Karunas armed for her return to the IBC
Photo Courtesy of Pip Shutter
When the power failed, it was candles and dice for JohnnyU and SusanQ (Karunas). After years of spending time off of the circuit to raise children, SusanQ was lured back to the board.
The 7 point tourney started out as expected. With SusanQ coming out of the gates a bit shaky, Ju stepped out to a 3 zip lead. But in game #4, as the candles flickered over the checkers, Susan was in control. With 3 checkers yet to bear sitting on her two point, JU had a single man planted on her 1 point. He choose not to run in an ill-fated attempt to save gammon.
But there would be no shot at rolling a 1. With 4 chances for the Backgammon, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s... it was Karunas who pulled the set of 3s to take the 3-point game and tie the tourney.
After the match, Chip Checker caught up with JohnnyU,
"The nice thing about not playing with a clock is that you can do the math. Susan had a 4 in 36 shot at winning the backgammon. That's just 1 in 9. If she bore off two as I expected, I would have a 1 in 3 chance of hitting with a 1, which would have saved the gammon. There was also a slim chance 1 in 18 that I could roll a 2-3 and she would also win the Backgammon. So her odds were slightly over 1 in 9 but not much. I played the odds and she nailed her roll. Simple as that. Oh, and if she rolled snake eyes, she would have put me on the bar and had two left on her 1 point. There was a 13-36 chance that I wouldn't make it out alive. So that was another rare possibility."
The 'backgammon' seemed to have rattled JohnnyU. Karunas won the next two games and held a strong 5-3 lead in a 7 point tourney.
When JU saw an advantage in the next game, he flipped the cube. It was a cube that should have been declined, but the returning star was feeling confident. This time is was JU that took control and with a final roll needing a set of 3s or higher for gammon, Urogdy rolled the Box Cars! The match ended with a 4-point gammon. 7-5 in favor of JohnnyU
"We got super lucky. Anything can happen in 7 point tourneys. More important than the win was the delight in having Susan Q back on the circuit. We hope that a taste of gammon after all these years will reignite her passion to compete regularly" -JU