adel verpflichtet   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending December 2013 Membership Trial Vote

Philip Livingston, DE

2013 Champion

 

Event History
1991    Ray Pfeifer      23
1992    Terry Tegler      34
1993    Tom DeMarco      55
1994    Ralph May      49
1995    Beth Zhao      65
1996    Ray Pfeifer      32
1997    Thomas Stokes      54
1998    Marc Geary      64
1999    Ray Pfeifer     46
2000    Richard Irving     40
2001    John Pack     58
2002    John Pack     47
2003    Thomas Browne     60
2004    Marc Houde     52
2005    Ray Pfeifer     35
2006    Mark Geary     31
2007     Tom DeMarco     51
2008     Louis Gehring     64
2009    Philip Yaure     47
2010    John Pack     58
2011    Derek Landel     35
2012    Ray Stakenas II     43
2013    Philip Livingston      35

PBeM Event History
2008     Ken Gutermuth     34
2009    Curt Collins II     40
2010    Tom DeMarco     33
2013    John Pack     25

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  John Pack          CO    13    151
  2.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    13    147
  3.  Ray Pfeifer        MD    07    104
  4.  Thomas Browne      PA    11     84
  5.  Mark Geary         OH    13     72
  6.  Marc Houde         VA    13     69
  7.  Nick Henning       CT    05     36
  8.  Alex Bove          PA    09     33
  9.  Abby Cocke         MD    05     33
 10.  Ray Stakenas II    CA    12     30
 11.  Philip Yaure       PA    09     30
 12.  Curt Collins II    PA    09     30
 13.  Louis Gehring      IN    08     30
 14.  Ken Gutermuth      NC    08     30
 15.  Richard Irving     CA    00     30
 16.  Derek Landel       NJ    11     29
 17.  Philip Livingston  DE    13     26
 18.  Greg Thatcher      FL    10     24
 19.  Ben Foy            MD    02     24
 20.  Shea Lawson        MD    08     22
 21.  Kevin Wojtaszczyk  NY    13     21
 22.  Mike Kaltman       PA    13     18
 23.  Jeff Cornett       FL    12     18
 24.  Sharee Pack        CO    08     18
 25.  Anne Norton        NJ    07     18
 26.  Greg Crowe         VA    05     18
 27.  Tom Stokes         NJ    01     18
 28.  Scott Cornett      FL    99     18
 29.  Steve Cameron      PA    10     14
 30.  Tamara Houde       VA    13     12
 31.  Joshua Githens     SC    10     12
 32.  Raphael Lehrer     CA    10     12
 33.  Pam Gutermuth      FL    09     12
 34.  Brittany Bernard   PA    08     12
 35.  Luke Koleszar      VA    07     12
 36.  Karl Henning       CT    06     12
 37.  John Weber         MD    04     12
 38.  Patrick Mitchell   DE    03     12
 39.  Laurie Wojtaszczyk NY    13      9
 40.  Robert Voisin      NY    12      9
 41.  Haim Hochboim      il    10      9
 42.  Bob Hamel          CT    10      9
 43.  Jessica Hardesty   MD    09      9
 44.  Carolyn Brown      NJ    03      9
 45.  Alan Moon          MA    99      9
 46.  Kevin Breza        VA    11      8
 47.  Frank Cunliffe     PA    03      8
 48.  Jessica Foster     NY    10      6
 49.  Jonathan Izer      MD    09      6
 50.  Keith Layton       NJ    09      6
 51.  Beth Zhao          TX    08      6
 52.  Harald Henning     CT    04      6
 53.  Jean DeLattre      be    00      6
 54.  Eyal Mozes         NY    99      6
 55.  David Meyaard      CT    13      5
 56.  Peter Staab        PA    13      4
 57.  George Seary       NY    13      3
 58.  Rob Brode          MD    10      3
 59.  David Rynkowski    NY    09      3
 60.  Anthony Daw        UT    09      3
 61.  Frank Arndt        MD    01      3
 62.  Wendy DeMarco      NJ    00      3
 63.  Christine Frattali WA    99      3
 64.  Robert Davidson    IL    11      2

