Final Table Match Up Breakdown

United States - It is summer, and the sweet scent of Nertz is bit easier to smell for most players. However, four players in particular are making sure they get a heavy whiff. Sara Paseka, Steven Wingfield, Cathy Anderson, and Jill Younker-Sny are awaiting their final table match in the NNA's current Online Nertz Tournament. The match, as of now, will be held on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. CT in the NNA Members Room on the AOL Solitaire Race page.

The Breakdown - This is expected to be the tightest match ever played in a NNA online tournament. For the most part, match winners have easily won by a sizable margin, but this final table has brought a higher level of competition.

Sara Paseka the 1st ever Online Nertz Tournament champion remains undefeated in her NNA online Nertz tournament span. She is averaging 16.05 pph(points per hand) and has called "Nertz" 10 hands and won 12 hands out of her 20 lifetime tournament hands
played. Her undefeated match record is 3-0 giving her a 107 ppg(points per game) average.

Cathy Anderson has only played 5 tournament hands lifetime but has nerted and won 4 out of those 5. She is averaging 21.40 pph. Cathy also had a Quick Nertz that resulted a Full Table Set which was only one of two had in the current tournament. A Full Table Set (or Set-back) is when all of your opponents at the table receive a negative score for that hand.

Steven Wingfield, the only male left in the competition, has played 7 tournament hands lifetime. He has nerted twice but only won one of those hands in his first tournament match in which one of his opponents was Sara Paseka. Steven finished that game closer to Sara than any other opponent of hers, only losing by a margin of 35, which gave him 81 points total. After just one tournament match Steven is averaging 11.57 pph.

Jill Younker-Sny has faced Sara Paseka more than any other opponent to date, which is not a lot(twice). In both matches Jill finished second to Sara. Jill has nerted 4 times against Sara and has 6 lifetime tournament "Nertz" calls. Jill is averaging 9.11 pph and 54.67 ppg in 18 tournament hands played.

What to watch for - Jill will be wanting revenge. Watch for a better performance from her.

Newcomers Steven and Cathy may have an effect on Sara. If Steven has a good hand and then Cathy follows, it may result in less points for Sara, making it a tighter match.

There will be quicker hand times. Quick Nertz' are key. Getting Sets and making opponents receive negative scores is the best way to build a bigger margin. These players will be taking advantage of any easy-flowing hands that they might receive.

Damage control. We will see lesser point margins between players. Players may not always get the best hands, so it will be up to the players to try to limit the damage when the hands are not flowing as well as they would like. These players have shown to be better at this than most and that is why they are in the final.


What is on the Line? The winner of this final table will receive the title of Online Nertz Champion, an Official Nertz Scoring Pad, an entry into the "Tournament of Champions" at the 2009 year's end, and finally (just announced) a free copy of the Nerts High Speed Card Game compliments of Ronnander Games.

It seems that these final four players just seem to do it for the pride and trill of victory and not for the spoils. Although, the extra incentives shouldn't hinder their competitive spirits.

The anticipation is mounting. Who will rise and who will fall? Who will bask in the sweet scent of Nertz victory?

Return of the Champ

United States - The A bracket 2nd round match was played today at 7:30 p.m. CT and the previous tournament champion, Sara Paseka (avatar shown on right), extended her perfect tournament match steak with a victory over Laura Robertson Bratton, Steven Wingfield, and the absent Taylor Curtis. Steven also will advance to the final as he came in second place with 81 points.

Box Score>>>
NNA Tournament Bracket>>>

Sara nerted 5 times out of seven hands to secure her spot in the final. She also had a game and tournament high with a 30-point Nertz. However, Steven was on her heals the entire match and had a 28-point Nertz of his own. Laura got it going a little late with a 19-point Nertz in the six hand. Sara and Steven tied in points on hand 3 each scoring 21 points, though Sara was awarded the hand victory as she called "Nertz".

Shortly before the match, the tournament director received a message from Taylor that said she miscalculated the start time due to time zones, and thus she was not able to play.


The game also had an interesting start. No player called "Nertz" to finish the first hand. Instead, the game timer ended the hand when everybody was "stuck". This usually doesn't end live games but in Solitaire Race it happens on occasion. Sara was awarded the Nertz since she had the highest score at that moment.

Sara is back in the finals and looks to be a heavy favorite. Newcomers Steven and Cathy have shown they are formidable opponents. Lastly, Jill is seeking revenge after finishing second to Sara in their last final table match.

Will we witness a repeat or will someone dethrone the champ? No matter the outcome it looks like this final will be a great game to watch.

Cathy Wins in 5 hands!

United States - The B bracket 2nd round match was played today at 6:30 p.m. CT and Cathy Anderson (avatar shown on right) ended up taking this match in 5 hands. This puts her in the final of this NNA a online tournament. Also advancing to the final from this match for the second straight time was veteran Jill Younker-Sny. Jill called "Nertz" twice in five hands and had match high 28-point Nertz, putting some pressure on Cathy, but it was not enough as Cathy finished with 107 points. Cathy set the table in hand three to break away from the pack and didn't look back.

Box Score>>>
NNA Tournament Bracket>>>


Cathy and Jill await the winners of tomorrow's A bracket semi final match. This match includes Sara Paseka, the winner of the last NNA Online Tournament, and newcomers Taylor Curtis, Steven Wingfield, and Laura Robertson Bratton. The Final Table game time will be announced after this next match.

Tournament Update for NNA002!

United States - The game times are set for the first week of play, though half of the playing field has been eliminated without even playing a match. It can be hard to coordinate online tournaments for just two players in one match, let alone 4 matches with 4 players per match. Some of the players couldn't make their game times and some never sent a reply to the tournament director to confirm tournament times.

The other eight players will play their 2nd round matches in this first week of tournament play.

Still amongst the field of players, is Sara fresh of her last tournament victory. Jill and Nate, now online tournament veterans, also have advanced on a "Bye" and are looking for revenge. Newcomers Talyor, Luke, Cathy, Laura, and Steven also advanced from the first round "Bye" and await their game times as well as a shot to advance to the final.

The A bracket round 2 Match will be played Tuesday, May 26th at 7:30 CT.
The B bracket round 2 match will be played Monday, May 25th at 6:30 CT.

Bigger and Better!

United States - The field is bigger and the players are more seasoned, making this online Nertz tournament much more formidable than the last. There are 7 men and 9 women awaiting their 1st round match-ups. 4 of those players are the finalists from the 1st ever Online Nertz Tournament. The Champion, Sara Paseka, from that very tournament already seems to eager to take on the competition which she indicated by her quick response to the the Tournament Information messages that were sent out recently. Can she do it again? Last time she survived two rounds and was the best of eight players in the tournament. This time she faces a field of 16 players and has to withstand 3 rounds to repeat.

All of the Nertz Online Tournament Information messages have been sent out to the current tournament players, despite a slight snag in the process. Apparently, Facebook mistook the repeat messages to the players as SPAM and temporarily disabled the tournament director's Facebook account. However, the NNA tournament director still managed later to get all of the messages sent. It seems in the future the NNA will be using Facebook's "Event Pages" to make it easier to coordinate Online Nertz Tournaments without being suspect for Spamming.

It looks as though the first round matches will start Sunday, May 24 of next week. 4 of 16 players have already replied confirming their game time availabilities. This tournament will last three weeks with each player only playing one match a week. All matches will be played between at times between Sunday and Tuesday of each week.

To watch the matches from your own computer just check the Online Tournaments page at playnertz.com for match times and locations.