Weekly Notes by David Minikus
Dec 30th - 11 Players
2009 Week 52 - Nitschke does it again, Jeff defeated Dave Wetzel for the win; his 2nd week in a row... Mitch defeated Ron for the consolation win tonight. Steve Brown is player of the year, Jesse Eaton is 2nd and Yury Millman is 3rd.
Dec 23rd - 7 Players
2009 Week 51 - Seven of us braved the blizzard to play tonight, Jeff defeated Yury in the finals, and I defeated Duane in the consolation. We spent much of the evening in a chouette...
Dec 17th - 17 Players
2009 Week 50 - It was battle of the titans tonight #1 Steve Brown vs #2 Jesse Eaton - Steve wins and chinches Player of the Year in a convincing manner, YTD he has 31.26 points to Jesse’s 23.18... Phil & Kevin decided to split the consolation. Mary won her first match tonight, she defeated Lane in the first round, lost to Jesse in the second and then defeated Yury in the consolations.
Dec 10th - 17 Players
2009 Week 49 - Jesse lost ground on Steve Brown tonight and since he plans to travel to Chicago for the holidays, he leaves open the chance for Yury to grab 2nd place. In the finals; Yury defeated Steve Brown and Duane defeated Bob in the consolation finals.
Dec 3rd - 15 Players
2009 Week 48 - OK, the game is on... We will play on Wed 23rd & 30th this month, which gives us 5 weeks this month which makes it possible for several of the top player of the year positions to change. In the finals tonight, Duane and I played a tight tough match. At one point, Duane was ahead 5-2 in a 7 point match - I won the next 4 points to go ahead 6-5 - In the end Duane won... :-( Ahmet defeated Kevin to win his first consolation.
Nov 12th - 23 Players 3 New Players
2009 Week 46 - Wow, tonight we set a record for the year - the most players and most new for one night. 23 players with 3 new. Ahmet brought his friend Omer Cimen, also Mary Montour & Layne Carver joined us for their first ever tournament. Unless we do a New Years Eve party tournament, or play on Wednesday for the last two weeks of the year Jesse, #2, can’t catch Steve Brown... In the finals Jesse defeated Phil tonight - Jesse (an intermediate player????) scored an incredible 5 points to win the month. Jim Pokela defeated Rick Davis to take the consolation.
Nov 12th - 21 Players
2009 Week 45 - Jesse moved past Yury into 2nd place by defeating Bob for the win. In the consolation Yury could have held on to 2nd place by defeating Ron. Instead he was backgammoned by Ron holding a 4 cube in a single game match!
Nov 5th - 19 Players - 2 New
2009 Week 44 - A friend of Shel’s, Howard Smith, joined us tonight. I also know Howard; about 16 years ago I hired him to do some remodeling work on my house. Stijn Vanhauwaert also joined us, he recently moved here from Ohio. The unstoppable Steve Brown defeated Kevin for the win, and Jesse “double” steamed rolled me for the consolation win...
Oct 29th - 18 Players
2009 Week 43 - October player of the month is Duane - It was close all month but Duane eked out his win by scoring .24 to Jim’s 0 tonight. Tom Magne defeated Jeff for the win tonight. Tom is headed to the Las Vegas tourney with Judge Bob and friend Craig DeBerg, who defeated Jesse for the consolation win. Tonight is Craig’s first tournament in which he has won more than a single match. Great job Craig & good luck to all going to Vegas... By the way, the top 21 spots for player of the year did not change this week!
Oct 22nd - 18 Players
2009 Week 42 - Amet scored his first points tonight, he defeated Steve Brown in the first round, then lost to Dave Wetzel, and defeated Rick in his first consolation match and lost to me in his second. Dave Wetzel wins tonight defeating Steve Reichelt in his second trip to the finals this month. Bob defeated Brown in the consolation bracket.
Oct 15th - 20 Players
2009 Week 41 - OK I guess it’s old hat now, 20 players again... Jeff Nitschke wins tonight, he defeated Jim Pokla. In the consolation, Steve Binenstock defeated Steve Brown. 4 out of 5 Steve’s showed up, 2 David’s & 2 Jim’s!
Oct 8th - 20 Players
2009 Week 40 - Once again, a great tournout... Steve Reichelt defeated Amet, Rick, Jesse & Ralph to reach the finals for the first time. He was defeated by Jim, and with his win Jim jumped from 6th place to 4th Passing Duane & Ralph. In the consolation bracket Steve Cherne defeated Kevin.
