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Eric Brosius and Jeff Mullet for all
their pondering and goods purchasing are unable to advance any
further. |
Dennis Mishler, Lynda Shea, Rick Miller,
Trella Bromley and Jeremy Jurgens advance Rick to the next round. |
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Doug Smith and Jeff Meyer |
GM Jeff Cornett oversees his
co-finalists. |
A lesson on when to lead ...
Medici:
A day when winning is a losing strategy!
The format for this competition was to have exactly 5-player
tables for both the semifinals and Final. As many runners-up
as needed would advance. After two qualifying heats, 11 winners
qualified for the semifinals. To fill three 5-player tables,
another four runners-up snuck through -- each of whom had lost
by four points or less.
The favorite going into the semifinals had to be Jason Arvey,
the only player to win in both heats. However, it was not a
good day to be a winner. Jason would finish last in his semifinal
test. Instead, Missy Richards would win at that table. Finishing
a distant second (15 points behind) but good enough to eventually
advance (but just barely) was Jean Francois Gagne.
Winning convincingly in the other two semifinals were Rick
Miller and Rich Meyer. The favorite for the next round was Rich
Meyer who had won his Round 2 hurdle by the highest margin (17
points). Ah! But is winning the right strategy for this tournament
on this day?
The battle for the other runner-up qualifier would be tense.
Doug Smith and Jeff Cornett tied for second at their table,
both 13 points behind the leader. Doug was ahead going into
the last turn, but earning the most points in the last round
of play determines the tie-breaker in Medici. Jeff was
losing to Doug, so he wins the tiebreaker for second. Once
again on this day, it was good not to be ahead. In fact, Jeff
advanced without a single win for the day. Nonetheless, he was
the only former laurelist advancing to the deciding round.
Taking the early lead were Jeff Cornett and Missy Richards,
but winning meant losing on this day. They would finish the
game in the last two positions. Both bid heavily for high boat,
but left themselves weak in pyramid advancement. Rick Miller
would take the lead over the favorite Rich Meyer in the second
round. In dead last place, 13 points behind, was Jean Francois
Gagne.
The last round would bring big swings as players advanced
to the top of their pyramids, but some paid more than others
to get there. It was the closest of finishes. The top four
players would end within four points of each other. In fact,
as the game ended, two players had tied for first place! Tiebreaker
rules would then determine the winner based on who was losing
worst going into the last round.
Tied for first was the established favorite from the semifinals,
Rich Meyer. Also tied was Jean Francois Gagne, the last place
qualifier who snuck into the Final with a second place finish.
Jean Francois was also in last place (13 points behind) going
into the last round.. This was the perfect positioning to win
a tiebreaker on a day where winning leads to losing and losing
leads to winning.
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Bonnie Neubauer and Robb Effinger
try successfully to avoid winning ... to no avail. |
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