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Event Inflation ... 1830 ... 1856
.... 1870
37 railroad managers turned out for this year's 18xx
tournament at the WBC, an increase of five over last year, and
the most players since 1998. Thirteen were brand new to the tournament.
Three of the new players made the semi-finals, and one of those
won the title and his first WBC wood. The tourney featured the
games 1830, 1856, and 1870, with all the preliminary
round winners (and enough non-winners to complete the field)
advancing to a 16-player semi-final. 1830 remained the
most popular preliminary round game (31 players), with twelve
choosing 1856, and fourteen playing 1870 at some
point (numbers reflect that most players participated in multiple
games). After last year's success and under Bruce Beard's guidance,
one 1870 game was played in each round, and all of them
easily fit into the six hour time limit.
The first preliminary heat Wednesday morning was designated
as the 1830 round, but all three games were played (two
four-player 1830 games, two five-player 1830 games,
a four-player 1856 game, and a four-player 1870
game). No player bankruptcies occurred in the first round, and
all the games were close (no wins over 109% above the second
place score). Results favored tournament management, with the
GM and both assistant GM qualifying with wins, as well as last
year's runner-up, Bruce Beard, perennial qualifier Lane Newbury,
and newcomer Rick Northey. GM Pierre LeBoeuf eked out a narrow
win in the 1856 game over past winners David Fritsch (96.9%)
and Paul Hakken (93.7%), using the Port private-Great Western
combination opening. Other close wins were Lane's $67 victory
over newcomer Henry Richardson in one of the five-player 1830
games, and assistant GM Barrington Beavis' $333 margin over newcomer
Rick Fox in the other. Though Barrington had a fairly comfortable
5% victory margin, all five players in that game were within
15% of the winning score. The results from round 1 are shown
below.
1830 Games
Rick Northey (10256)
Mark Neale (9434)
Jim McDanold (7426)
Dave Fox (6804)
Lane Newbury (6466)
Henry Richardson (6391)
Mike Brazinski (5739)
Phil Bradley (5600)
Mike Brophy (5376)
Jon Kwiatkowski (10649)
Craig Reece (10108)
Chris Hancock (8881)
Wade Foble (7463)
Barrington Beavis (7053)
Rick Fox (6720)
James McCarthy (6474)
Richard Martin (6263)
Chip Eastman (5991)
1856 Game
Pierre LeBoeuf (6822)
David Fritsch (6611)
Paul Hakken (6395)
Bill Morse (6157)
1870 Game
Bruce Beard (11392)
Ben Foy (10673)
Rick Zelano (8764)
Aaron Dewell (6335)
The second preliminary round on Wednesday night was designated
for 1856, but only four players signed up for that game.
In addition to those four, ten others split up into a five-player
1870 game and a five-player 1830 game. Bruce Beard
won his second 1870 game over four other players, comfortably
beating Pierre by 15%. In that game, Pierre successfully backed
his lower RR (the GM&O) into the zero stock value bin after
selling it's 5 train over to his higher valued RR (KATY), saving
himself the expense of buying a second permanent train. Elliott
Segal posted a narrow (2%) win over newcomer Harry White in the
1856 game. Last year's champ, Paul Hakken, qualified with
a convincing win in the five-player 1830 game, besting
Rick Fox by 24%. Once again, all players avoided bankruptcy.
Preliminary heat 2 results are listed below:
1830 Game
Paul Hakken (8858)
Richard Fox (6754)
Richard Martin (6553)
Mike Brazinski (6438)
Henry Richardson (5790)
1856 Game
Elliott Segal (8887)
Harry White (8703)
Barrington Beavis (8044)
Jon Kwiatkowski (5849)
1870 Game
Bruce Beard (6581)
Pierre LeBoeuf (5624)
Jeff Bowers (5286)
Rick Dutton (4496)
Tom Sessler (4153)
The last preliminary round on Thursday evening was designated
for 1870, with a longer period (nine hours) allotted to
complete the longest of the 18xx games. Once again, only one
1870 game was played, and as in the other games, Bruce
Beard kept things moving quickly enough so that extra time beyond
six hours was not needed. Unlike the other 1870 games,
however, Lane Newbury's bankruptcy threw an easy victory to newcomer
Jeff Bowers in a five-player game. Others using this last preliminary
to qualify were Tom Sessler and Jim McDanold, with Jon Kwiatkowski
and Elliott Segal getting second wins to move up in ranking.
Tom's large margin of victory in his four-player 1830
game came when he was able to dump a trainless Pennsylvania RR
onto Mike Brophy, forcing him to buy a diesel and bankrupting.