Oct 1st - 19 Players - 1 New
2009 Week 39 - For the 4th week in a row, Great Turnout... Turkish player Amet Atan joined us for his first live tournament. He was defeated by Steve Binenstock in the first round, and by me in the consolations. Duane defeated Steve Brown in the finals, but with a 7 point lead for player of the year, Steve is going to be very hard to catch! Tom Holzer & I settled, giving me the consolation win.
Sept 24th - 19 Players
2009 Week 38 - Great turnout again. But, a few of the players were rather slow or the matches were close & long - depending on who you ask!!! Anyhow, Bob Schumacher & Dave Wetzell split 1st & 2nd, while Tom Magne & Hans Wang split the consolation. With his split, Dave win the month - Congrats...
Sept 17th - 21 Players - 1 New & 1 from the past...
2009 Week 37 - Wow, 21 players tonight, and Mitch wins again, he defeated Jesse in the finals. Steve Brown defeated Steve Reichelt in the consolations. Joining us from the past, is Dave Wetzell’s son, David. New tonight is Chris Yeager playing in his first live tournament.
Sept 10th - 16 Players
2009 Week 36 - Tom Magne joined us tonight after a many year absence. Friend, Craig Debery, also joined us for his first visit, both play a regular chouette with Bob Schumacher. Missing for many months, Jim Noren also played tonight. Steve Brown defeated Jesse in the finals and Myron defeated Yury in the consolation.
Sept 3rd - 13 Players
2009 Week 35 - Two weeks ago, It was the battle of the David’s in the consolation, tonight we battled for the win and once again Dave Wetzel defeated me, David Minikus. I’m going to have to do something about this disturbing trend! In the consolation, Duane defeated Ron...
Aug 27th - 19 Players
2009 Week 34 - Fred wins player of the month, with 4.5 points for the month. Ron won the tournament tonight defeating Mitch, who continues his great play; defeating Glen, Steve Binenstockin, and Fred. In the consolation bracket Hugh defeated Glen.
Aug 20th - 14 Players
2009 Week 33 - Fred defeated Ed for the win tonight and brakes the 3 way tie for player month. It was the battle of the David’s in the consolation, where Dave Wetzel was victorious over ME... :-(
Aug 13th - 14 Players
2009 Week 32 - Mitch Reed has been spending lots of time with GNU and it’s paid off, tonight Mitch won the tournament - Congradulations Mitch, he defeated Steve Binenstockin the finals... Steve Brown defeated me, David, in the consolation bracket. With 2 points each, we have a 3 way tie for first place this month between Mitch, Fred, & Steve Brown.
July 23rd - Aug 6th
2009 Weeks 29-31 - I sell cars at Morrie’s Hyundai & CARS - Cash for Clunkers has kept me so busy, I’ve had no time to do my weekly updates, I even missed our Aug 6 tournament... We did have 3 new players join us, Dave Rockwell brought Joe Rafson also from IL, he finished second to Fred our winner. Steve Brown won the consolation bracket. Friends Evan Cesar & Steve Reichelt joined us for their first live tournament.
July 16th - 15 Players - 1 New
2009 Week 28 - Jim Buckentine joined us tonight for his first live tournament. Jim made it to the consolation finals where he was defeated by Colleen. In the finals Yury defeated Hugh for the win.
July 9th - 14 Players
2009 Week 28 - Duane defeated Steve Brown for the win & Ron defeated Charles in the consolation bracket.
July 2nd - 12 Players - 1 New
2009 Week 27 - Forrest Green joined us tonight - a relatively new player; he has played online for several months and this is his first live tournament. In the first round, Forrest was defeated by our resident backgammon educator Duane, in the consolation he was defeated by Tom. Jim defeated Ron in the Finals and Ralph defeated Phil in the consolation bracket. The top 3 players were not here but the top 5 positions remain the same...
June 25th - 11 Players
2009 Week 26 - Buy backs tonight... Steve Cherne defeated Bob Schumacher for the win - no consolation bracket tonight.
June 18th - 16 Players - 2 From IL
2009 Week 25 - In the area for a wedding, Linda & Dave Rockwell joined us tonight. Linda defeated Hugh, Steve Binenstock, Bob and Kevin for the win tonight. Dave was defeated in the first round by Ron, in consolations he defeated Fred & Steve Binenstock and lost to Steve Brown who defeated Ron for the consolation win.
