alhambra  

Updated 11/14/2008

2008 WBC Report  

  2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

L. Dan Hoffman, MD

2008 Champion

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Event History
2004    Bruce Reiff     69
2005     Nate Hoam     97
2006    Michael Mullins     88
2007     Vassili Kyrkos     84
2008    L. Dan Hoffman     91

Euro Quest Event History
2004    Holliday Jones     22
 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Nate Hoam          OH    08     54
   2.  Legend Dan Hoffman MD    08     30
   3.  Vassili Kyrkos     NY    07     30
   4.  Michael Mullins    MA    06     30
   5.  Bruce Reiff        OH    04     30
   6.  Holliday Jones     MD    04     20
   7.  Luke Koleszar      VA    07     18
   8.  Matt Calkins       VA    06     18
   9.  Richard Meyer      MA    05     18
  10.  George Sauer       OH    04     18
  11.  Tom Dunning        NY    05     14
  12.  Steve Koleszar     VA    08     12
  13.  Brian Kowal        WI    07     12
  14.  Christian Moffa    NJ    06     12
  15.  Ilan Tadmor        NY    05     12
  16.  Josh Cooper        MD    04     12
  17.  Perrianne Lurie    PA    04     12
  18.  Heather Palenshus  OH    08      9
  19.  Faisal Kassam      AB    07      9
  20.  Jeff Mullet        OH    06      9
  21.  David Buchholz     MI    05      9
  22.  Laurel Stokes      NJ    04      9
  23.  Davyd Field        SC    08      6
  24.  Matthew Amitrano   VA    07      6
  25.  Peter Putnam       PA    04      6
  26.  Tom Wojke          PA    04      6
  27.  Jim Vroom          PA    04      4
  28.  Lisa Gutermuth     FL    08      3
  29.  Robert Kircher     RI    07      3
  30.  John Faella        RI    06      3
  31.  David Gagne        QC    05      3
  32.  Lee Presser        NY    04      3
  33.  Luann Stubbs       PA    04      2

2008 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists: 0

Nate Hoam, OH
2nd

Steve Koleszar, VA
3rd

Heather Palenshus, OH
4th

Davyd Field, SC
5th

Lisa Gutermuth, FL
6th


Past Winners

Bruce Reiff, OH
2004

Nate Hoam, OH
2005

Michael Mullins, MA
2006

Vassili Kyrkos, NY
2007

Legend Dan Hoffman, MD
2008


Legend Dan (center) takes down a couple of prominent Cabbies.

Charles Drozd and Matt Calkins are losing laurels to the ladies.

Palaces R Us

We had 25 tables during the two preliminary heats, a gain of three over last year. Vassili Kyrkos, the reigning Champ, did not attempt to defend his title, nor did more than one former laurelist from the preceding four years regain those honors.

The results during the preliminary heats were as follows:

*  Bruce Reiff, the 2004 Champion, coasted to a win in the first heat.

* Haim Hochboim had great luck in the Preliminaries as the only person to win games in both heats, but would his luck hold?

* GM Debbie Gutermuth advanced in the 1st heat beating Luke Koleszar, the runner-up last year, and in so doing advanced to the semis for the first time.

* Craig Moffitt won his table in the 2nd heat, ending Luke Koleszar's chance to return to the Final.

* The Koleszar clan retained hope as Steve avenged Luke by winning his table in the first heat.

* Mike Shea won his table in the first heat and has the privilege of saying he beat Matt Amitrano, a 2007 finalist. Matt came back for the second heat and won. At his table, Ellen Hoam has the dubious honor of claiming the lowest score of the tournament with only 48 points.

* Dan Hoffman pulled out the closest game in the first heat by besting Steve Cameron by a single point. Dan was living on the edge and cut it to close in the second heat, losing to Scott Palenshus by that same one-point margin. He who lives by the sword ...

* Robbie Mitchell was not to be outdone in the closest game contest though. He won by one point over both Louis Gehring and Patty Davis who tied for second.

* Nate Hoam, the 2005 Champion, had the lowest score out of all the tables in the first heat, but did not get discouraged. He came back for the second heat and won by one point over Nick Henning.

* Davyd Field got beat by Bruce Reiff, the 2004 Champion, in the first heat, but wanted to keep his family's hopes alive so he came back for the second heat. This time his strategy provided better results as he won over Tedd Mullally. 

