The tournament was the second stop of the 2007 Partouche Gammon Tour and was held from May 10-13, 2007 at Le Lyon Vert Casino, the Partouche Group’s most chic casino located in Lyon, France.

The elegant hall where the Lyon event took place.

The PGT tournaments are under the direction of Eric Guedj, the CEO of Partouche Gammon, who is also the Director of the annual Riviera Challenge and Nations Cup events that are held in Cannes, just after the World Championships in Monte Carlo.

The victory put Pia just two points behind Sander, has made it to first place in the Partouche Gammon Tour’s ranking list, and both players will be eligible to play in the PGT’s Grand Finale event that will happen September 6-9, 2007 in Grande Domaine de Divonne, France – a 24-player, entry-free tournament with €100,000 added prize money.

Francois Tardieu, #3 Giant of Backgammon, versus Pia Jeppesen last weekend in the playing room at Lyon.

It would be great if Pia won this luxurious tour and the €60,000 for first place – she is among the elite of women players in the world, has attended numerous tournaments on the international circuit in the last few years and such a victory could motivate many other women to get out and play live backgammon.

Götz Hildsberg of Germany will also be one of the players at the Grand Finale having won the first PGT stop, which was the 8th Paris Masters and Open tournament held in April at Hotel Lutetia in Paris. Sander Lylloff leads the Partouche Gammon Tour ranking list because he won the Consolation at the first stop and for coming in second in Lyon.

Players earn points on the PGT ranking list for their performance and also just for attending. For example, on one hand you get what are called AP points (Assiduity Points) just for playing in an event, for one stop, you receive 1 AP point, go to a second event, add three more AP, the third stop gets you five more AP and the fourth 8 AP more - for attending all four stops, you earn a total of 17 AP.

On the other hand, to earn PP (Performance Points) you need to play in the Partouche Gammon Tour main event at any of the stops, and reach the semi-finals or final of the Main, Consolation or Last Chance – entry fee is €450 and registration fee is €120.

The winner of a Main flight receives 24 PP, finalist 12 PP and semi-finalists 6 PP each while in the Consolation flight the winner receives 14 PP, finalist 6 PP and semi-finalists 3 PP, and finally in the Last Chance the winner gets 8 PP, finalist 3 PP and semi-finalists 1 PP.

Using the above data, we can calculate how Sander Lylloff leads the PGT ranking list – he has attended two stops 1 AP + 3 AP = 4 points; he won the Consolation flight in Paris = 14 PP; plus he was the finalist in Lyon = 12 PP; for a total of 30 points.

The #1 player on the PGT ranking list - Sander Lylloff of Denmark in action.

There are only two more stops before the Grand Finale but still plenty of chances to earn one of the 24 seats and a shot at the first prize of €60,000 – the top 24-ranked players go to the final with the top 8 sitting out of a preliminary 16-player sudden death competition amongst the players ranked 9th to 24th, from which will emerge 8 that will play the top 8-ranked players in a regular bracket of 16 for the big money!

The next stop of the Partouche Gammon Tour is from June 7-10, 2007 at Pasino de St. Amand in Saint Amand les Eaux of northern France. As in all of the first four stops of the Partouche Gammon Tour (see this other GammonLife article), there will be a minimum guaranteed prize pool of €50,000 with €25,000 going to the winner.

The fourth stop of the PGT will be part of the annual Riviera Challenge and Nations Cup in Cannes, France from July 17-22, 2007.

We will be providing you with some match files from these events the first is the 17-point quarter-final match played in Lyon between Jean-Philippe Rohr and Olivier Lafon, the file is in .txt format in a zip folder which you can save to your computer by clicking here. You can import and analyze the file to Snowie or GNUbg - if you do not have a bot, see the GNUbg tutorial and get the program at this GammonLife link.

Here are more photos from last weekend’s tournament at Le Lyon Vert Casino in Lyon:

Morten Holm of Denmark versus Frederic Andrieu of France.

Sami Sallak of Germany who is curently tied for 6th place in the PGT ranking.

Morten Holm versus France's Marc Santoroman.

Germans Tobias Hellwag and Franck Brinkmann battle it out.

From L to R, PGT Tournament Director and CEO of PartoucheGammon, Eric Guedj, Runner-Up Sander Lylloff, Lyon Winner Pia Jeppesen, and Nathalie Guez and Hugo de Feny of the Partouche Gammon Tour Team.