June 11th - 15 Players - 1 From the Past
2009 Week 24 - Shel won tonight, defeating Jesse in the finals. Shels has played only 3 times this year, with 2 wins his 4.24 total points is good for 11th place. Tom Holzer made his first appearance this year & split the consolation win with Duane.
June 4th - 14 Players - 1 New
2009 Week 23 - Joining us tonight is Craig Larson, he was defeated by Yury in the first round, and lost to Duane in his consolation match... Welcome Craig, I hope you become a regular... Steve Brown defeated Ron for the win and Kevin defeated Steve Cherne for the for the consolation win.
May 28th - 15 Players
2009 Week 22 - Watch Out Yury, Steve Brown is sneaking up on you... Tonight, Steve defeated Bob for the win & jumped from 5th to 2nd place. Yury maintained a 1.23 point lead by defeating Ralph in the consolation bracket.
May 21st - 14 Players - 1 From the Past
2009 Week 21 - We are all happy to have Bob Schumacher join us again, he was a big winner in the recent Las Vegas tournament. Bob didn’t like the traffic & parking issues of going downtown, but getting to Major’s is an easy freeway jaunt. Yury jumped from 4th to 1st tonight by defeating me in the finals and Dave Wetzel defeated Jesse in the consolations.
May 14th - 16 Players - 1 New
2009 Week 20 - Tolga Tosun, a native of Turkey, joined us tonight, he grew up playing backgammon but had never used the Cube... He lost his first match to Steve Cherne, but in the consolations, he defeated #1 Jesse, #4 Yury, then Myron and lost a close one to #5 Steve Brown in the consolation finals. Good Job Tolga... In the finals Ed “Hot Dice” Ziesche defeated Yury, Me, then Hugh for the win.
May 7th - 16 Players
2009 Week 19 - Our first meeting at our new home - Majors Sports Cafe in Golden Valley was a great success; the room is great, the menu is much better, and the prices are similar... Shel took advantage of the shorter drive and came to play, he defeated Steve Brown in the finals while Duane defeated Yury in the consolations.
April 30th - 17 Players
2009 Week 18 - Yury defeated Kevin Ahtou for the win tonight. Despite winning only 1 match, Jesse maintained 1st place by a margin of .22 over Ralph who defeated Kyle for the consolation win. Jim dropped to 3rd place when he left early missing a consolation match with Kyle. I didn’t see Jim leave and I don’t think he realized that he had a consolation match thus missing a chance to meet Ralph in the consolation final...
April 23rd - 14 Players - 1 New
2009 Week 17 - Nicholas Brown drove over from River Falls, WI to join us tonight. He played well, but lost to Ralph in the first round & was defeated by Rick in his consolation match. Hope we see you again Nicholas... Fresh off the plane from Vegas via Phoenix, Jesse had a much better result tonight than he did in Vegas, by defeating Yury for the win... Steve Cherne back for the summer from his winter home in Montana defeated Kyle to win the consolations.
April 16th - 14 Players
2009 Week 16 - Kyle won his second weekly tournament tonight by defeating Ralph in the finals. Kyle moved up from 9th to 6th place. Ralph moved past Jesse into 2nd place, and is the only player of the top 5 to score any points tonight. Duane won the consolation by defeating Ron.
April 9th - 18 Players
2009 Week 15 - Eighteen players tonight - including a very svelte Hans Wang... Ralph becomes Aprils leader and moves into 3rd place YTD by defeating Dave Wetzel for the win. Duane defeated Yury in the consolation bracket.
April 2nd - 17 Players
2009 Week 14 - All the usual suspects tonight, Jim defeated Jesse in the finals and Phil Biesanz defeated Yury in the consolations.
March 26th - 19 Players
2009 Week 13 - Welcome back to Shel Segal & Glenn Dowd it’s been a few months for Shel & even longer for Glenn. Congratulations to Kyle Wagner player of the month for the first time... Jesse defeated Jim for the win tonight; Jim maintains 1st place, and Jesse jumps from 5th to 2nd. Steve Brown defeated Phil Biesanz in the consolations.
