Newsletter for 17 February 2004

President's Day Edition

On Tuesday, 17 February 2004, the Backgammon Club of San Diego met with a small turnout.

Tournament News

Six people entered an 8-player bracket on Tuesday night. We had the following tournament results: We had a pretty small turnout, but no matter -- the tournament must go on!

Just so that everybody knows -- we start our tournaments at 6:30 sharp, but we allow late entries -- we can accept first round entries until 7:40, and second round entries until 8:40. Naturally, it's best if you can arrive by 6:30 -- if you arrive late we can't guarantee to get you a spot in the tournament -- but we'd rather you arrive late than not at all!

Current Master Points Standings

By winning on Tuesday night, Jason closed to within five points of Bruce Haight for the lead in the Master Point race, while Adrian Costa's second place finish kept him in second place, just four points off the pace. 
 1. Bruce Haight     24
 2. Adrian Costa     20
 3. Jason Lee        19
 4. Marcia Karen      9
 5. Sho Sengoku       8
 6. Osman Guner       7
 7. Cyrus Mobedshahi  6
 8. Tom Fahland       3
 9. Fred Kamgar       1
10. Sam Mehri         1
Remember that the point leader at the end of the year will be named the BCSD Player of the Year, and the top 16 in the Master Point standings will be invited to the 2004 BCSD Tournament of Champions, to be held in early 2005.

Problem of the Week

+-13-14-15-16-17-18-+---+-19-20-21-22-23-24-+
| ' '1X2X2X2X ' ' '1X2O2O|
|   |
|      |  54  |
|1O2X1X2O2X3O|   | '2O ' '3O2X|
+-12-11-10--9--8--7-+---+--6--5--4--3--2--1-+

5 point match, tied 0-0. Black to play 5-4.
Pip counts: White 177, Black 130

Last Week's Problem of the Week

What is the correct settlement for the following bearoff position?

+-13-14-15-16-17-18-+---+-19-20-21-22-23-24-+
| ' '1X1X ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '|
|   |
|      |      |
|3O ' ' ' ' '|   | ' ' ' ' ' '|
+-12-11-10--9--8--7-+---+--6--5--4--3--2--1-+

Money game. Black on roll. Cube action?
Pip counts: White 7, Black 3

Looks easy, right? Black wins whenever he rolls any doubles, or any nondoubles followed by White missing. White misses when he rolls any one or any two -- except 2-2. So White has 19 missing numbers. Black's winning chances are therefore 1/6 + (5/6)*(19/36) = 131/216, and since the cube is at 4, Black's equity is 4*(131/216) - 4*(85/216), which is about 0.85. So White should pay Black 0.85 units (whatever the stake is)?

No! The position is double/take, and since White will have no recube vig, we have to double that equity! The correct settlement is that White should pay Black 1.70 units.

See you next week! Keep tossing those cubes,
J. Lee

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