merchant of venus [Updated October 2007]  

 2007 WBC Report  

 2008 Status: pending 2008 GM commitment

Kathy Stroh, DE

2007 Champion

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Event History
1991    Duane Wagner      24
1992    Kathy Stroh      21
1993    Michael Anchors      41
1994    David Thompson      43
1995    Greg Mayer      56
1996    Tom Stokes      48
1997    Mark Hunter      78
1998    Greg Mayer      80
1999    Steve Crenshaw     67
2000    Debbie Otto     68
2001     Bill Crenshaw     72
2002     Charley Hickok      60
2003     Luke Koleszar      64
2004     Eric Wrobel      64
2005      John Koskl      50
2006     Eyal Mozes      39
2007      Kathy Stroh      47

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    06     90
  2.  Eric Wrobel        VA    05     60
  3.  Debbie Otto        MO    00     56
  4.  Luke Koleszar      VA    05     52
  5.  Ed Wrobel          VA    03     52
  6.  Steve Dickson      CA    07     48
  7.  Eyal Mozes         NY    06     42
  8.  Chuck Foster       TX    06     42
  9.  Kathy Stroh        DE    07     40
 10.  John Koskl         NC    05     40
 11.  Lance Ribeiro      NH    05     40
 12.  Charles Hickok     PA    02     40
 13.  Jeff Bakalchuck    NY    02     40
 14.  Steve Crenshaw     VA    99     40
 15.  Greg Mayer         MO    99     36
 16.  Joe Abrams         CT    06     36
 17.  Duane Wagner       NJ    07     24
 18.  Peggy Pfeiffer     FL    07     16
 19.  Rich Meyer         MA    04     16
 20.  Kevin Wojtasczyck  NY    07     12
 21.  Vassili Kyrkos     NY    04     12
 22.  Abby Cocke         MD    02     12
 23.  James Hopkin       CA    00     12
 24.  Frank McNally      MA    06      9
 25.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    03      8
 26.  Gary Dickson       CA    02      8
 27.  Lauren Hickok      PA    00      8
 28.  Phillip Shea       VA    07      4
 29.  Ray Stakenas Sr    NC    05      4
 30.  Jim Fardette       AE    04      4
 31.  Lynn Ribeiro       NH    01      4
 32.  Ken Gutermuth      TX    06      3

2007 Laurelists

Duane Wagner, NJ
2nd

Peggy Pfieffer, FL
3rd

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
4th

Steve Dickson, CA
5th

Phillip Shea, VA
6th


Past Winners

Duane Wagner, NJ
1991

Kathy Stroh, PA
1992, 2007

Michael Anchors, MD
1993

David Thompson, NE
1994

Greg Mayer, MO
1995, 1998

Tom Stokes, NJ
1996

Mark Hunter, MO
1997

Steve Crenshaw, MD
1999

Deb Otto, MO
2000

Bill Crenshaw, MD
2001

Charlie Hickok, PA
2002

Luke Koleszar, VA
2003

Eric Wrobel, VA
2004

John Koski, NC
2005

Eyal Mozes, NY
2006

Kathy dispatched former champ Bill Crenshaw in the semis. In all, seven former champs were on hand trying to win again.

The ladies were well represented in the Final with two of six making it to the big game.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Whine

In the deepest, darkest expanses of.the Paradise Terrace, the 2007 tournament kicked off with the Demo -- which was quite successful this year - a recurring theme in 2007 -- as three of the players at the demo (including a finalist -- but I think she knew the game already) played in every heat.

In the first heat, Kathy Stroh, Daniel Hoffman, Peggy Pfeifer, Philip Shea, Keith Corbino, Bill Crenshaw and Gary Dickson won their opening games, all but ensuring their entry into the semi-finals. Philip's win was most unusual -- he purchased the $300 Freighter at Dell Port, where it is also cheap to load up on Finest Dust, and blasted away with the victory. This is a rarely chosen tactic in a $2000 game that worked to perfection here.

In the second heat, Steve Dickson, defending champ Eyal Mozes, Tom Browne, Debbie Gutermuth, Vasily Kyrkos, Duane Wagner, and Claire Brosius raced to $2000 first, making it extremely likely tthey would secure their spot in the playoffs. The most notable game was Debbie's as she came from behind when Gary finished ONE PIP SHORT of making the sales he needed to win. Probably for the best as Gary already had his ticket punched anyway.

