New Zealand Backgammon Champion Finalizes Australian Backgammon Championship
The 2008 Australian Backgammon Championship was almost captured by the only non-Australian player who attended the event. Grant Hoffman, the unofficial New Zealand Backgammon Championship, finished second after being defeated by Sydney man Jay Deva 15-12 at the long 15-points final.
Australian Open, the formal Australian Backgammon Championship held throughout the August 2-4 weekend at the Waxy's Irish Pub, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, in the company of Australia's top backgammon players and New Zealand's number 1 backgammon player, with a total pool of about $10,000.
Grant Hoffman didn't cross the Tasman for nothing. The computer scientist of Nelson, New Zealand, who has been seeking new challenges after gaining the unofficial backgammon championship title in his homeland, was 3 points away from winning the Australian Championship as well.
Hoffman, the son of a competitive scrabble player, has been hooked on board game since early age, started playing backgammon seriously after graduating from the Computer Science Department at the local Canterbury University. Now, he describes himself a "backgammon addict" and says that he tries to do something related to backgammon almost everyday.
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