Next Tuesday sees the start of the Russell Cup, the summer-long competition held at the Carlton Bridge Centre that is often described as the toughest club game in Scotland. That epithet is probably still true although I feel the overall standard has been dropping in recent times.
I don't intend to play regularly this year but may make some guest appearances. I don't mind, in fact I approve of, the increased table money as it generates a prize fund for the competition but the 100-mile round trip is tiresome and expensive these days. The distance also means that getting home after midnight is the norm, even if the visit to the pub is missed.
Of course many of the people I enjoy partnering will be, or at least should be, practising hard for the Europeans (June) and World Bridge Games (August). But the main reason is that I just did not enjoy it as much last year - not really sure why, but I think it's time for a break.
So I'll restrict my games to a couple of friends and, if they are interested, some of the Scottish juniors. Perhaps next year some enthusiasm will have returned.
Friday, 30 March 2012
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Promotion
The Berwick A team, captained by LotG, have been in the second division of the East District league for three years now. For the last decade they have been one of the teams that has consistently bounced between the top two divisions although last season they were closer to relegation than promotion.
This season has been different and I was called up for the title and promotion decider against Linlithgow. I did play in the previous match when two of the team had to attend a funeral and it prevented a last-minute cancellation, but as always when I play for Berwick A there were murmurings in the opposition about my eligibility ... not a problem though as I'd been on the team sheet since the start of the season.
The promotion race could not have been closer. The winners of the match would be promoted as Division 2 champions. Both teams were on the same number of points with Grosvenor Aces a point ahead, but Berwick had the best AMPs (c.f., net points difference), followed by the Aces and then Linlithgow. This meant that both teams would be promoted with a tie, a pretty rare occurrence in aggregate, but Berwick would also be promoted with a small defeat (a "1-2" loss by less than 2% of the aggregate total in the match) as they would be ahead of the Aces on AMPs.
Both teams knew the score and presumably the two captains were hoping for a huge number of flat games. This was the first hand:
This does not look the flattest board in history. LotG, sitting East, eventually bid six clubs, making all the tricks and claiming a beer when the opponents did not discard to advantage.
But it was not a good board for Berwick as one Linlithgow player bid seven clubs and South led the ace of spades!
On the second board most tables were in four spades, making ten tricks, but again a Berwick pair had a rush of blood and bid a hopeless slam. A really poor start for the team.
Late in the first half LotG went looking for slam, wearing rose-tinted glasses, and stopped in a precarious contract at the five level. But she did not lose her head and found a nice end-play to make eleven tricks. Others were less careful and went down in four spades, so some of the deficit was clawed back. Other less dramatic swings meant that Linlithgow led by 260 points at the half, sufficient for both teams to go up.
With the captains still hoping for flat boards, the following soon turned up:
Again this was a disaster for the first Berwick pair to play the hand. With seven diamonds cold on the lie of the cards, the player contrived to go off in six diamonds. However this was mitigated to a large extent by the Linlithgow pair who did not have a game-forcing opening bid and they played in two spades!
We finished first and it had been a big set for the North-South pairs. Sitting West I'd done little all evening although LotG and I did defend well throughout. Our score was 3,450-4,060, a deficit of 610.
Next was table 3 where the Berwick pair had score 3,880-2,370 so Berwick led by 900. The table 4, where Berwick had lost 2,360-3,460, so with one table to come Berwick were down by -200. This might sound easy for Berwick, but table one was well down at the half and it was unclear that they were sufficient in the second half for them to get positive.
Finally the scores were agreed at table one with the Berwick winning 4,270-4,080, winning by 190. So Linlithgow won the match by a meagre 10 points on an aggregate of almost 28,000.
This result means that both teams are promoted. Grosvenor Aces, who led the table for the entire season, were the unfortunate team to miss out.
Meanwhile I've missed two matches in the BBO InterCity League and the team has won one and lost one. Reporting on this will resume next week.
This season has been different and I was called up for the title and promotion decider against Linlithgow. I did play in the previous match when two of the team had to attend a funeral and it prevented a last-minute cancellation, but as always when I play for Berwick A there were murmurings in the opposition about my eligibility ... not a problem though as I'd been on the team sheet since the start of the season.
The promotion race could not have been closer. The winners of the match would be promoted as Division 2 champions. Both teams were on the same number of points with Grosvenor Aces a point ahead, but Berwick had the best AMPs (c.f., net points difference), followed by the Aces and then Linlithgow. This meant that both teams would be promoted with a tie, a pretty rare occurrence in aggregate, but Berwick would also be promoted with a small defeat (a "1-2" loss by less than 2% of the aggregate total in the match) as they would be ahead of the Aces on AMPs.
Both teams knew the score and presumably the two captains were hoping for a huge number of flat games. This was the first hand:
But it was not a good board for Berwick as one Linlithgow player bid seven clubs and South led the ace of spades!
On the second board most tables were in four spades, making ten tricks, but again a Berwick pair had a rush of blood and bid a hopeless slam. A really poor start for the team.
Late in the first half LotG went looking for slam, wearing rose-tinted glasses, and stopped in a precarious contract at the five level. But she did not lose her head and found a nice end-play to make eleven tricks. Others were less careful and went down in four spades, so some of the deficit was clawed back. Other less dramatic swings meant that Linlithgow led by 260 points at the half, sufficient for both teams to go up.
With the captains still hoping for flat boards, the following soon turned up:
Again this was a disaster for the first Berwick pair to play the hand. With seven diamonds cold on the lie of the cards, the player contrived to go off in six diamonds. However this was mitigated to a large extent by the Linlithgow pair who did not have a game-forcing opening bid and they played in two spades!
We finished first and it had been a big set for the North-South pairs. Sitting West I'd done little all evening although LotG and I did defend well throughout. Our score was 3,450-4,060, a deficit of 610.
