![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Steven and the Backgammon Tournament
Jul. 9th, 2021 10:25 pmA group in Burton (near Flint) holds a weekly backgammon tournament at a local sports bar. I heard about it over a year ago and wanted to go, but never got around to it. Then the pandemic hit and shut it down. But it's back now, and I decided to go.
I learned to play backgammon from my mother and my aunt when I was a teenager. Aunt Lynne and I had deadly duels over stones and dice. I never really played against other people--I never knew anyone else who played. These days, I play against a computer. I've never played in an actual tournament.
So I went to learn something about it.
The first thing I learned is that Sharky's Bar is COLD. I mean arctic. It was a warm night, and I was wearing shorts. I froze inside the bar. We patrons complained loudly to the staff about it, but nothing changed. Note for next time: sweatshirt and jeans. And a snowsuit.
The tournament was run out of the bar's back room, past the pool tables. I found the registration person and paid my $10. When the associated people learned I had never done a tournament before, a very nice man sat down with me over a board and went through tournament rules. Double-elimination, so you play until you lose twice. Crawford rule, which has an impact on the doubling cube. You have to roll the dice with your right hand into the right-hand section of the board for the roll to count. Your turn is over when you pick your dice back up. And so on. It was actually way more straightforward than a chess tournament, which has etiquette on par with tea at Buckingham Palace.
I don't own a full-size backgammon board, but that was all right--everyone else there had one.
I sat down to play my first game with a guy who liked to narrate his thinking in a low mumble, which was interesting all by itself. He won the match, but just barely. The score was 6-7.
My second game was with a much quieter, more intense man who nonetheless tried to distract me by asking me questions just after I rolled the dice. "Where are you from?" "Where did you learn backgammon?" I fell for it the first time, but on the second, I caught what was going on and only answered after I made my move. I won that game 7-5.
I played my third game against a guy who I quickly noticed had a bit of a temper. He became noticeably agitated when the dice didn't go his way, or they showed me a bit of advantage. When he was annoyed, he made his moves faster, without thinking as much as he should have. I took advantage of this to needle him while pretending to be sympathetic. "Oh! That's too bad" and "Yeek. Well, =that= didn't go well for you." "Sorry, man--I have to blot you." I won the match 7-5 also.
My third game was with a guy who had a weird board. The base was made of cork and leather, and it made the dice land funny. Often one of them would spin like a top for several seconds before finally coming to rest. It drew out the game. I was doing pretty well, but was also getting tired, and I made a major--and obvious--error on a play that cost me the game, and ultimately cost me the match. I lost the game 4-7.
I was out!
Actually, I did pretty well, considering it was my first tournament and I had no idea what was going on. I made it all the way to quarter finals, in fact. Go me!
I'll have to try it again next week.
I learned to play backgammon from my mother and my aunt when I was a teenager. Aunt Lynne and I had deadly duels over stones and dice. I never really played against other people--I never knew anyone else who played. These days, I play against a computer. I've never played in an actual tournament.
So I went to learn something about it.
The first thing I learned is that Sharky's Bar is COLD. I mean arctic. It was a warm night, and I was wearing shorts. I froze inside the bar. We patrons complained loudly to the staff about it, but nothing changed. Note for next time: sweatshirt and jeans. And a snowsuit.
The tournament was run out of the bar's back room, past the pool tables. I found the registration person and paid my $10. When the associated people learned I had never done a tournament before, a very nice man sat down with me over a board and went through tournament rules. Double-elimination, so you play until you lose twice. Crawford rule, which has an impact on the doubling cube. You have to roll the dice with your right hand into the right-hand section of the board for the roll to count. Your turn is over when you pick your dice back up. And so on. It was actually way more straightforward than a chess tournament, which has etiquette on par with tea at Buckingham Palace.
I don't own a full-size backgammon board, but that was all right--everyone else there had one.
I sat down to play my first game with a guy who liked to narrate his thinking in a low mumble, which was interesting all by itself. He won the match, but just barely. The score was 6-7.
My second game was with a much quieter, more intense man who nonetheless tried to distract me by asking me questions just after I rolled the dice. "Where are you from?" "Where did you learn backgammon?" I fell for it the first time, but on the second, I caught what was going on and only answered after I made my move. I won that game 7-5.
I played my third game against a guy who I quickly noticed had a bit of a temper. He became noticeably agitated when the dice didn't go his way, or they showed me a bit of advantage. When he was annoyed, he made his moves faster, without thinking as much as he should have. I took advantage of this to needle him while pretending to be sympathetic. "Oh! That's too bad" and "Yeek. Well, =that= didn't go well for you." "Sorry, man--I have to blot you." I won the match 7-5 also.
My third game was with a guy who had a weird board. The base was made of cork and leather, and it made the dice land funny. Often one of them would spin like a top for several seconds before finally coming to rest. It drew out the game. I was doing pretty well, but was also getting tired, and I made a major--and obvious--error on a play that cost me the game, and ultimately cost me the match. I lost the game 4-7.
I was out!
Actually, I did pretty well, considering it was my first tournament and I had no idea what was going on. I made it all the way to quarter finals, in fact. Go me!
I'll have to try it again next week.
