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2nd Casino Salzburg Backgammon Open

& Texas Holdem Tournament

7th – 10th April 2005

BRITS TRIUMPH ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!

BACKGAMMON 0 – POKER 5

Was it the Pope? Was it Prince Rainier of Monaco? Was it Charles & Camilla? Or was it Ken & Deidre?? Whatever it was that was happening in Europe it kept the numbers of players down in Salzburg. There were a total of 29 players in two divisions. With 5000 Euros added there was going to be some good equity. The tournament directors were Chiva Tafazzoli and Andrea Hollmann.
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On Thursday five Brits met at Stanstead Airport at 7.30 a.m. – Slatts, John Gilbertson, Ernie Pick, Julian Minwalla and myself. We bumped into Fanika and her friend Sarah in Starbucks, who were travelling on the same plane. They definitely arrived in Salzburg but we didn’t see them at the casino until Saturday afternoon. The shopping proved to be too good and as they had a Sunday a.m. plane Fanika decided not to join the tournament.
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There wasn’t that much happening on Thursday night and as we were all really tired from the early start we decided to stay at the hotel. This didn’t stop us from having a chouette (apart from Jules who went to bed at 7.30!) The two John’s cleaned up leaving me and Ernie to dish out the dosh.
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On Friday Ernie, John G and I went into Salzburg. The sun was shining and it put us all in a good mood. We did some shopping and Ernie sampled the delights of an Austrian banana cake, which was delicious.
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Play started at the Casino in the afternoon with 18 in the Championship division and 11 in the Intermediates. It was decided that the Intermediates would play a round robin. This meant playing 3 matches on the first day. I already knew my backgammon had gone to pot, so I wasn’t really surprised to only win one match. John G won all 3 of his and Ernie won 1 out of 2 played.
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During his third match of the day John was leading 5–0 to 9 when he offered his opponent a 4-cube in this position. Was this correct?

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John Gilbertson 5

Opponent 0

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He went on to win the match 9–0!
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In the Championship division Slatts played an Austrian in his first round but never really got into the game. Because I was busy playing I only saw a couple of games. The one that was being played at the time I started watching was an exciting one. Slatts was playing a back game and managed to get into a coupe classic situation. He hit the shot by rolling a 2 and battle commenced. He was doing well, but knew he needed the second checker back if he wanted to win the game. With the score at 2–6 to 13 and the cube on 2 he needed to win! Unfortunately, having forced his opponent to hit him he missed the second blot. His opponent then rolled double-six to come all the way round and off and Slatts got backgammoned! He didn’t recover and was out of the backgammon for the day after only one match. Jules flew the flag for the Brits and won his match 13–1.
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We all went out for a Chinese that night and the food was so good we booked for Saturday night as well. A thanks has to go to Ernie, who is from Austrian descent, for his language skills. His chat up lines to the waitress fell on stony ground but he did do an excellent job of translating and speaking out for us all in German.
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All the Brits except Jules went back to the casino to play poker in the evening – more on this here.
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Saturday was not a good day for British backgammon. Slatts lost his Consolation match at DMP. Jules not only lost his Main match after a very close battle, but also went out of the Consolation, Warm-up and Super Jackpot.
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Meanwhile in the Intermediates, John and I lost all 3 of our matches (we blame the late night and the dice gods!). However, it was Ernie that had the worst day of all.
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There was a mega-controversy, which I will report on as fairly as any bystander can. Ernie was drawn against a Turkish playerNedim Yardimci. For once he was getting the dice to allow him to play an excellent game which saw him go 8–0 ahead. His opponent was complaining about his bad luck all the way through. With the score at 8–2 a heated argument ensued when, after Ernie was contemplating a 54 move, his opponent picked up Ernie’s piece and moved it! Ernie told him to leave his pieces alone at which point Nedim, instead of apologising, accused him of being a slow-player (which we all know Ernie isn’t!). An argument erupted and Chiva, the tournament director, was called over to calm the situation down. When the score was 8–6 he proceeded to watch the rest of the match.
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Nedim continued to talk and Chiva warned both players that if either of them spoke again they would get a penalty point. With the match at 8–8 Ernie took a cigarette break but was understandably still angry and upset, as he felt that had the initial incident not happened he would have won the match well before it got to this score. We told him to settle down, be calm and go do it! At DMP things were going well for Ernie. His opponent had two men on the bar and Ernie had started bearing off. He then threw double-five, which left a blot on his 3-point. He then said (to himself, but out loud) “I knew that would fucking happen!” His opponent rolled and played 6/1, Ernie rolled and Nedim shuffled the pieces and shut his board. Ernie left the room thinking he had won the match only to discover that Chiva had given a penalty point against him. Needless to say Ernie was extremely upset and decided to leave the tournament and go back to the hotel.
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Slatts and Jules were still playing their game and with Slatts at DMP, John and I were keen to see the end of the game. By the time this was finished Ernie had gone. Slatts decided to go back to the hotel to check he was okay and to keep him company for the rest of the day. When discussing the situation later, Ernie’s main gripe as that Chiva should have instantly told him that he had got a penalty point and lost the match, rather than condoning his talking by allowing Nedim to roll. Slatts did speak to Chiva about this on Sunday and he said that because both players were hotheaded he didn’t want a scene in the playing room, so with the match only a few rolls from being finished he let play continue.
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Chiva asked me to point out that at that stage, a victory or a loss of a match would absolutely not have been decisive for the outcome of the round-robin format. Even though Ernie went away angrily, he waited long enough for him to return, hoping he would calm down and continue his other matches. Unfortunately, as he didn’t return he had to scratch him after a few hours, leaving him his warm up match open to be played until the very last day of the tournament. He did return Ernie’s registration fee.