Next was table 3 where the Berwick pair had score 3,880-2,370 so Berwick led by 900. The table 4, where Berwick had lost 2,360-3,460, so with one table to come Berwick were down by -200. This might sound easy for Berwick, but table one was well down at the half and it was unclear that they were sufficient in the second half for them to get positive.
Finally the scores were agreed at table one with the Berwick winning 4,270-4,080, winning by 190. So Linlithgow won the match by a meagre 10 points on an aggregate of almost 28,000.
This result means that both teams are promoted. Grosvenor Aces, who led the table for the entire season, were the unfortunate team to miss out.
Meanwhile I've missed two matches in the BBO InterCity League and the team has won one and lost one. Reporting on this will resume next week.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Postcards from Far Away
The end of our trip. We did not impress in the final day of the Swiss, always someone on the team giving away a game swing made moving up the table difficult. We still played some good teams, including the winners twice in the event, and three Bermuda Bowl finalists from last year, but a disappointing finish.
We were, of course, discussing the trip over a quiet beer, wine, coke, mud torte and nachos last night. It does seem that our performance has been best when there were real goals - get to the second round of the Vanderbilt, qualify for the second day of the Jacoby Open Swiss, playing the very top teams in the bracket KO. At other times we have all made silly and avoidable errors, something we need to improve on.
Results-wise this has not been the best week. But I think this is mainly due to playing better teams consistently throughout the week. Tim brings bushels of masterpoints and so, in the lesser events, we have been a bracket higher than normal, and sitting at the bottom of the bracket means tougher matches than being at the top of the next one down. Much better for our bridge and experience, less good for the win column.
In the plus column we did achieve our two main goals. We were positive, in terms of imps, when playing the Dutch Bermuda Bowl winners (who were the friendliest opponents here), and we played a lot of stars of the game and did well when not gifting them imps.
I also met a lot of friends, some of whom had been virtual until this week, and made some new ones.
Now Graceland a flight home awaits.
End of transmissions from Memphis, TN.
 |
| Sam, Tim, Alex and a beer (photo by Mike Yuen) |
Results-wise this has not been the best week. But I think this is mainly due to playing better teams consistently throughout the week. Tim brings bushels of masterpoints and so, in the lesser events, we have been a bracket higher than normal, and sitting at the bottom of the bracket means tougher matches than being at the top of the next one down. Much better for our bridge and experience, less good for the win column.
In the plus column we did achieve our two main goals. We were positive, in terms of imps, when playing the Dutch Bermuda Bowl winners (who were the friendliest opponents here), and we played a lot of stars of the game and did well when not gifting them imps.
I also met a lot of friends, some of whom had been virtual until this week, and made some new ones.
Now Graceland a flight home awaits.
End of transmissions from Memphis, TN.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
What if?
No time for a long post as it's an early start tomorrow, but we are all pleased to have qualified for the Jacoby Open Swiss final with a match to spare.
We won all our matches this afternoon to be on 58/80 VPs at the break, but of course started to meet some competent teams. Two small losses followed by a big win meant that we were safely in the final. More tough teams to follow tomorrow ... or perhaps I should say that the other teams have a tough team to face?
We are 21 VPs behind the leaders and seem to be on the same score as the Welland team. Perhaps a chance for revenge?
In the Vanderbilt the gallant Falk team lost to Amoils, who will face Diamond in the final.
We won all our matches this afternoon to be on 58/80 VPs at the break, but of course started to meet some competent teams. Two small losses followed by a big win meant that we were safely in the final. More tough teams to follow tomorrow ... or perhaps I should say that the other teams have a tough team to face?
We are 21 VPs behind the leaders and seem to be on the same score as the Welland team. Perhaps a chance for revenge?
In the Vanderbilt the gallant Falk team lost to Amoils, who will face Diamond in the final.
Saturday, 24 March 2012
A whisper
Some snippets from Memphis:
- We are not the only ones to lose a first set heavily in the Vanderbilt, even the best can do it. The Diamond team outscored the O'Rourke team by 73-5 imps in the first set of their quarter-final yesterday. The O'Rourke team, the original #16 seed, had assumed the top seeding after beating the holders in the previous round, so presumably are not mugs.
- Allan Falk's team, who were the first team to beat us in the Vandy, continue their great run in the tournament. Playing four-hand, the original #47 seed eliminated Jacobs (#7) to reach the semifinals. Down going into the last set, the slams all went their way and rode their luck to victory. George Jacobs had the unenviable job of commentating on BBO vugraph as he watched his team slip to defeat - but he was as gracious as always.
- In today's bulletin Steve Robinson has commented on the strength of the knock-out bracket that we were also in. He made the same comment as me about the Vanderbilt seeds, so he may be a reader. Unfortunately Steve forgot to mention that we were the only team to beat the winners, captained by Ron Pachtmann, in the event!
- The tightest match of the event so far was the Amoils vs Cayne in the round of 16. It was tied until the very last bid of the match - Sementa failing to find the grand slam sacrifice, bid by Grue at the other table, to put the match into extra boards; to be fair the tempo of the auction was very different and it was a lot easier for Grue to see that the sacrifice was right and, I thought, almost impossible for Sementa. It can be a tough game.
- Samantha has started approaching lots of random people asking for their email addresses. She says work may force her to make a couple of US trips next year and she'd like to co-ordinate them with some good bridge, but one has to wonder.
- The free food after play has been a lot better than most nationals we've been to. Not that we've needed food at 11pm, but all the free coffee vouchers that are handed out during the sessions have been used.
- For the main teams this is the last event of the current "sponsorship" cycle. The rich sponsors typically hire their professionals for a two years as this coincides with the US trials season, so in July the line up for many of the teams will change. Much has already been settled, with the biggest move being Levin-Weinstein going to the Nickell team and replacing Hamman-Zia and the most shocking change being the splitting up of Martel and Stansby. But we've been more interested in what the other Brits are doing, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Philadelphia to find out more.
