18XX

Updated 11/10/2009

2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending 2010 GM commitment

Bruce Beard, MD

2005-09 Champion

Offsite Links

  

Event History
1991    Mark Giddings      34
1992    Dave Harshbarger      46
1993    Robin Barbehenn      84
1994    Todd Vander Pluym      84
1995    Mark Giddings      51
1996    Christian Goetz      45
1997    Dan Vice      50
1998    Jon Kwiatkowski      45
1999    Barrington Beavis     32
2000    Barrington Beavis     28
2001    David Fritsch     33
2002    Jon Kwiatkowski     36
2003    Paul Hakken     32
2004    Richard Fox     37
2005     Bruce Beard     29
2006    Bruce Beard     37
2007    Bruce Beard     45
2008    Bruce Beard     35
2009    Bruce Beard     32
 Laurels

Rank Name                 From  Last Total
  1. Bruce Beard           MD    09   270
  2. Jim McDanold          TN    09   120
  3. Jon Kwiatkowski       NC    04   104
  4. Paul Hakken           NJ    07   103
  5. Barrington Beavis     uk    06    90
  6. Mark Neale            RI    09    72
  7. Pierre LeBoeuf        MD    08    54
  8. Richard Fox           IL    04    50
  9. David Fritsch         VA    01    40
 10. Chuck Krueger         MA    08    26
 11. Dave Metheny          PA    05    25
 12. Jeremy Vipperman      TN    09    24
 13. Brian Mountford       NY    99    24
 14. Akihisa Tabei         jp    08    22
 15. Mike Brophy           NC    05    20
 16. Paul Johnson          MD    03    20
 17. John Chung            CA    02    19
 18. Robin Barbehen        MD    00    18
 19. Jason Levine          NY    01    16
 20. Richard Martin        MD    99    16
 21. Michael Fox           IL    07    15
 22. Herbert Gratz         aa    06    15
 23. Lane Newbury          TX    05    15
 24. Rick Dutton           MD    09    13
 25. Johnny Hasay          PA    02    13
 26. Craig Reece           FL    01    12
 27. Harald Henning        CT    00    12
 28. Anthony Daw           UT    02    10
 29. Mark Frueh            IL    00     9
 30. Jim Munson            UT    08     8
 31. Ben Foy               MD    99     8
 32. Andrew Roosen         MD    09     4
 33. Joe Rushanan          MA    01     4
 34. Gerald Dudley         WI    00     3

2009 Laurelists                                      Repeating Laurelists 

Jeremy Vipperman, TN
2nd

Jim McDanold, TN
3rd

Mark Neale, RI
4th

Rick Dutton, MD
5th

Andrew Roosen, MD
6th


Past Winners

Mark Giddings, NY
1991, 1995

Todd Vander Pluym, CA
1994

Christian Goetze, CA
1996

Dan Vice, VA
1997

Jon Kwiatkowski, NC
1998, 2002

Barrington Beavis, UK
1999, 2000

David Fritsch, VA
2001

Paul Hakken, NJ
2003

Richard Fox, IL
2004

Bruce Beard. MD
2005
-2009


 GM Pierre LeBoeuf (left) oversees the 1856 action as Peter Elkridge from the UK, back for his second WBC, beams over his winning position. John Weber (standing) didn't fare as well away from his usual Puerto Rico digs, finishing last in this game.

Bruce Beard (right) on his way to his fifth straight 8XX title adds David Fair and Tom McCorry (center) to his list of victims while winning this 1861 game. This title left Bruce with the longest surviving WBC win streak.

Event Inflation ... 1830 ... 1856 .... 1870

32 railroad gamers found their way back to Host B to play games from the18xx series, a small decline from last year. They came to try to unseat defending champion Bruce Beard, seeking his fifth straight victory.  Ten players were brand new to the tournament, joining 22 returnees from past years.  Three of the new players played in the semi-finals, though even more newcomers were eligible.  With comfortable wins in five of his six games, Bruce prevailed for his fifth straight 18xx tournament victory.

