Jackson Captures Title!

Jeff Jackson dominates throughout the Heats continuing his domination in the Final, taking home the win for 2022.

The tournament format was the same as that used in 2019, consisting of continuous play for the three Heats, followed by the Final. In addition to many returning players, we had some new players in the mix, one of which had just learned the game during Wednesday’s demo. A few other players asked for a quick refresher due to playing for the first time in many years.

Heat #1 had 23 players across six boards, Heat #2 had 19 players on five boards, and Heat #3 had ten players on three boards. In the end we had 10 unique winners for these 21 games. Jeff Jackson won 3, Paul Sampson & Olin Hentz won 2, and the following players each won one game: Paul Hakken, Billy Fellin, Chris Meyer, Matt Calkins, Trella Bromley, James Kramer Jr, and Rick E. Miller.

This year we had 7 people present for the Semifinal, which would have resulted in an unbalanced mix of tables for the Semifinal. As a result, Trella Bromley graciously bowed out leaving 6 players. After discussion among the players, it was decided that a single 6 player game would be played to crown the 2022 champion.

For the championship game, a six-player game was a new experience for most at the table. There were a few key factors to highlight:

• The UP stocks were gobbled up in the first 3 rounds, with Jeff Jackson taking the final share at the start of the fourth round. Paul Hakken wisely skipped investing in the early rounds in order to secure his fourth share each while the remaining players each had 3 shares. This ended up being a major advantage for each of the UP payouts.
• Due to the number of players, play essentially consisted of two rounds of play, followed by an investment round. There was some variation to this pattern, but minimally.

Looking to the future, the intent is to break this tournament up throughout the week, hoping to encourage more people to stop in and give the game a try. Ideally, this will consist of the three Heats throughout the week with the Semifinal and Final toward the end of WBC.

Many thanks to all who came out and joined up for a bit of Union Pacific in WBC 2022!