Kaarin Engelmann and Ashley Collinson upheld the honor of the five ladies present by collecing laurels and just missing the Final.	Clockwise from left: Finalists Joe Collinson, Bruce Bernard, Paul McCarthy, and Benoit Groulx play the third round.

Timing is everything, as the saying goes. This year's Vinci champion showed that this holds true for this game as well as life.

2006 was my second year as the GM. This year's format was the same as many past years; two preliminary heats, a semi-final round and a Final. I would like to keep this structure next year. The new 2006 tie-breaker rules helped me prepare for this year's tourney. Having things written down ahead of time is always a good thing. Along with the tie-breakers I had to predict how many semi-finalists & finalists to have. My biggest fear would have been to turn away a preliminary winner at the semi-final round. Luckily it didn't come to that. Based on the turnout from last year's tourney I chose to have a ten-player semi-final round and a four-player final. Next year I may bump it up to 12 & 4, roughly a third would advance to the semis and a third of those to the Final. This may require more preliminary runner-ups to advance to the semis. I like this since it encourages players to have strong finishes even if they aren't going to win.

We had 37 people vying for dominance this year including three of last year's finalists. The first preliminary heat brought 27 to the table. Six games were played. Chris Geggus, Benoit Groulx, Ed Kendrick, Alan Kaiser ('05 Finalist), Joe Collinson and Kevin Brown all won their games. The second heat had a smaller turnout with ten new faces blended among six trying a second time. Four games were played. Ashley Collinson ('05 Semi-Finalist), Tom McCorry, Bruce Bernard ('05 Finalist) and Mark Neale (GM & '03 Champion) all won their games.

Voila - there were the ten semi-finalists for the advertised two 5-player semi-final games! Alas, as so often happens, two preliminary winners chose not to advance. Tom had other responsibilities as a WBC GM and I played only as an eliminator to even out the second heat. Kaarin Engelmann and Paul McCarthy advanced as alternates based on their closest runner-up finishes.

The top two players from each semi-final game were to advance. The first game had a runaway winner and a close battle for second. Bruce and Paul advanced over Ashley, Chris and Kevin. The other semi-final was much closer. Joe and Benoit advanced over Kaarin, Ed and Alan.

The four finalists were thus decided; Paul, Benoit, Joe and Bruce. With only three plaques to award there was a very aggressive Final, nobody wanted to leave without wood. In the end there were two close battles, one between first and second, the other between third and fourth. The final standings were Paul McCarthy (129), Bruce Bernard (127) who remained a bridesmaid for the second year in a row, Joe Collinson (108), and Benoit Groulx (105). Paul played both years that I have run the tournament. His record is something to admire, never finishing a game lower than second place. This year he made it to the semi-final round as an alternate with a close second place preliminary round, to the Final by winning a struggle for second in his semi-final, and to the winner's circle by saving his strongest finish for the final round in true Vinci fashion. Timing is everything.