2013 Laurelists                                                 Returning Laurelists:

Tamara Houde, VA
2nd

Mark Geary, OH
3rd

Marc Houde, VA
4th

Peter Staab, PA
5th

David Meyaard, NY
6th


Past Winners

Ray Pfeifer, MD
'91, '96, '99, '05

Tom DeMarco, NJ
1993, 2007

Ralph May, SC
1994

Beth Zhao, DC
1995

Thomas Stokes, NJ
1997

Mark Geary, OH
1998, 2006

Richard Irving, CA
2000

John Pack, CO
2001-02, 2010

Tom Browne, PA
2003

Marc Houde, VA
2004

Louis Gehring, IN
2008

Philip Yaure, PA
2009

Derek Landel, NJ
2011

Ray Stakenas II, CA
2012

Philip Livingston, DE
2013

Dave Meyaard amd Keith Layton plot their moves.

Crime doesn't pay in this particular game, it seems.

Somebody forgot to bring the Welcome Mat ...

Welcome to the 23rd edition of the WBC Adel Verpflichtet Tournament! Once again it is time to recount the escapades of Aristocrats, Auctioneers, Thieves and Detectives. Nearly half of this year's contestants had taken home laurels in the past, and six were former champions. The GM, in a burst of early senility, neglected to schedule a demo; though not required for a "C", or "Coached" tournament, the demo is a good vehicle for welcoming potential newcomers or a quick refresher on the rules. As such, there was a dearth of new players this year. That lapse won't happen again. Though some of the usual family groups were missing (no Packs, Hennings, or Bernard/Zhaos), other couples and family groups were in evidence (Houde, Czyryca, Voisin, Collinson/Worley, & DeMarco/Norton).

To advance to the semifinal, points are awarded based on the finish position in each game played (1st=5, 2nd=4, 3rd=3, 4th=2, 5th=1. In 4-player games, points awarded are: 1st=5, 2nd=4, 3rd=2, 4th=1). The players with the highest totals after three games advance, while the number of contestants who advance is determined by the number of players who are still playing after the third set of games (half the players, rounded down to a multiple of five).

Among the first set of seven games, Shea Lawson got the best win of the tournament, finishing 10 spaces past the finish line (the maximum is 13), followed by Pam Gutermuth at +9 spaces. Both of these young ladies have run the tables in past years, Shea winning all of her first round games in 2008, and Pam in 2009. Other winners in the first set of games were Ashley Worley, Philip Livingston, Tim Packwood, Glen Pearce, and GM Tom DeMarco.

Only one player dropped out after the first round, and three new players joined in for the second set of seven games. Shea, Ashley, and Philip each won again, with Ashley taking over the overall lead with ten points and a total of 16 spaces past the finish to Shea's 13 and Philip's four spaces. Just behind, with a win and a second was Steve Cameron at nine points. The other winners were Tamara Houde (eight points), and former champions Mark Geary and Derek Landel (seven points), while Keith Layton's two second place finishes kept him in the pack at eight points.

For the third and last preliminary round three more players dropped out (including Pam). Shea got her third win, thus leading the way into the semifinals with 15 points and 20 total spaces past the finish. Other winners were Tamara, Derek, Peter Staab, Marc Houde, Robert Voisin and Anne Norton. Because there were at least 30 players in each of the three games of the first round, 15 would advance. Following Shea into the semifinal were Ashley with 14 points, Tamara and Philip with 13, Derek with 12, returning champion Ray Stakenas II, Mark and Steve with 11, and Marc and Tim with ten points. There were six players with nine points vying for the last five slots. These ties were broken by total spaces past the finish. Peter led this group with a total of 13 spaces (making it to the semi in spite of missing a round), Robert with nine spaces, Glen with eight, Keith with seven, and David Meyaard with five. Kelly Czyryca with nine points and three total spaces didn't make the cut. This year's semifinalists got an average of 11 points, compared to 12.07 last year, 12.0 in 2011 and 11.5 in 2010.

