on the ship. David prospected to prepare for a build. Henry got to use builder to get the Fortress for himself. This set him up for the mayor phase he wanted to both populate his large building and end the game with one more point for it.

Turn 13 opened well for Eric with a "personal" captain phase with two coins on it! David needed to build Large Sugar to capitalize on his Guild Hall. Henry crafted, realizing he would do well even if David took Captain ahead of him. Paul got a private trade of sugar, but it wouldn't be much consolation, even with the building it would buy for him later. David had a 4-point lead, effectively six with the bidding, but there was still one more turn.

On Turn 14, David took captain to earn five victory points, but Henry got six and that was the difference. Henry took mayor, getting three colonists for a point and
populating the Fortress as well as triggering game end. Paul's trade and Eric's build finished the game. Henry built a hospice, completing his comeback from loss of the lead in Turn 12. The final game looked like this:

 Player by Seat

 Eric Monte

David Platnick

Henry Dove

Paul Klayder

 Bid in VPs

-0.5

0

-2

-1.5

VP Chits

3

15

21

7

VP Building

22

15

15

20

Bonus VPs

CH 8

GH 8

F5

Total

32.5

38

39

25.5

For a transcript of the game and more detail about the tournament see: http://www.playboardgamesbetter.com/2013/08/wbc-2013-puerto-ricotournament/. I look forward to seeing both new and veteran players next year.

Henry Dove works past Kenneth Horan and Marissa Bianco in the semifinals.

GM Richard Shay and his finalists. Top ranked and defending champ Dave Platnick was a heavy favorite.
 GM      Richard M. Shay  [1st Year]   NA
    RShay@mac.com    NA 

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