* Kevin Shaud won his table with the smallest range in scores amongst all players in the first heat. Kevin scored 109 points, followed by Lisa Gutermuth with 100 points, Romain Jacques with 90, and Bob Wicks with 86.

* Primed by this close game, Lisa Gutermuth won her second heat by building a 22-length wall, the longest of the tournament. 

* Eric Lenhart won his table, which had the smallest range in scores amongst all players in the second heat. Eric scored 88 points followed by Kelly Czyryca with 85, Steve Lollis with 83, Heather Spangenberg with 77 points, and Pam Gutermuth with 72.

* Jeff Mullet and Matt Calkins won their tables by the largest gap in their respective heats with 68- and 54-point spreads between first and last place.

* Long walls were the path to victory for both Keith Schoose and Robert Drozd (16 length) in the first heat while Heather Palenshus won her table in the second heat with a long wall of 18 length. The long wall strategy did not work out as well for Michael Wojtaszczyk as he too built an 18-length wall. Charles Drozd showed Michael that he could win with a 13-length wall and lots of leads in the buildings.

* Pete Stein showed the opposite strategy in the first heat by winning with the least walls at his table.

* Rob Winslow in the first heat and Bronwen Heap in the second had similar strategies of wall building and built a very long wall early in the scoring rounds. Their wall building did not grow quite as fast in later scoring rounds, but they were both able to hold onto their leads and win their tables.

* Anne Murphy won her table in the second heat to complete the preliminary winners.

With the preliminaries complete, we were now ready for the semi-final round. 

** Heather Palenshus won the closest game. She scored a 95 to edge Lisa Gutermuth by a single point who, in turn, topped Matt Calkins by only one point with Keith Schoose and Charles Drozd close behind. The narrow loss earned Lisa 6th place laurels but no trip to the Final.

** Steve Koleszar won his table in another close game. Steve ended only two points ahead of Ian Nowland, who had advanced into the semi's as an alternate.

** Dan Hoffman won his semi by the largest gap with a 62 point spread over Jeff Mullet in last place The large spread was surprising since his table also contained Bruce Reiff, the 2004 Champion, and Matt Amitron, a previous finalist, who were unable to prevent Dan from pulling away.

** Davyd Field won his table with the strategy of building a very long wall early in the scoring rounds. His lead in wall building along with capturing the purple building lead kept him where his table could not stop him. There was a gap between Davyd and his closest competition, which was shared by Mike Shea and Debbie Gutermuth who tied for second.

** Nate Hoam, the 2005 Champion, won his table to be the only returning laurelist to make the final round. His strategy did not involve being the longest wall, but just having the lead in lots of buildings. Following close behind Nate was Eric Lenhart and Rob Winslow, who were separated by a single point.

Immediately following the semi-finals, the winners gathered for the Final. The first scoring round was pulled right before Davyd Field's turn. This left Davyd with no building, while the others had from two to four buildings each by this time. Heather Palenshus had built a nice starting wall of six-length and had four buildings to take the lead with 14 pts.  Dan Hoffman had a wall length of 5 and two buildings, to put him at 11 pts. From there it dropped to Nate Hoam with four points, Steve Koleszar with two, and Davyd with none. By this time, Davyd had collected an unusual number of money cards tallying 31, but they were mainly all in orange so he started monopolizing that color's buying options. Before the second scoring round, Davyd and Heather had each been able to buy three buildings all in one turn and place them in their palace. The second scoring round was pulled again just before Davyd's turn which did not bode well for him. At this time, Nate had created the longest wall of eight-length and had the most buildings with nine; however, three were Blue (the lowest point earner). This still only left Nate tied for third with Steve. Dan and Heather were still neck and neck in the lead. Davyd was about half way back from the rest of the table. Before the last scoring round, Dan was able to purchase three building in one turn. However, Nate had the best opportunity and was able to purchase four buildings exact and still pick up money. When the end of the game was triggered, Davyd had re-couped to where he had about the same number of buildings as the rest and had tied Dan in the longest wall length of 11. However, this was a little too late for Davyd as he finished last. Heather had struggled to build a longer continuous wall length than the first scoring round and ended with only 6 long. She had lost her lead in many of the buildings, which did not help her cause and left her in fourth place. The second and third place finishes had only one point in separation for their final scores. Dan had pulled ahead by 12 points to become the 2008 Alhambra Champion. 

The finalists mug for their 15 minutes of fame.

And then the knives come out ....
 GM      Debbie Gutermuth  [5th Year]   NA
   NA   NA

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