Mind Sports Pentathlon World Championships 2016

Make sure you don't drink all my beers on your day off...

It actually seems to me that your standings are pretty good anyway. I would rather predict that it must be bad luck to miss out on a medal. Is it Texas Holdem HU on the last day or has the schedule been changed? A lot of bridge pairs in the kraal, what would be the maximum possible points there? If you would mind, you could write about the remaining areas, what "field" they fall under and what result you need to get more points (and I don't know how the maximum number of punches is calculated either). I guess 100 doesn't exist anymore? Lots of Superfoot participants (at least there was something like that in the schedule).

I also think it is quite unlikely that I will miss out on a medal now. Heppell needs two more good results, plus one for both Gomes and Ankush (Gomes definitely needs a handicap). Not too likely. On the negative side, last night when we were analyzing the situation with a larger group, Nandini (a brilliant twelve-year-old girl) drew my attention to the fact that 2 of my 5 worst results are so-called large areas and since I don't have any more of them planned, I can only improve my 91-point result in kamisado. So at best I can get 2-3 more points and that's only in quoridor, texas holdem and lost cities, trumpalal boku doesn't give out that many points. So all I can do is nervously wait to see what my competitors do. Texas Holdem Heads-Up is planned, but it is more useful to play lost cities. Heads-up is too turbo for me to realistically hope to win 5 out of 5, especially when I'm up against heads-up pro Ankush (although if he earns extra points in home Holdem, he won't be playing heads-up on the last day). Bridges had 5 pair last time and even if he gets the necessary 10, which would give him 90 points in first place, there are better hopes in quoridor, where even second place can theoretically help (although it's hard to believe). Superfut took place, the number of participants is unknown, but for sure under 10, Edmund Smith won.

Live standings are down from yesterday's last session. The actual standings are currently something like this (first correctable result in brackets): 1. Andres Kuusk 453 (91) 2. Ankush Khandelwal 451 (86) 3. James Heppell 442 (83) 4. Ricardo Gomes 429 (69) 5. David Jameson 425 (75) Tomorrow we will probably all play block and quoridor, as there are no good alternatives for anyone. It seems that both areas gather enough participants that first place in either one will give gold (or at least a leading position) to each of the four of us. So I take back that James absolutely needs 2 good results, first or second place will be enough. James is the best quoridor player among us and since there don't seem to be any specialists present, he has quite good chances. Blokus is lucky enough as a 4-player option and none of us are very skilled there (if, then Gomes), so it seems difficult for everyone to get first place there. Tomorrow night will be especially dangerous. Ankush is the favorite in poker and Gomes in continuo. Heppell will probably play dominion, since he has first place in poker. I have no idea about his strength there. On the last morning I will play bokut and since I am the obvious favorite there, all the competitors will undoubtedly play something else and the only choice is domino. I don't know anything about domino, but I don't think any of the competitors would be the main favorite there. As is customary, tournament for some reason bingo lottery, or lost cities and heads-up poker. Ankush can participate in poker if home doesn't get a good result there, but otherwise we're all probably in lost cities. And we all have enough skill that whoever fortune decides to be on our side can take first place and the last-minute Pentamind title.

For those interested, the formula for calculating the result in the areas: Pentamind score = (n/(n 1)) x 100 x (n – p) / (n – 1), where n - the number of participants and p - place in the tournament. The 5 best results are taken into account, but at least 2 determined areas and at least 2 so-called large areas (which last 2 sessions).

Today went very well. Andres skipped the morning session to practice quoridor, which was a good decision, because sharing second place gave him a few more pentamind points. With a last-minute blunder, he went to play poker instead of continuo in the evening. It was the best decision, because he managed to beat Ankush at the final table and on the last hand, when he put all in with 72, he also got a shortstop, which gave him another 4-5 points in pentamind. In order for someone to catch him tomorrow, everyone needs at least two shortstops now. So it's quite unlikely. Andres is now jumping for joy like a little child next to him. Yay!!!!:D

Today can be summed up in one word: yuck! However, without believing in fate, day 2 started with a prophetic event: first of all, Kairo posted a 2-year-old photo on Facebook, which many, including media outlets, believed; and then I received a message from Mark, advising me to take fate into my own hands and make sure that my competitors would not earn a significant point bonus. So I went to holdem to slow down Ankush and ended up losing. By the will of fate, I had to make sure that Ankush would not get the necessary 1st place. At the final table with 9 players, he was in first or second place and I was in third or fourth place when I got AK diamonds in the small blind, 1 limper in front and Ankush raised 3.5 times on the button. I pushed the buttons to the middle and caught Ankush dominated with KQ. After that, nothing stopped me and the entire final table was one big massacre. Now it's almost a done deal, unless James or Ankush or Ricardo get 2 golds tomorrow, which is very unlikely. If there's no disaster tomorrow, we can put up a new photo with the trophy on the Facebook page :-) Yay!!!

Today is the last 2 sessions, but if all goes well, we can start celebrating after the first one. In fact, we celebrated a little yesterday with Madli and the Spanish team. Unfortunately, the Estonian team is small this year, but the Spanish are like our own, mainly thanks to an old friend and old rival Paco, who is now the national team coach. However, it's too early to talk about the title: I met Matthew Hatrell in the hostel lobby, who recalled that a couple of years ago he was in exactly the same situation, that the only competitor, me, had to get 2 defeats on the last day, and since it was a 1 in 100 chance, we were already celebrating last night. What became of all this is what the photo that went around yesterday and caused a lot of excitement tells. So let's hold back from celebrating, although yesterday it felt like we had already won. Yesterday's poker was still a serious game of nerves. When Ankush became the chip leader, it felt like it was going to get out of hand now. But then I decided, like in boxing movies, that now I would gather all my strength and take on the task of knocking Ankush down. Thoughts were made. After that, I told myself that I couldn't accept that I would still be the leader, I had to take my fate into my own hands and make sure that the gold medal wasn't left to the last session. It seems like I succeeded now :)

I thought last night that it was good news that there was no news yet. In addition to your honey, it looks like I'll get a few beers too :)

Where is the information? So what happened?