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Updated 11/26/2010

2010 WBC Report   

 2011 Status: pending 2011 GM commitment

John Emery, SC

2010 Champion

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Event History
1991

  
Mark Cohen

  
44
1992

  
Maria Hawthorne

  
43
1993

  
Bruce Young

  
53
1994

  
Bruce Young

  
53
1995

  
Herbert Gratz

  
48
1996

  
William Edwards

  
46
1997

  
John Emery

  
42
1998

  
John Emery

  
55
1999

  
Larry Davidson

  
42
2000

  
John Emery

  
34
2001

  
Bruce Wigdor

  
39
2002

  
John Emery

  
50
2003

  
Ray Stakenas II

  
38
2004

  
John Emery     30
2005

  
Bruce Young     33
2006

  
Paul Wright     30
2007

  
Ray Stakenas II     27
2008

  
Ed Kendrick     22
2009

  
Jeff Spaner     23
2010

  
John Emery     25

PBeM Event History
2000    Jeff Matthews      32
2003    Jeff Matthews     24
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  John Emery         SC    10    191
  2.  Bruce Young        SC    10    150
  3.  Ray Stakenas II    MI    07    106
  4.  Bruce Wigdor       NJ    10     74
  5.  Ray Stakenas Sr    MI    10     64
  6.  Paul Wright        PA    09     52
  7.  Ed Kendrick        uk    09     51
  8.  Larry Davidson     CA    02     46
  9.  Herbert Gratz      aa    09     34
 10.  Ralph Gleaton      SC    10     30
 11.  Jeff Spaner        MD    09     30
 12.  Jeff Matthews      CA    04     30
 13.  Bari Wigdor        NJ    04     26
 14.  Bill Edwards       VA    05     24
 15.  Stefan Hess        NY    01     24
 16.  David Wong         NJ    10     19
 17.  George Young       VT    06     18
 18.  Wade Fowble        MD    06     16
 19.  Lance Ribeiro      NH    05     16
 20.  Ken Katano         MD    01     16
 21.  Richard Irving     CA    08     12
 22.  Eric Taylor        NM    05     12
 23.  Mike Stachowski    NY    03     12
 24.  Jeff Paull         OH    00     12
 25.  Dale Martin        MI    04     10
 26.  Kevin Emery        SC    09      9
 27.  Michael Johnson    MA    03      9
 28.  Nick Vlahos        IL    00      9
 29.  Jean-Luc Brouillet on    05      8
 30.  Erick Young        SC    01      8
 31.  Andrew Maly        MD    08      6
 32.  Scott Russell      MI    00      6
 33.  Alan Arvold        IL    00      3
 34.  Don Greenwood      MD    00      3
 35.  Frank Arndt        MD    99      3
 36.  Brian Carr         VA    04      2
 37.  Brian Devitt       CA    00      2
 38.  Robert Mull        CO    00      1

2010 Laurelists                                               Repeating Laurelists:

Ray Stakenas, MI
2nd

Ralph Gleaton, SC
3rd

Bruce Young, SC
4th

Bruce Wigdor, NJ
5th

David Wong, NJ
6th

Past Winners

Bruce Young, SC
1993-94, 2005

Herbert Gratz, Austria
1995

Bill Edwards, VA
1996

John Emery, SC
'97-'98, '00, '02, '04, '10

Larry Davidson, CA
1999

Bruce Wigdor, NJ
2001

Ray Stakenas Jr, MI
2003, 2007

Paul Wright, PA
2006

Ed Kendrick, uk
2008

Jeff Spaner, MD
2009

Ken Whitesell and Ralph Gleaton meet in the Quarter-Finals. Ken lost despite a 4-1 record in the Preliminary rounds.

Chris Yaure battled perennial finalist but never crowned Ray Stakenas in the Preliminaries.

 Dave Wong and Rich Irving trade shots. Dave made the playoffs in his first appearance in recent years - having been sidetracked to Iraq and Afghanistan.

 Future champ Kevin Emery meets 2008 Champ Ed Kendricks. Its only a matter of time before the son of six-time champ John Emery earns his own title.

Final-tested, twice

The Up Front tournament continued its modest resurgence back to prominence in 2010. A total of 25 players chose to spend their Thursday at WBC locked in close combat. The group consisted of the usual suspects plus a scattering of newbies to increase the field. As usual, the former champs were out in force with seven present representing 14 past triumphs.

The morning and afternoon Swiss rounds were designed to reduce the field to eight contenders. When the casualties had been evacuated, 2001 champ Bruce Wigdor was the only one with a perfect 5-0 slate. Ken Whitesell and the Stakenas father and son duo of Ray and Ray Junior comprised the seeded players with 4-1 records. Gleaton, Wong, Young, and Emery completed the octet - former laurelists all - with a distinct South Carolina twinge to the second tier. Four former champs with 11 total titles had run the gauntlet thus far and those without titles were far from being babes in the woods.

The first round of playoffs took a heavy toll on the top seeds with Ray Stakenas Sr alone left standing and the Greenville trio still intact. Both semis were hard fought with interesting matchups. In fact, the whole day was filled with more Japanese and Italians than one ever expects to see in the high rent district of a WBC tournament. At the end of the semis, five-time champ Emery faced off against many time finalist Stakenas. After a bit of deliberation, Ray chose to attack with the Americans in Scenario L against John's Japanese defense. With the armored car, Ray just hoped for fire cards and he was soon rewarded. After a bit of effective fire by Ray, both players positioned themselves for the second deck. Ray finally got the AC to a hill and started to chip away. Midway through the third deck, a good hit on John's main group put him one away from breaking. Despite the draw of two high value fire cards at the end of the deck, Ray just cannot find black on the draw and John's squad barely survived for the extremely close win.

After the action, however, an observer pointed out to John that he had set his squad with too many men. John informed Ray of the error. The GM offered the players a choice of how to resolve it. Ray could have claimed the win but, as he said, both players checked the other's setup. John could have claimed the win based on that fact. Since both of them are not only finest caliber players, but also true gentlemen, they opted to replay the Final. It was decided to repeat the same scenario with the same sides. This time, luck changed sides. It was John drawing the fire cards and Ray taking the hits. The AC took first one, and then a second, commander hit. With its effectiveness nullified, the only question was whether or not enough Americans would survive the game. One more good fire card from John sealed Ray's fate. Emery had captured his sixth title. But perhaps more important was the fact that two extremely good players had gone toe-to-toe, not blinked, and, in the end, become greater than the game.

Two-time champ Ray Stakenas Jr won his way back into the play-offs with a top seed but fell to Ralph Gleaton.

GM Jim Burnett watches the final battle between perennial runner-up Ray Stakenas and perennial champ John Emery. Someday ...
 GM      Jim Burnett  5th Year]   NA
   jimallene@comcast.net   NA

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