Took 3rd at Grand National - Earned My Masters!

Grand National 30 in Reno, NV was held on October 1st and 2nd. There were 526 players in the main tournament. I had a very consistent qualifying round, scoring a 31/14 + ~200 for 39th highest qualifying score out of the 132 qualifiers. I got a bye in the first round and started the second round of playoffs with 127 other people on Sunday morning at 7 am. In my first match I knocked out Peggy Cunningham of AZ 3-0. I should have been knocked out in the third round. I was playing Ken Conclin of WA and it was 2-2. He was only 6 holes out and I was 23 out, and he had first count. He got unlucky, only had a 2 hand and pegged 2 and I hit a 6 cut for a 24 hand and out to win the match. In the 4th round I took out Ron Logan of AZ 3-1 to get my Master's after 12 years of playing in the ACC! In the 5th round I knocked out Bryant Gilkeson of NV 3-1. That got me to the quarterfinals, and the lunch break. At 2 pm we resumed and in the 6th round I knocked out Hal Mueller of Ontario, Canada, inventor of Hal's Crib, 3-1. In the semi-finals (7th round) I was taken out by Ray Gonzales of Incline Village, NV, 3-2. He took the first two games. I fought back to get the next two, but he got a few key cuts to beat me by ~10 in the final game. It was more than double my most points (25 for qualifying and 196 for making the semis, 221 total) ever in a tournament. My previous best was 105 for taking second on a few separate occasions. (I've still never won a main!)

Wrapped up my best Grass Roots season!

I finished the year with 336 Grass Roots points. That brings my lifetime total to 2,152. I am 348 points away from my Silver. I didn't win either the Grass Roots National Championship or the Region Championship, as I can see by logging into the website that at least 3 people finished ahead of me on the season. I should come in the top 10 though...stay tuned for final results.

Still lead my Grass Roots region

I have 281 GRPs this season, with 7 weeks to go...

I've already clinched the club championship, as second place is 166 GRPs..

I need to score 2 f the final 7 weeks to break the elusive 300 mark, and top my personal best of 297.

Game Colony and eCribbage are TERRIBLE

If anyone stumbles upon this article, I'd love to know if anyone has found a realistic website to play cribbage on. I've been playing on both Game Colony and eCribbage, and both are miserably unrealistic. At both, the cut card is a complete joke. Every single hand the cut card gives the combination of players a maximum possible score. You can go months (I went ~18 tournaments in a row) without winning a match, because they give you bad marks for telling the truth that their site is garbage. It's an embarrassment that the ACC, who is supposed to be a leader in cribbage, is partnered with either of these two sites.

I've started working on my own site, but it needs more time. You can play against yourself at this point, and see it 100 times more realistic than either Game Colony or eCribbage at this point. Check it out at: http://realcribbage.blogspot.com

When winning 10/18 is better than 9/14 or 5/8

This past weekend our club hosted their February ACC tournament on Saturday and had the annual GRNT tournament on Sunday.

Saturday Main - won 9/14 (64.2%) but finished with an 18/9 (no skunks) and was the second highest non-qualifier
Saturday Consolation - won 5/8 (62.%) but finished with a 10/5 (no skunks) and was the highest non-qualifier
Sunday GRNT - won 10/18 (55.6%) and finished with a 24/10 (4 skunks) and squeaked into earning national points

The lesson: Skunks, which are largely out of your control, can make all the difference, for the good and for the bad.

Passed Joe Wergin

With my finishes at Reno I picked up 76 master points, bringing my lifetime total to 1,759, passing ACC founder Joe Wergin. (This gets your name in the Crib World, randomly enough!)

Tripled up in Reno

At this year's biggest cribbage tournament I placed in each of the events...

Friday TOC
I had a 24/11 in the qualifying round, placing 37th out of 520 players. I lost in the 3rd rd of the playoffs, finishing 33-64.

Saturday Main
I had a 32/14 in the qualifying round, placing 57th out of 892 players. I lost in the 1st rd of the playoffs, finishing 129-256.

Sunday Consolation
I had a 16/8 in the qualifying round, placing 17th out of 670 players. I lost in the 3rd rd of the playoffs, finishing 33-64.

Highest 9-game card ever!

It took ~10.5 years in the ACC for me to top 2,000 Grass Roots points, and I did it with a bang! On Monday, January 31st, I had a 22-card, my highest ever, to go from 1,995 points to 2,017 points....483 to go for my Silver award.

With the grand slam, I topped 200 points (201 to be exact!) on the season.

Here's the card:

On a roll with my Padres hat

I started wearing one of Tammy's old Padre hats to club a few weeks ago, and I've reached 12 points every time I've worn it (including a visit to the Alamo club when Tammy & the boys were out of town.

Do you ever wear the same thing because it's lucky? I do.

We're at the halfway point in the season (including the GRRT, which should officially post soon) and the club standings look at follows:

1. Paul Gregson 167
2. Mary Gladish 138
3. Heidi Glashan 114
4. Tad Pilecki 88
5. Basil Rudnick 81
6. Evelyn Gillmore 79
7. Doung Fincke 58
8. Art Watkins 57
9. Anne Sheeran 53
10. Arne Lillimagi 51