merchant of venus  

Updated 11/30/2009

 2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending 2010 GM commitment

Debbie Gutermuth, NC

2009 Champion

Offsite Links

 

Event History
1991    Duane Wagner      24
1992    Kathy Stroh      21
1993    Michael Anchors      41
1994    David Thompson      43
1995    Greg Mayer      56
1996    Tom Stokes      48
1997    Mark Hunter      78
1998    Greg Mayer      80
1999    Steve Crenshaw     67
2000    Debbie Otto     68
2001     Bill Crenshaw     72
2002     Charley Hickok      60
2003     Luke Koleszar      64
2004     Eric Wrobel      64
2005      John Koskl      50
2006     Eyal Mozes      39
2007      Kathy Stroh      47
2008     Ewan McNay      57
2009     Debbie Gutermuth      57

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    08     96
  2.  Joe Abrams         CT    09     66
  3.  Eric Wrobel        VA    05     60
  4.  Luke Koleszar      VA    09     58
  5.  Debbie Otto        MO    00     56
  6.  Eyal Mozes         NY    08     54
  7.  Ed Wrobel          VA    03     52
  8.  Steve Dickson      CA    07     48
  9.  Charles Hickok     PA    09     43
 10.  Chuck Foster       TX    06     42
 11.  Kathy Stroh        DE    07     40
 12.  John Koski         NC    05     40
 13.  Lance Ribeiro      NH    05     40
 14.  Jeff Bakalchuck    NY    02     40
 15.  Steve Crenshaw     VA    99     40
 16.  Greg Mayer         MO    99     36
 17.  Vassili Kyrkos     NY    09     30
 18.  Debbie Gutermuth   NC    09     30
 19.  Ewan McNay         CT    08     30
 20.  Duane Wagner       NJ    07     24
 21.  Phillip Shea       VA    09     22
 22.  Peggy Pfeiffer     FL    07     16
 23.  Rich Meyer         MA    04     16
 24.  Kevin Wojtasczyck  NY    07     12
 25.  Abby Cocke         MD    02     12
 26.  James Hopkin       CA    00     12
 27.  Frank McNally      MA    06      9
 28.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    03      8
 29.  Gary Dickson       CA    02      8
 30.  Lauren Hickok      PA    00      8
 31.  Ray Stakenas Sr    NC    05      4
 32.  Jim Fardette       ae    04      4
 33.  Lynn Ribeiro       NH    01      4
 34.  David Fritsch      VA    08      3
 35.  Ken Gutermuth      TX    06      3

2009 Laurelists                                          ß Repeating Laurelists:

Vassily Kyrkos, NY
2nd

Joe Abrams, CT
3rd

Phillip Shea, FL
4th

Luke Koleszar, VA
5th

Charles Hickok, PA
6th


Past Winners

Duane Wagner, NJ
1991

Kathy Stroh, PA
1992, 2007

Greg Mayer, MO
1995, 1998

Tom Stokes, NJ
1996

Mark Hunter, MO
1997

Steve Crenshaw, MD
1999

Deb Otto, MO
2000

Bill Crenshaw, MD
2001

Charlie Hickok, PA
2002

Luke Koleszar, VA
2003

Eric Wrobel, VA
2004

John Koski, NC
2005

Eyal Mozes, NY
2006

Ewan McNay, CT
2008

Debbie Gutermuth, NC
2009

Deborah Anderson moves as Gary Dickson and Phillip Shea watch.

Steve Cuccaro, Nicole Bradford and Adam Meldrom push space dust.

Let's Do the Space Warp Again!

On Wednesday, 34 intrepid traders plied the galaxy in search of fun & profit to kick off the 19th Annual Merchant of Venus Tournament. As usual, victory in a heat virtually guaranteed you a spot in the semi-final. In addition, to prizes of science fiction DVD's for the finalists, all heat winners were awarded stuff to "pimp" their Merchant of Venus games including plastic rocket ships, replacement IOU counters and deeds or a variant devised by the GM.

In the first heat, Bob Woodson took four turns crossing over to the unfashionable (and unexplored) Western Spiral Arm of the galaxy trying to find a place to unload his Space Dust. He finally got a great roll, 665 for 17! On the 14th space he decided to explore a "?" marker-only to find a Telegate. As the Telegate 5 & Telegate 6 were already discovered, Bob was sent back from where he came. OUCH! Bob easily wins the fictional "Wrong Way Corrigan" Award.

In another game in Heat 1, Amanda Stockwell found four relics in the treacherous Asteroid Belt. Wow! This greatly aided her victory. The following players (including four former champions) also qualified with Amanda for the semi-final from Heat 1: Vassili Kyrkos, Ewan McNay, Eric Monte, Bill Crenshaw, Eyal Mozes, Luke Koleszar, Steve Koleszar & Richard Irving.

