Robert Drozd, Ken Gutermuth, John Emery and Sean McCulloch try to qualify.	GM Jim Burnett oversees Gerald Lientz, Jenn Drozd, Jason Levine and Nicole Reiff.

Buy, Bet & Bamboozle

As is the custom at WBC, when the cry "They're at the Post" rings out, the punters arrive.  This year's attendance was down a bit, however.  The major factors in the decline seemed to be several other interesting games new to the con taking place at the same time.  The number of games played was down also due to several of the old timers winning the early heat and not needing to play again on Saturday afternoon to qualify for their place in the Final.
 
All that said, we still managed to get four boards going at the first heat on Tuesday.  Seven former champions representing a grand total of 13 titles (that's almost all of them, folks) were on hand to start the races for 2009.  After the six races, perennials Bruce Reiff, Ken Gutermuth, and Jason Levine won their boards to advance.  Ted Drozd took the fourth board to represent the family's interests as Robert was a former winner (and Jennifer finalist).  It took only $100K to be competitive with several games won early as the dice were not favorable to many favorites.  Jason amassed the most cash with $188K.  As was stated above, this left only a couple of the old guard needing to wins in the second heat.
 
That second heat preceded the Final on Saturday afternoon.  A few former winners returned (or showed for the first time) to round out the field with the new hopefuls but there were only enough for three boards and the games went pretty much as they had in the previous heat.  Former winners Dave Steiner and Dennis Nicholson were successful on their boards and were joined by another newbie, former Caesar Raphael Lehrer who was broadening his horizons at the track for the first time.  Dave turned out to be the big cash winner of the session with $223K.  This set the field at seven for the Final .
 
One of the interesting features we have been able to add is a larger than even field in the Final.  This allows for more flexibility in the players betting and horse ownership and puts a great deal of excitement in the running of each race.  That feature was even more in evidence this year than in some others.
 
Usually, players hold back during the first four races trying to make small gains and then make their big moves in the last two races.  It has become a mantra of the experienced to work this way.  This year was an exception, however.  A couple of players took chances in the middle of the card and found fortune on their side.  As a contrast, Dave Steiner went the wrong way early and was tapped out in the fourth race.  This gave the early betters good leads going into the last two races and left several of the former winners trying long shots to catch up.  The fall of the dice at several crucial points, especially in the last race, doomed the efforts of those betting on long shots and brought the early leaders home.
 
Ted Drozd collected $216K to get the win.  Jason Levine placed second at $180K and Ken Gutermuth pocketed $153K for third.
 
The Final is at least worth a look see to observe the "Big Board" (and the special jockeys representing former winners) .  We want to give a huge vote of thanks to all those responsible for allowing us to use this great addition to the tournament. We are planning to up the ante next year and add another play-in heat.  This will allow us to admit even more people into the Final and to give some players that have other tournaments at conflicting times an opportunity to participate.  The more, the merrier.

Leonard Omolecki should qualify just for still having that Avaloncon shirt.	Winning on the little board gets you a ticket to Lancaster Downs and the big track.