That game also featured GM Pierre LeBoeuf purchasing all five
3 trains between two of his RRs, then opening the Boston &
Maine in time to buy two 5 trains. Sadly, the strategy of having
three train-locked RRs didn't work very well in a shortened game,
but it did speed things along! Jon's 1856 win against
three others was close (5%), but Jim's win in his four-player
1830 game was by 11% over Chris Hancock, and Elliott crushed
three opponents in his 1830 game. Second place finishes
by Frank McNally and Chris Hancock in the last preliminary round
enabled them to qualify for the semifinals as alternates.
1830 Games
Tom Sessler (2976)
Frank McNally (2332)
Pierre LeBoeuf (2302)
Mike Brophy (156)
Elliott Segal (11102)
Rick Fox (8408)
Joe Delaney (8300)
Alex Vye (7223)
Jim McDanold (11522)
Chris Hancock (10283)
Johnny Hasay (7453)
James McCarthy (6958)
1856 Game
Jon Kwiatkowski (9743)
David Fritsch (9257)
Frank Haskell (7728)
Ken Pinder (6407)
1870 Game
Jeff Bowers (4580)
Ben Foy (4198)
Bruce Beard (3200)
David Fox (2917)
Lane Newbury (410)
The fourteen preliminary round games (down from fifteen last
year) produced three double winners (Elliott Segal, Bruce Beard,
and Jon Kwiatkowski), and when one of the eight single game winners
didn't appear for the semi-final round, the top six runner-ups
also qualified. However, only five of the nine second place finishers
appeared, so the top-seeded third place finisher, James McCarthy,
qualified for his first 18xx semifinal. The semi-finalists were
seeded based on the results of preliminary round play, with the
double winners seeded first, followed by those who won one game,
those who came in at least second once, and those finishing at
least third once. All winning players were ranked according to
the percentage of their second place player's score to their
own in their preliminary round. All other players received ratings
based on the ratio of their best result with the winning score
in that game, with all second place finishes placed ahead of
third place scores, etc. This produced the top 25 players listed
below by ranking with their score, and their seeding in the semi-finals.
If a ranked player did not appear for the semi-finals, this is
shown with dashes in the seeding column.
Ranking and Player Preliminary Round Score Semifinal Seeding
1) Elliott Segal 2 1st places, 132 & 102.1% 1
2) Bruce Beard 2 1st places, 117 & 106.7% 2
3) Jon Kwiatkowski 2 1st places, 105.4 & 105.3% 3
4) Paul Hakken 1st place, 131.2% 4
5) Tom Sessler 129.3% 5
6) Jim McDanold 112% 6
7) Jeff Bowers 109.1% ---
8) Rick Northey 108.7% 7
9) Barrington Beavis 105% 8
10) Pierre LeBoeuf 103.2% 9
11) Lane Newbury 101.2% 10
12) Henry Richardson 2nd place, 98.8% 11
13) Harry White 97.9% ---
14) David Fritsch 96.9% ---
15) Rick Fox 95.3% 12
16) Craig Reece 94.9% 13
17) Ben Foy 93.7% ---
18) Mark Neale 92% 14
19) Chris Hancock 89.2% 15
20) Frank McNally 78.4% ---
21) James McCarthy 3rd place, 91.8% 16
22) Michael Brazinski 88.8% ---
23) Frank Haskell 79.3% ---
24) Richard Zelano 76.9% ---
25) Joe Delaney 74.8% ---
Placement in the semifinal round used the formula 1st
8th 9th 16th seeds in game 1, 2nd 7th
10th 15th in game 2, 3rd 6th 11th 14th
in game 3, and 4th 5th 12th 13th in game 4.
Six alternates moved up, yielding four four-player 1830
games. Two of the games were close, with games decided by margins
of $40 and $476. On the first board, the GM and assistant GM
(Barrington) squared off against the top seeded player, Elliott.,
and the last alternate, James McCarthy. Elliott won the Camden
& Amboy private, and opened the Pennsylvania RR, but Pierre
used the B & O to keep him away from the lucrative NY runs
until it was too late for him to recover. As they headed toward
the endgame, it became a war of stock value, with each player
running two RRs, but in the end, Barrington got a narrow 5% victory
over Pierre. On the second board, Bruce Beard lapped the field
when Chris Hancock went bankrupt. Rick Northey and Lane Newbury
were forced to buy trains, leaving Bruce $1000 ahead on cash
alone. Richard Fox had the closest win (his first of the tournament),
by only 3% over Paul Hakken, good enough for both of them to
qualify after Tom Sessler went bankrupt on board four. Tom had
decided to buy a diesel for his NY Central when he had two 4
trains in his other RR, the New York-New Haven. Meanwhile, Paul
Hakken had bought a 6 train with his own funds, but never got
to use it. Paul also sold Craig's stock (he owned the B &
O and Erie) to drive down his valuation and succeeded in edging
him by $54, but he left Rick's stock alone, and lost to him by
$40. It came down to the last game on board 3 to fill the last
two slots in the final. Jon Kwiatkowski's 11% win over Mark Neale
earned him a spot in the final, but Mark's second place percentage
was less than Paul's and Pierre's, earning them the last two
seats. The list below contains the results from the semi-finals,,
with the four winners and two closest runner-ups advancing.
