It was an exciting and interesting adventure in Hallettville this past weekend. The Austin 42 Club took 10 teams in all to the dance (10 out of 105) and had 4 teams in the championship bracket. Two teams made it to the second round, congrats to Mike and Misty and Darci and Drew.  However through the course of the tournament, issues arose where I believe change needs to come to H-ville sooner rather than later if they truly want to boast about being the “State Tournament.”

Out of the 105 teams, the top 64 teams in the round robin were chosen for the championship bracket. Did we all play SEVEN games in the morning so we could cut the list of potential champions down to 2/3rds the attendees? I found that to be ridiculous. Furthermore, why did we play 7 games in the morning if they don’t mean anything in terms of ranking for the championship bracket. H-ville takes the top 64 and randomly puts them together… There is no benefit from going 7-0 in the round robins which is a travesty. I also want to call to their attention the lack of knowledge and enforcement of the rules that they brought to the grand daddy of 42 tournaments any of us will play in. How can the judge for the tournament say, while briefing the group about the rules, “I don’t know, I don’t know the rules.” Find someone who does and have them handle these questions, have them handle conflicts!!! Both the last times I was in H-ville I was distracted from the flow of the game because of ridiculous rule violations calls that should have been resolved PROMPTLY and ACCURATELY based on the handout they issued before the show started…

Which brings me to my final point… SHOWBIDS.  Apparently the Aggies of College Station are up in arms about 42 bids that MEAN something and have named the process of having a bid that means something as a “Showbid.” The definition used by several teams that complained about this said that teams that bid 32 without any prior bid on the table are indicating they have the 5:5 to their partner. They suggest that initial bids between 32-34 are outright wrong and should not be allowed. Bidding is a process of evaluating the strength of your hand, not strictly the amount of count you plan on winning. Basically these guys have said that you must bid your dominoes and not your opponents or situation. Which then boils the game down to a matter of who obtains the best rocks through the course of the game and who does not.  I will forever support the advanced play we have established in the Austin 42 Club. Every bid, no matter the skill level of the partner or opponent, means something. Determining what that means comes with skill and experience playing 42. To establish a particular bid for a particular domino, may be wrong, but to choose a particular bid because it is ridiculous enough that you know your partner will over bid you is genius. 32 out of the gate obviously means you want to be overbidded and because you obviously want to be overbidded, your partner is certainly thinking you better have something for them to overbid your ridiculousness. Though these bids don’t prevent opponents from overbidding, but it does prevent the simple indications of 30 and 31. I want to encourage the College Station folks to learn to play the game and move beyond the mickey mouse rules they are complaining about. Every bid is a Showbid and if its such an area of disdain, lets work together to establish some rule we can all add to our organizations and clean up whatever it is that appears to be wrong… BEFORE the tournament of tournaments begins.  

Jeff Reed

Director

www.austin42club.com

jrreed50@...