Are your feet itching... to vote?

If you try to contact any responcible person on TMG, you will not find a link on their site. It is only the cashier whom you can talk to And he only "hears" you when you want to pay.

After 2 months strugle to get my money from them and receiving a humiliating treatment by an employee (the only one available to contact), I publish my last out of 7-8 e-mails on this subject open.



TO WHOM IT MAT CONCERN in TRUEMONEYGAMES

I do not complain about high transfer fees.
You do not mention WHAT transfer fees YOU comment as high.
I comment that
FIRST TIME YOU DID NOT ADMIT YOUR BANK MADE A MISTAKE
SECOND TIME YOU ADMITTED A MISTAKE WAS MADE BY THEM AND THAT THEY WILL ASSUME ALL RESPOSNCIBILITY
THIRD TIME YOU ORDER THE REDUCED AMOUNT (after their fee) TO BE TRANSFERED. Instead of assuming your (or your service provider) errors and making the wrong doer pay.
FOURTH TIME YOU SAY YOU CANNOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.
FIFTH TIME YOU RECCOMMEND OTHER THAN A BANKING SERVICE! IT IS THE FIRST TIME I HEAR OF A MORE RELIABLE SERVICE THAN BANKER'S.
SIXTH TIME YOU DO NOT ADMIT THAT YOU CHARGE ME TWO TIMES FOR THE SAME JOB (badly done)

I am tired of of writing to you and I intend to publish this for everybody to see.

After two months of being patient.
Perhaps TMG owners may read this and take measures.

I expect appology

Svilen Todorov (aka Svilo)Humboldt 36Sofia 1113, Bulgariaphone: 359-2-723612

Rakes surpress level

Technology of the 20th century brought about a leap in quality of backgammon too. Hundreds of players today play stronger than world champions of the 1980s.
Bots and online servers made it possible to record and analyze every move and game. Bots alone brought about changes in opening and middlegame strategies.
Online servers eliminated distances, hotel costs, reduced organizational costs.
Many talanted young players with a thin wallet could play or watch world class players online.

See this and think

http://www.stocks49.freeserve.co.uk/CHARTS/FIBSwrc.html

Recent rake hikes of Truemoneygames and similar increase of registration fees, table fees, etc. may bring an opposite trend. In order to beat the table fees, players will (as already have on Gamesgrid) try different means to pick a player at least 200 rating points below. Some will "vote with their feet" as Hank Yongerman did.

In a market environment the most efficient way to fight high prices is to sustain a viable competition. What this translates to is that contemporary supply of backgamon action services is insufficient. We need more tournament/cafe organizers in our home town, more online servers.

Backgammon servers and backgammon culture

Replying to my comment on backgammon culture someone in a discontinued thread on rec.games.backgammon asked: what is bg-culture - some kind of martial art?

Backgammon culture consists of art, science and sport. Here I exclude gamblung, on purpose. Gambling is a hereditory feature. Backgammon is a game of bets. While anti-gambling majority would cry aloud all the time against "the gamblers", I would like to ask a simple question: whose assertion do you believe more - the one who says:

- Believe me, bla bla bla

or the one who says:

- I bet 2 to 1, bla bla bla?

Art is skill + applied science.
Science is collection of facts from sport + discovery.

Backgammon servers and casinos would like to have backgammon as mere gambling tool, but the game has grown up from its 3000 year old childhood and has its own requirements. We, who pay substantial amounts in the form of rake, fees, etc., have the moral right to require improving service and reducing rakes. The way to achieve it in a commercial environment is to encourage competition by giving credit to improvements of the service and "voting with our money" for the best service providers.

GammonEmpire.com

A new backgammon server is on line. The GammonEmpire.com is a fresh one month old baby of Israeli creators. You can play money games and matches (both for real money and for fun). The owners have started with the proven appetizers (known from truemoneygames.com) - the free-roll added money tournaments. They have added money to some paid tournaments too, and there you have an added money tourney every hour.
I am sure the owners are doing every bit to improve their machine and make it competitive to the already established GamesGrid and truemoneygames.
One thing the new machine lacks is the save match/session feature. The checker movement is somewhat slow. Some of the automatics need to be reworked - auto-checker-play, auto-bear-off, auto-roll.
Of course, there should be more things to refine and the owners are open minded.
If you like to help improve the machine, bring players and earn money - come here:
and become an affiliate

If you just like to play for money, you can register here. Do not forget to mention your signup coupon SVILO when asked, to get a USD 5 bonus to your USD 25 deposit.
I am sure both professional and regular backgammon players will like this new server.

