Puerto Rico at WBC 2023

91 different people played Puerto Rico this year and supported using the new format and testing changes to the GM software. Thanks to everyone for their support!

This year continued the format change with corn seats starting a coin down, University cost at 7 and Factory costing 8. The GM’s software was updated to provide random table and seat assignments as well as randomly distributing the 3-player games. This completely replaced card drawing. The simplified tie-break rules resulted in 6 players qualifying for the last 3 spots and a roll-off loomed. Fortunately, there were enough no-shows to put all the qualifying players into the Semifinal. Next year, the GM will propose more detailed additional tie-breaks.

Jon Senn won the game having built a Hospice for his first building and getting 3 Quarries going. Money stayed tight throughout the game.

You can see a transcript of the Final game below and a video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Y3uFkQ5GAJc.

One game had universities sold out before factories, but the winner didn’t use either. The game was decided on tie-breakers, though.

This year, the distribution of wins for each seat was:

Seat	Wins	Seconds	Thirds	Fourths
1	11	12	15	10
2	12	10	14	12
3	17	11	7	12
4	8	16	10	7

Seat 3 has some advantages, but not as much as before. Seat 4 had fewer chances to win because of the 5 3-player games The 4 semifinal games were each won by a different seat and the Final was won by seat 2.

The distribution of winning strategies showed a greater than typical success for building over shipping. Roughly dividing the wins into three categories gave the following win counts:

Ship	Mixed	Build
17	6	25

Games ends were triggered evenly between all the buildings and all the colonists, with just a couple of VP chip depletions:

VP ran out	Cannot fill boat	Town filled	Unknown
3	21	22	2

Several games listed as town filled also had the colonists run out before the round ended, a common occurrence.

The results of this year’s Puerto Rico tournament are part of the Meeple League (meepleleague.com). All players’ results are included in the annual Puerto Rico rankings on that site.

Thanks especially to my assistant GMs, Rob Kircher and Marcy Morelli.

Semifinal Tables

PRO 2023 Standings

Final Results

Badge	Name	Finish	Score
5367	Jon Senn	1	45
6707	Ray Wolff	2	29
7306	Michael Swinson	3	28
682	Eric Freemen	4	27

Semi-Final Results

Rank	Badge	Name	Finish	Score	Table	% of Winner
1	7306	Michael Swinson	1	50	1	100
2	5367	Jon Senn	1	35	2	100
3	682	Eric Freemen	1	47	3	100
4	6707	Ray Wolff	1	41	4	100
5	6710	Sam Wolff	2	43	3	91.5
6	6866	DJ Borton	2	43	1	86
7	6171	Andrew Norgren	2	29	2	82.9
8	5254	Rob Murray	2	32	4	78
9	8670	Darryl Brumback	3	43	1	86
10	5931	Antony Saccenti	3	36	3	76.6
11	1083	Eric Kleist	3	26	4	63.4
12	220	Eric Brosius	3	21	2	60
13	3792	Marcy Morrelli	4	38	1	76
14	4129	Catherine Raymond	4	30	3	63.8
15	2639	Alex Gesing	4	26	4	63.4
16	6709	Tricia Wolff	4	18	2	51.4

