Sad news

Kathy Copley, Rest In Peace

The final round of the RBS pairs at the club was a subdued affair when it was announced that Kathy had passed away on Monday night. She had been seriously ill for some time and receiving chemotherapy, but it was still a shock that she'd been taken from us so soon. Malcolm and Kathy moved to Kelso about ten years ago and had been regulars at the club. Reg tells me that last year was the first time that they'd won the RBS pairs, a surprise to me as they were clearly the strongest pair at the club. I only played with Kathy once but often had the opportunity to chat to both of them at various tournaments around the country. Terry, club president, asked us to remember a sportswoman, a good bridge player, just a nice lady. She will be missed. Our sincere condolences to Malcolm and the family.

 

Bridge documentary on YouTube

Justin Lall has posted a description, and links, of the Canadian bridge documentary made about two rising stars in the game, Gavin Wolpert and Vince Demuy.

The film covers the two years after their first success in the Summer NABC in New York, 2004. This is what I wrote at the time in my report on our trip there:

Like David Burn, I was very impressed by the young Canadians, Gavin Wolpert & Vincent Demuy. I watched them play Peter Bertheau & Fredrik Nystrom in the second segment of the semi-final and they were largely responsible for the gains that opened the gap in that match with some excellent bidding and cardplay. They also played extremely well in their first Spingold final - clearly a pair to watch!

The film focuses on the players rather than playing bridge, a good idea if you want an audience, and gives an insight into the world of the US professional bridge player.

Back to earth

Not quite the dizzy heights of the Lady Milne, but Reg and I won the latest round of the Russell Cup last night albeit only with a 58% score. We had our fair share of gifts (opps playing in splinter after their a strong 2♣ opener!) and our customary four self-inflicted bottoms, but some of our other mistakes were not too costly and no-one else wanted to run away with it.

There were eight full tables and Iain decided that we should play 32 boards. And I thought normal play in Scotland was fast!

We did miss one good slam.

Bd 32; Pairs; EW Game; Dealer West

North
♠ A
♥ A Q x
♦ A J 10
♣ K J x x x x

South
♠ x x
♥ J 10 x x x x
♦ K x
♣ A Q x

West...North..East...South
Pass....1♣....Pass....1♥
1♠......2♦.....3♠.....4♥
All Pass

The heart finesse worked but split 4-0, so 12 tricks were the limit. The general feeling in the pub later was that South should bid 4♣ rather than 4♥ and then a slam should be found.

One of bottoms occurred when, yet again, I forgot our agreements after our weak 1NT has been doubled. I think this happens due to time pressure, namely you do not want to hesitate after the double. I must try harder!

No Russell Cup next week as it is the final round of the RBS pairs at Berwick.

Well done, girls

Scotland has just won the Lady Milne. Congratulations to Liz, Fiona, Sheila, Anne, Maida and Sheila on a terrific result. It all came down to the last match against favourites England, with Scotland needing to win by 20 IMPs. In the end some solid play and English errors gave them a 30 IMPs win. I'm sure it'll be all smiles when I see them next.

Final table:

Scotland	136
England	131
Wales	117
Republic of Ireland	111
Northern Ireland	101

I was lucky enough to be commentating on BBO at the time. I'm definitely more Scottish now!

The Funky Gibbons are back!

Three years ago BBO Poland ran a teams league on Bridge Base Online. I captained the Funky Gibbons team that was successful in playing matches, if not always in winning them.

Well, BBO Poland is starting up a new season and we will be playing again. I've given up the captaincy, as I've run numerous teams over the past few years and wanted a break, and mikeri has stepped up to the challenge so I look forward to playing under him.

Confusingly there is another league being started at the same time - it is called the BBO League and is also based in Poland. We will probably play under the Blue Lightning name as we reached the semi-final last year.

Stay tuned for match reviews over the next few months.

Running team matches on BBO

I'm a big fan of team matches and definitely prefer them to tourneys, but they are more complex to organise than simply registering for a tournament so here is my guide to arranging them.

Despite the length of these instructions, once you have done a couple of matches (and a couple of substitutions) it will all be trivial, so please give this a go!