As in past years, there were four preliminary rounds, with 1826 and 1846 (chosen by respondents in an on-line poll) added to the four more widely available games (1830, 1856, 1861, and 1870).  The added games were in competition for the final three rounds, allowing for greater variety of play. Preliminary rounds were designated as 1830, 1856, 1870, and "other", respectively, to guarantee at least one game of each in the tournament.  1830 was the most popular preliminary round game, by 7-6 over 1861.  There were only three 1856 games and two 1870 games played and one game each of 1826 and 1846.  In the 1830 preliminary round games, the players were offered the alternate 6 train in games with newer players to make bankruptcies less common, but no games included it, and there were only three 1830 preliminary round games with bankruptcies.

In the first preliminary heat Wednesday morning, there were 4-player 1856 and 5- and 4-player 1861 games to go with two 4-player 1830 games.  Both first round 1830 games ended in bankruptcy.  Newcomer Daniel Barnes joined two returning players (and both assistant GMs) in the win column.  In Daniel's game, perennial finalist Mark Neale tried to engineer Chris Hancock's looming bankruptcy in his favor by selling Daniel a train (securing an extra payout for himself before the end).  However, the train benefited Daniel even more, enabling him to edge Mark by $159 for the win.  The other 1830 game had another newcomer, Ryan Sturm, and another bankruptcy.  Assistant GM Rick Dutton found himself with one train between two RRs, but was able to pass the train over and wait for the stock round.  Lane Newbury had the same problem, but went bankrupt instead, resulting in an easy win for Rick over Ryan and GM Pierre LeBoeuf, even though Rick was still short a train (and Ryan and Pierre weren't).  The 1856 game featured past champions Barrington Beavis, David Fritsch, and Bruce Beard squaring off with David Metheny.  Barrington started the LPS RR, but Bruce quickly stole it and cruised to an easy win.  In the 5-player 1861 game, Jeremy Vipperman bested newcomers Alan Stancius (2nd) and David Fair (5th).  Andy Roosen won the other 1861 game over another frequent finalist, Jim McDanold.  The results from Round 1 are shown below.

Table 1 ­ Preliminary Round 1 Results

1830 Games
Rick Dutton 1684, Ryan Sturm 1202, Pierre LeBoeuf 1151, Lane Newbury 590
Daniel Barnes 1375, Mark Neale 1216, Paul Koenig 568, Chris Hancock 490
1856 Game
Bruce Beard 8200, David Fritsch 6375, Barrington Beavis 5969, Dave Metheny 5195
1861 Games
Jeremy Vipperman 5039, Alan Stancius 4595, Peter Eldridge 3955, John Haas 3681, David Fair 2391
Andy Roosen 7873, Jim McDanold 7270, Herbert Gratz 6999, Tom McCorry 4728

At the second preliminary round on Wednesday night, at least one of every game but 1846 was played, with a pair of 1830 games contested by the 24 attendees. Returnees won all six games. Lane Newbury and Mark Neale were the 1830 winners.  A key lapse in the 1856 game cost Pierre a chance at a win.  He was trying to get a little extra money into a doomed company so that it would make enough to buy a 5 train, but the sale of an extra share in the pool (to get more dividends in the RR) backfired badly when Peter Eldridge was able to steal the company with $500 in it. The money proved useful in his easy victory.  Bruce got his second victory in the 1861 game, doubling trains on one of his minor RRs for lots of early money. Though Tom McCorry was able to run his share company for R940 twice at the end, he couldn't catch Bruce.  Delaware club members Andy and Rick squared off with two others in the 1870 game, with Andy getting a $371 win.  The last game of the night was an 1826 marathon that ran until 1 am.  In the end, Franklin Haskell hung on for a $340 win over Barrington, with Daniel only $20 behind in third, and newcomer Mike Massimilla well behind.  The results from Round 2 are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2 ­ Preliminary Round 2 Results

