Mind Sports Pentathlon World Championships 2014

As has become a tradition, the International Mind Sports Olympiad and the Pentamind World Championships will take place in the second half of August this year. And as has become a tradition, Vint will keep interested parties informed as promptly as possible about what is happening. This year, there are 5 competitors from Estonia: Madli Mirme, the fresh junior world champion in renju Martin Hõbemägi, Jaanus Mae, Meelis Kuldkepp and Andres Kuusk. In addition, team captain Rain Teimann. Our program by day is as follows. Madli: Aug 20: Lines of Action Pineapple Aug 21: Kamisado Gomoku Renju Aug 22: Abalone Hare and Tortoise Aug 24: Agricola Texas Holdem Aug 25: Boku Lost Cities Martin: Aug 17: Settlers 7 Card Stud Aug 18: Carcassonne 5 Card Draw Aug 19: Entropy London Lowball Aug 20: Lines of Action Pineapple Aug 21: Kamisado Gomoku Renju Aug 22: Hare and Tortoise Aug 24: Superfut Texas Holdem Aug 25: Boku Lost Cities Meelis: Aug 17: Settlers 7 Card Stud Aug 18: Carcassonne 5 card draw Aug 19: Magic the Gathering London Lowball Aug 20: Pineapple Aug 21: Omaha Aug 22: Bridge Aug 24: Superfut Texas Holdem Aug 25: Heads Up Holdem Andres: Aug 17: Chess 960 7 card Stud Aug 18: Carcassonne Twixt Aug 19: Entropy London Lowball Aug 20: Lines of Action Pineapple Aug 21: Kamisado Omaha Aug 22: Hare and Tortoise Aug 24: Superfut Texas Holdem Aug 25: Boku Lost Cities Jaanus is keeping his program a secret for now. The departure is the day after tomorrow and the competitions start on Sunday. Life has shown that every thumbs-up equals about one additional point, so have fun!

Today's results: Martin 60 points in Asuptajate (best among Estonians) Andres 50 points in chess Jaanus 5 points in Backgammon In the evening everyone plays poker.

Two thumbs up from Pihla and one point towards you!

Live results can be seen at: http://www.pentamind.ee/index.php/live

Good luck to me too! ;) Where do the competitions take place?

Just when one failure had followed another and the best result before tonight's poker was 65 points, I unexpectedly got a handicap and 100 points in 5 Card Draw poker. And even better - Martin got third place, thus collecting 190 points today. In addition to us, Dario also made it to the top three, and in the decisive hand we all went all-in even before the cards were dealt. Martin had a pair of aces, I had 2 pairs (jacks and nines), Dario had a three of fives. I changed one card and got the third 9 - pure skill. The leader is Matthew Hatthrell, who has handicaps today in block and yesterday's poker, plus second place in continuo. Poker brought me back into the picture and the fight continues. Tomorrow, two sessions of entropy were planned, where at least a top three place would be desperately needed. Martin will play checkers at the same time, Jaanus will skip the session and introduce superfut. In the evening session, we will play London Lowball for a bunch of Estonians.

In response to driv4r: The competitions take place at the Jewish Community Centre on Finchley Road. The venue is ok, although I actually liked the previous venue ULU better.

The fact that days are not brothers is especially true in poker. Yesterday I came in first place and the maximum 100 points, today I was out in three quarters of an hour and definitely last. The funny thing is that Jaanus was eliminated in second place and everyone else is still fighting. I was eliminated with a hand where when I got the buttons in from four cards it was 7 high (London Lowball), but unfortunately the last 3 cards brought two kings and a paired ace. A few words about yesterday's winning poker. The game was a 5 card draw. The first turning point was when, after a slow start (I had landed on 420 from a starting stack of 700), I was dealt a straight before the cards were dealt. Fortunately, both the limp and the call reached me and I got the majority of the stack in with a relatively small raise. The caller also decided to check the person below me and so I had a triple up. The second turning point was at the final table, where I was one of the short stacks. The professional aggressive player didn't change any cards and put me all in with a continuation bet. Luckily I remembered that he had bluffed exactly like this last year and I called with two small pair. My opponent mucked me regardless of my karate. The deciding hand came in the 3-player final, which was discussed in the previous post. Poker pros can comment on whether my all in in the following situation was very wrong. I have about 5000 units, my opponent in first position has 3000, the button has 6000. Anted 200. The aggressive opponent bets 600, I raise to 1600 with two pair (JJ998) and the button - a good tight player - goes all in. The first bettor calls. If I fold, I am heads up with 3000 against 11000, if I call and lose, I get second place. However, the four-better has been very tight so far and is four-betting for the first time.

With Entropia's third place and 87 points, I now have two normal results and, with any luck, nothing is lost. In fact, the gold is probably already starting to disappear, as Matthew Hatthrell has already collected 4 golds and one silver and 100, 100, 100, 94 and 86 points. This is somewhat unexpected, as he has never won a medal before. On the other hand, no one else has done very well and therefore a medal is not hopeless. Of course, I was hoping for more from Entropia than 3rd place (13 points were lost compared to last year), but in the end it was good that it went anyway. The form is obviously worse than last year and currently it does not allow for more. Tomorrow is the lines of action, from which I need to collect a good result, as this is my last so-called big event (theoretically also the poker finals). If things have generally gone badly so far, then something positive will definitely happen - Madli is coming. PS. See also live results and pictures on www.pentamind.ee (London2014 page).

Unfortunately, Lines of action started badly. I lost to Alain Dekker in the second round and my hopes of 100 points were gone. In the third round I beat one of the favorites, Tim Hebbes, and currently have 2 points out of 3. I also need to win all the last games, then I still have hope for a result of over 90 points. Madli currently also has 2 points, Martin 1. The fight will continue immediately.