Las Vegas Open

LAS VEGAS BACKGAMMON OPENNovember 10-14, 2004; Las Vegas, Nevada
CHAMPIONSHIP (101+27 rebuys): 1-Walter Trice (MA), 2-Greg Kurrell (CO), 3/4-Malcolm Davis (TX) / Jorge Pan (Argentina); 1C-Morten Holm (Denmark), 2C-Dod Davies (England), 3C/4C-Dennis Culpepper (VA) / Matvey "Falafel" Natanzon (Israel); 1LC-Claude Marbleu (France), 2LC-Mark Rozans (LA).
INTERMEDIATE (127+1 rebuy): 1-Wolfram Sauer (TX), 2-Cyrille Fauquet (France), 3/4-Robert Appell (CA) / Yuriko Kondo (Japan); 1C-Jonah Seewald (CO), 2C-Mark Antranikian (CA), 3C/4C-David Hennessy (Australia) / Cy Yehros (NV); 1LC-Tom Duggan (England), 2LC-Sam Orandle (NV).
BEGINNER (51+13 rebuys): 1-Daniel Stroberger (CA), 2-Ernesto Nassau (CA), 3/4-Milton Gonzalez (Costa Rica) / Leonard Michael Lemay (CO); 1C-Mahmoud Jahanbani (England), 2C-Larry Kamin (IL); 1LC-Carl Blumenstein (CA), 2LC-Ruth Longman (MI).
SUPER JACKPOT (bracket of 64 with buy-ups to round of 16): 1-Steve Sax (CA), 2-Joe Sylvester (MO), 3/4-Leo Fernandez (Argentina) / Ray Fogerlund (CA).
LIMITED JACKPOT (bracket of 64 with buy-ups to round of 16): 1-Joaquin Viejobueno (Argentina/CA), 2-Tom Wheeler (TX), 3/4-Hersel Namdar (NY) / David Shadi (NY).
SENIORS (128): 1-Tom Wheeler (TX), 2-Herb Gurland (MA).
BLITZ (320): 1-Dean Adamian (MI), 2-John O'Hagan (IN).
MINI-MATCH #1 (128): 1-Masahiko Nasu (Japan), 2-Osamu Omodera (Japan).MINI-MATCH #2 (64): 1-Perry Gartner (NJ).
DOUBLES (32 teams): 1-Masahiko Nasu (Japan) & Don Thompson (USA/Japan), 2-Nack Ballard (CA) & Hsiao-Yee (CA).
$500 SATURDAY JACKPOT (8): 1-Kit Woolsey (CA), 2-Doug Mayfield (CA).
$100 SATURDAY JACKPOT (48): 1-Frank Bierekoven (NV), 2-Larry Arnold (MN).
$50 AFTER TOURNAMENT TOURNAMENT (28): 1-Nodar Gagua (Russia), 2-Masahiko Nasu (Japan).
$20 AFTER TOURNAMENT TOURNAMENT (22): 1-Jona Alexander (CA), 2-Daniel Stroberger (CA).

BACKGAMMON PRO AMNovember 6-10, 2004; Las Vegas, Nevada
OPEN (14): 1-Nack Ballard (CA) & Wayne McClintock (CA), 2-Lars Bønding (Denmark ) & Katja Spillum (Norway), 3/4-Dod Davies (England) & Wayne Felton (England) / Claude Marbleu (France) & François Tardieu (France).

Minnesota Backgammon Championships

ABT - MINNESOTA OPEN BACKGAMMON CHAMPIONSHIPS
October 29-31, 2004; Prior Lake. Minnesota

OPEN (27): 1-Yury Millman (MN), 2-Fred Kalantari (MN); 1C-Charlie Cole (VA), 2C-Duane Jensen (MN); 1LC-Ralph Stowell (MN).

INTERMEDIATE (24): 1-Phil Biesanz (MN), 2-Steve Neidecker (IL); 1C-Philip Smith (NC), 2C-Gary Fletcher (MN).

NOVICE (8): 1-Dale Harsh (MN), 2-Phil Little (MN); 1C-Dave Settles (IL).

MYSTIC MASTERS (9): 1-Gregg Cattanach (GA), 2-Mike Sharp (CA).

DOUBLES (14 teams): 1-Jim Pokela & Dave Wetzell (MN).

BLITZ (32): 1-Art Moore (CA), 2-Lee Goldstein (MN).

MINI-MATCHES (48): 1-Mike Sharp (CA).