3 Heats

Rank	Badge	Name	Heat 1	Heat 2	Heat 3	Tie-break Points
1	4129	Catherine Raymond	1	1	2	2100
2	1083	Eric Kleist	1	2	1	2100
3	3792	Marcy Morrelli	3	1	1	2010
4	5367	Jon Senn	1	4	1	2001
5	6710	Sam Wolff	1	–	1	2000
6	6866	DJ Borton	1	–	1	2000
7	5931	Antony Saccenti	–	1	1	2000
8	7697	Matt Lahut	1	2	2	1200
9	682	Eric Freemen	3	2	1	1110
10	6709	Tricia Wolff	1	3	2	1110
11	6708	Jack Wolff	2	1	3	1110
12	1762	Shantanu Saha	4	1	2	1101
13	8670	Darryl Brumback	2	4	1	1101
14	220	Eric Brosius	2	1	–	1100
15	2639	Alex Gesing	–	1	2	1100
16	7306	Michael Swinson	2	1	–	1100
17	6171	Andrew Norgren	2	1	–	1100
18	5254	Rob Murray	1	2	–	1100
19	6707	Ray Wolff	2	1	–	1100
20	4223	Eric Harthan	1	4	3	1011
21	5623	Scott Saccenti	–	3	1	1010
22	1074	Rob Kircher	1	3	–	1010
23	7654	Ryan Feathers	1	3	–	1010
24	7677	Stephen Costa	3	–	1	1010
25	649	Rob Flowers	3	–	1	1010
26	7960	Sean Roeper	4	1	4	1002
27	5263	Brandon Ketchum	1	4	–	1001
28	4666	Shivendra Chopra	1	–	4	1001
29	137	Greg Berry	–	–	1	1000
30	2016	Jamie Tang	–	1	–	1000
31	1097	LUKE koleszar	–	1	–	1000
32	184	Alex Bove	1	–	–	1000
33	3875	Cally Perry	–	1	–	1000
34	3106	Michael Kaltman	1	–	–	1000
35	3432	Eric Engelmann	1	–	–	1000
36	7246	Nate Heiss	1	–	–	1000
37	6026	Ed Gilliland	2	2	4	201
38	1438	Eyal Mozes	2	2	4	201
39	1602	David Platnick	2	–	2	200
40	4153	Richard M Shay	3	4	2	111
41	3659	Jessica Shea	2	3	4	111
42	3269	Andrew Martin	2	–	3	110
43	89	Malinda Kyrkos	–	2	3	110
44	971	John Jacoby	2	–	3	110
45	7134	Aaron Blair	2	3	–	110
46	5759	Kurt Kramer	3	2	–	110
47	619	Eric Filipkowski	–	2	3	110
48	3788	Craig Trader	4	2	–	101
49	1766	Mike Salvato	4	2	–	101
50	3778	Amy Rule	4	2	–	101
51	5953	Dan Morris	2	4	–	101
52	8635	Jason Salganick	4	–	2	101
53	1986	Bob Stribula	–	2	–	100
54	1128	Vassili Kyrkos	–	2	–	100
55	88	Barry Barnes	–	2	–	100
56	6852	Andrew Menard	–	–	2	100
57	2081	Stuart Tucker	–	–	2	100
58	8044	Brian Scilzo	–	–	2	100
59	7610	Roger Jarret	–	–	2	100
60	608	Scott Fenn	2	–	–	100
61	5368	Ben Scholl	2	–	–	100
62	5171	Dominic Blais	2	–	–	100
63	4569	Loc Nguyen	4	3	3	21
64	683	James Freeman	4	3	3	21
65	8590	Fredierick Shea	3	3	–	20
66	8679	Josef Prem	3	–	3	20
67	6473	Rick Miller	3	–	3	20
68	8889	Mitch Brown	–	3	3	20
69	440	Anthony Daw	3	–	4	11
70	7792	Joseph Romano	3	4	–	11
71	1099	Steve Koleszar	3	4	–	11
72	3196	Patrick Shea	3	4	–	11
73	2600	Rodney Bacigalupo	–	3	4	11
74	8349	Jonathan Mattanah	–	–	3	10
75	4128	Eric Raymond	–	3	–	10
76	7321	Chris Wildes	3	–	–	10
77	5041	Keith Boone	3	–	–	10
78	4679	Eugene Yee	–	3	–	10
79	6796	Kevin Rice	3	–	–	10
80	207	Daniel Broh-Kahn	3	–	–	10
81	6291	Michael Vaz	4	4	–	2
82	3852	Bruce Rae	–	4	–	1
83	6717	Claire Kaltman	–	4	–	1
84	6741	Dan Harthan	–	4	–	1
85	90	Robert Barnes	–	4	–	1
86	7637	Aaron Birnbaum	4	–	–	1
87	8701	Josh Mellingere	4	–	–	1
88	113	Barrington Beavis	–	–	4	1
89	196	Michael Brazinski	4	–	–	1
90	3815	Michael Shea	4	–	–	1
91	4547	Tracey Casselberry	–	–	4	1

