SWAT Team Storms Estoril Casino!
by Peter Bennet


 

Well it had a happy ending, but he nearly didn't make to Portugal at all! Dave Ablett (aka Dave Moon) missed two flights on the Thursday but, third time lucky and 24 hours later, he reached Estoril in the nick of time to play in the 4th TrueMoneyGames Portuguese Open directed by Chiva Taffazoli of the World Backgammon Association. The casino which hosts the event looks out across fountains (reminiscent of the Bellagio, if not quite as grand), a long sloping green, and then the sea. Dave became part of a 'SWAT' team of (mainly Bristol) players who cut through the opposition in the Intermediates like butter. Neither a Dane nor a German was left standing by the end of the weekend. Unfortunately the Brits did not fare quite so well in the Masters division.

In common with most of the rest of an army of 15 invading Brits (almost as many as the 18 Danes), I arrived on the Thursday, early enough (or so I hoped) to feel relaxed and ready for the first round of the Masters Main on Friday evening. First however, Raj Jansari, Chris Ternel, Nicky Check, Clive Kaye and I sampled the local catches in a fish restaurant near to the Casino prior to playing in the Thursday night Warm Up. The latter was not a great success for me, going out 4-5 in the first round to Smucki after leading 4-2. Who cared...it was only the warm-up!

Friday was then a free day, so we visited Cascais, an adjacent coastal town described on a travel website as the “dormitory of the Lisbon international working community and the 'younger set'”. There we ran into Mochy, and also came across a kiosk hiring out 'Segway' personal electric transporters. None of our little 'young at heart' set could resist the temptation for some fun, so Raj, Chris, Mochy, Clive and I were soon whirring along pavements, through parks and round racetracks.

 

Forty-five minutes raced by until it was time to return the machines and stroll back along the sea front to the Vila Gale hotel, where many of the players were staying. The fish the previous evening had been good, so we visited the same restaurant prior to heading back to the casino for the start of the main event. I was not overjoyed to discover that I had been drawn against Raj, and furthermore without a bye as compensation. Leading 3-2 to 13 I had perhaps cubed my potential blitz a fraction early: it soon went wrong and back came a 4-cube to haunt me in Position 1.

 

With the glaring weaknesses in my position (broken mid, three men stuck on his 2-point, some horrible even/even rolls) I did seriously consider passing. However Raj's position has its flaws (such as his made acepoint), and in fact it is the redouble which is marginal at best, unless your opponent actually does pass. My reward for correctly taking was to get gammoned on the 4-cube to go down 10-3 (to 13) but a fortunate triple in the next game, followed by a single point, levelled the scores at 10-10. After several thick slices of luck I managed to squeak home at DMP, but I lost a close match in the next round to the eventual champion, Austrian player Frans Joseph Bergi. Raj also crashed out of the Consolation in the first round, but still managed to scoop a 'sportsmanship' trophy. (Jealous? Moi?)

After getting a bye and beating two Danes back to back, it looked like Nicky Check was going to repeat his feat in Cannes last year when he made the semi-final. But although Nicky progressed further than any other Brit in the Masters, he hit the buffers in the shape of Steen Gronbech at the quarter-final stage, and made no further progress in the Progressive Consolation. Steen had also beaten Michael Michael in the previous round, and both Chris and Clive had become casualties by now as well. With British interest in the Masters curtailed, our attention focused on the Intermediates. The Intermediate flight was a full 32 draw including numerous Danish and German players, as well as the SWAT team and five other Brits. Actually the SWAT team had not yet formed, but it was about to. The last member of the team had of course only just 'parachuted' into Estoril, but that made him even more determined to successfully complete his mission. By Friday night all four had won their first match in the Main and so Dave Ablett, Cecilia Sparke (Dave's partner), Gaz Owen and Marcus Wrinch decided to exchange 10% of each other.

The Consolation commenced soon after the casino opened at 3pm on Saturday. With a two hour dinner break from 7.30 til 9.30 this meant cramming in a lot of matches to allow everyone who might be eligible to play in the Last Chance to do so. Let's just say there were a few 'time issues'. I won two matches in the Consolation before going out to Filomila Karantzali, feeling very tired and, at 1am, almost glad that I didn't have another match to play. By this time the SWAT team also had a man down in the shape of Marcus Wrinch (who had qualified for the Last Chance), but the others were still going strong.


