Gnech Captures Merchant Title!

The 2023 Merchant of Venus Tournament kicked off Heat 1 with 6 games. In the first Heat Richard Irving won the fictional Duck Dodgers in the Twenty-fourth and a half Century “I Put the Thilly Thing in Reverth” Award when I…, I mean he found the Relic Yellow Drive on the first turn and the next turn went east in to the Shuttlestop navigation circle and mix master interchange and rolled 1, 6, 6 and was forced to reverse against the 1, 6 arrow. (Which, of course, is not allowed, so forced to a dead stop instead.) It didn’t help that I never knew what a shield or a clipper were either.

The first heat winners were: Mark Jensen, Ewan McNay, Mark Mc Candless, Vasilli Kyrkos, Bob Woodson, and Aubrey Powers.

In the second heat, eight games were contested. Greg Romano unfortunately won the imaginary Norm Newton Memorial Water in the Gas Tank Award by rolling two 3’s, two 4’s and 5’s in the first 15 turns of the game. OUCH!

The second heat winners were Stephen Costa, Harold Henning (who had to navigate a treacherous Asteroid Belt with -40, -40, -30, -20, -20 penalty chits. Yikes!), Chris Gnech, Wade Fowble, Eyal Mozes, Bailey Burdett, Bob Woodson (Only multi game winner in this year’s event.) and Roderick Lee.

The third heat, six more games were played. The completely made up Mel Brooks “Count da Money. No, it’s De Monay!” Award was a flat footed tie between our esteemed Director Ken Gutermuth and Chris Gnech who both finished with EXACTLY $2000, the amount needed to win. Ken’s game was also very close as Robert Barnes actually had a higher score did not have the $2000 in cash and deeds needed on his turn (a port commission earned later pushed him over).

The third heat winners were Ken Gutermuth, defending champion Bill Crenshaw, Kevin Rice, Bart Pisarik, Katie Kolt and Lisa Gutermuth.

After the third heat Aubrey Powers came by. She was really torn because she also made the Semifinal in another event that was playing at the same time and these were the first Semifinal she had ever made. I congratulated her and told her she should play the game she wanted to more and whatever she chose, I’d wish her all the luck in the world. I hope she won her game and following final!

The Semifinal had a perfect 16 players showing up—four 4 player games. Perfect!

In Game 1, Bart Pisarik won by almost $600 over Eyal Mozes. Game #2 featured Kevin Rice with a tight win over Bailey Burdett by $156. Game #4, Vasilli Kyrkos cruised to a solid win over Ken Gutermuth.

But Game #3 was the game of the tournament. It was a tight slugfest featuring two former champions, but Chris Gnech ($3,066) edged out Bill Crenshaw ($3,030), Ewan McNay ($2903) and Roderick Lee ($2,805). Literally, any player could have won on their next turn! Wow! What a game!

In the Final, Chris Gnech used his Relic Yellow Drive to a crushing victory. Vasilli Kyrkos, Kevin Rice and Bart Pisarik finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively.

As always, I hope everyone followed the #1 rule of this tournament. Have Fun!