March 19th - 10 Players
2009 Week 12 - 10 players tonight, the rest are headed for the Windy City... Kyle wins his first weekly tournament - the hard way... Kyle was the first looser tonight and didn’t seem too enthusiast about buying back in, but he did take the first of the 6 spots available. His opponent was Mark followed by Steve (BS), Ralph, then Phil in the finals.
March 12th - 22 Players - 1 New & 3 Out of Towners
2009 Week 11 - Great turnout tonight... Our new player is Brian Nasset - he has been playing on MSN. He defeated Ron in his first match and lost to Ed in the consolation - Good Luck Brian, we hope you become a regular... Dave Rockwell from IL, and Mark & Kieth from Rochester, MN joined us as a warmup for next weeks Chicago tournament. We just can’t stand it when these foreigners come in here & win! :-) In the finals, Kieth defeated Fred and Steve Brown defeated Yury in the consolations.
March 5th - 14 Players
2009 Week 10 - Before I started the draw for tonight, Fred Kalantari & Steve Brown were doing some verbal sparing about wanting to meet in the finals. Instead, they met in the first round with Steve being the winner. Fred went to the consolation finals by defeating Ralph, Steve Binenstock, & then Me. Steve Brown lost his next match and then defeated Jim and Mark to meet Fred in the consolation finals... Fred got his revenge, by defeating Steve for the consolation win. Oh, and in the finals, Yury defeated Duane. By winning tonight, Yury has jumped from 8th place to 2nd, just behind Jim.
February 26th - 8 Players
2009 Week 9 - A nasty winter storm that dropped 6” to 8” across the Twin Cities gave us a small turnout tonight. Jim defeated Jesse in the finals and Dave Wetzell defeated Kyle in the consolations. Lots of chouette action before and after the tournament...
February 19th - 17 Players - 1 from the past
2009 Week 8 - Working in Switzerland for the past couple of years seems to have improved Dan Dabney’s game. He plays in monthly tournaments in and around Switzerland. Dan defeated Steve Binenstock in the finals tonight, and in the consolations, Yury defeated Kevin Ahtou.
February 12th - 17 Players
2009 Week 7- In the finals tonight, Jim Pokela was leading Steve Brown 4 to 3 in a 7 point match. With a 4 point board (2 & 3 were open) 2 builders, 2 checkers back & behind in the race Steve doubled. Jim who had 1 on the bar decided to take... Steve who was able to close out his board before Jim could get out, won a gammon for the match. Using GNU Jim analyzed the double; it was a double - drop, giving Steve 65% wins with 25% gammons. His 2nd place finish allowed Jim to go back into 1st place. In the consolations, Jesse defeated Ralph an jumped from 4th to 2nd.
February 5th - 19 Players - 2 from the past
2009 Week 6 - Neville Basman & Kevin Ahtou joined us this week, it’s been months since we have seen either of them. Lots of players & a few slow matches caused us to run long... Gary defeated Yury in the finals which propelled him from 6th to 1st place in the standings. Ed & Tom Penny split the consolation points, as closing time came before they could finish their match.
January - 2 New Players This Month
2009 Weeks 1-5 - Computer problems are plaguing me, but at least I got this update published... :-) Ben Witz & Mark Niebhr joined us this month, and Hans Wang put in his quarterly guest appearance. Jim Pokela started this year the same as last year, by winning in week 1, he finished 2nd in week 2. Ralph Stowell finished 2nd in week 3 and in week 4, took 1st place with & incredible bearoff... In a seven point match, at crawford I was leading Ralph at 6-2. I was way ahead in the race when Ralph rolled 6-5 & 6-5 to bring 2 straggles into his home board, he then rolled 5-5, 5-5 & 1-1, he may have had another double, it’s just too painful to remember!!! Any how in our next game, Ralph was way ahead in the race with a closed board - I had 1 on the ace & my six was open. I had to decide to run or hit - If I hit, I leave 1 on my 9 & 2 elsewhere - Ya I hit :-( On his first roll from the bar, Ralph gets the miracle 6-3 to hit, and then goes on to get the other 2 checkers & wins a gammon on a 2 cube for the match. Duane analyzed my play on his laptop and GNU says my play is correct - Next time I think I’ll do it differently. Ralph & Jim share player of the month with 3 points each.
Congratulations Yury Millman - Our 2008 Player of the Year...
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