I made a quick exit from the Last Chance on Sunday. Feeling somewhat brain-dead I steered clear of Carter's 'full-insulting' chouette and instead spent a couple of hours on the Blackjack tables. Not a complete disaster, but not a resounding success either: I left €2.50 richer! Meanwhile the SWAT team's mission was approaching its climax in the Intermediates. Deciding that the best strategy to mop up all enemy resistance (as well as virtually all the cash) was a three-pronged attack, Gaz had been despatched to take care of the Consolation, while Dave and Cecilia continued their assault in opposite halves of the Main. Cecilia had, incidentally, predicted prior to the start of the tournament that they would meet each other in the final. Marcus, having swiftly recovered from his earlier setback, commenced a successful rearguard action in the Last Chance. Making short work of his first four opponents he came up against Rosey Bensley in the final. A few months ago Rosey had almost decided to give up backgammon, but I hope this Estoril trip has whetted her appetite for more. To get to the final of the Last Chance she had beaten Martin de Bruin plus three Danes – no mean feat - but Marcus was even more determined and Rosey had to settle for second place. Mission accomplished for Marcus!

Meanwhile Gaz had been lulling most of his opponents into a false sense of security by letting them get to Crawford before closing in for the kill. In the final, Gaz played a German by the name of Christian Setzpfandt, to whom he had lost in the Main, and who did not want to make a deal (dangerous when you are up against a member of a lethal assault squad). Gaz was trailing 4-5 to 9, and had doubled earlier when he reached the fun position below.

Noticing the 'live grenades' which Christian had carelessly left unattended in his home board, Gaz correctly used his 4-3 to saunter off with one man from his bar anchor, 18/11. He was rewarded when Christian rolled the horrific 6-6 anti-joker (13/7(3), 7/1) and Gaz then proceeded to pick up all the shrapnel with 4-1, followed by another ace. He came close to winning a triple, but contented himself with a gammon, and finished his opponent off next game.

Meanwhile the 'Main' assault was still on course. In Cecilia's second match she had been leading 4-1 to 9 when faced with this difficult cube from Nielsen:

 

With two blots exposed for Nielsen to shoot at, and a very ragged position, there was some later disagreement among experts as to whether or not this was a take, particularly in view of the match score. In fact it is only a small double and a huge take even at the score; for money doubling would be a blunder. Cecilia correctly took and lost a single in this game but won the match to progress to the quarter-final, where at one stage she trailed 1-6 to 9 before her 'boot-camp' training kicked in. Her next opponent (in the semi) resigned the match when he could still stay alive by throwing two doubles providing Cecilia rolled a one. I happened to be watching at this moment and was quite shocked – I am not used to seeing backgammon players throw away their last small, but significant, crumbs of equity in this manner. So now the fairytale ending was on, as long as Dave could cut down the opposition in the other half of the draw.

Having beaten Mendia jnr (Portugal), Bambi de Bruin (Spain), and Mark Steyvers (Belgium), Dave was encountering stiff resistance in the shape of Claus Evers from Germany. At DMP, Dave found himself fighting a rearguard action as Claus tried to bring home his big racing lead. Claus's position was becoming ugly, and he had already been forced to leave a two-shot which Dave missed, rolling instead this difficult 5-3.
 

Chris Ternel and I who were watching nodded knowingly at each other. We knew that in these sorts of positions, when you are trailing badly and need to hit a shot, keeping the rearmost point is imperative. Dave thought for while and tried out 22/14, and then 18/10. He thought for a bit longer, eventually settling on 22/14. His opponent pointed on him with a 5-1 (8/3 4/3) but Dave came straight back with a 5-4 and Claus couldn't find another 5 until Dave was home and dry. So what's the correct play with the 5-3? It turns out that Dave's play of 22/14 is tied for first place with a play which keeps the back anchor – but not the way Chris and I had been thinking. 18/13 18/15 leaves far fewer hit and cover-or-lift numbers than 18/10 (11 vs 17) and it keeps the 22-point for last ditch hitting opportunities. However, the bar anchor does have some value here while Claus holds the mid, and breaking the 3-point with 22/14 is not too harmful: the blot left behind is almost as good as keeping the point.

Dave was rewarded with a place in the final, fulfilling Cecilia's earlier prediction. After that, the final seemed something of an anti-climax, as Dave and Cecilia settled down to 'beat each other up'. For the record Dave crossed the line first in a close match after which we all had a celebratory drink at the closing awards ceremony. So the SWAT team had a 100% strike rate, picking up all the prizes except for Consolation runner-up. (Well, four players couldn't cash five times!). Maybe next year the Brits will conduct an equally successful campaign in the Masters.....
 

Many thanx to Peter Bennet for this article - published 29th May 2009