1830 Games
Lane Newbury 7333, Akihisa Tabei 6915, Paul Koenig 6493, Craig Reece 5118 
Mark Neale 9235, Henry Dove 7767, Kenichi Hasegawa 5936, Chris Hancock 5164
1861 Game
Bruce Beard 10316, Tom McCorry 9688, David Metheny 9593, David Fair 8780
1870 Game
Andy Roosen 8733, Rick Dutton 8362, Alan Stancius 6935, Jeremy Vipperman 5151
1856 Game
Peter Eldridge 9827, Pierre LeBoeuf 8034, Jim McDanold 7495, John Weber 7391
1826 Game
Franklin Haskell 6628, Barrington Beavis 6288, Daniel Barnes 6268, Mike Massimilla 4503

The third preliminary round Thursday afternoon had four tables with four different games played.  Five players squared off in the 1861 game, where Paul Koenig got his first win, by $457 over Pierre.  Jeremy had a relatively easy win over Barrington in the 1856 game.  Lane got another 1830 win, by more than $1000 over Jim, with newcomers Kevin Sudy and Kenichi Hasegawa finishing 3rd and 4th.  Rick was finally able to bring down the champ in the 1846 game, when Bruce ran the undercapitalized Grand Trunk RR while Rick had ten shares of the three best RRs in his portfolio (versus only three shares for Bruce).  Table 3 below contains the results from preliminary heat 3.

Table 3 ­ Preliminary Round 3 Results

1830 Game
Lane Newbury 8748, Jim McDanold 7699, Kevin Sudy 6809, Kenichi Hasegawa 6389
1846 Game
Rick Dutton 8299, Bruce Beard 7636, Brian Mountford 7572, Peter Eldridge 7146
1856 Game
Jeremy Vipperman 9448, Barrington Beavis 8359, David Metheny 7941, Andy Roosen 7502
1861 Game
Paul Koenig 8500, Pierre LeBoeuf 8089, David Fair 8043, Tom McCorry 7372, Alan Stancius 5336 

The fourth preliminary round on Thursday evening was the last chance to win a slot in the semi-final. With only 10 different winners in the first three rounds, there were still six guaranteed slots remaining in the16-player semis. This final chance featured five 4-player games, two of 1830, two of 1861, and one of 1870.  Bruce was the only player in the 1870 game not to get an initial RR started, but he still made the first two destination runs and won by $1700 over Jeremy.  Andy won the first 1830 game on Akihisa Tabei's bankruptcy, while Daniel got his second win in the other game, over another newcomer, Michael Pustilnik. Rick Dutton scored his third win (matching Andy and Bruce) with a close R88 win over Barrington in one 1861 game.  Jim McDanold broke through for his first win in the other 1861 game, by more almost R2000 over Dave Metheny.  Table 4 below contains the results from preliminary heat 4.

Table 4 ­ Preliminary Round 4 Results

1830 Games
Daniel Barnes 8171, Michael Pustilnik 7293, Kenichi Hasegawa 7286, Jesse Dean 4602
Andrew Roosen 2093, Chris Hancock 1600, Mark Neale 577, Akihisa Tabei 274
1861 Games
Jim McDanold 7441, David Metheny 5454, Franklin Haskell 5046, Dave Fritsch 3630
Rick Dutton 6928, Barrington Beavis 6840, Lane Newbury 5855, Tom McCorry 4881
1870 Game
Bruce Beard 11773, Jeremy Vipperman 10125, Pierre LeBoeuf 9683, Alan Stancius 5030

The 20 preliminary round games produced three triple winners (Andy Roosen, Bruce Beard, and Rick Dutton), three double winners (Jeremy Vipperman, Lane Newbury, and Daniel Barnes) and five single winners.  Only one failed to appear for the semi-final round, leaving ten winners for 16 slots, and six open places for the semi-finals. The second place players were seeded by number of seconds, followed by how early in the rounds they finished second, and finally by the percentage of winning score in their best game.  Because only five of the 11 runners-up opted to continue, Herbert Gratz, the 25th ranked player overall, got the last semi slot, with a third place in his only game.

The players were seeded into the semi-finals based on the results of preliminary round play and the multiple entry-single elimination tie-breaking criteria established by the WBC.  Where players remained tied, they were placed according to their best percentage of the winning score or margin of victory.  Andy nosed out Bruce for the #1 seed by a slight margin of victory advantage.  Best margin of victory percentage seeded spots 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, and 9.  Second place finishes were seeded the same way as the winners, ordering the players as shown in Table 5 below (no-shows are indicated by dashes in the last column).  Number of second place finishes (and when) and best percentage of the winning score ranked the next nine players.  Those that did no better than third came next, with the third from that grouping qualifying by virtue of attendance.

