Card/Board League

This is one of the reasons Card/Board League exists: People enjoy playing board games a great...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:21:51 -0500

This is one of the reasons Card/Board League exists:

People enjoy playing board games a great deal, but they do not enjoy learning a new board game by themselves.

- Eric Hautemont, founder of game company Days of Wonder, in Penny Arcade Report

Battleship weapons schematic (by Glenn Jones, via Dribbble)

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:46:21 -0500

Battleship weapons schematic

(by Glenn Jones, via Dribbble)

2011 CBL Champion!

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:21:21 -0500

2011 CBL Champion!

Dave claims 2010 Card/Board League trophy for Portland

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Dave claims 2010 Card/Board League trophy for Portland

It all comes down to this!

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 17:12:03 -0500

After a day of competition, both competitors are tied going into the final event.

Dave and Sarah are now playing Scrabble to see who will be crowned 2010 CBL Champion!

The 2010 CBL Championship Tournament has begun. Sarah (ATL) won...

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:55:02 -0500

The 2010 CBL Championship Tournament has begun.

Sarah (ATL) won the first event, Battleship, and Dave (PDX) won the second, Cribbage.

Chess is currently underway.

Sarah and Dave face off in three days

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:58:57 -0500

Just three days until the 2010 Card/Board League championship event!

Sarah from Atlanta will compete against Dave from Portland in a seven-event series beginning Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

The events are listed at right and the tally will be updated live to reflect the latest results. Updates will also be posted on the Web site and Card/Board League Twitter account.

Gold medals for Beth and Josh

Sun, 09 May 2010 09:30:40 -0400

What a night of poker!

After a grueling seven hours of play, Beth took down the final pot to claim gold in Atlanta. Jonathan B finished second and Rebecca earned third.

Jonathan’s four 8s made the best hand of the evening, while Rebecca won a pot with just queen high. Victor took advantage of his early chip lead and single-handedly eliminated a third of the field to earn the “most eliminations” bonus.

There was a smaller field of players out west, but reports are that it was no less competitive. Josh B claimed victory with Steve S and newcomer Warren finishing out the top three.

Abe had the highest hand of the night and Steve took a pot with the lowest hand. Josh and Steve eliminated the same number of players, so they both claim the 5-point league bonus.

Thanks to everyone who came out to play and congratulations to the winners! The full results are posted.

Poker practice/training session (ATL)

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:15:26 -0400

Don’t know how to play poker? Or just want to practice without so much pressure? ATL Charter members are invited to a Poker 101 course, taught by league commissioner Curt Merrill.

Why learn from Curt? Students of Curt’s have seen immediate results, placing in the top 3 of the first tournament following a course*.

The session will be held at CBL HQ near Grant Park on Thursday, April 29, at 7 p.m.

* Results not typical. Your experience may vary.

Battleship results

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:41:33 -0400

Wow! Battleship was a great event with many exciting moments:

On the West Coast, Thomas sunk a battleship in just five turns. But in Atlanta, Sarah B. sunk a battleship in four turns to start to the tournament. In that game she managed to sink all five ships with just seven misses for a 70% accuracy rate!

Atlanta’s Sarah E. had five straight victories, but lost in the final when she couldn’t find the P.T. Boat in time.

The closeness of games was evidenced by the multiple players who earned the “Most ships sunk in a loss” bonus. Four was the maximum value and a total of 10 players in Atlanta and Portland met the mark.

The full results are posted.

Overall, Willow has a commanding lead in the PDX Charter after winning gold or silver in all three events so far. Scores are tighter in the ATL Charter, where Sarah E. has the lead, but only by 7 points.

Mark your calendars: The next event is Poker on May 8. Pre-registration is now open and full details will be posted soon. The entry fee for poker will be $10 — $5 for the league and $5 for the prize pool.

If you’re interested in a practice/teaching session before the main event, please contact your commissioner. If there is enough interest, a Poker 101 course may be arranged.

Battleship strategy

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:41:00 -0400

“Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.”
— President George Washington

Here are some potential tips/strategies for your naval battles this weekend:

http://www.boardgamebeast.com/battleship-strategy.html

http://twiceover.blogspot.com/2007/04/battleship-strategies-and-stuff.html

http://www.ehow.com/way_5772052_battleship-game-strategy.html

Spades strategy links

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:30:20 -0500

Here are a couple of links that may help you in next weekend’s Spades tournament:

Basic strategies: http://www.gamesinfodepot.com/games/cards/spades/strategy/

Advanced and situational strategies: http://home.att.net/~masterspades/strategy.htm

Spades format updated

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:48:38 -0500

The format for the upcoming Spades event has been changed: It is no longer a double-elimination tournament.

