I
have enjoyed playing backgammon on a regular basis with a small group
of friends for low stakes over a period of about ten years. Now, like
Dmitriy
Obhukov before me, and probably Frank Talbot and others before that, I
may be on the verge of being eliminated from the local backgammon
scene.
Why?
Mainly due to the efforts of one man, John Quinn, who views me as a
shark stealing his money. I do understand his position to a point. His
argument would have some merit if this was a high-stakes game, but it
isn’t. I find the idea that I am a professional making a living playing
five dollar chouette at John’s expense ludicrous and offensive.
Moreover, it upsets me greatly that I have to defend
myself to my friends as if I am some sort of bad actor.
Below
is an open letter I sent to the Detroit backgammon community, followed
by John’s response, and my response to that. These are unedited.
Please
let me refute a claim John made that I didn’t specifically address in
my short response. John did in fact push Emil hard to disinvite me from
Emil’s weekly game. Clearly if Emil had agreed John would still be
attending while I would be sitting at home. Only when Emil refused did
John decide to quit the game. Another example is the recent Novi
tournament where John repeatedly schemed to exclude
me from the five dollar chouette. I understood I was not welcome and
stayed away to respect his wishes and avoid confrontation. In one
instance, John recruited players from a game I was in to his own game,
then refused to let me join him.
A couple related issues.
Why should good players be chased away from a friendly low stakes game?
This
whole incident is a major reason I am against ratings and publicizing
PR’s. Let’s focus on playing the game we enjoy rather than determining
who the best and worst players are.
Will
my public statement here do more harm than good? I don’t know. I
understand I risk losing some long-term friendships by posting this. So
be
it. I want to at least present my take on events, and let people
decide for themselves.
Finally,
thank you to the many of you who have supported me either privately or
publicly in this matter. I am encourages that even if John succeeds,
other will let me into alternative games. I intend for this blog
entry to be my last public statement on the subject.
=====My Open Letter to Detroit area backgammon players =======
I
am writing to bring to your attention efforts by John Quinn to block me
from non-tournament backgammon activities and seek your help. I
believe you all know me. I am not a troublemaker, am honest, loyal and
generally
a good guy.
You
may know John is the main organizer of our social play. Recently he
has dropped me from the invite list. John is also lobbying the hosts of
games he doesn’t organize to exclude me from the group. Since our
community
is so small this would effectively ban me from any chouette play.
Why
have I been uninvited? Simply because in his judgment I am too good a
player. I am sure you will agree this is small and unfair for a number
of reasons.
·
If you work hard and improve your game will you by rewarded by being banned next?
·
This is a friendly low stakes games (fives or lower)
o
No one is getting hurt financially at this level
o
Even as a plus player any net winnings I may have are modest
·
If you are John’s first call every week ask yourself what he thinks about your game?
·
It seems John does in fact want a best player in the game –him!
All
I want is to play. I first caught the backgammon bug about 2006. Over
the past ten years we have spent a significant amount of time together
in tournaments or social play. I go back about thirty years with some
of you when you include the old chess days. I consider you all friends
in our common pursuit of this wonderful game we all love so much.
If
you agree John’s actions are unfair, please tell John so! I am not
asking for a boycott nor am I looking to start a rival game to exclude
John. I would just like to continue to play this great game we love
with
my friends.
Please feel welcome to share this letter with anyone I might have missed. Thank you.
======= John's Response ========
Hello Bill Calton and all of our mutual friends out there in the Michigan Backgammon community,
First
of all let me answer Bill's question in the simplest and most
straightforward way that I can: I have never asked anyone to exclude
Bill Calton from any Chouette that they were hosting or planning to
have.
Bill,
I wish that you would have asked me either in person or by email or by
telephone conversation before putting this out in an email to all of our
friends, but what is done is done and so therefore I will now respond
to your
question in the same way so that all in our group can draw their own
conclusions.
This
all started about 3 weeks ago when I made a personal decision to drop
out of playing in what is known as the Emil Chouette on Saturdays of
which I had been a member of and a regular attendee of for many years.
Of course I
was asked my reason for dropping out and I simply answered that I no
longer could, in good conscience, continue to go there every Saturday to
lose money on a weekly basis to you, Bill Calton.
My
opinion of your backgammon abilities, Bill is that you are a far better
Backgammon Player than I am and I commend you on the progress that you
have made in a few short years in learning the game and becoming one of
the top
players in the State of Michigan. So I made a simple decision that I
would no longer go to the Emil Chouette on Saturdays.
As
a second part to that action, I decided that I would create a weekly
Chouette on Saturdays and I began inviting people who are interested to
come out and play. My intention with this Saturday Chou is to invite
players who are
comfortable in playing with each other and feel that on any given day
that they have a fair chance to win or lose and that they are not just
showing up to make a weekly monetary contribution to a player or players
whose skills are far greater than their own.
Consequently
there are actually several Michigan Players who I do not invite to this
Chouette that I organize and, without naming names, they know who they
are because they do not receive text messages from me to invite them.
Hopefully they do not feel as badly about this lack of an invitation
from me as you do Bill, and in fact I believe that they should consider
it a compliment to their superior skills as Backgammon Players.
You
know, Bill I figured out a long time ago that I was never going to make
any real money playing Backgammon and I have often said that when I
counted up the hours that I have spent on this game that on an annual
basis I am
probably making or losing about 50 cents an hour, But I love the game
and I love playing Chouette so I continue to play. I just don't want to
play in a situation where I feel that I will consistently contribute to
players who are so far above my skill level
that I do not have an equal opportunity. Nor do I feel that any other
player should play in a Chouette where they do not have an equal
opportunity to win or lose without feeling that that they are
consistently contributing week after week in a losing cause.
So
let me make this statement and put it out there to all of our
Backgammon friends - I have not asked anyone to exclude you from any
Chouette that they are hosting or planning on hosting. And if anyone has
somehow made that interpretation
from my actions, then please understand that it is not my intent to
conspire with you to bar Bill Calton, or prevent you from inviting Bill
Calton to your Chouette, or in any way influence you as to any action
that you wish to take with Bill Calton. Quite
frankly I don't believe that I would hold such power and sway over your
decisions about who you invite to the chouettes that you organize.
As
for me I only ask the same right to make my decision as to who I wish
to invite to the Chouettes that I organize and to not to be questioned
repeatedly as to why I am not inviting Bill.
So there, I have given my explanation to everyone and now everyone can draw their own conclusions.
I
have been asked repeatedly for the past three weeks about this subject
by several of our mutual friends, so hopefully this written answer that I
give today will suffice as this is the last time that I intend to
discuss this
subject.
I
will ask you all at this time to do whatever you will and think
whatever you want, I will simply ask you as a courtesy to please leave
me out of any further discussion about this matter.
I
consider you my friend, Bill and I am sorry if you feel that my
personal decisions have had this negative impact on you, that is not my
intention. So hopefully someday you will realize that there is no big
conspiracy here against
you - it's just one guy (me) making the decision that he feels is right
for him.
JQ
======= My Response ========
I
don’t intend on going back and forth on this either. John’s decision
to blackball me was obviously considered and I respect his right to do
so. While I would be pleased if John changed his mind, I didn’t really
expect that to happen.
But I didn’t want to take this lying down either. I would like our mutual friends to know what kind of person John is.