Team matches are not set up with a registration period like tournaments, but are set up by a host who needs to know the players’ User Names ahead of time.

A team game is created by clicking on the Create Team Match button while viewing the list of Team Matches. This will bring up the the Create Team Match dialogue that is key to the creation of the match.

I believe the way to the simple and effortless creation of a team match is to use the following method:

1. A team game is created by clicking on the Create Team Match button while viewing the list of Team Matches.
2. Complete/fill in as much of the Create Team Match dialogue as possible, including:
1. Match name
2. Director - enter your User Name. If you wish to add others as Directors, separate them using tildes. For example, paulg~BILmanager
3. Number of boards - default is 8 (I recommend that you do not have more than 10 unless players know in advance, unless you wish to practise your subbing skills).
4. Scoring - most prefer IMPs but you can choose BAM (Point a Board) or Total Points (Aggregate)
5. Barometer - most prefer seeing the running score in a friendly game, so tick this box. This also allows you to see what has actually happened at the other table
6. Kibitzers - I suggest allowing them
7. Allow Undos - I suggest allowing undos in most games: after all, you are trying for friendly games
8. Kibitz partner as dummy - I believe it is always best to kibitz partner (the alternative is to see all hands). It will improve your game and also understand why partner selected a line of play
9. Team names - I always put team names in and suggest you do. Would you rather be Lions vs Tigers or TeamA vs TeamB !
10. Put your User Name in one of the teams and fill in other players who you KNOW wish to play
11. DO THIS FIRST!
3. You can do all of the above without any other players!
4. You must leave this dialogue up otherwise all information will be lost! DO NOT LEAVE the team match screen. You can still use chat, you can go back to the Lobby but do not enter any table or tourney. Actually I suggest you do not use the BACK button.
5. Now you need to find SEVEN more players and put their user names into the dialogue.
1. If you already know who wishes to play, just fill in their names. Note that TEAMS are entered, not TABLES. You will make this mistake on the first match you arrange, as we all have!
2. Advertise for players to the Lobby
• I use something like: "♥♥ friendly int players needed for 8b team match ♥♥"
3. When people respond that they like to play, put them into the match dialogue
• You can do this by simply right-clicking on their name and use the pop-up menu to assign them to a seat, without needing to actually type their name
• I ALWAYS acknowledge people who respond, just replying with "ok" or "yes" - they are less likely to go elsewhere whilst you set up the match
• I ALWAYS attempt to send a "sorry, all full now" to people once I have the match created - they will be friendly next time and may fill a gap if a problem occurs during the set up
4. You will often need to re-advertise for people - remember that it takes 15 seconds for your Lobby message to appear, so wait a while before sending it again.
6. When you have completed the dialogue and have eight names entered, click the Create Match button BUT DO NOT CLOSE THE TEAM MATCH DIALOGUE
7. At this point, the other seven players will be invited to play and they can accept or decline. If they all accept, then the match will start automatically and the Team Match Dialogue will be closed for you.
8. If a player is now unavailable (off-line or in another tourney), then the match creation will fail. At this point you need to find a replacement player. Advertise or ask someone else and put the new name into the Team Match Dialogue.
• If you had closed the Team Match Dialogue, then you need to re-enter ALL the information again. This is why you should NOT close the dialogue until the match starts.
9. If a player declines, then the match creation will fail. At this point you need to find a replacement player. Advertise or ask someone else and put the new name into the Team Match Dialogue.
• If you had closed the Team Match Dialogue, then you need to re-enter ALL the information again. This is why you should NOT close the dialogue until the match starts.
10. If a player does not accept within two minutes, then the match creation will fail. You can chat to the player to ask why, or just seek a replacement and follow the previous step.
    