- Brian Senior has been here for the week but has stopped talking to us. In fact he has been unable to speak since Leeds lost 7-3 at home to Forest on Tuesday.
Lost?
Having messed up the two-day bracket yesterday, by getting ourselves into the strongest bracket I've ever seen, there was a slight feeling of being lost today. It wasn't the event of yesterday, it was not the strong event we're expecting tomorrow, it was just a day lost in time.
We played in the compact KO in the afternoon but made little impression. Sam and Tim failed to bid a grand slam with 19 tricks, we failed to bid a game with 22 points opposite 6. The opponents were little better and I got the impression that we all wanted to be somewhere else ... perhaps anywhere else!
At least we finished early which allowed the boys to go and have a decent meal and Sam time to do her swim work, or gym work, or something too energetic.
In the evening we played another single-session Swiss. After we got a blitz in the first round things went downhill and we finished out of the points. You have to win all your matches and win big to place and our attempts fell short.
Today is the Jacoby Open Swiss, eight seven-board matches today with the top half of the field to qualify. Not as easy as it sounds given the quality of the teams.
We played in the compact KO in the afternoon but made little impression. Sam and Tim failed to bid a grand slam with 19 tricks, we failed to bid a game with 22 points opposite 6. The opponents were little better and I got the impression that we all wanted to be somewhere else ... perhaps anywhere else!
At least we finished early which allowed the boys to go and have a decent meal and Sam time to do her swim work, or gym work, or something too energetic.
In the evening we played another single-session Swiss. After we got a blitz in the first round things went downhill and we finished out of the points. You have to win all your matches and win big to place and our attempts fell short.
Today is the Jacoby Open Swiss, eight seven-board matches today with the top half of the field to qualify. Not as easy as it sounds given the quality of the teams.
Friday, 23 March 2012
The hardest part ...
... is getting through the first round.
We intended to play the two-day knock-out but of course to do this you need to keep winning and we messed up in the first round. There were a couple of reasons.
Firstly Sam and Tim play a weak notrump and four-card majors. This is unlike 99.5% of the bridge players here. Of course this should break even in the long run but we had one of those sessions where it made a huge difference on four hands and cost up a game swing on at least two of them. Very frustrating when this happens in short matches. Naturally I don't complain when it brings in two game swings per match :)
Secondly our opponents were not incompetent. The first round was actually a round-robin of three teams with two to qualify. We were in the top bracket but, even so, our opponents could have been slightly less tough. We faced the #13 seeds from the Vanderbilt - John Kranyak, Richard Schwartz, Louk Verhees, Rico Van Prooijen, Eldad Ginossar and Ron Pachtmann - and the #27 seeds - Justine Cushing, Melih Ozdil, Craig Gower, Alon Apteker and Jan Jansma. Our team was the only one I had not heard of!
I know we come here to play these but jeez ... this is not the Vanderbilt! However we did beat the all-star Kranyak team by 1 imp but lost to the almost-all-star Cushing team. With each team winning one (12-board) match in the group we were eliminated on net imps, needing to score another five imps somewhere to go through. Good fun playing these teams but frustrating!
Update: just seen the four teams that have made the semifinal of our bracket - they were the #13, #19, #17 and #22 seeds from the Vanderbilt. It was a tough bracket!
The other frustrating point about losing was that it messed up the evening. There was no teams event which would permit Alex and I to play our normal system, so went and watched the Vanderbilt while Sam and Tim played a side pairs. They had a 59% session and finished fifth.
Meanwhile in the Vanderbilt there has been carnage among the top seeds and we have only reached the quarter-final stage. Nickell (#2) went out in the round of 32 and only two of the original top eight seeds have made it through, just to show how intense the competition is. The quarter-finalists, including their original seeding, are:
O'Rourke (16) vs Diamond (8)
Berteau (20) vs Gordon (12)
Falk (47) vs Jacobs (7)
Amoils (14) vs Consus Red (54)
Allan Falk beat us on Monday afternoon and have just not stopped us winning. They are very pleased to be doing so well as they seem to be a team a bit like us, just some friends playing together - they are also one of only two all-American teams in the quarters. The Consus Red team is from Poland and largely unknown, but obviously poorly seeded.
We will attempt to get the later stages of a knock-out event today as we play the compact version of the format. Tomorrow is the Jacoby Open Swiss Teams qualifier.
We intended to play the two-day knock-out but of course to do this you need to keep winning and we messed up in the first round. There were a couple of reasons.
Firstly Sam and Tim play a weak notrump and four-card majors. This is unlike 99.5% of the bridge players here. Of course this should break even in the long run but we had one of those sessions where it made a huge difference on four hands and cost up a game swing on at least two of them. Very frustrating when this happens in short matches. Naturally I don't complain when it brings in two game swings per match :)
Secondly our opponents were not incompetent. The first round was actually a round-robin of three teams with two to qualify. We were in the top bracket but, even so, our opponents could have been slightly less tough. We faced the #13 seeds from the Vanderbilt - John Kranyak, Richard Schwartz, Louk Verhees, Rico Van Prooijen, Eldad Ginossar and Ron Pachtmann - and the #27 seeds - Justine Cushing, Melih Ozdil, Craig Gower, Alon Apteker and Jan Jansma. Our team was the only one I had not heard of!
I know we come here to play these but jeez ... this is not the Vanderbilt! However we did beat the all-star Kranyak team by 1 imp but lost to the almost-all-star Cushing team. With each team winning one (12-board) match in the group we were eliminated on net imps, needing to score another five imps somewhere to go through. Good fun playing these teams but frustrating!
Update: just seen the four teams that have made the semifinal of our bracket - they were the #13, #19, #17 and #22 seeds from the Vanderbilt. It was a tough bracket!
The other frustrating point about losing was that it messed up the evening. There was no teams event which would permit Alex and I to play our normal system, so went and watched the Vanderbilt while Sam and Tim played a side pairs. They had a 59% session and finished fifth.