Table 5 ­ Top 27 Player Rankings and Semi-final Seeding

Ranking

Preliminary Round Score

semi-final Seeding

1. Andrew RoosenWon1st, 2nd & 4th game, best by 130.8%

1

2. Bruce BeardWon1st, 2nd & 4th game, best by 128.6%

2

3. Rick DuttonWon1st, 3rd & 4th game

3

4. Daniel BarnesWon1st & 3rd game, best by 113.1%
4
5. Jeremy VippermanWon 1st & 3rd game, best by 113%
5
6. Lane NewburyWon 2nd & 3rd game
6
7. Franklin HaskellWon 1st game
7
8. Peter EldridgeWon 2nd game by 122.3%; DA
-
9. Mark NealeWon 2nd game by 118.9%
8
10. Paul KoenigWon 3rd game
9
11. Jim McDanoldWon 4th game by 107.3%

10

12. Barrington BeavisPlaced 2nd in 2nd, 3rd & 4th game

11

13. Pierre LeBoeufPlaced 2nd in 2nd & 3rd game

12

14. Akihisa TabeiPlaced 2nd in 1st game by 94.3%

13

15. Alan StanciusPlaced 2nd in 1st game by 91.2%

14

16. Michael PustilnikPlaced 2nd in only game by 89.3%; DA

-

17. Henry DovePlaced 2nd in only game by 84.1%; DA

-

18. David FritschPlaced 2nd in only game by 77.7%; DA

-

19. Ryan SturmPlaced 2nd in only game by 71.3%; DA

 -

20. Tom McCorryPlaced 2nd in 2nd game by 93.9%

15

21. Chris HancockPlaced 2nd in 3rd game; DA

-

22. David MethenyPlaced 2nd in 4th game; DA

-

23. Kenichi HasegawaPlaced 3rd twice; DA

-

24. Brian MountfordPlaced 3rd in only game; 91.2%; DA

-

25. Herbert GratzPlaced 3rd in only game; 88.9%

16

26. Kevin SudyPlaced 3rd in only game; 77.8%

-

27. David FairPlaced 3rd in 3rd game

-

DA: Declined Advance

Players were allowed to pick which game to play in the semi-final by secret ballot, and after some second choices were considered, single games of 1856 and 1861 were chosen plus two 1830 games.  With the 2nd - 4th - 11th and 16th players choosing 1856, and the 5th -7th - 14th and 15th players choosing 1861, that left the remaining 1830 games seeded as, 1st - 8th - 9th and 13th in Game 1, and 3rd - 6th - 10th and 12th in Game 3.  The first 1830 semi featured top seed Andy against returnees Mark, Paul, and Akihisa, a near total rematch of the 4th round game between Andy, Mark, and Akihisa.  Several RRs changed hands in this game, including the B&O, NYC, and B&M.  The train situation after seven of the eight RRs were started was Mark with a 3-4 in the Penn and a 3 in the C&O, Andy with 4-5 in both the B&M and Erie, Akihisa with 3-3 in the B&O, and Paul with a 4 in the NYNH and a 5 in the NYC.  Akihisa opened the CP at $67 in the next stock round to get a permanent train, but then Andy sold Mark a 5 train to keep the train buying going, breaking the 6's.  Akihisa was able to get one diesel, but with two RRs he sold stock to go bankrupt.  The bankruptcy enabled Mark to edge Andy out for a berth in the Final. The other 1830 game was another near rematch of the first preliminary bout among Lane, Rick, and Pierre.  Jim McDanold was the other player, and he played a precarious stock game while Lane returned the favor to Pierre from their earlier match, forcing him to share a diesel between two RRs. Unlike that other game though, Pierre opted not to bankrupt and managed to get a second train despite falling way behind as a result.  The extension of the game benefited Jim the most, as he ran by Lane for the $700 win. Bruce played Barrington, Herbert, and newcomer Daniel in the 1856 semi, and used the LPS to generate lots of money early, then cast it aside in the CGR formation to open the GT and WGB late.  His WGB had the best stock value and made the most money, enabling him to cruise to a large victory over Herbert.  The last game was a first-time semi in 1861, featuring Jeremy, Alan, Franklin, and Tom.  Jeremy ended up with more stock than anyone else and won by R700 to earn his first spot in the Final.  Table 6 below contains the results from the semi-final games played, with the four winners advancing

