The Backgammon Tournament Story

                                             The Backgammon Tournament Story

                                                                                    1977

                                                                A true story

                                        Written 3/2011 and Re-written 02/04/2016

                                                             Howard Yasgar

It was late in 1976, when we were first contacted by an export company located on 5th Avenue in New York City.

The company was called Equipment Spare Parts or “ESP”, and they were exporting heavy equipment spare parts to South and Central America as well as the Caribbean.

The Company was owned by a Miami  entrepreneur named Avi Samuels.

Our company started doing business with ESP, and soon the owner Avi Samuels came by our office in to visit us.

When we first met Avi Samuels it was hard not to be impressed by him, he was a nice guy.

Avi spoke with a hint of an Israeli accent, he was impeccably dressed, wore a Rolex watch, drove a  Mercedes Benz, and told us that he owned a condominium in the fashionable Turnberry Isles resort.

Avi Samuels gave the appearance and impression of being a very successful business man he was very personable and you couldn’t help but like him.

Before Avi left our office, he invited my partner Don and myself to come and visit him at his New York City office, which was located right on 5th Avenue.

As we had already been planning a business trip to New York, we made an appointment with Avi to visit with him at his company office.

When we arrived at ESP’s prestigious 5th Avenue address in New York City, we were very impressed to find it was located in an elegant old apartment building.

The building  not only had business offices in it, but it also had apartments as well.

Avi explained that you never knew what personality you would be standing next to on the elevator, as his building had quite a few famous movie stars living there.   

After our afternoon meeting with Avi and all of the ESP staff, he invited us to join him at his private club for supper, which he said was just walking distance from his office.

It sounded like a good idea as neither my partner Don nor I had ever been to a private club before.

Avi’s club was not just a regular club, it was a very exclusive Backgammon club, and he, Avi, was an officer there, and we learned that he was  a competition Backgammon player.

My partner Don and I knew absolutely nothing about the game of Backgammon, other than it was some kind of parlor game played for amusement.

So as we all sat at Avi’s club, he attempted to explain to us how to play the game of Backgammon.

   Unfortunately, because Don and I were unfamiliar with the game, we didn’t have any idea of what the hell he was talking about.

But Avi, assuming we were interested in learning how to play the game told us that we were very fortunate, because on that afternoon the president of his Backgammon club, was there.

Turns out he was a world champion Backgammon player, and Avi said he would sit down with us and show us several Backgammon strategies for free.

So Avi then introduced us to the world champion Backgammon player, and we all sat down to about two hours of listening to some highly technical backgammon strategies.

We were finally rescued by the clubs chef, who announced that dinner was being served.

In the following year, 1977, I received a call from Avi who by now was not only our customer but a good friend as well.

He asked us if we would like to join him, he was putting together a group to go to the 1977 “World Backgammon Championship”.

He said that the championship matches were being held that year at the Britannia Beach Hotel on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

It appeared that Avi, must have thought we were going to become Backgammon enthusiasts just like he was.

He didn’t realize that we  knew practically nothing about the game, nor did we have any interest in learning how to play it.

So my partner Don immediately came up an excuse as to why he couldn’t go, but to me, it sounded like a real adventure.

I had always liked Paradise Island in the Bahamas as my wife and I had been there several times, always staying at the Paradise Island Hotel and Casino.

I had never stayed at the Britannia Beach Hotel which is where the championship was being held.

I told Avi, that I would be more than happy to attend.

Avi said that he had already invited two other backgammon friends, who would be joining us.

On the appointed day, we all met at Miami International Airport, for the short flight to Nassau.

Avi introduced me to his two other friends who, like Avi, were also avid Backgammon players.

In our conversation on the plane, it appeared that Avi as well as both his friends, had traveled all over the world to attend and or play in high stakes Backgammon matches.

So it became apparent, to me that I was the only one who didn't know anything about what was going on regarding playing Backgammon.

As we talked more on the flight to the Bahamas, I learned that Avi's two friends had accompanied him to the last Backgammon Championship which had been held in Monte Carlo.

