Cornett Wins Third Medici Title!

Preliminary Rounds

Four players won 2 heats (Jeff Meyer, Eric Brosius, Cooper Trahan, and Jeff Cornett). The Semifinal knocked out 3 of these contenders with Jeff sneaking into the Final by dumb luck (never leading in any pyramid, but many second places due to an unintentional rainbow strategy).

Some tournament honorable mentions:

• Highest score in the tournament (an incredible 150 points) was by Dennis Mishler -- winning by 40 points in his Semifinal
• Largest win margin was in a Heat by Jeff Meyer (the top-rated AREA player) crushing his nearest opponent (Jeremy Billones) by 50 points
• Closest win was a narrow 1-point win in the first Heat by Steve Shambeda over Barb Roeper
• Unluckiest players in the tournament were two players who finished second in all three Heats: Keith Boone and Cliff Ackman

Final

Three players returned from last year’s Final: Dennis Mishler, Susan Cornett, and Jeff Cornett. Also making the Final were Rick Miller and Rich Meyer (claiming himself to be a rookie yet father of the Medici-famous Jeff Meyer). It was a wild and fun game.

In a 5-player game, 6 cards are discarded before the round begins. Players patiently waited, yet the 10-card never came out in any round. A lot of 5 cards were also found hidden in the discards. Lots of low cards (and wrong colors) came out that everybody passed up on buying. We were 5 cards short in the first round, 5 short in the second, and 2 short in the last round! With 12 card shortages, bids were very high for cards people wanted. There were many bids of 20 or more. Filling hands early at a reasonable cost turned out to be a smart strategy. Players kept commenting and joking on the bad cards dealt, what others should bid, and the crazy high bids when players got desperate.>/p?

The rest of this write-up is Susan’s description of how she won the Final.

Playing at the WBC, it’s the mix of players that make the game interesting. I love playing against players from other countries and players who have never played before. When sitting down at a table, you must adapt to the bidding style of those at the table. That can be especially challenging if there is a new player at the table. Typically, at the WBC the players will not bid high enough for much needed cards in their colors or to earn high boats. What makes Medici a fun game to play at the WBC is it only takes about an hour to play, and the players are friendly. Winning Medici is a game of bidding and luck when drawing cards. As dealer, you have the advantage of bidding last.

Sitting down at the final table, I figured that my two biggest threats were Dennis Mishler and Jeff Cornett. My only goal for this final table was to beat Jeff! If he beat me, he would move higher than me in the AREA Ratings.

In a bidding game like Medici, you own the player on your right. Dennis Mishler, who is an excellent player, was sitting on my left. The player seated to your left can outbid you for cards that you both want. Jeff was on Dennis’ left, and I knew that Jeff had a chance to partially ‘own me’ (left of left) in this 5-player Finals. Jeff loves to play with a shortage and is not afraid to throw cards over. I had played against Rick Miller in a Heat, so I knew he tended to only bid on cards he needed. The wild card at the table was Rich Meyer who I had not played before. He claimed to be inexperienced, but his son is (was?) the AREA top-rated Jeff Meyer (winner of 2 Heats).

It was an unusual game. Typically, in the Final, one can hear a pin drop with the room dead silent, everybody thinking hard, and not saying anything. This game was constant chatter, joking and laughing. I never had so much fun in a WBC Medici game. All the others had similar comments saying they don’t mind losing as long as they had fun.

Rich and I were smart to fill our boats early. He quickly bought 3 cards (establishing himself as the red pyramid leader). Then I won a bid for three cards but worried this might be a mistake. As it turned out, it wasn’t after the remaining three players threw out cards causing a 5-card shortage. At the end of round 1, Dennis wound up with only a two-card boat (both in blue).

The second round was just as crazy. Dennis said he would only bid on blue cards. Players kept telling the others how much the cards should be worth to them, then laugh as everybody threw those cards over. Rich and I filled our boats. Again, there was a 5-card shortage with Dennis again gaining only two cards! Several times during the game, Rich and I would ask the table, “We are playing Medici. What game are you playing?”

As the third round began, it was apparent that Rich would make it to the top of his pyramid, and I would probably not. Rich and I were only separated by a few points. I didn’t have a big lead in any color. The only reason I was in first place was because I took high boat in the first two rounds. I figured to have a chance to win, I had to have high boat and that seemed unlikely (or too expensive). Luckily, I was able to deal three high value cards including two yellow cards needed to give me a solid lead in the yellow pyramid. Bidding last, I paid a lot (21) but calculated that those cards should give me high boat provided the 10 did not come out.

Rich got to the top of his pyramid (20-point bonus) for almost no money but wound up 2 cards short giving him low boat. Dennis filled his hand and then joked that he got more cards this round than the first two combined. Those cards gave him the 20-point second high boat (enough to win the third-place plaque). Jeff got the third-place boat for 10 points. Rick scored a bonus of 10 points in his pyramid but only got 5 points for fourth-place boat.

The final scores were very low. What was apparent to all those who watched was that all the players had a good time laughing over the big card shortages and crazy high bidding.

The Final Scores were Susan 92, Rich 88, Dennis 55, Rick 47, and Jeff 39. Susan now claims the household Medici title!