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WSC 2011 Commentary: Round 30

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, Round 32, Round 33, Round 34.

Returning from the hotel's Asian lunch buffet, we begin the first of the five rounds in this final regular session of the Championship. At the end of the day, the two players with the best record will advance tomorrow's best-of-five finals. The Champion will receive US$20,000, the runner-up $10,000.

It looks right now as though it will take at least 23 wins to get to the finals, with a 25% chance it will take 24 or more. Nigel Richards (Wru), with his 21-8 +1766 record, has an 80% chance of doing so. Andrew Fisher (AUS), in second place 20-9 +1605, has a 50% chance. Craig Beevers (Eng), in third place 20-9 +891, has a 25% chance, as his spread is lower than anyone else's in the top ten. Beyond them, the three players on 19-10 (Dave Wiegand (USA), Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Wsc) and Chris May (AUS)) are each 10:1 long shots; and the ten players on 18-11 still have faint hope.

Nigel, Andrew, Pakorn and Dave win this round. Nigel leads 22-8 +1812 to Andrew's 21-9 +1648. Then three players on 20-10: Pakorn +1462, Dave +1417 and Craig (after his loss to Pakorn) +781. Annotator Cheah has been amusing himself recording how Nigel arranges his racks: NERAXEA, NORTONA/NONRATE, DZHOFIK, KFIDNIT/DITKFIN, FINKVAE/FAVEINK, YOKEHIN, RAVINGH, COPIHUE, GOREEAS/EGAROES, SOLERET/LORETES.

This is the first round where we will be pairing round by round (not based on the second previous round to accelerate the schedule); pairings appeared on the scoreboard at two minutes after the hour, about 60 minutes from the start of the round.

Four rounds to go.

Words challenged: REGALING PEDATE FECE OCHRIER HERYE OIK QUINTAS SEIGNIOR GREISEN BOODIES MUNTANDAL PARANETE FORMERS SEARIEST GERDS