After changing rooms, three semifinal games got underway. The three winners and the top two runnerups would advance. Peter beat out Tamara, Steve, Shea and Robert. Mark outdistanced David, Derek, Ashley, and Keith. And Marc was triumphant over Philip, Glen, Ray, and Tim. Tamara had the best second at three spaces past the finish, while Philip just squeaked by David ­ both finished at one space past the finish, both had a longest set of only three cards, but Philip's oldest card in his set of 1616 beat David's oldest card of 1660, so Philip advanced while David collected sixth place laurels. This wasn't the first time that two family members (Marc and Tamara) have both graced a Final board. The Bernard sisters, the Henning siblings, and the Pack and DeMarco families shared space in previous Finals.

The Final was characterized by a dearth of successful detectives, with the jails capacity not being tested until the end. Tamara confounded the detectives by stealing from exhibits five times. But Philip used the run-run-run strategy to outdistance his competitors, crossing the finish line by two spaces and triggering the endgame. Tamara's success in stealing gave her the biggest set of twelve cards at the finish, advancing her eight spaces, but that only got her one space past the finish for second place while Mark got the four-space bonus for the second longest set to finish third, followed by Marc and Peter.

Two points to consider if you'd like to give Adel Verpflichtet a try next year:
1. Though there was no Demo this year, the Adel Verpflichtet Demo is usually run right before the main event. There have been players who have gone to the Demo, and then were able to advance all the way to the Final table. Some people have told me I am a good game explainer; but Adel Verpflichtet is actually a very easy game to learn. Next year the Demo will return.
2. It is possible to advance to the semifinal even if you do poorly (or miss playing) in the first game. With a threshold for advancing to the semifinal of nine points (as it has been a couple times), you can still advance to the semifinal with a decent finish in the remaining two games. So don't think if you don't win in the first set of games that you won't be able to advance.

Ashley Worley and Derek Landel tiptoe through the art show as GM Tom DeMarco observes.

The semi-finaists have abandoned the Ballroom before the Liar's Dice onslaught for the tranquility of Strassburg.

 Play By Email 2013


GM John Pack won his own tournament over a field of 25 as the 4th BPA Adel Verpflichtet tournament concluded after 30 games of swiss elimination play.

The Final opening saw all five players at the Auction House for three of four consecutive turns (bringing up comments about Groundhog Day arriving early) -- with many high and second-high checks spent in the early going (and not too many thieves being able to actually get away with a stolen check). The funniest moment came when four thieves reached for and, ineptly, shredded the check. Discussion turned to who had the "right" piece. Initial movement came via detectives putting three thieves in jail on two different turns. All four of the oldest cards put in an appearance during the game. John Pack reached the first corner after the jail had filled to capacity while Tom DeMarco and Kevin Wojtaszczyk were left without thieves. Missing options can be decisive in this game. Two thief-less players opened the way for John to sprint toward the finish (since exhibits are much safer). Mike Kaltman fell behind while building a huge set but made up ground by the time John reached the second corner. Then came the massive crime wave - with Laurie Wojtaszczyk, then Mike, and finally John scoring two, three, and three collectibles with a single thief. Tom had gallantly kept pace just a space or two behind the leader but lost items to every thief during the crime wave. That left him exhibiting but unable to advance in the last stages of the game. Kevin built a huge set before moving and rode detectives past the second corner, but didn't move much after detectives brought the criminal element under control. The last move came with John on the final space, his thief having reconnected his full set, and Mike having moved within striking distance. The last move saw John exhibit for five spaces and cross the line while Mike banked on another turn with a fruitless detective. Mike's better set (by virtue of the D-1616) wasn't enough to make up the distance though he also crossed the line for second place. The rest of the Top Six were Kevin, Laurie, Tom, and George Seary. The Final took just 15 days to complete -- with some turns taking less than five minutes for all players to log on and complete their selection. It was a breathtaking race all the way to the finish line! The next tournament will begin October 1st! See all of the details at http://www.gameaholics.com/adv_tournament.htm.

 GM      Tom DeMarco [7th Year]  720 Wood Lane, Cinnaminson, NJ 08077-3976
    TomAnneTim@comcast.net   NA

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