1830 Semifinal Games
Barrington Beavis (10414)
Pierre LeBoeuf (9938)
Elliott Segal (7533)
James McCarthy (5953)
Bruce Beard (2353)
Lane Newbury (1228)
Rick Northey (1206)
Chris Hancock (536)
Jon Kwiatkowski (8401)
Mark Neale (7468)
Jim McDanold (7259)
Henry Richardson (5383)
Richard Fox (1233)
Paul Hakken (1193)
Craig Reece (1139)
Tom Sessler (312)
The stage was set for the 18xx final, a six-player 1830
game, featuring (listed in turn order) Barrington Beavis (assistant
GM and 6th place finisher last year), Pierre LeBoeuf (GM), Rick
Fox (the only newcomer), Bruce Beard (runner-up last year), Jon
Kwiatkowski (assistant GM), and defending champion Paul Hakken.
Bruce and Jon had won two preliminaries and their semis, Barrington
had won one prelim and his semi, Pierre and Paul had won a preliminary
round game, and Rick had won only his semi-final game.
 The
initial private company bidding had Bruce getting the Schulkyll
at cost and the Mohawk & Hudson for $140, Rick taking the
Champlain at $50, Paul Hakken getting the Delaware & Hudson
for $85, Barrington taking the Camden & Amboy for $195, Jon
getting the B & O private company, and Pierre competing on
the Delaware and Camden privates, but coming away with nothing.
With the option to buy the first public company, Paul chose the
C & O at $67. Two passes to Rick enabled him to start the
NYNH, also at $67. Other players got initial shares in both RRs
before it came around to Pierre again. With no money spent to
this point, he was able to pick up four shares of the B &
O at $100 apiece, stealing the RR from Jon. Outstanding shares
in the other two public companies were bought up, but no other
RRs were started on the first round. Both Paul and Rick bought
a pair of two trains, after Pierre bought only a single two,
beginning an uneventful second stock round. On his next series
of operating rounds, however, Pierre bought another 2 and two
3 trains, threatening to train lock the B & O. With the priority
deal, Pierre dumped the train-bound B & O back on Jon and
opened the B & M at $82. Stock dumping began in earnest,
as Rick dumped the NYNH on Barrington and started the Penn at
$100, and Bruce sold his minority shares to open the NYC at $90.
Only single 3 trains were bought by the new RRs initially, keeping
the 2 trains alive and slowing the pace a bit. Finally, Bruce
sold down the NYC to raise capital for his Erie opening at $100.
This was followed by Jon dumping the B & O on his co-owner,
Paul, to start the Can Pac at $100. Paul and Barrington fought
over the NYC, before Rick intervened to buy a share and keep
a third RR out of Paul's hands. At this point, one of the new
entries was poised to buy the "poison" 4 and the first
5, so a furious round of stock selling followed to rearrange
the RR turn order. The Erie (to $67) and the CanPac (to $71)
were dropped down below the Penn and B & O share prices and
on either side of the B & M at $70, leaving a total of 21
shares in the bank pool. As a result, the CanPac got the last
4 and the first 5, and the other two 5's went to the B &
M and Erie. Paul Hakken backed the C & O all the way to $20
a share, withholding until he finally could buy the first 6,
rusting the 3 trains. Rick then withheld the Penn's run of it's
4 train, and then had enough to trade the 4 in for the first
diesel, killing off all of the 4's. The NYNH was the first railroad
left trainless, and Barrington could not dump enough stock to
stay in the game, due to the large number of shares already in
the bank pool. Rick had a relatively comfortable victory to score
his first WBC wood, as shown in Table 6 below, due to his higher
stock valuation and greater number of "good" shares.
Jon held onto second place by $10 over Pierre, and Paul edged
Bruce out for fourth by only $3. Another fast final was the result,
taking less than three hours to finish.
Thanks again to all of the participants for an entertaining
tournament. I hope we can increase our numbers even further next
year. I plan on discussing proposed changes to the 18xx tourney
format (number of participants in the semis and final and the
setup of mini 1856 and 1870 tournaments during
the 18xx event, among other issues) in the intervening months
before next year's tournament, based on the event survey and
other feedback. If you would like to participate in this discussion,
drop me an email at the address listed below.
1830 Final
Rick Fox (878)
Jon Kwiatkowski (742)
Pierre LeBoeuf (732)
Paul Hakken (527)
Bruce Beard (524)
Barrington Beavis (276)
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Pierre LeBoeuf [5th Year]
3043 Telegraph Rd,
Elkton, MD 21921-2333
(410) 392-3094