Meanwhile in the Vanderbilt there has been carnage among the top seeds and we have only reached the quarter-final stage. Nickell (#2) went out in the round of 32 and only two of the original top eight seeds have made it through, just to show how intense the competition is. The quarter-finalists, including their original seeding, are:
O'Rourke (16) vs Diamond (8)
Berteau (20) vs Gordon (12)
Falk (47) vs Jacobs (7)
Amoils (14) vs Consus Red (54)
Allan Falk beat us on Monday afternoon and have just not stopped us winning. They are very pleased to be doing so well as they seem to be a team a bit like us, just some friends playing together - they are also one of only two all-American teams in the quarters. The Consus Red team is from Poland and largely unknown, but obviously poorly seeded.
We will attempt to get the later stages of a knock-out event today as we play the compact version of the format. Tomorrow is the Jacoby Open Swiss Teams qualifier.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
And ... relax
So we decided to wait until the first rainy day to take some time off and see a few of the sights. Naturally as the first spots descended Sam dove into her handbag and removed a small umbrella, but the rest of us just braved it out.
The main trip was to the National Civil Rights Museum. The National Civil Rights Museum is on the site of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. We spent a few hours here and all thought it was excellent. The layout of the museum and the amount of information collated, enhanced by the excellent audio tour, impressed us all.
Then we walked down to the infamous Sun Studio. This is where Elvis made his first recordings and got his first contract. There was an enthusiastic guided tour but there was not a whole lot to see. Certainly would recommend going to the Civil Rights museum first.
In the evening we played in the one-session A/X Swiss teams. We won three matches and drew the other to finish in fourth place. As I've mentioned previously the 30VP scale places a huge emphasis on winning and the draw, in our third match, killed any chances of the win.
We could have finished third but in the final match both pairs decided to play in hearts. In fact both Alex and Tim opened with a weak two in hearts. As you might imagine this was not a recipe for success and we lost 14 imps on the board. However two boards later we got some luck when our opponents, playing Precision, opened a 12-15 1NT. Alex and I got our doubling boots on and managed to take their two diamonds contract six down for +1700: declarer could have made three tricks, but in trying for a fourth got squeezed out of her third. The luck came that she held 15 points, so Sam could not open 1NT and it was impossible for the opponents to double her, so they bid game and went two down. To be fair to us, Alex and I did well to catch them after the auction started (1NT)-Pass-(2♣=stayman) - most American pairs struggle to penalise this auction when 1NT is weak. So this was worth 18 imps and we were back in the match.
Today we'll start a two-day bracketed knockout teams. I guess we'll be in the top or second bracket so will have some good opponents.
And it's sunny again, which is why we are playing bridge.
The main trip was to the National Civil Rights Museum. The National Civil Rights Museum is on the site of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. We spent a few hours here and all thought it was excellent. The layout of the museum and the amount of information collated, enhanced by the excellent audio tour, impressed us all.
Then we walked down to the infamous Sun Studio. This is where Elvis made his first recordings and got his first contract. There was an enthusiastic guided tour but there was not a whole lot to see. Certainly would recommend going to the Civil Rights museum first.
In the evening we played in the one-session A/X Swiss teams. We won three matches and drew the other to finish in fourth place. As I've mentioned previously the 30VP scale places a huge emphasis on winning and the draw, in our third match, killed any chances of the win.
We could have finished third but in the final match both pairs decided to play in hearts. In fact both Alex and Tim opened with a weak two in hearts. As you might imagine this was not a recipe for success and we lost 14 imps on the board. However two boards later we got some luck when our opponents, playing Precision, opened a 12-15 1NT. Alex and I got our doubling boots on and managed to take their two diamonds contract six down for +1700: declarer could have made three tricks, but in trying for a fourth got squeezed out of her third. The luck came that she held 15 points, so Sam could not open 1NT and it was impossible for the opponents to double her, so they bid game and went two down. To be fair to us, Alex and I did well to catch them after the auction started (1NT)-Pass-(2♣=stayman) - most American pairs struggle to penalise this auction when 1NT is weak. So this was worth 18 imps and we were back in the match.
Today we'll start a two-day bracketed knockout teams. I guess we'll be in the top or second bracket so will have some good opponents.
And it's sunny again, which is why we are playing bridge.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Every teardrop is a waterfall
So Plan A was not to lose the first set by 1-72 imps. It wasn't Plan B either so I'm not really sure how it happened.
Alex and I played Roy Welland and Bart Bramley, with Sam and Tim against Josef Piekarek and Alex Smirnov from the German Open team. I told Roy that our methods would be familar as wenicked them plagiarised his system notes from his partnership with Bjorn Fallenius. We had a very pleasant set against them: we went down in a game we could have made and they made a very dodgy grand slam after a minor bidding misunderstanding, so we expected to be down but it was a bit of a surprise that it was so much.
Strangely Sam and Tim felt similar. A couple of bad boards but surprised by the score. As often happens, a normal result, say a game going down, was not repeated in the other room because of small systemic differences. And these all added up.
So it was quite different from how you might think it feels when you are actually -71 on the scoreboard. We didn't feel we'd played that badly and were certainly not disheartened, even though we'd made life very difficult for ourselves.
In the second set, Sabine Auken and Dani von Arnim replaced their compatriots and played against Alex and I. Roy and Bart took on Sam and Tim, presumably aiming to minimise system swings. I thought we outplayed them in this set and it was slightly disappointing to only recover seven imps.
Sixty-four imps is not impossible in 32 boards against the professional players, but not easy. In the third set Sam got to play the girls and we took on Josef and Alex. If we had played down the line then I think the set would have been fairly even, but both tables tried to swing some imps and we ended up losing another forty imps. Such is life when you are trying to pull back such a deficit.