In the third and last heat, Joe Abrams, Richard Irving, and Kevin Wojtaszczyk (hereafter Kevin W) won their games to qualify. (Both Steve and Gary also won a second game for good measure.

John Kilbride wins the mythical "Wrong Way Corrigan" Award for getting stuck in the cloud and needing a "1" or a "5" on three dice to make Shuttlestop and victory. But a freak magnetic storm fouled his navicomputer at just the wrong time, giving him 2-2-2 as his roll -- sending him off to the Interstellar Biosphere. Kevin W. sneaked in for the win. OUCH!

Bob Hahn is awarded the fictional "Water in Gas Tank" prize for rolling 1-1-2 TWICE in the same game. Rough way to go! Also in this game, three IOU's were left undiscovered -- the lure of free money not enough to lure traders from the puertos ricos.

There were 17 game winners so three alternates were added to have 20 players in the semi-finals: Ken Gutermuth, Patrick Maloney and Luke Koleszar. Stephen Westerholm just missed out as the fourth alternate. Stephen is the most helpful and cheerful player each year. He always gets there early, helps the GM set up and run the event. and for that he is my sportsmanship nominee. Thanks, Stephen!

In the five semi-final games (this time to $3000), there were several close games. Kevin W. sold $720 worth of stuff off his Transport to steal a game from Dan Hoffman who seemed to be cruising easily to victory (and indeed on his next sale would have had $3000.) In another game, Phillip Shea missed winning by forgetting to trade in his Freighter-OUCH! Peggy Pfeifer got the win instead.

This is the first time I had seen large ship strategies work this well this often.

The Final featured Kevin, Peggy, Duane Wagner, Kathy Stroh and Steve Dickson. Kathy took her relatively tough 4th starting position and rocketed away to a
relatively easy win. The second MoV champ finally gets a second win -- 16 years later! -- and in the same game with the first champ -- Duane Wagner.. She based her trade empire on the fashionable Eastern spiral arm of the galaxy. In addition to the normal plaques, classic SF movies were awarded by the GM to each of the finalists.

Congratulations to Kathy and thanks to all of the players who make it easy to enforce Rule #1 of this tournament: Have Fun!


2007 Final Results:

Placement determined by position in Final:
1) Kathy Stroh $ 3,134
2) Duane Wagner $ 2,798
3) Peggy Pfeifer $ 2,724
4) Kevin Wojtaszczyk $ 2,292
5) Steve Dickson $ 1,997

Place 6-20 determine by result of semi-final game:
6) Philip Shea $ 3,009
7) Tom Browne $ 2,982
8) Dan Hoffman $ 2,875
9) Keith Corbino $ 2,717
10) Debbie Gutermuth $ 2,631
11) Richard Irving $ 2,352
12) Joe Abrams $ 2,271
13) Eyal Mozes $ 2,200
14) Luke Koleszar $ 2,131
15) Gary Dickson $ 1,920
16) Vasily Kyrkos $ 1,763
17) Claire Brosius $ 1,628
18) Patrick Maloney $ 1,610
19) Ken Gutermuth $ 1,420
20) Bill Crenshaw $ 1,018

Remianing places all were decided on the basis of best score in any heat game:
21) S. Westerholm $ 1,726
22) Roderick Lee $ 1,713
23) Johnathan Squibb $ 1,710
24) Andrew Cummins $ 1,704
25) John Kilbride $ 1,697
26) Charles Hickok $ 1,681
27) Richard Meyer $ 1,611
28) Roy Pettis $ 1,584
29) Ed Kendrick $ 1,577
30) Jason Wagner $ 1,511
31) Thomas Stokes $ 1,481
32) Lin Sun $ 1,463
33) David Matheny $ 1,440
34) Laurel Stokes $ 1,436
35) Tom DeMarco $ 1,180
36) Christopher Ellis $ 1.073
37) John Keating $ 940
38) David Weinstein $ 883
39) Stephane Dorais $ 860
40) Nancy Westerholm $ 620
41) Paul Bolduc $ 605
42) Patrick Shea $ 552
43) William Kendrick $ 550
44) Robert Hahn $ 460
45) Alexanadra Henning $ 450
46) Nick Palmer $ 250
47) Marc Beuregard $ 220

 GM      Richard Irving  [6th Year]   NA
    rri12@sbcglobal.net   NA

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