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The deluxe version of Can't Stop!
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... and then there are the bargain
basement copies. |
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Alex Metzger must have got the Halloween
version. |
Chris and Joe Yaure, Paul Weintraub
and Lynda Shea can't stop. |
Playing the WBC Lottery ...
You Can Never Stop! Well ... Maybe You Can ...
Another raucous year for Can't Stop resulted in over
200 players throwing their hats in the ring to see who could
push their luck the farthest. The Wednesday night edition of
the late-night game circuit was YET again so popular that despite
numerous games brought by CABS (thanks, guys!), we were again
short copies. Kudos are due those folks who brought games, taught
new players, or toughed it out on the GM's less glamorous (though
quite classy) stopgap homemade versions.
As always. the preliminary round was filled with bizarre odds-defying
occurances:
Jordan Shae should stay away from craps tables. He rolled
three snake-eyes and two boxcars in one turn. He then capped
the 10's in his next turn and the 2's and 12's the following
turn. Jonathan Barnes, on the other hand, should visit Vegas,
after closing the entire 7's column in one turn.
Jeff Meyer, who has never ONCE stopped in his many years of
play - having never capped and therefore never had a reason to
- finally found sweet relief. Jeff needed two 12's to cap the
column and started shaking his dice. Dan Eshleman, longtime friend
and compatriot, walks up and blows on the dice. Jeff then rolls
four 6s to cap the 12s, stopping for the first time in his tournament
repertoire. Where is Eshleman when I need a boxcars roll?
Special props to Carmen Petruzzelli, and to all those other
nameless souls out there, who ended the game with no pieces on
the board. He fully exemplifies the spirit of Can't Stop.
Finally, A Cautionary Tale by Rob Drozd: "Anne [Norton]
already had the 9 column from the previous turn. She was working
on both 6's and 7's, went a long way on both, but stopped after
capping the 6's while only one 7 shy of winning. I was able to
get an 11 and a 3 to win before her next turn." Lady Luck
does not smile upon the faint hearted!
Final Rounds:
48 players advanced to the quarterfinals, where I can only
assume the cut-throat dice-rolling limited player energies to
report fun happenings to the GM. Richard Beyma did take a moment
to tip his hat to his competitors, two of whom busted one space
away from preventing Richard (the table winner) from capping
his final number. In true lottery fashion, none of the last six
winners had ever received CNS laurels previously so the event
remains without a twotime laurelist - let alone a champion.
The last three survivors, Lissa Rennert, Ben Collinson, and
Scott Sunderlin settled in for the Final in the now thinned out
and much quieter ballroom. Lissa had already proven her dice
rolling skills in the semifinal, where she capped three numbers
so quickly, some of her competitors didn't even have a second
turn.
The trash talk started early. Lissa countered opponents urging
her to stop by reminding them that they "have no pieces
on the board" and shushed peanut-gallery member Kevin Lewis
with the quip "You got flushed out - what do you know?"
Atta girl! She quickly topped two columns, the 12's and 4's in
two successive turns, but Ben finally got some pieces on the
board by capping the 6's. Lissa, hardly dismayed, reassured the
onlookers "I don't need to totally crush them - I'll give
them a chance to get on the board."
Little did she know that her next turns would be less forgiving.
After she busted, Ben went on to cap his second column, the 8's,
while Scott slowly advanced his pieces up the board. Another
bust for Lissa put Ben in the cat-bird's seat, which he took
full advantage of to finish the 3's column and claim victory.
Gotta hand it to Ben - his cool head and dedication to only stopping
when he hit the top was the recipe for success. Congratulations!
See you all next year for more dice-rolling escapades.
You may agree with Harald Henning who says of Can't Stop players:
"They need mental help." This includes the GM. As such,
I graphed the spread of the winning numbers. It was a good year
for the even numbers, especially those ever-probable 6's and
8's, despite gameboard compensation for probability. If some
stats guru looking to overload on numbers wants to see the real
numbers, shoot me an email .
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Adam Wojtaszczyk's dad is up past
his bedtime. |
James Kramer and Curt Collins don't
wanna stop. |
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