Final Game Transcript

Turn	Seat	Role	Seat 1: Ray Wolff	Seat 2: Jon Senn	Seat 3: Eric Freeman	Seat 4: Michael Swinson	Plantations/Boats
1	1	Settler	G: Q	C	Cf	Cf	Cf, I left. 2S, T, 2 Cf
	2	Builder		Hospice(-3)	Sm. Mkt(-1)	Sm Mkt(-1)
	3	Mayor	1 Q	1 Hspc	2 SmMkt, C	1 C	4 to boat
	4	Prospector				1 coin
2	2	Settler	Cf	G: Qm	T	S	C I T 2Cf
	3	Captain			1 coin		No shipping possible
	4	Builder	SmInd(0)	SmInd(0)	–	Sm Sug (1)
	1	Trader	1 coin				No trade possible
3	3	Craftsman			G: 2 coin, 2C	C
	4	Mayor	SmInd, Q	C, Hsp	C, T, SMMkt	SmSu,S, SmMkt	4 to boat
	1	Builder	CfRst(4)	–	–	–
	2	Prospector		2 coin
4	4	Trader				G: C 3 coin
	1	Mayor	Cf Rst, CF, Q, SmI	C, Hsp	C, smMkt,Cf,T	SmMkt, SmS, S,C	4 on boat
	2	Settler	Cf	1 coin, Qm	C	T	C,2I, S, T
	3	Captain			1 coin, 2C, 3VP		2C 7bt
5	1	Craftsman	G: 1 coin, 2 Cf	C	C	C, S
	2	Builder	SMSug(1)	1 coin, SmSug (0)	TShed(5)	TShed(5)	Only Jon has $4
	3	Captain	2Cf, 2vp	C 1vp	C 2vp	C 1vp, S 1vp	7-5C,6-2Cf,5-1S
	4	Prospector				2 coin
6	2	Settler	S	G: Qm 1 coin	C	I	C, I, S, 2T
	3	Mayor	Cfet, Sset, Q	Hsp, C, Iset, 3Q	3C, Tset, Sm Mkt	Smkt, Tset,Sset	7 on boat
	4	Trader				1 coin	No trade possible
	1	Craftsman	Cf,Cf	C,I	3C,T	T,S	C ran out
7	3	Trader	Cf-4		G: T-5	S-3	TH clears
	4	Builder	LgMkt(4)	Factory(5)	SmWhr(3)	1 coin. CfRst(5)
	1	Prospector	2 coin
	2	Captain	Cf 1vp, S 1vp	1coin, C 2vp	C 1vp, dump 1C		7 clears, 6-3Cf, 5-2S
8	4	Trader		I-1	C-1	G: T-5
	1	Craftsman	1 coin, S Cf, Cf	I ,C	2C T	S T
	2	Captain	S 1vp, 2Cf 2vp	I 2vp	Dump 3C	S 1vp	7-1I, 6-5Cf,5-4S
	3	Settler	S	T	1 coin, Q	C	2C 2I S
9	1	Mayor	G: 2 coin, 3cCf,S, I set, Q, LgMkt	2c::Hsp, Fctry, S, I C, 3Q	2c:3C,T,Smk,Swh	1c:Cf,T, S	7 on boat
	2	Builder	–	1 coin, TobShed(1)	CfRst(5)	–
	3	Prospector			2 coin
	4	Settler	C	S	C	Q	2I 2S Cf
10	2	Builder	–	G: SmWh(1)	SmInd(0)	SmInd(1)
	3	Mayor	2c	1c	3c	2c	11 on boat
	4	Trader				1 coin	no trades
	1	Settler	Q	I	I	Cf	C 2S 2T
11	3	Captain			G: 2 coin		Nothing Ships
	4	Prospector				2 coin
	1	Settler	Q	C	T	T	I 2S 2T
	2	Craftsman	2Cf S I	1 coin, CIST, 3 coin, I	4C T Cf	C S T Cf
12	4	Builder		LgInd(1)		G: 1 coin, GH(8)
	1	Trader	1 coin, Cf-7				TH clears
	2	Craftsman	S I	2C I S T 3coin, I	T Cf	T S
	3	Mayor	3c	2c	1 coin, 4c	3c	11 on boat
13	1	Trader	G: Cf-6	T-3	C-1	S-3	TH clears
	2	Captain	2I 2vp	1 coin, S 2vp,4 I 4vp, -S	Cf 1vp, -3C	dump C, Cf	Boats Clear
	3	Prospector			2 coin
	4	Settler	T	I	S	1 coin, T	C I S T Cf
14	2	Captain	S 1vp	G: 5C 6vp, T 1vp	3T 3vp	T 1vp	7-5C,6-4T,5-1S
			Jon Senn did NOT take	the Captain tile
	3	Trader			Cf – 5
			Ray Wolff passes	Governor tile to Eric
	4	Builder	Fortress(7)	Residence(7)	City Hall(9)	2 coin, LgIn(1)
	1	Mayor	4c	3c	3c	2c	9 on boat
	2	Craftsman	S I Cf	1 coin, 2C2IST, 3$, S	3C2T I Cf	I Cf T S	Incorrect Should be seat 3 Governer
15	4	Mayor	2c	2c	2c	G: 4c	3 left, colonists run out
	1	Captain	S-2vp	2C-2vp, 2S-2vp	T-1vp	S-1vp	All boats clear, some dumping
	2	Settler	I	1 coin, C	T	S
	3	Trader	I-3		T-5	$2
		VP chips	12vp	22vp	11vp	5vp
		Building	11	17	13	15
		Bonus	6	6	3	8
			29	45	27	28