In summary:

1. Go into Play Bridge->Team Matches. Bring up the Create Team Match dialogue
2. Complete as much of the Team Match Dialogue as possible
3. Advertise for players
4. The players are entered as TEAMS not TABLES
5. Create the match and await acceptance/declines
6. Do not CLOSE the Team Match Dialogue at any point - leaving it open makes it quick and simple to replace players who decline
7. Enjoy the game

When playing in the match:

The match host can alter certain tournament details using the Table button. The main use of this is to make substitutions. Players can make their own substitutions using the Call Director button but often people are shy about doing this, so the host needs to make them. There is a good explanation on how to sub players at http://www.bbofriends.com/TD101/Subbing.htm.

The quick way to substitute a player is to right-click on their User Name. You will see a new menu option "TD Functions" that includes "substitute this player". This will invite a registered substitute to play: if there are no registered subs, then it will broadcast a request to the Lobby for subs. You will then need to re-sub the player. Alternatively, use the TABLE button to organise and select subs.

Finally, if there was one piece of key advice:

Do not CLOSE the Team Match Dialogue at any point before the match has actually started!

Common problems:

• User names are case insensitive (PaulG is the same as paulg) but some people have spaces in their name or at the end (!)
• People declining the invitation to play - many BBOers say they will play to multiple hosts and then accept the first match that starts. This means that the match creation will fail and you will need to find another player.
• Getting players when there is a vugraph presentation is always more difficult.

Many players are familiar with team games (just look at the hosts in the list of matches) and will often be happy to co-direct your first team match. Just ask first please!

Russell II

Last night was the first of three consecutive games with Reg, two in the Russell Cup and then the final RBS night at Berwick.

It was a disappointing turn out at the Carlton with only five tables. Apparently there was a committee meeting, a league match and the Lady Milne (at the weekend) so a number of pairs were not available.

We sat down with two young lads, who turned out to be Pebbles28 and Phil_20686. I've played with both a number of times on BBO and it was good to put some faces to Internet personalities. They were practising for the Junior squad training session next Sunday, also known as the European Trials, and we gave them a good start with a top on the first board. In the end they finished just below average.

Reg and I had our normal up and down game. Actually it felt more like Reg's game as I seemed to do very little all evening, playing three hands to Reg's eight (out of 27 boards). My score estimation is also getting better, despite the randomness of a small field: I had us at 56%, just one point above our actual score which meant that we finished third.

We had four bottoms, three of which were self-inflicted. The fourth was when the lads bid the following hand to game:

Bd 18; Pairs; NS Game; Dealer East

West
♠ A Q x x
♥ K J x
♦ x x
♣ A 9 x x

East
♠ K x x x x
♥ x x
♦ A J x
♣ Q x x

West...North..East...South
..............Pass...Pass
1NT....Pass....2♥....Pass
3♦.....Dble....4♠....All Pass

This is not a great game at matchpoints. But when North holds the ♣KJ doubleton, and South all the heart honours, and the trumps break, there is no line for declarer to go down. Youthful exuberance! I forgot to ask them if they play re-transfers in this auction (which they probably should).

Some hands worked out well. We twice played in 4♠ doubled, making both times once with an overtrick. An opponent pulled out the wrong card from the bidding box which resulting in a very strange auction: in the end we'd missed our 5-3 spade fit (due to the 1♠ overcall on a singleton) but they missed their 9-card heart fit (as he intended to bid 1♥) and we ended up with the better score.

We'll look to eradicate the stupid errors next week. I expect we'll do worse :)

Russell I

The Berwick bridge club closes at the end of April for the summer. If you want a friendly local game then you have to go 20 miles up the road to Dunbar, but for stiffer competition then the Russell Cup at the Carlton in Edinburgh is the thing.

The Russell is played over the summer and the winner is the highest average percentage from your best six evenings, with no more than three with one partner. I'm not that interested in winning the event, but it is a great opportunity to play with and against some of Scotland's best players.

Last night was the first evening and I renewed my partnership with Sam. We finished with a moderate 52%. Our cause was not helped by a -800 (when I thought the opps had opened with a strong bid and bid accordingly) and a -730 (typical matchpoint effort), but it was three partscores against the eventual winners that hindered most (getting close to bottom on each). Matchpoints is a tough game at times.

Surprisingly (to me) there was another pair from Duns playing. We've arranged to try and car-share in the future!