EGYPT
MARK RAGO & MARY JO SALCIDO
July 2009
Ask Doctor Jowler is the Dear Abby of the PASS THE PIGS world.
Have a question about Pass The Pigs? Need a solution?
Irving Jowler is a world renowned board gaming coach, game play consultant, and pizza delivery man. He earned a "Golden Board Gamer" award for coaching from the Gaming Institute of Langoon in 2003 and in 2007 he received the prestigious "Hungry Hungry Hippopotamus" award for Gaming Achievment from the National Board Gaming and Iron Smelting Academy. Currently, "Doctor" Jowler works exclusively with classic game enthusiasts to increase their skill in games such as Yahtzee, Connect Four, Battle Ship, Stratego, and Pass The Pigs. It is his hope that one day board games will be considered true sports worthy of Olympic competition. "Doctor" Jowler has mentored and coached numerous professional board gaming athletes and currently writes an advice column for the PigMadness.com website.
NEW QUESTIONS!!!
Fittingly – A guy named Bacon wins Pig Madness VI
Last year at Pig Madness V 2009, a newcomer, a rookie, an unknown by the name of Zach Kuperman walked away with first place and the grand prize of $1,000 and the trophy of a lifetime. This year in 2010, it was destined to happen again after another unknown walked away with a giant check and huge smile with the name of Mr. Bacon. (First name has been omitted for celebrity status and privacy reasons). The tournament once again was infested with home-made trash-talking t-shirts, lots of food and drinks, chaos among the Masters and preparation, the attendance of inventor David Moffat, and this year had Venice Paparazzi.com taking photos throughout the day. See photos on their website by clicking HERE
Bacon didn’t do it the easy way like Kuperman did last year however. Bacon struggled at times, got lucky at other times, and ultimately rolled his best pigs when he needed it most beating a great showing by Jeff Schwartz in the finals. Bacon entered the playoffs with an unimpressive 6-7 record but battled his way through one playoff round after another. Couch - down, Jones, down, LJ, down, Vergos, down. The field of 21 playoff contenders whistled away as the semifinals matched up LJ Vierra against Mr. Bacon on one side, and Schwartz vs. asian girl in the other. These semifinals not only matched up greta personas and personalities but also different strategies of pigs. LJ (One of only 2 people ever to throw a double leaning jowler at the Madness) was throwing ruthless pigs all day and they never let him down until they went cold against Bacon in the semi's and lost 3 games to 1. Asian girl used her 100-point rolls or bust strategy all the way to the semi's until her pigs went cold against Jeff Schwartz. Never in the history of the NPPL has anyone tried to use to 100-point roll-or0bust strategy and then do soso successfully. some say LJs and Asian girls throwing styles were labeled as crazy or even stupid, yet they lasted longer than 37 others and both walked away with $25 gift cards for Bevmo and Best Buy in addition to free bowling passes from our favorite supporter Lucky Strike Lanes.
The finals set up Jeff Schwartz and Mr. Bacon. Before the showdown Schwartz had posted an amazing record of 12-1 which got him 2 first round byes and virtually was no match for any opposition in the playoffs and he went through the tournament with ease, as opposed to Bacon who had a growing confidence as his 6-7 regular season record forced him to battle through 6 playoff matches and roughed his way to meet Jeff in the finals. And it was a battle. After Bacon won the first match and Schwartz tied it up, Bacon then won the next two games and was up 3 games to 1. Schwartz was sweating Game 6 and as he stood down 3 games to 2 he could only watch as Bacon went from 60 points to Jeff's 82 and eventually pigged out at 92 - eight points from winning the grand prize! It opened the door and gave Schwartz back the pigs to which he then took advantage of his opportunity and forced a game 7 on his very next roll. The much admired (and formally banned) Schwartz had basically the entire party in his corner since no one knew who the hell this Bacon guy was! Even though Jeff had the momentum going into the deciding Game 7 and the crowd in his corner, Bacon's pigs were too good and he put his piggish last name on the list of Pig Madness Champions as walked away with $1,000. Schwartz, who ultimately had one of the most successful tournaments ever played in any NPPL tournament by accumulating a 23-7 record, deservedly walked away with $200. It wasn't the grand prize, but it was a performance worth remembering for a very long time.
All in all, it was yet another successful tournament thrown by the NPPL and everyone had a blast. Honorable mention goes to Ashleys cousin who walked away with the last place prize of a Jonas Brothers photo album (enjoy dude) after finishing with 1 win and 12 losses in his NPPL debut. Also, let's not forget the two 14 year old kids from Wales, Byron and Johnny, that led off the day kicking everyone's butt & winning tons of games after not even knowing how to play! Johnny even made the playoffs before soandso knocked him out. And unfortunatly for the reigning champion, Kuperman now knows what it's like to walk away without winning as he posted a --- record and didn't even make the playoffs. Only 2 Masters (Rago & Day because of tie-breakers) didn't make the playoffs and just think, of all the thousands of rolls that were thrown that day, not one double leaning jowler. Now that what I call...Madness.
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The NPPL would like to thank all the participants that attended PM6. Unfortunately we have just now gotten around to updating the website and thanking all of you that attended. Thanks to Gecarlo Wood, Crown, Lisa Cook? Talvi, Taddy and Jen Perrymore for all your help as it was a huge help in so many ways.
David Moffat for your support and banners etc and Steve for pictures etc.
Be on the lookout for future events and parties and tournaments and we all look forward to seeing you again at PM7 or sooner.
Venice paparazzi.com