Table 6 - Semi-final Round Results

1830 semi-final Games
Mark Neale 1783, Andy Roosen 1645, Akihisa Tabei 405, Paul Koenig 403
Jim McDanold 8171, Rick Dutton 7596, Lane Newbury 7481, Pierre LeBoeuf 5909
1861 semi-final Game
Jeremy Vipperman 6996, Franklin Haskell 6220, Tom McCorry 5654, Alan Stancius 4188
1856 semi-final Game
Bruce Beard 9514, Herbert Gratz 7788, Barrington Beavis 7634, Daniel Barnes 6882

The four semi-final winners advanced to the 1830 Final Saturday night.  It matched (in turn order) Mark Neale, Jim McDanold, defending four-time champion Bruce Beard, and Jeremy Vipperman.  Bruce had gone 3-1 in the preliminary rounds, with Mark, Jim, and Jeremy posting records of 1-2, 1-3, and 2-2 in the prelims.  Jeremy was appearing in his first Final, but Mark (3), Jim (5), and Bruce (7) were all on familiar turf.

In the private auction, Mark took the Champlain & St. Lawrence for $50 and the Delaware & Hudson for $75, Jim got the Mohawk & Hudson for $150, Bruce got the Camden & Amboy for $200, and Jeremy got the Schuylkill and the Baltimore & Ohio privates at cost ($20 and $220), then he set the B & O share price at $90. With the option to buy the 1st company, Mark opened the NYNH at $67, Jim opened the B&M at $71, and Bruce started the Penn at $76.  The first three companies each got a 2 train, then Mark's NYNH finished off the 2's and bought the first 3, as well as his private companies in to the public RR.  This enabled Mark to open the NYC on the second stock round at $71, after selling a couple of NYNH shares. Jim's B&M missed out on the 3 trains, getting the first 4, then Bruce cashed in his C&A private to open the C&O at $90.  The last 2 RRs were started with "down payments", Jeremy buying only the president's share of the Erie for $200 and Mark getting only the president's share of the CP for $152.  Both RRs were opened in the next stock round, and the 5 trains were split among the B&O, NYC, and PRR.  Those last two 5 trains were bought by withholding dividends, as was the first 6 by Bruce's C&O.  Jim ultimately lost the B&M to Jeremy and was left without a RR until the NYC showed up on his doorstep without a train, forcing him to buy a diesel for it.  Mark had 3 RRs until unloading the NYC on Jim.  But while this corporation carousel was spinning, Bruce's Penn and C&O with a 5 and a 6, respectively, chugged along, paying out continuously until the bank broke, giving him a 5th straight championship by $2500 over Jeremy.

I would like to thank everyone for playing, and I hope we can get back to increasing our numbers again next year.  We will vote again soon on which two games to include with 1830, 1856, 1870, and 1861 in 2010.  We will also vote on interest in moving to a precon format the weekend before regular WBC.  We are likely to go to only three preliminary rounds next year, but I plan to keep the 16-player semi-final and 4 player Final for at least another year.  If you would like to participate in the discussion on ways to improve the 18xx tournament in 2010, drop me an email.

Franklin Haskell (left) defeats Mike Massimila, Daniel Barnes and Barrington Beavis in a game of 1826.

Finalists Jim McDanold, Bruce Beard, Jeremy Vipperman and Mark Neale take a break from their 1830 game for the photographer.
 GM      Pierre LeBoeuf  [9th Year]   3043 Telegraph Rd, Elkton, MD 21921-2333
    PierreLeBoeuf@verizon.net   NA

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