Three of a Kind

Performance of the week · shared three ways

Three of a kind

Sixty-three of sixty-six, three times, and not one of them on the same court. Andrew Mahaven did it Thursday morning in Group 2 — five wins at 11, every one of them by three points or more, and a lone 8–11 in the third game — and the 5-1 carried him two places up, onto the podium at third. A week ago he was the man who climbed four spots on an extension. This week he did it on time.

Urian Kim matched him in Group 4: 5-1, 63 points, wins of 11–4, 11–8, 11–4, 11–8 and 11–4, with the only loss coming in the fifth game partnered with Kampmeyer. It moved him two places to eleventh, which tells you what three weeks of arithmetic can do to a great night. Kim has now played 18 games and sits outside the top ten by half a percentage point. The table is not sentimental.

And Nicholas Dukeman did it in Group 1 — the top group, the seeded group, the one where nobody was supposed to get 63 — on a 4-2, because his two losses were 9–11 and 10–11. Sixty-three points in that room is a different currency. It took him from second to first, by one point over Jon Forrester: 179 to 178. Forrester went 4-2 on 56 and was on the winning side of the 11–10 that Dukeman lost. Dukeman still leads. The format has a sense of humor.

Group 1 · Holey Ballz Court 6 · Wednesday

The seeding tax

The random draw is over, and the first seeded week sent a bill. Group 1 was Forrester, Dukeman and Adam Frantz — first, second and third in the league — plus the commissioner, who is in the room but not in the table. Frantz went 0-6. Not badly: 5, 4, 9, 10, 5, 7, with two of the six decided by a point or two. But the format counts points, not effort, and 40 of 66 dropped him from third to seventh. A week ago he was the co-performer of the week at 60. This is the cost of being seeded first, and everyone below him just watched it get paid.

The same bill arrived in Group 2. Kevin Tibbs, sixth a week ago, went 1-5 on 40 and fell to tenth. Javier Vargas went 3-3 on 57 and held fourth, which in a seeded week is an achievement disguised as a non-event.

Group 3 · Camacho and Gaikwad

Twenty-two of twenty-two

Two men partnered twice, won both, and gave up eight points combined. Jordan Camacho and Swaraj Gaikwad took their two games together 11–1 and 11–7, then each went 4-2 on 58 for the night — the same record, the same points, on the same court — and each climbed four places, to fifth and sixth. That's the second week running that somebody has moved four spots; last week it was three men at once. The bottom half of this table is not a settled place.

The night ended on the week's second 11–10: Camacho and Juri Blinder over Paul Schmitz and Gaikwad in the sixth game. Schmitz went 2-4 on 47 and slipped a place to ninth. Blinder went 2-4 on 41. In Group 4, Evan Kestenbaum went 3-3 on 53, Jim Blake 3-3 on 45, and David Kampmeyer 1-5 on 43 — a group where three of the four players took turns beating each other and Kim beat nearly everyone.

After Week 3

The top five

Standings are ordered by percentage of available points won. Swaraj Gaikwad sits sixth at 76.3% and Urian Kim eleventh at 72.7%. The commissioner is excluded from the published table, as in weeks one and two.