So our Vanderbilt adventure came to a premature end. We had not really done ourselves justice today but we come here to test ourselves against the best teams and hopefully the experience will stand us in good stead. Do I say that every year?
We are taking tomorrow afternoon off to see some sights and will play the one session Swiss in the evening.
Alex and I played Roy Welland and Bart Bramley, with Sam and Tim against Josef Piekarek and Alex Smirnov from the German Open team. I told Roy that our methods would be familar as we
Strangely Sam and Tim felt similar. A couple of bad boards but surprised by the score. As often happens, a normal result, say a game going down, was not repeated in the other room because of small systemic differences. And these all added up.
So it was quite different from how you might think it feels when you are actually -71 on the scoreboard. We didn't feel we'd played that badly and were certainly not disheartened, even though we'd made life very difficult for ourselves.
In the second set, Sabine Auken and Dani von Arnim replaced their compatriots and played against Alex and I. Roy and Bart took on Sam and Tim, presumably aiming to minimise system swings. I thought we outplayed them in this set and it was slightly disappointing to only recover seven imps.
Sixty-four imps is not impossible in 32 boards against the professional players, but not easy. In the third set Sam got to play the girls and we took on Josef and Alex. If we had played down the line then I think the set would have been fairly even, but both tables tried to swing some imps and we ended up losing another forty imps. Such is life when you are trying to pull back such a deficit.
So our Vanderbilt adventure came to a premature end. We had not really done ourselves justice today but we come here to test ourselves against the best teams and hopefully the experience will stand us in good stead. Do I say that every year?
We are taking tomorrow afternoon off to see some sights and will play the one session Swiss in the evening.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
In my place ...
in my place.
We got through yesterday and have achieved our seeding. Now we play the #9 seeds, Roy Welland's team, for a place in the round of 32.
Our first match yesterday was a pleasant affair against Allan Falk's #47 seeds. They won comfortably but we felt a little hard done by - a couple of slam swings and games where the lead was easier from one side than the other left us on the wrong side and fairly random swings.
In the second match we suffered another game swing when 3NT was played the other way round and this was responsible for the 15 imps half-time deficit. In the second board of the final sixteen I let through a slam on the lead and knew we'd be 31 imps down now, but we played very solidly after that, Sam and Tim had a very good card as their opponents played less solidly and we emerged winners by 12 imps.
So today we have a sixty-four board match against Welland. As usual it is great to to receive so much support, by email, twitter and facebook. Roland has even promised to put us on vugraph if we reach the quarter-finals, if we did not have enough incentive!
We got through yesterday and have achieved our seeding. Now we play the #9 seeds, Roy Welland's team, for a place in the round of 32.
Our first match yesterday was a pleasant affair against Allan Falk's #47 seeds. They won comfortably but we felt a little hard done by - a couple of slam swings and games where the lead was easier from one side than the other left us on the wrong side and fairly random swings.
In the second match we suffered another game swing when 3NT was played the other way round and this was responsible for the 15 imps half-time deficit. In the second board of the final sixteen I let through a slam on the lead and knew we'd be 31 imps down now, but we played very solidly after that, Sam and Tim had a very good card as their opponents played less solidly and we emerged winners by 12 imps.
So today we have a sixty-four board match against Welland. As usual it is great to to receive so much support, by email, twitter and facebook. Roland has even promised to put us on vugraph if we reach the quarter-finals, if we did not have enough incentive!
Monday, 19 March 2012
Through chaos as it swirls ...
... it's us against the world.
The Vanderbilt starts today.
We are the #56 seeds. There are seventy-seven entrants and the top twenty-five seeds get the day off, although they still have to pay their $160 for the privilege. The rest of us pay the same but actually get to play!
The remaining teams are playing in groups of four with three teams qualifying. The format is that you play a 32-board head-to-head match this afternoon and the winner goes through and gets the evening off. The loser plays the other losing team in the group over 32-boards and, again, the winner goes through to tomorrow. So everyone gets two opportunities to get through to the round of 64.
We play the #47 seeds, Falk, first. The other two teams in our group are #30, Lambardi, and #73, Casper. I am expecting tough matches but will be disappointed if we fail to get through today.
The Vanderbilt starts today.
We are the #56 seeds. There are seventy-seven entrants and the top twenty-five seeds get the day off, although they still have to pay their $160 for the privilege. The rest of us pay the same but actually get to play!
The remaining teams are playing in groups of four with three teams qualifying. The format is that you play a 32-board head-to-head match this afternoon and the winner goes through and gets the evening off. The loser plays the other losing team in the group over 32-boards and, again, the winner goes through to tomorrow. So everyone gets two opportunities to get through to the round of 64.
We play the #47 seeds, Falk, first. The other two teams in our group are #30, Lambardi, and #73, Casper. I am expecting tough matches but will be disappointed if we fail to get through today.
A day of Swiss
Most of the jet lag has disappeared but we are still feeling tired in the evenings, although perhaps the break between sessions is not helping with the beers and massive amount of food that is always on offer. So the first Sunday is a one-day Swiss with eight 7-board matches. The VP scale means that winning is more important than the size of the victory with a one-imp win being 19-11 VPs; a twelve imps win is 25-5!
We had a big win in our first match and then a narrow loss, although any loss means you get very few victory points. A small win and then we had to play Mahaffey for the second time in the weekend. Once again we had a ten imps loss and finished the first session just 3 VPs above average.
We were not terribly lucky in the evening as we continued to play good teams (which is what we wanted) and traded small wins and losses. Alex did make an overtrick in a slam with a nice double squeeze and there were not too many stupidities, so all set for tomorrow.
More coverage of the event, including more and better photos, can be found on Memphis Mojo's blog.
We had a big win in our first match and then a narrow loss, although any loss means you get very few victory points. A small win and then we had to play Mahaffey for the second time in the weekend. Once again we had a ten imps loss and finished the first session just 3 VPs above average.
