United States - Tournament veterans Nate and Lacey and newcomer Kara Leigh Bartkus went 10 rounds in tonight's first NNA match. Kara was a last minute replacement for Cylan Shaffer who was not able to make the 6:30 game time. Kara fought hard against the vets but ran into some minor computer problems throughout the match. She did manage to call Nertz twice but fell short of advancing, placing 3rd. The fourth designated player Carlos Adam Miner Jr. had confirmed his game time but failed to arrive, so a computer played in his sted.
C Bracket Box Score>>>
Tournament Bracket and Stat Tracker>>>
Lacey led the number of Nertz calls this game with 5. But Nate showed his resilience and came away with the victory finishing with 110 points. Lacey was not far behind with 96. She led for the first 5 hands of the match and Nerted 3 of those first 5. Nate had a big full table set in the 5th and then immediately followed it with a 21 point Nertz in the 6th to take the lead. Lacey took the lead right back in the 7th, but Nate's large 28-point Nertz call in the 8th all but sealed the deal. Nate was only set once the entire game. It was in the 1st hand and only for -5 points. Lacey was set only twice but for only -1 point each time.
Nate and Lacey advance to the AC Semifinals match. They await the winners of the A bracket which will be played Wednesday the 5th at 7:30 p.m. CST. The 2-time champ Sara Paseka is in the A bracket group, along with veteran Meg Holko, and newcomers Aaron Whitcomb and Shanan Westover Osinski. They all have confirmed this match so it should be a full table.
Match #2 of the Night All four players in this 1st round match were chompin' at the bit to start playing. They had all confirmed this match quickly as it was the first of the four brackets to do so collectively. Christmas Wishart, Natasha Rene Stafford, Mallory Holko, and Ben Bowman fought it out for 10 hands like the players in the first match of the night.
D Bracket Box Score>>>
This game started rather oddly. The first hand was almost an Idled game. This is where all four players have no plays to make. Usually in live games you would "burn a card"(change the order of your stream) so that the order of cards becomes different which would spawn new plays. Well in Solitaire Race, when there is an Idled Game, a short timer is displayed and when it runs out, the game ends even if nobody has Nerted. If you make a play when the timer is displayed, then it goes away. So, in the very first hand of this match, the timer appeared when the hand was almost at a stand still. Mallory saved the hand from ending without a Nertz call by making a play thus making the timer disappear. She also called Nertz a few moments later, though she did not win the hand. Christmas won it with a 27-point non-Nertz.
If that weren't weird enough, the very next hand actually did end without anyone calling a Nertz. Natasha won the hand with a -4 hand score when the entire table was set. Christmas received a -24 point hand score erasing her big first hand, but still maintained the lead after 2 hands. It gets weirder, so bare with me because it is hard to explain.
Natasha took the lead in the 3rd with a 17 point Nertz. Then in the 4th, Natasha again called Nertz but Christmas actually won the hand with 18 points. This happened again in the 5th, with Natasha calling Nertz, and Christmas scoring more points than her. Only this time the top hand score was shared by both Ben and Christmas at 18 points.
Mallory surprised her competition with a 19-point Nertz in the 6th. It may not have been a large Nertz but the differential was substantial. The combined difference between her hand score and her opponent's hand scores was 49 points.
The next hand, Christmas separated herself from the pack calling Nertz and obtaining a game score of 72. At that moment, the closest player to her was Natasha with 41. Natasha then called Nertz in the 8th hand scoring 27 points, but Christmas scored 26 points that hand. This brought Christmas's game total to 98. The only thing that could stop her was a set. The set did come in the 9th hand when Mallory called her third Nertz. Though this only set Christmas back 3 points, and in the 10th she closed it out with a 23-point Nertz. Christmas finished with 118 points and advanced to the BD semifinal match. Natasha also advanced finishing in second place with 68.
So far the all of the tournament veterans have advanced. Only one semifinalist so far is a newcomer. It seems experience breeds excellence and the current field of semifinalist has 217 hands played between them. The BD semifinal looks almost the same as the last BD semi, only replacing Meg with Natasha. However, Meg is still in the tournament and is awaiting her 1st round match in the A bracket.
The NNA wanted to send out a special thanks to everyone who has contributed to this year's NNA online tournament system...especially the participants. It would benefit the Nertz playing community if we continue to see these players in these NNA online Nertz tournaments.
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