The Fails Of Mr. Furious

A café-bar in my city has a backgammon evening each week, and I visit sometimes. I had heard another player refer to someone with a name that translates to English as “Mr. Furious”, but I did not pay much attention.

One evening, I arrived, set up my board hoping another player would turn up soon, and ordered a beer. A few minutes later, another player entered. I didn’t recognize him, but I nodded over to him because he was carrying a backgammon board. He came over, and we said hello and introduced ourselves. I suggested a seven-point friendly match for starters, and he agreed. He was happy with my checkers, dice, board, and so on, even complimenting me on them. A very nice guy.

We started playing, and it was clear he was a good player. However, I noticed he was becoming tense. He was gripping his dice cup strongly, he made a sharp sigh when the dice went against him, and sometimes he rolled the dice so frantically that they bounced off the playing area and he would have to roll again.

In one game, he was very far ahead, and I had almost no chance. But then, I rolled a joker. In backgammon, a “joker” is a dice roll that is much more favourable than other rolls. With more luck, I won that game, and I tried to engage in small talk, but he didn’t reply. He finished his beer and put his glass back on the table heavily. I started to get nervous.

In the next game, I rolled another joker, and I immediately apologized, and again he did not reply. I sensed he was extremely angry and was worried about how he would react — especially when he picked up his empty glass. I thought he might glass me, but he simply had forgotten he had finished his beer. But he put it down so heavily I thought it might break.

Even when the dice were not being unkind, he still seemed angry. He continued to roll his dice heavily, and once he had to roll four times until his dice would stay within the board.

Sometimes when a player is angry with the dice, they become paranoid and play irrationally (called “steaming”). Strangely, he continued to play rationally, even though he was very, very angry by now. I was behind again in a later game, but then I rolled another joker (I was by then praying that I would not) and managed to squeeze a win in that game and the whole match. I did not say anything and was ready to move quickly in case he started throwing things around or even hitting me. However, he immediately left the café-bar without a word.

By then, other regulars had arrived, and I asked them if that had been “Mr. Furious”. They said yes and told me several players just refused to play him. I got another beer and drank it quickly as I did not feel like playing another match that night, I was so shaken up. I said goodnight to everyone and dived down the metro.