They said that Avi had made several hundred thousand dollars there, by winning the tournament.

I couldn’t believe it, here I was thinking Backgammon was just a parlor game for amusement.

His friends both told me that Avi was quite the personality in the world of Backgammon, a game which I was beginning to see was a lot bigger and more complicated than what I thought it was.

Once we were in Nassau, we took a Cab over the bridge to Paradise Island, where the Paradise Island Hotel and Casino and the exclusive Britannia Beach Hotel were located.

Once we were at the hotel, Avi went to begin checking us in at the front desk, so I thought I would take a walk around.

I had walked through the Britannia Hotel lobby before, but I had never realized that there was a giant underground banquet hall, as well as many large meeting rooms, and they were all located below ground. It appeared that the Britannia Beach hotel was much larger than I had ever thought.

As I walked around, I couldn’t help but notice that there were hundreds of people arriving, they were all shaking hands, and hugging each other, and they all looked wealthy.

I couldn’t help but hear a few of their conversations, and it was all about Backgammon.  

It appeared that many of these people had traveled to Nassau from all over the world, and they were here to either watch, play, or gamble on Backgammon, and that’s all they were talking about.

I was very glad no one spoke to me, because I had nothing I cold say to them about the game.

I returned to the lobby, where I could hear Avi who was in a heated conversation with the desk clerk.

It appears as was usual in the Bahamas they had no record of our reservations.

The Britannia Hotel ended up putting us in a complementary smaller hotel that was down the road but within walking distance. They said they would move us into the main building as soon as they found room.

After we all checked into the smaller hotel, Avi said we should  meet at back at the Britannia Hotel restaurant at exactly 6 PM.

He said, it was important that we meet not later than 6 PM, as the opening ceremonies of the Backgammon championship started at exactly 7 PM sharp, and we all had to be there.

As it was early afternoon and I had time to kill, I decided to walk over to the Paradise Island Casino next door, I wanted to try my luck at the slot machines.

I had brought about $1500.00 in cash which I felt was adequate to cover any expenses I would incur for the weekend.

I changed a $100.00 into $1.00 slot machine coins, and I started playing several different slot machines.

By about 5 PM, I had played most all of the dollar slot machines in the Casino, winning some and losing some but with very few winnings to show for it. I  ended up at a row of slot machines that put my back to the front door of the Casino.

Turns out, it was a lucky move for me, as I quickly won a $100.00 jackpot. Then I won another jackpot, and then another.

I started putting coins into the slot machines on my right and on my left, and I was winning on all of them.

Soon I was winning so many dollar coins that I had filled up the several $10.00 red plastic coin trays they had laying around.

Eventually I had so many of the red $100.00 money trays filled that I started stacking my winnings on top of the slot machines as well as on both of the chairs next to me.

It seems as if I couldn’t lose, and I think I had over $1000.00 in winnings.  

That’s when I felt Avi's two friends put their hands on my shoulders to tell me we were late for our restaurant appointment.

They had both walked in the front door of the casino, but I had not seen them, as my back was to them.

As I continued playing, they were now making me very nervous, because every time I put coins in any of the slot machines, I was still winning, I didn’t want to leave.

Then the guys started pressuring me to leave the casino.

So, when they both saw I was not leaving so quick, they started taking my trays of coins and putting all my winnings in every slot machine they could reach.

On one hand I wanted to stop them, but I didn’t want to appear to be a cheapskate, so I didn’t say anything and in about fifteen minutes they had lost all my winnings.

That’s when we all went to the restaurant to meet Avi.

The opening ceremonies of the Backgammon tournament, was In a large banquet room under the Britannia hotel, there were quite a few tables set up, with most of the tables having 10 or more people sitting at them.

Avi, had one of the tables, but there was just the four of us sitting there.

We appeared to be the only table in the room with just four people.

Besides from the tables, there were quite a few people sitting along the sides of the room, some were standing as well.

At the front of the room was a stage set up with a podium. Hanging behind the podium were big charts with lots of  names on it.