In an effort to keep the length of events under control, the league has decided to use a two-phase approach. Phase one will be a round-robin format in which all players play the same number of games within a three-hour period. Following the round-robin portion, the top four players will advance to phase two: a mini bracketed tournament to determine first through fourth place.

Ranking of players — to determine who advances and the order of players who don’t — will be determined by the number of wins during the round robin portion. If there is a tie, the cumulative scores for all games will be used as a tie-breaker.

Please contact the league if you have any questions.

Scrabble results

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:11:24 -0500

Congratulations to William (ATL) and Krystal (PDX) on winning gold at the inaugural event of the 2010 Card/Board League season!

Willow and Dave won silver and bronze in Portland, and Claire and Katherine finished two-three in Atlanta. Not coincidentally, William and Claire also won gold and silver at last year’s Scrabble event. This will be a rivalry to watch as the season continues.

William also won all three bonus awards in Atlanta, extending his lead in the overall standings. In Portland, three different players won bonus awards creating a tight race on the West Coast. But this is only the first event and league watchers expect the standings to fluctuate as the season continues.

To see the full standings, visit http://cardboardleague.com/standings/

Scrabble tips

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:24:12 -0500

The Scrabble tournament is coming soon (Sign up if you haven’t yet). Seasoned players Jessica, Krystal and Tara have a few tips to help you get ready:

- Learn a few Q words that don’t require U’s, like QI and QAT.

- SUQ (“an Arab marketplace”) and QAT (“an Arabian shrub”) are the most important words you can know to use up a Q. One doesn’t require a U and the other has the Q after the U.

- Each turn’s score is important, but so is making sure your rack stays balanced. If you have five vowels and two consonants, don’t play just your two consonants — you risk pulling even more vowels! It’s usually worth playing a lower scoring word if you need to ditch some tiles that are making your rack really hard to play.

- Remember the musical dealie, “do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do.”

- Don’t overly focus on building the perfect word in your rack. Use the best premium squares (triple-letter score!) and build a word around that.

- You should never play an S for less than 30 points.

- If you score out possible plays on a turn, you’ll find that the long single words almost never score as many points as a shorter one that places a high-scoring letter on a premium tile.

- Simple words bring big points if they’re placed right! Look for more than one word per turn by watching both vertical and horizontal placements.

- Good Scrabblin’ takes PRACTICE.

- Good at memorizing? http://www.k5m.org/uhx/2letterwords.tiff

- Never, ever play something that opens up a triple word score tile for your opponent. They WILL use it, even if it’s with low scoring tiles, so you can’t. And if they can pull off even a moderately good word, you could be in the hole by 50+ points in a single turn.

Raising the stakes

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:18:00 -0500

Commissioners Curt and Mike are raising the stakes for this year’s inter-city competition. Both are confident enough in their hometown players to put some of their own skin into the game:

The commissioner whose city loses the Grand Championship will shave his head.

Welcome to Season 2

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:14:00 -0500

Welcome to the 2010 season of Card/Board League. We’ve made some changes in order to make sure that this year will be the biggest and best season yet!

The biggest change is the addition of a Portland charter for players in the Pacific Northwest. Players in Atlanta and Portland will play the same events throughout the season and the best player from each city will compete for the league championship in the fall. Think of it like the World Series of Card/Board League!

After listening to valuable feedback from players, the league has revised the scoring system for each event to make it more consistent and easier to understand. Players will receive points based on what place they finish at each event. First place is worth 100 points, second is worth 90, third is worth 85, and so on. For a complete list, please refer to the About section of the league web site.

In order to defray the costs of the league, including medals, games and supplies and logistics for the championship event, each event will have a small entry fee.

Speaking of events, we’ve got some old favorites and some new challenges this year. First up is Scrabble on February 20 — register now — followed by Spades, Battleship, Poker, Backgammon, Magic: The Gathering, Chess and Cribbage.

We look forward to a fun and competitive season! Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Curt Merrill
League Commissioner

Mike Merrill
Commissioner, PDX Charter

Curt sports the official colors of the CBL.

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:39:19 -0500

Curt sports the official colors of the CBL.