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All in the Family!
The Sugar Daddy smiled. Another event to annoy the few had
been brought into the realm of the WBC. But he was concerned.
Riding crop? He can't be serious.
Royal Turf is one of those late night games where you
screw with everyone else in the cutthroat world of horse race
fixing. How would it translate to a "friendly" trial
event, where wood is on the line and players are relative strangers?
The demonstration was attended by six, which turned out to
be a perfect number. After a 10-minute discussion of the rules
and having answered some questions, the six were set off on their
own trial game. As the demonstration game progressed, exclamations
of "oh, wow!" and other players providing "helpful"
suggestions emerged. They got it. Even better, the game played
to completion in about 20 minutes, so for a first time play,
they did well.
A few hours later, 34 showed up for the big show. The GM had
a riding crop on hand, but was disappointed knowing that the
horses would need no urging today. A few tweaks and clarifications
were made to the ground rules. One, the 0-bet chit was used.
Two, once a bet was placed players could not look at it until
the end of the race. More than one player wondered if they were
sandbagging the right horse.
Six tables were run, and the winner of each table advanced.
Each table provided their own track name. The results of the
different tracks broke down as follows:
Cranberry Acres Track
Mathiew Yuill - £2400
John Jacoby - £1800
Joe Nemet - £1700
Dan "Ball Peen" Dolan - £1600
Susan Cornett - £1500
Kevin Youells - £1450
Upsan Downs
John Welage - £2300
Doug Smith - £1900
Bob Hahn - £1800
Peter Stein - £1200
Christy Harrison - £900
Mike Coomes - £600
Penn National
Lyle Wenger - £2250
Chad Gormly - £1700
Evan Tannheimer - £1600
Eric Lenhart - £1500
Jim Carvin - £900
Greenwood Park
Luke Koleszar - £2100
Brad Bellows - £1850
Fabio Tola - £1550
John Shaheen - £1500
Rob Hassard - £750
Bettytoga
Phil Bradley - £1950
Andrew Maly - £1900
Robert Seulowitz - £1550
Gerald Leintz - £1400
Charles Ellsworth - £1200
Bruce Bernard - £900
DonCon Downs
Rhonda Reiff - £2600
Stan Buck - £1550
Ken Gutermuth - £1100
Perry Cocke - £1050
Jason Levine - £950
Bruce Reiff - £500
Yes, you correctly read that last result. Rhonda Reiff cleaned
the clocks of some of the WBC's most famous sharks. And in their
specialty - horseracing, no less. After seeing her husband's
performance, she thought about having him retired, but was talked
out of it.
So the six winners were "jetted" to Finalist Downs
for the showdown. Bruce Reiff was the most nervous person in
the room, as his wife, attending her first WBC was going for
wood at the same time his daughter was going for wood in a juniors
event. The GM flashed him signs of the game progress. After two
races, three players, Mathiew, Rhonda, and Luke appeared to be
well ahead of the other three. But with double payoffs for the
third and final race, it was still anyone's game to be had.
Sahara Wind proved to be a popular bet, with five chits going
down on the long-shot. The wind ruled the day, but dashed the
hopes of the Reiff clan as Rhonda's bet was her 0 bet. However,
her loss was Luke's gain as he deftly brought his favorite home
to claim the first Royal Turf title.
Final totals for the championship table:
Finalist Downs
Luke Koleszar - £2000
Rhonda Reiff - £1600
Lyle Wenger - £1400
John Welage - £1400
Phil Bradley - £1350
Mathiew Yuill - £1350
Many a comment was provided that the game provided a perfect
fill for early Saturday evening as a warm up for the ever-popular
Slapshot.
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Andrew Maly [1st Year]
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