We were not terribly lucky in the evening as we continued to play good teams (which is what we wanted) and traded small wins and losses. Alex did make an overtrick in a slam with a nice double squeeze and there were not too many stupidities, so all set for tomorrow.
More coverage of the event, including more and better photos, can be found on Memphis Mojo's blog.
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Waking up
The first couple of days are really about waking up and yesterday was not an exception.
We started in the Compact KO, playing in the second bracket of 16 teams and needing to win our first two 12-board matches to continue into the evening. Well we won our first, a scrappy match but 36 imps was five too many for our opponents but in the second a poor slam (missing two aces AND a trump trick) and then letting a doubled part-score make was too much for our team mates to cover. In fact any imps out was too much as our opponents played with skill and luck. The upside of losing was finding a bar that did 32oz beers for $5!
In the evening we played in the one-session strati-flighted Swiss. Not an important event as you only play four six-board matches but we started with a 6-4 imps win against Rose Meltzer's all-star American, Argentinian, Mexican, Brazilian and Spanish team. Then we played Mahaffey, who has Hallberg and Forrester in tow, and we lost by thirteen imps when they guessed to bid a grand slam. I'm not saying that the VP scale is tough, but winning by 2 imps was a 19-11 win and a 13 imps loss was 5-25! We played two random teams in the last two matches, winning one and losing the other, both close matches but we were all feeling a little tired at the end.
A few observations about the locals yesterday. It was St Patrick's Day and at least 85% of the people in the city have Irish heritage, if only for the day. Green guinness, green food and green clothes were the order of the day. They seem to take it far more seriously than the Irish back home!
At the tables the impression I got is that the spirit of non-disclosure rules. Whilst our pre-alerts are treated with contempt ("shouldn't be allowed in this event"), no-one offers their basic system and keep their convention cards firmly to hand. We could ask of course, but we are only playing in random games (as far as we are concerned) trying to wake up and don't really care what they are doing. But it was a surprise to meet two strong club pairs: we weren't disadvantaged and the opponents are not breaking any regulations, but the impression I got was that they were happier not to tell us anything. To be fair most of the opponents were a lot friendlier at the end of a match when they appreciated that we were extremely full in our disclosure and our methods were not designed to hide things from them.
So today we play the two-session Swiss Teams. It will be a strong field with only the finalists in the Platinum Pairs missing.
We started in the Compact KO, playing in the second bracket of 16 teams and needing to win our first two 12-board matches to continue into the evening. Well we won our first, a scrappy match but 36 imps was five too many for our opponents but in the second a poor slam (missing two aces AND a trump trick) and then letting a doubled part-score make was too much for our team mates to cover. In fact any imps out was too much as our opponents played with skill and luck. The upside of losing was finding a bar that did 32oz beers for $5!
In the evening we played in the one-session strati-flighted Swiss. Not an important event as you only play four six-board matches but we started with a 6-4 imps win against Rose Meltzer's all-star American, Argentinian, Mexican, Brazilian and Spanish team. Then we played Mahaffey, who has Hallberg and Forrester in tow, and we lost by thirteen imps when they guessed to bid a grand slam. I'm not saying that the VP scale is tough, but winning by 2 imps was a 19-11 win and a 13 imps loss was 5-25! We played two random teams in the last two matches, winning one and losing the other, both close matches but we were all feeling a little tired at the end.
A few observations about the locals yesterday. It was St Patrick's Day and at least 85% of the people in the city have Irish heritage, if only for the day. Green guinness, green food and green clothes were the order of the day. They seem to take it far more seriously than the Irish back home!
At the tables the impression I got is that the spirit of non-disclosure rules. Whilst our pre-alerts are treated with contempt ("shouldn't be allowed in this event"), no-one offers their basic system and keep their convention cards firmly to hand. We could ask of course, but we are only playing in random games (as far as we are concerned) trying to wake up and don't really care what they are doing. But it was a surprise to meet two strong club pairs: we weren't disadvantaged and the opponents are not breaking any regulations, but the impression I got was that they were happier not to tell us anything. To be fair most of the opponents were a lot friendlier at the end of a match when they appreciated that we were extremely full in our disclosure and our methods were not designed to hide things from them.
So today we play the two-session Swiss Teams. It will be a strong field with only the finalists in the Platinum Pairs missing.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Gifts from America
Whenever you come to an NABC event you get a goody bag with schedule, restaurant guide and 'gift'.
Sometimes it can be difficult to decide what the gift actually is?
Sometimes it can be difficult to decide what the gift actually is?
Spring in Memphis
For the first time Alex and I have decided to play in the Spring National, which is being held in Memphis, Tennessee, this year. The main reason for spring rather than the summer event is location; nice as Philadelphia was a couple of years ago for the Rosenblum we did not think we needed to play the summer national there too.
We are here with Tim and Sam, who were also on our Rosenblum team. With the European Team Championships in June it also suits Sam to play at this time and flights are slightly more reasonably priced too.
Alex and I find pairs events here tiresome given the system we play: the pageful of pre-alerts for a two-board round consumes time and annoys the opponents. So we arrived late last night avoiding the IMP Pairs and the more-important Platinum Pairs (for which we are not close to being able to play). Tim and Sam arrived on Thursday evening and played in the IMP Pairs qualifier yesterday, narrowly failing to make the cut after a -10 imps and -1 imp sessions. I spoke to them about six boards from the end and they thought that they were a few imps up, so it looks like they had a slow finish. Of course the effects of jet lag could have been a factor at that point late in the evening.
Although they will be disappointed, it does solve our problem of finding team mates for the weekend. We will play a one-day Compact KO Teams today and tomorrow the one-day Swiss Teams. Then on Monday the major championship, the Vanderbilt, starts. In that a lot will depend on how we play, but also where we are seeded and the draw. In the last two majors that we have played we have got through to the round of 64 and then played the number 2 and 7 seeds: and in the one before that we played the top seed. We do come to these events to play these teams, but occasionally it would be nice to play them in the round of 32!