Heat 2 was played in the vast, cold (The AC was cranked up) , empty (at least emptier) spaces of Ballroom B. 24 players sought business and pleasure amongst the stars. At one table, Debbie Gutermuth won the race for the galaxy (That'd be a good name for a game!) by discovering six planets before her erstwhile competitors and easily winning. Other game winners for Heat 2 were: Gary Dickson, Rod Davidson, Steve Dickson, Paul Gaberson & Joe Abrams.

23 more players took their last shot at interstellar glory in Heat 3, which featured three games of note. One game used the GM's Green Tater variant and proved GM's complete mastery of the variant by finishing fourth in that game. Gary Dickson proved that having the Jump Start is NOT a guaranteed win as is commonly supposed, especially if there sre few telegates tightly packed into one system. And Geoffrey Entwistle won his game with the highest total score in the heats - mainly because he forgot it was a game only to $2000 and declared victory two full turns after making that total! Other Heat 3 winners with Geoffrey were Charles Hickok, Daniel Hoffman, Marty Hoff, Philip "Mr. Freighter" Shea and Steve Dickson (winning his second Preliminary game).

There were enough qualifiers to field five semi-final games: In Semi 1, it was discovered that spaceports are portable (especially if they stick inside metal ships pirated from an old Parker Brothers game called "Wide World") and Vassili Kyrkos edged Charles Hickok in a tight race. In Semi 2, Debbie Gutermuth won easily. In Semi 3, Luke Koleszar prevented the GM from making his own Final. (AGAIN! Like Bob Hope always hosting the Oscars, but never winning! ... OK, I'm over it now.) In Semi 4, Bill Crenshaw found $160 in penalties on the first five turns of the game OUCH! Philip Shea using a freighter (What else!) powered away for the victory. In Semi 5, Joe Abrams won his way to yet another Final.

In the Final, Debbie Gutermuth won a tight 5-player game to $3000, by getting $2000 in deeds, locking out many key systems and getting several early factories. But all players did a great job of following Rule #1: Have fun!!!

2009 WBC Merchant of Venus Final Results:

Finalists, order determined by score in Final:
1)Debbie Gutermuth, $3175
2)Vassili Kyrkos, $2586
3)Joe Abrams, $1953
4)Philip Shea, $1723
5)Luke Koleszar, $1612

Semi-finalists, order determined by score in semi-final:
6)Charles Hickok, $2846
7)Richard Irving, $2543
8)Eric Monte, $2264
9)Steve Dickson, $2241
10)Bill Crenshaw, $2193
11)Amanda Stockwell, $2032
12)David Fritsch, $1994
13)Peggy Pfeifer, $1958
14)Geoffrey Entwistle, $1903
15)Eyal Mozes, $1722
16)Marty Hoff, $1683
17)Gary Dickson, $1671
18)Dan Hoffman, $1656
19)Kevin Koch, $1194

Preliminary Players (ordered by best score in Heat)
20)Paul Gaberson, $2123
21)Steve Koleszar, $2059
22)Ewan McNay, $2005
23)Rod Davidson, $2003
24)Gary Libby, $1940
25)Eric Wrobel, $1932
26)Michael Holmquist, $1861
27)Paul Bolduc, $1831
28)Steve Cuccaro, $1814
29)Christopher Ellis, $1811
30)Jason Wagner, $1757
31)Thomas Browne, $1684
32)Stephane Dorais, $1633
33)Mark McCandless, $1535
34)Bernard Beckerman, $1450
35)Chris Entwistle, $1441
36)Corey Kim, $1342
37)Patrick Monte, $1335
38)Philip Entwistle & Ken Gutermuth, $1325 (tie)
40)Nicola Bradford, $1210
41) Tony Newton, $1194
42)Wade Fowble, $1162
43)John Corrado, $1102
44)Patrick Maloney, $1042
45)Malinda Kyrkos, $1000
46)Derek Landel, $994
47)Deborah Anderson, $988
48)Adam Meldron, $958
49)Jessica Crandell, $909
50)Doug Faust, $874
51)Pete Gathmann, $851
52)Patrick Shea, $811
53)Bob Woodson, $601
54)James Gilmore, $600
55)Mary Ellen Powers, $578
56)Robert Hahn, $570
57)Norm Newton, $200

It's SRo in Limerock unless you know one of the players as the out-of-print Merchant continues to draw well in its 19th year at WBC.

Finalists Debbie Gutermuth, Joe Abrams, Vassili Kyrkos, Phillip Shea, GM Richard Irving and Luke Koleszar meet.
 GM      Richard Irving  [8th Year]   1505 Caceras Circle, Salinas, CA 93906
    rri12@sbcglobal.net   NA

2009 Preview Page | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page