Masayuki Mochizuki

I have to say I was feeling pretty good about my game.

I had had that solid showing against Mochi in my pairs match in LA.

Bob Wachtell and I had beat Frank Frigo and Melissa Shin.

I'd even taken a game from Mark Olson when we played on Backgammon Galaxy.

But Nick beat me.

So that knocked me out of the main bracket.

I dropped into the consolation bracket and I promptly busted out of that one as well.

But I don't regret a minute of it.

Nick and I even made a plan to play squash sometime.

It's nice to make a new friend.

Thanks, Backgammon.

Here's Remy Davenport again.

And what does mainstream Backgammon look like?

You may think that Madison Square Garden hosting a backgammon tournament is absolutely impossible.

Until a few weeks ago, the idea of the garden hosting the New York Knicks in the NBA finals also seemed impossible.

I thought back to something Bob Wachtell had said when I asked him, what's so great about backgammon?

I also thought back to something Frank Frigo said when I'd asked him the same question.

My big thanks to Frank Frigo, Bob Wachtel, Remy Davenport, Mark Olson, Melissa Shin, and Mochi for all the good backgammon talk and even more for all the good backgammon.

We filmed some of the games, so you can head to our Instagram to check it out.

You can find and follow us at Freakonomics and at Stephen J. Dugner.