But first time to get some rustiness out of our ACBL alerting and play some bridge to get rid of the jet lag.
We are here with Tim and Sam, who were also on our Rosenblum team. With the European Team Championships in June it also suits Sam to play at this time and flights are slightly more reasonably priced too.
Alex and I find pairs events here tiresome given the system we play: the pageful of pre-alerts for a two-board round consumes time and annoys the opponents. So we arrived late last night avoiding the IMP Pairs and the more-important Platinum Pairs (for which we are not close to being able to play). Tim and Sam arrived on Thursday evening and played in the IMP Pairs qualifier yesterday, narrowly failing to make the cut after a -10 imps and -1 imp sessions. I spoke to them about six boards from the end and they thought that they were a few imps up, so it looks like they had a slow finish. Of course the effects of jet lag could have been a factor at that point late in the evening.
Although they will be disappointed, it does solve our problem of finding team mates for the weekend. We will play a one-day Compact KO Teams today and tomorrow the one-day Swiss Teams. Then on Monday the major championship, the Vanderbilt, starts. In that a lot will depend on how we play, but also where we are seeded and the draw. In the last two majors that we have played we have got through to the round of 64 and then played the number 2 and 7 seeds: and in the one before that we played the top seed. We do come to these events to play these teams, but occasionally it would be nice to play them in the round of 32!
But first time to get some rustiness out of our ACBL alerting and play some bridge to get rid of the jet lag.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
A slow start
The 17th edition of the BBO InterCity League started last night and we lost a local derby against Wales United.
The match started quietly and the only big swing in the first half was on board 4.
The Welsh internationalists bid to three notrump and, on the normal lead of a heart, made comfortably. At the other table the auction took a different turn:
The lack of a takeout double from West is worrisome, as is bidding five diamonds with the lead coming through the king of hearts, so no good options for West. This contract went one down and we lost 12 imps, when swapping the North-South hands would have swung a similar number in our direction. I was a little surprised that neither North managed to find a bid on their hand.
On the next hand we lost a game swing when one of our players only noticed an extra ace when dummy went down - not an uncommon problem online.
The start of the second half was wild. We lost 9 imps when both our pairs bid game and neither made. We then gained 11 imps when a Welsh slam was on more than a finesse and went down on a 4-1 trump break (with finesse working) and we stayed sensibly in game.
Then a challenge for the West pairs:
Pass, pull or redouble (whatever that means)?
After this board we gained 13 imps when Danny and Helen played in the better game. A couple of flat boards and then we lost 12 imps when Phil and Alex bid to a poor slam with a balanced seventeen count opposite a big, weak, major two-suiter. I thought they'd bid to slam as soon as I saw the hand and often it would be flat. The Welsh pair stopped safely short by opening the 5-card spade suit rather than the six-card heart suit - not my style and a swing that I thought was slightly lucky.
In the end we lost by 33 imps, or 7-23 VPs. Plenty to do in the coming weeks!
The match started quietly and the only big swing in the first half was on board 4.
The Welsh internationalists bid to three notrump and, on the normal lead of a heart, made comfortably. At the other table the auction took a different turn:
The lack of a takeout double from West is worrisome, as is bidding five diamonds with the lead coming through the king of hearts, so no good options for West. This contract went one down and we lost 12 imps, when swapping the North-South hands would have swung a similar number in our direction. I was a little surprised that neither North managed to find a bid on their hand.
On the next hand we lost a game swing when one of our players only noticed an extra ace when dummy went down - not an uncommon problem online.
The start of the second half was wild. We lost 9 imps when both our pairs bid game and neither made. We then gained 11 imps when a Welsh slam was on more than a finesse and went down on a 4-1 trump break (with finesse working) and we stayed sensibly in game.
Then a challenge for the West pairs:
Pass, pull or redouble (whatever that means)?
After this board we gained 13 imps when Danny and Helen played in the better game. A couple of flat boards and then we lost 12 imps when Phil and Alex bid to a poor slam with a balanced seventeen count opposite a big, weak, major two-suiter. I thought they'd bid to slam as soon as I saw the hand and often it would be flat. The Welsh pair stopped safely short by opening the 5-card spade suit rather than the six-card heart suit - not my style and a swing that I thought was slightly lucky.
In the end we lost by 33 imps, or 7-23 VPs. Plenty to do in the coming weeks!
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Competing over 1NT
Seventh round of the club pairs championship and we win with 66%. However Brian and George score 61% and still have a very comfortable lead, so I think we'll need a couple of 70% sessions in the final three rounds to overtake them.
I faced a similar problem on two consecutive hands. How would you have bid?
This first problem is matchpoints, love all. A simple two spades or something more?
The second problem is matchpoints at favourable vulnerability. A simple two spades or something more?
For those on iPhones, 1NT=12-14 and 2C=majors.
I faced a similar problem on two consecutive hands. How would you have bid?
This first problem is matchpoints, love all. A simple two spades or something more?
The second problem is matchpoints at favourable vulnerability. A simple two spades or something more?
For those on iPhones, 1NT=12-14 and 2C=majors.
Saturday, 10 March 2012
Where should I sit?
The pairs championship at the club is decided by the average score of your six best percentages from ten rounds of competition. For the last couple of years the club has used a Mitchell movement with a couple of arrow-switched rounds to get a single winner on each night, but previously it did not have arrow-switches and ran a two-winner evening.
In those earlier years there was always debate on the best place to sit. Should you sit in the same direction as the strong pairs or the opposite? Is it better to play the weaker pairs but be compared with the stronger pairs, or vice versa?
These questions came to mind following this week's BGB Charity Challenge Pairs, an event I first knew as the "Jill Gatti". The movement was a simple Mitchell with no arrow-switches. I approve of this for simultaneous events. You are not competing with people at the club but a far larger field. Arrow-switching improves the fairness of the club result but would have no meaningful effect on the overall ranking list.