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It is always unfortunate when incidents occur (which they seem to do more and more often these days!). One thing is for sure I would not like to have the responsibility of being a tournament director. We did point out to Ernie that he probably could have appealed against the decision and it would have gone to a committee. However, this option would only have been open to him at the time.
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We all met up again at the Chinese for another excellent meal. Ernie, Slatts and Jules went back to the hotel to play chouette and John and I went back to the Casino to play poker.
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On Sunday, Jules and Ernie decided to go into Salzburg and then played backgammon at the hotel. Slatts got into the semi-final of the warm-up, but again lost at DMP. The final was between Schinichiro Kaneko and Heimo Krainer. It was a hard fought battle, which Kaneko won at DMP. The two of them had also reached the final of the Super Jackpot and they had agreed to split the prize money. Krainer made it a hat trick of finals by winning the One-Point President's Tournament.
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John won 2 out of 3 of his matches and was in with a chance of coming 3rd and picking up some prize money. I hate to say it, but it was me that let him down. I had won one match already and in my last match was winning 8- 2 against a Turkish player. All I am going to say is that I agree that backgammon is the “cruellest game”! I had the match almost won in the post-Crawford game when my opponent chose then to roll some big numbers to win the race. He then got an unlikely gammon to make the score 8-8.
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In the last game I had a chance to win when we got to this position.
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Serin 8

Rosey 8

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The dice Gods decided otherwise however! My opponent rolled double-five which came in, hit my blot and left a blot in his home board. I hit! He came in again with double-five, hit again and left a blot. I hit him again and he danced. I then rolled double-six, which meant I got one man off but had to leave a blot on my 5-point. Yes, of course he hit and ran, and I lost the race.
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Poker
So, unlike last year when the Brits got five BG trophies there were none for us this year. But what happened in the poker?

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Slatts, Ernie, John G and I paid 200 euros each for 1,500 chips and sat down to play with five others on Friday night. The game was Texas No Limit Holdem and the re-buys were 100 euros for the first hour. There was an Austrian player, Schmukie, who was quite a reckless player and went all-in with nearly every hand. He was a great character, good fun and really boosted the kitty up! Most players topped up at the freeze out, buying 2,000 chips for 200 euros. The prize fund totalled 4,180 euros = 1st 2,090 / 2nd 1,250 / 3rd 840.

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Chiva was playing his first poker tourney and had amassed quite a large chip lead and made it to the final three. There with him was Slatts, who had played his usual entrepreneurial style, with no one really knowing whether he had a hand or not, and me! “Slowly, slowly catchee monkey” is my motto! I am not too good at bluffing but if I can get a few good cards I am in with a chance. So battle commenced for the glory and the money. At 2.15 a.m. Slatts saw off Chiva with pocket queens against Chiva’s A / Q. Heads up was fun, I went down to a few thousand chips when my pocket pair was beaten by Slatts straight. I battled on though and got some chips back. I went all in with a J / Q and Slatts took time to deliberate only for him to turn over pocket Aces and win first prize!!

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On Saturday John G and I played on a table of 7 players. Schmukie, the Austrian player, managed to win some good hands early on, as did Chiva. The best hand I got was pocket Jacks and raised, Schmukie re-raised, Chiva played and I went all in as by this time I was pot committed. The flop contained an Ace and Schmukie and Chiva continued to play until Chiva only had a few chips left. I was already resigned to the fact that one of them must have an Ace and I was going out. As it happened, neither of them did, but for once Schmukie had a good hand – pocket Kings and he won a large number of chips. John was having no decent cards at all but managed to stay in until the last 4. At this point he was short-stacked and 2 of the players he was up against had 25,000 chips +. He didn’t let this prevent him from playing some excellent poker and he went on to win first prize of 2,090 euros.

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On Sunday, after the prize giving, Chiva organised more poker. Ten people sat down to play including the two BG finalists, Kaneko and Krainer. The Brits triumphed again and all three of us got to the final four with Kaneko (who incidentally had that day bought all of the T H Poker books Chiva was selling!). I was the one that went out 4th, John was 3rd (890 euros) which left Kaneko and Slatts to battle it out for first prize. They were evenly matched in chips at this point so it was going to be a case of who could bluff who first, or who could really get some get good cards. There was only about four hands played when the blinds had reached 2000/4000 with an ante of 1000.  A flop came down showing Q/5/5. The both checked, the turn was an 8, Slatts checked and Kaneko went all in. Slatts looked at him quizzically and said “are you trying to bluff me?” Kaneko smiled but gave nothing away. Slatts went all in and it was show down time. Kaneko grinned as he revealed 7/3! Slatts grinned even wider when he showed his Q/5 giving him a Full House. Kaneko went home a rich man adding 1300 euros to his backgammon winnings. Slatts won 2180 euros and yet another trophy.

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Despite the controversy I must say I love the Salzburg tournament. It was a great shame there were not more players. The Casino is a nice venue and the Hotel Kamml charming. I will be back next year.

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Rosey April 2005