WBC Tournament Write-up
Congratulations to Matthew Amitrano for winning the first Wits & Wagers World Championship!
One of the tables from round 1
The first annual Wits & Wagers World Boardgame Championship tournament was a smashing success! At least it was for me. I had expected to draw enough players for 1 or 2 games at the most. It turns out that we had 28 players (and a few more that we had to turn away) divided evenly between 4 different games (7 players at each table). I could not have hoped for better participation.
Due to the number of players that attended, I had to stand on a chair and shout out the questions so that everyone could hear them. Hopefully I was not too annoying to the other nearby tournament players. Even with these unwieldy circumstances, everything went smoothly. I used new never heard before questions to make sure no one had an unfair advantage.
Standings
The tournament format was Swiss style (my favorite tournament format from my professional Magic days). Players were randomly assigned to their first table but assigned by standing for the following two games.
Game 2: Top seed table
- Matthew Amitrano - 7 points (1st)
- Jason Avery - 7 points (1st)
- Mike Coomes - 7 points (1st)
- Gary Schaefors - 7 points (1st)
- Mike Desto - 6 points (2nd)
- Jim Freeman - 6 points (2nd)
- Peter Martin - 6 points (2nd)
Game 3: Top seed table
- Jason Avery - 14 points (1st / 1st)
- Suzanne Tuch - 13 points (2nd/ 1st)
- Mike Coomes - 13 points (1st / 2nd)
- Matthew Amitrano - 11 points (1st / 4th)
- Gary Schaefors - 11 points (1st / 4th)
- Robert Drodz - 11 points (3rd / 2nd)
- Jim Freeman - 11 points (2nd / 3rd)
The top seed table from the final round (names above).
Final Standings
- Matthew Amitrano - 18 points (1st / 4th / 1st)
- Suzanne Tuch - 18 points (2nd/ 1st / 3rd)
- Jason Avery - 17 points (1st / 1st / 5th)
- Jim Freeman - 17 points (2nd / 3rd / 2nd)
- Cliff Ackman - 16 points (6th / 1st / 1st)
- Peter Martin - 16 points (2nd / 5th / 1st)
- Mike Desto - 16 points (2nd / 4th / 2nd)
- Mike Coomes - 15 points (1st / 2nd / 6th)
- Robert Drodz - 15 points (3rd / 2nd / 4th)
- David Brooks 15 points (3rd / 3rd / 3rd)
Strategy
While it helps to be knowledgeable (of course), the good players also made smart strategy decisions. The most important strategy is in playing the odds correctly. Good players quickly multiply the payout odds by the spread (the amount of numbers for which the given answer will pay out) in order to arrive at the actual payout odds. For instance, an answer that will pay out 4:1 on 5 different numbers is half as good as an answer that will pay out 2:1 on 20 different numbers. Since time is limited, the good players learned how to make quick estimates about the relative odds for each answer. When they had no idea of the answer, they simply went with the best odds.
I noticed that the winning players often hedged their bets in order to maintain their lead while the losing players often played riskier (betting both chips on the same answer) in order to catch the leader. There were also several occasions when a few of the leading players refrained from betting. This is something that does not happen very often because takes a lot of discipline. I saw this on several occasions when the good players had no idea at all about where to bet and there were no obvious strategic decision based upon the odds.
The next level of play was in regards to getting to know the other players area of expertise. Sometimes this took place through friendly conversation (I heard someone asking another player if they had a graduate degree.) and other times by paying attention to game play. Most of the top players were at the same table for the last two games (a few were at the same table for all three games) which means they had the chance to learn about the knowledge base of other players. There is usually a clear cut distinction between someone who knows a lot about pop culture and someone who knows a lot of academic trivia. The best players are always paying attention to how the other players answer questions and how they bet.
All in all, this was a fun and exciting first Wits & Wagers World Championship. Congratulations to Matthew Amitrano for winning and to Suzanne Tuch for an honorable 2nd place!