But there are other considerations. You always get a booklet of hands, with expert commentary, after a simultaneous pairs. The players all like to see how they have done and, occasionally, how they might have done better. This is a lot easier to do if you always sat in the same seat; moving from E/W to N/S and back again makes it a little frustrating. It may seem a minor point but clubs need to look after all their customers these days.
So we get to the club and draw a card for table and direction. As it happens all the stronger pairs, save one, draw North/South seats. After play the scores go up and the highest score, 62%, goes to the strong pair playing East/West. In fact the three highest scores are E/W with us being the best N/S scoring 57%.
It got more interesting when the worldwide scores became available. All the N/S scores at the club went up by at least 2.5%, and all the E/W scores dropped by 2.5%. We were the leading pair with almost 63% with the next best only 59%.
Huh?
I believe the reason is this. The N/S pairs were comparing a large number of good scores with each other, so many of these were undervalued and hence improved significantly in the much larger field. Similarly the stronger E/W pairs were comparing their 'normal' results with the very poor results from the rest of the E/W pairs - it turns out their results were pretty normal and so their overall percentage drops significantly.
But it does suggest that you are better off being compared with weaker pairs in a small field if you want a good score. But in a large field you want to be playing the weaker pairs. Doesn't sound like rocket science when I put it like that!
Ecats Charity Challenge 2012 Results
In those earlier years there was always debate on the best place to sit. Should you sit in the same direction as the strong pairs or the opposite? Is it better to play the weaker pairs but be compared with the stronger pairs, or vice versa?
These questions came to mind following this week's BGB Charity Challenge Pairs, an event I first knew as the "Jill Gatti". The movement was a simple Mitchell with no arrow-switches. I approve of this for simultaneous events. You are not competing with people at the club but a far larger field. Arrow-switching improves the fairness of the club result but would have no meaningful effect on the overall ranking list.
But there are other considerations. You always get a booklet of hands, with expert commentary, after a simultaneous pairs. The players all like to see how they have done and, occasionally, how they might have done better. This is a lot easier to do if you always sat in the same seat; moving from E/W to N/S and back again makes it a little frustrating. It may seem a minor point but clubs need to look after all their customers these days.
So we get to the club and draw a card for table and direction. As it happens all the stronger pairs, save one, draw North/South seats. After play the scores go up and the highest score, 62%, goes to the strong pair playing East/West. In fact the three highest scores are E/W with us being the best N/S scoring 57%.
It got more interesting when the worldwide scores became available. All the N/S scores at the club went up by at least 2.5%, and all the E/W scores dropped by 2.5%. We were the leading pair with almost 63% with the next best only 59%.
Huh?
I believe the reason is this. The N/S pairs were comparing a large number of good scores with each other, so many of these were undervalued and hence improved significantly in the much larger field. Similarly the stronger E/W pairs were comparing their 'normal' results with the very poor results from the rest of the E/W pairs - it turns out their results were pretty normal and so their overall percentage drops significantly.
But it does suggest that you are better off being compared with weaker pairs in a small field if you want a good score. But in a large field you want to be playing the weaker pairs. Doesn't sound like rocket science when I put it like that!
Ecats Charity Challenge 2012 Results
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Camrose finale
The second weekend of the Camrose Trophy proved to be a disappointing affair for my team. We did not play as well as we could have done and, despite winning two of the five matches, narrowly missed out on fourth place when we capitulated to Wales in the final sixteen boards.
We had three heavy defeats over the weekend, giving our opponents maximum wins. We conceded lots of double-imps swing in our match against the Scotland team which, to be honest, was not the best advertisement for the country's bridge; but against England and Wales it was the constant, seemingly never-ending, stream of imps in their direction that showed how the better teams could punish you for minor errors.
The team is hugely disappointed that we did not finish in fourth place. Not only did we beat both Ireland and Northern Ireland at both weekends, but it would also have represented the 'normal' finishing place for Scotland.
However it is easy to be negative when you've finished with a bad set. Trying to get a broader perspective we did win five of our ten matches, an achievement that is way above most people's expectations. We were only one VP off fourth place and it is only the fact that it was ours for the taking that hurts. For the nation's second team we have represented the country with credit and won more matches than the 'first' team. The challenge for all my pairs is to reduce the small errors and establish themselves in the open team so that they can experience the Camrose on a regular basis.
It has been fun captaining the team and being appointed for both weekends is a good practice in my view.
Information for the weekend is available at camrosebridge.com.
Total
| |
| England |
200
|
| Wales |
177
|
| Scotland |
160
|
| Ireland |
122
|
| SBU |
121
|
| Northern Ireland |
109
|
We had three heavy defeats over the weekend, giving our opponents maximum wins. We conceded lots of double-imps swing in our match against the Scotland team which, to be honest, was not the best advertisement for the country's bridge; but against England and Wales it was the constant, seemingly never-ending, stream of imps in their direction that showed how the better teams could punish you for minor errors.
The team is hugely disappointed that we did not finish in fourth place. Not only did we beat both Ireland and Northern Ireland at both weekends, but it would also have represented the 'normal' finishing place for Scotland.
However it is easy to be negative when you've finished with a bad set. Trying to get a broader perspective we did win five of our ten matches, an achievement that is way above most people's expectations. We were only one VP off fourth place and it is only the fact that it was ours for the taking that hurts. For the nation's second team we have represented the country with credit and won more matches than the 'first' team. The challenge for all my pairs is to reduce the small errors and establish themselves in the open team so that they can experience the Camrose on a regular basis.
It has been fun captaining the team and being appointed for both weekends is a good practice in my view.
 |
| Sheila, Bill, Steve, Anne, Paul, Irving and Mike |
Information for the weekend is available at camrosebridge.com.
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