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2007 Dallas Open Commentary: Before the Tournament

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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, After the Tournament.

Pre-touranment

To we Northerners, today started out gloriously warm and temperate. For the locals, it is a bit rainier and cooler than they'd like. In the end, it matters not, because we are all inside the lovely Addison Convention Center, dry and comfortable and working with our favorite board game. John Chew webmasters to my immediate left, inches from board 1, being played on an elevated stage.

Bryan Pepper, this year's event director, spent much of the morning putting the finishing touches on the room. Mary Rhoades provided Easter egg colored baskets for each table's paper stuffs, and the annotators tested and restested the annotating software as we players steamed into the venue. Carla Cree (Dallas, TX; 1610) took over the front end of things today, registering all 128 players. This year, each contestant received a folder with a handout containing the things that Bryan wanted each player to know, a restaurant guide, the contestant scorecard, and a copy of Chris Cree's CD: One Night. The CD is full of originals (all but two songs) and is quite good (I listen to it often myself!). Who woulda thought that a guy who sells forklifts for a living could sing well, too!

Outside the Convention Center, Bradford Pear trees blossom profusely and tulips are dancing in the moist air. It is spring in Dallas, for sure.

Players milled around during check-in and I caught Stuart Goldman (Riverhead, NY; 1624) grinning ear-to-ear to find his Chris Cree (Dallas, TX; 1870) cd in the event folder.

A story brews every minute, I swear! Jess Mickelson (Murray, UT; 0), at his first tournament ever, showed up from the Salt Lake City area of Utah with professionally made event T-shirts. As I admired them, Tom Kowalik (Chicago, IL; 1071), who had left the hotel without his checkbook, asked Jess to save him one for tomorrow. He picked it up and admired the back, which says, "Rustling up PLANELOADS." Get it? Paul Avrin (New York, NY; 1742) walks over and says, "A roomfull of players and who do I get? The UNRATED guy!" He laughed, patted Jess on the back, and invited him to their table to begin the journey of getting Jess rated.

Chris greeted the players briefly, welcoming them to the second annual DO and the introduced Bryan. As quickly as he got to the microphone, he was gone. I think the players were astonished. Turn your cell phones off: you may begin!

And so we're off!