saint petersburg   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Lewis Lin, WA

2013 Champion

Event History
2005    Arthur Field     125
2006    Anne Norton     106
2007     Chris Robbins     114
2008     Norman Herrick     106
2009     Curt Collins II     115
2010    Arthur Field       80
2011    Charles Hickok     114
2012    Randy Buehler     108
2013    Lewis Lin     108

Euro Quest BPA Event History
2005    Peter Staab     32
2006     Tom McCorry     44
2007     Thomas Browne     30
2008    Tom DeMarco     39
2009     Ted Bohaczuk     46
2010    Mike Turian     42
2011    Vien Bounma     47
2012    Andrew Emerick     45

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Arthur Field       SC    10    102
  2.  Randy Buehler      WA    12     90
  3.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    10     87
  4.  Anne Norton        NJ    13     84
  5.  Vien Bounma        NJ    13     63
  6.  Chris Robbins      UT    07     52
  7.  Lewis Lin          WA    13     40
  8.  Charles Hickok     PA    11     40
  9.  Curt Collins II    PA    09     40
 10.  Norman Herrick     NE    08     40
 11.  Tom Browne         PA    07     38
 12.  Peter Staab        PA    06     38
 13.  Perrianne Lurie    PA    12     36
 14.  Andrew Emerick     CT    12     30
 15.  Mike Turian        WA    10     30
 16.  Tom McCorry        VA    06     30
 17.  Cliff Ackman       PA    11     28
 18.  Robert Cranshaw    RI    13     24
 19.  David Rohde        NC    12     24
 20.  Jason Levine       NY    11     24
 21.  Cary Morris        NC    08     24
 22.  Joe Harrison       KY    07     24
 23.  Michael Fox        IL    06     24
 24.  Blair Morgen       NJ    12     20
 25.  Norman Rule        MD    11     20
 26.  Ted Bohaczuk       PA    09     20
 27.  Christian Moffa    NJ    12     18
 28.  Steven Schroeder   CA    11     18
 29.  Andy Latto         MA    13     16
 30.  Gordon Rodgers     PA    07     16
 31.  Debbie Davidson    NE    06     16
 32.  David Fox          NY    05     16
 33.  Eric Brosius       MA    10     14
 34.  Dan Mathias        MD    13     12
 35.  Lawrence Solomon   VA    11     12
 36.  Mark Globus        WA    11     12
 37.  Steve Shambeda     PA    10     12
 38.  Rob Flowers        MD    08     12
 39.  Michael Kaltman    PA    07     12
 40.  Mike Hazel         SC    07     12
 41.  Kathy Stroh        DE    06     12
 42.  Alan Kaiser        OH    05     12
 43.  Rodney Davidson    AZ    11      9
 44.  Chris Gnech        PA    10      9
 45.  Lauren Vessey      VA    12      8
 46.  Lee Mewshaw        MD    10      9
 47.  Richard Shay       MA    09      8
 48.  Michael Richey     VA    07      8
 49.  Jay Fox            NJ    06      8
 50.  Jeff Mullet        OH    05      8
 51.  Tom Wade           IN    05      8
 52.  Jason Ley          WA    12      6
 53.  Kerrin Addis       au    09      6
 54.  Greg Rogers        MD    07      6
 55.  Pete Stein         OH    05      6
 56.  Amy Rule           MD    09      4
 57.  Virginia Colin     VA    08      4
 58.  Kevin Brown        GA    08      4
 59.  Tom Dunning        NY    07      4
 60.  Daniel Eppolito    CA    07      4
 61.  Ted Mullally       NJ    05      4
 62.  Marcy Morelli      PA    12      3
 63.  Lori Miskoff       NJ    11      3
 64.  Sceadeau D'Tela    NC    10      3
 65.  J. J. Jaskiewicz   MD    07      2
 66.  Andrew Gerb        MD    05      2

2013 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists:

Anne Norton, NJ
2nd

Andy Latto, MA
3rd

Dan Mathias, MD
4th

Vien Bounma, VA
5th

Robert Cranshaw, RI
6th

Past Winners

Arthur Field, SC
2005, 2010

Anne Norton, NJ
2006

Chris Robbins, UT
2007

Norman Herrick, NE
2008

Curt Collins II, PA
2009

Charles Hickok, PA
2011

Randy Buehler, WA
2012

Lewis Lin, WA
2013
   

Jason Ley, William Hoch and Dave Rohde

Jonathan Tarquino and Bobbi Warczak

Lauren Bohaczuk was one of 27 women in the event.

Michael Shea, Vien Bounma and Lewis Lin

Fake Sand ...

Attendance held steady, matching the 2012 turnout with 48 games over the course of three preliminary heats. As always, competition was tough with five games won on a tiebreaker and three more decided by a single point! One game of note ended with just a 9-point spread between first and fourth.

As anyone who has played Saint Petersburg for any length of time can tell you, scores can vary widely. Our highest winning score was recorded by Robert Cranshaw in Heat 1 with an impressive 115 points which he needed to edge past Anni Foasberg's 114 in the same game. Even the trailers had impressive scores, racking up 97 and 96 points respectively. It really hurts when you come in last with a score of 96!

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Thomas Johnston managed a win in Heat 2 with only 41 points. We've all been in those frustrating games where you can't get any traction, no matter what you do. Most games ended in the expected four or five rounds, but one slugfest carried on for NINE rounds before Charles Hickok managed to win.

All but three of the top 16 appeared for the semifinal, opening the door for three alternates. As with the heats, scores were all over the place with winning scores ranging from 51 to 110 points. The spread between first and last ranged from 21to 40 points with one of the games decided by a tiebreaker. Eight nobles appeared in the first orange round of one semi, including two mistresses and a judge! Because of cash flow problems, the fourth player was actually able to get a Judge on the first Nobel round! In that same game, only one Craftsman was bought in the second green round. Ultimately, the backlog of cards cleared and that game ended with all four stacks empty.

Anne Norton, Dan Mathias, Andy Latto and Lewis Lin advanced to the Final table. As they were settling in for the deciding game, Bruce Reiff inserted his needle with the comment: "Oh... three sharks and Dan." Good natured jibe or prophecy?

As expected at this level, the four contested a hard, six-round game with Lewis pulling ahead to lock in his victory with 95 points. By the end of play, the green, blue and orange stacks were completely empty. Lewis was able to get both a Mistress and an Observatory. For some people, this would be a sure sign that he was going to win, but the numbers don't bear that out.

During the three heats, there were six games where the winner had both an Observatory and a Mistress. There were two additional games where the winner had an Observatory and TWO Mistresses! In one of those games, the winner enjoyed a 30-point lead, but in the other, one point was the difference. On the flip side, there were 22 players who had both a Mistress and an Observatory, but still lost. There were two additional games where a player had both Mistresses and another where the player had both Observatories and still lost. In fact, we had two games where the winner beat two opponents who each had a Mistress and an Observatory.

That leaves a 16.6% win rate if you have some combination of Mistress and Observatory and a 52% loss rate. While getting a Mistress or an Observatory is nice, you still need to know how to use them effectively!

Tom DeMarco and Andy Latto

GM Norman Rule and his finalists
 GM      Norman Rule  [1st Year]  NA
    mrorwell@verizon.net   NA 

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