Raymond Fogerlund - USA
Ray Fogerlund, nickname “Coolrey”, was born in Los Angeles, California on February 22, 1956 and currently works as a firefighter in Bakersfield, California. In 2007, Ray won the title of American Backgammon Tour Player of the Year and is at this moment the leader on the 2008 ABT Standings. Although he has played in the USA and at international events for more than 25 years, this is the only first time that Ray has made it to the top #32 of the Giants of Backgammon.
So far in 2008, Fogerlund has won the main Championship flight of the 2008 Los Angeles Open Backgammon Tournament where he also won the event's Super Jackpot tournament. He came in second at 30th Annual Pittsburgh Backgammon Championships in Pennsylvania at the end of March, while at the beginning of March won the Grand Crystal Beaver Masters event of the 2008 Midwest Backgammon Championships where he also won the Taki Six-Shooter Tourney... quite an impressive record this year alone so far! Wonder how he ever has time to fight fires? Well, since most of these events are held on weekends it is probably easy for him to arrange for weekends off.
In 2007, Ray made it to the top of the ABT Standings by making it to the money in about six or seven ABT-ranked events. He also won the Seniors event at the 2007 Las Vegas Open and one or two other Super Jackpots that year.Besides many other second and third place finishes in his career, Fogerlund has won first place at these events: 1998 Las Vegas Masters, 2002 Los Angeles Open, 2003 Indiana Open, 2006 Las Vegas Super Jackpot and the 2006 Nations Cup Challenge in Cannes with teammates Perry Gartner and Howard Markowitz.
On his personal profile on ibgdb.com Ray says he would like to see “online cheaters fried” and hopes that the image of Backgammon be improved worldwide because “there are too many freeloaders and penny ante hustlers ruining this game”.