Avi leaned over to me and said that this was an auction and they were now auctioning off the Backgammon teams.

He went on to explain that if you bid and won a winning team you got to share a percentage of the prize with them.

I thought this sounded reasonable, until I heard one of the tables bid $10,000.00 for a team  and worse than that, I saw Avi was also raising his hand in the bidding.

That’s when I got a cold sweat. I was thinking that my share of a $10,000.00 bid would be $2,500.00 which I didn't have.

Fortunately for me, Avi was out bid on all the teams, until it came to the very last one, which I couldn’t believe Avi won for only $1200.00, it was the cheapest bid of all of them.

My share was to cost me only $300.00, and I was very relieved, that I didn’t have to wire home for more money.

Personally, I didn’t really understand what all the bidding was all about because Avi said that the official top prize for the winning Backgammon tournament was only $3000.00.

But the unofficial winning prizes were hundreds of thousands of dollars and could be in the millions.

He said that Backgammon gamblers from all around the world were here, and they were standing in that room with us, and at that very moment they all were making or taking side bets.

He said that most of the people sitting and standing in the room were either bookies or multi-millionaire high rollers, and he said he knew almost every one of them.

Avi said that the bookmakers were just now setting the odds, for the millions of dollars that would be bet on tomorrow’s  Backgammon matches.

Until that moment I had no idea how serious this all was. Millions of dollars were being bet on a game that I never even heard of before.

The next day I started watching the individual Backgammon matches, which I soon found were way too complicated for me.

I soon gave up trying to figure what was going on.

People were watching every move the players made, some were recording it on pads, and some people appeared to be memorizing the moves.

It was all very complicated for me, there were even officials calling out each move as they were made, and official score keepers were recording it.

I tried listened to some of the private conversations going on.

They were all talking very seriously about each player’s moves, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, as some of the moves the people were discussing they said had been made many years ago at other Backgammon tournaments, in other Countries.

It was all way over my head, so to look like I belonged there, I started following Avi around.

As we walked from table to table, Avi, seemed to know everyone, and they all would shake his hand, like they were old friends.

Avi told me that the team we had bid on for $1200.00, was considered the worst team playing in the tournament, which is just as I had suspected, but Avi said, anything could happen in a Backgammon tournament.

The next day we all met for lunch in the Britannia restaurant, Avi had invited an elderly gentleman from New York that he knew from the Backgammon circuit.

As we all sat down, Avi introduced me to him, as we were sitting next to each other.

So acting like I knew what I was doing, I started talking to him.

He told me he was a book publisher from New York City, and he followed, and bet heavily on the backgammon championships, he said he attended Backgammon tournaments all over the world.

As he spoke, Avi asked him “How do you feel after having lost $39,000.00 gambling this morning”.

The elderly book publisher’s reply was, “I didn't like it a bit, he said, but it won't change my lifestyle”, and to this day, I have never forgotten what he said.

At the end of the day, Avi told us, with a huge grin, that believe it or not, our team came in the money and our share of the win was about $1300.00 which covered the cost of what we had spent on buying the team, so I hadn’t lost any money.

About a year later I asked Avi how his Publisher friend from New York was doing, the guy that we had lunch with that had lost the $39,000.00.

Avi said, unfortunately the fellow had died of pneumonia that winter. It appears they had raised the rent on where he parked his Mercedes in New York, so to save his money, he moved his car down the street, and he caught pneumonia walking to his car in the winter.

And this was the guy that lost $39,000.00 in one morning, and said it wouldn’t change his life style.

He had died to save a couple of bucks parking his car.

It was quite a few years later after I had attended that Backgammon championship in the Bahamas.

Avi called me to tell me there was going to be a backgammon championship at Turnberry in Miami, and he was going to be in it.

I attended the tournament with my wife, but this time I parked my car nearby so we could leave quickly before Avi had a chance to get me to bid on a team with him.

I now proudly own a Backgammon game board, but I still don’t understand or know how to play.