Picking The Winners In The Bermuda Bowl … My contest entry

Going to Participants in the Bermuda Bowl (WBF Site)  I see the following teams:

1. Bulgaria
2. Germany
3. Italy
4. Netherlands
5. Norway
6. Russia
7. Mexico
8. USA 1
9. USA 2
10. Argentina
11. Brazil
12. Chile
13. Guadeloupe
14. India
15. Pakistan
16. China Long Zhu/Open
17. Chinese Taipei
18. Japan
19. Australia
20. New Zealand
21. Egypt

Picking eight will be tough.  There are a lot of good teams.  I start by eliminating the teams I think are weaker.  Sadly despite the fact that Canada lost to them Mexico goes along with Guadeloupe etc.  This is what I am left with after removing what I consider to be the chaff.

1. Bulgaria
2. Germany
3. Italy
4. Netherlands
5. Norway
6. Russia
7. USA 1
8. USA 2
9. Brazil
10. China Long Zhu/Open
11. Chinese Taipei
12. Australia

Okay that is a lot easier to work from.  I have four to eliminate to get to the eight. I look at the results in Shanghai and eliminate Chinese Taipei.  They were 16th.  Here’s how the other teams finished in the round robin.

1. Bulgaria – did not play
2. Germany – did not play
3. Italy – 1
4. Netherlands – 3
5. Norway – 4
6. Russia – did not play
7. USA 1 – 2
8. USA 2 – 11
9. Brazil – 9
10. China Long Zhu/Open – 7
11. Australia – 5

The sixth place team last time Sweden and the eight place team last time South Africa are not playing.  Japan was tenth last time but I am still not figuring them to finish in the top eight.

As you can see the powers in bridge are the USA, China and Europe with a few others.  It seems to me that there are too many teams from South America and Asia who have no realistic chance and I would prefer to see the event have fewer stronger competitors.  I have three to eliminate now to get to eight.  Italy, Norway and Germany were in the final four in Beijing.  So they have to stay.  Along with USA1 and USA2.  That gives me five teams. 

(In the middle of this the WBF site seems to go down.  That does make me feel better about how the problems we have been having with our service providers.)  I can’t see if the teams were the same.

Here is my list for better of worse:

 

1. Germany
2. Italy
3. Netherlands
4. Norway
5. Russia
6. USA 1
7. USA 2
8. Brazil

China got eliminated last and I didn’t like it.  Now for the top 4.

 

1. Italy
2. Norway
3. USA 2
4. Brazil

I see Italy meeting USA 2 in the final and Italy winning.

This was truly hard.  But the good news is my entry is now complete and I can send it in.