Some Other Interesting Websites and handicapping the Senior Bowl

July 17th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  3 Comments 

I thought I would get started picking my entries for the CONTEST.  I go to the list of participants on the WBF website.  Here are the entries for the Senior Bowl.

1. Belgium
2. England
3. Italy
4. Poland
5. Sweden
6. Turkey
7. Canada
8. USA I
9. USA 2
10. Argentina
11. Brazil
12. Venezuela
13. India
14. Pakistan
15. Barbados
16. Indonesia
17. Japan
18. Australia
19. New Zealand
20. Egypt
21. South Africa

I need to pick eight from this crew.  The WBF conveniently has a link so I can see the participants.  For example England is represented by

Paul D HACKETT (England)

Gunnar HALLBERG (England)

Ross HARPER (England)

John HOLLAND (England)

David PRICE (England)

Colin SIMPSON (England)

Peter BAXTER (England) NPC

Clicking on Paul Hackett I can get a picture and his history although when I actually try to look at his playing record in team events I can’t seem to get it to work.  Still the picture is nice.

They maintain two master point systems, really.  I is designed to emphasize the current master points and one to show the cumulative master points.  All of these are generally won at the world level but they can be in open events like the Transnational Teams.  Still they seem to have more meaning then other type of points.

The WBF website has an archive from past championships including the Bulletins.  There are many more items of interest although they will not help me to pick me entry.  I don’t know why but I always find the sections on systems and appeals well appealing.  Psychic bidding remains a challenge.  In the WBF you may have explicit agreements about psychics but they are classified as Brown Sticker – the toughest classification and can only be played in very limited events and you lose all seating rights.  I don’t really believe that most players who pysche fairly often really do it “randomly”.  But I digress.  Medals are awarded to individuals who have made a significant contribution to bridge.  The gold medla has gone to a varied group, largely Europeans.  I see that Prince Albert of Monaco won the Gold Medal in 2003.  I really didn’t know that Prince Albert even played bridge (does he, I don’t think so?)  so I do a web search and find that he donated a Cup which is won by the champion of the European University Bridge Championship started in 2003.  You can find information about this championship on University Sports  Federation website.  It is neatly listed under world championships between Boxing and Chess.

The WBF has a pretty good collection of links listed by country.  There is Master Point Press on the Commercial page with a pretty Canadian flag beside it  .  There is a place to search for books but when I try it I can’t seem to find any books at all.  Overall this site is better organized than when I looked last year and has lots of good stuff.

This is all fun but I am not really making progress on selecting my winners.  The next step is Eurobridge.  Let see who did well in Europe in competitions.  How did the English Seniors do?  The European championships took place in Sanremo Italy from June 12-27.  Alas I could not go.  Since this is an open year the teams are not national teams.  Still here are the winners

Gold:

team Miroglio: Giulio Bongiovanni, Andrea Buratti,

Amedeo Comella, Apolinary Kowalski, Jacek Romanski

(Italy & Poland)

Silver:

team Bulgaria Seniors: Hristo Chavdarov, Stoio Daraktchiev,

Guerggui Gramatikov, Miroliub Markov, Dontcho

Petkanov, Tsolo Tsolov (Bulgaria)

I can’t find the results here from previous years and in general I find this site still needs work.  There may be lots here but I just can’t seem to get to anything.  I am able to get to the 2008 championship website using google.  There is a cool cross table of results.Seniors Cross Table.  I see that in the round robin England finished seventh with Turkey first, Sweden second (what is it about 60 year old Swedes?) Belgium third and Poland fourth.  Unfortunately the team is also quite different so it is hard to use this result to handicap them with Ross Harper, David Price and Colin Simpson being the only careovers.

Anyway here are my top eight for the Senior teams.  I will need more research to pick four, two and one.

• Belgium
• Sweden
• Turkey
• Canada
• USA I
• USA 2
• Indonesia
• Australia

I admit that some may think that Canada is a sentimental choice but it is a very strong team and they should finish well.

Reviewed: WBF, University Sports Federation, Eurobridge

The “Contest”

July 16th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  5 Comments 

It’s that time of year again.  www.bridgeblogging.com is running its World Championship contest.  Last year contestants were asked to work out the winners at each stage of the WMSG Open Division.  This year we are going to have two contests.  One in the Open Division and one in the Seniors.  You simply email your entry to [email protected] (Note the change!!) Each contestant can send in one entry and as a bonus every contestant (staff included) will get a $10 gift certificate which they can use at www.ebooksbridge.com just for entering.  The two winners will also get to select from a list of books which I will outline in the next few days.

Here are the rules:

The two contests will be run separately.  You can only win one so if you win both the contestant who did the second best in the semifinals will be the winner.

If there is a tie then the tie will be broken by looking at the tie breaking third place choice.  If all else fails we will award two prizes!

1. Select the 8 teams in the quarter finals. (1 point each)

2. Select the 4 teams in the semi finals (2 points each)

3. Select the two finalist (4 points each)

4. Select the winner for an extra 6 points

5. Select third place as the tie breaker.

You can enter both competitions or just one if you prefer.

In the next while I will post my thoughts and the teams I am picking along with information about the book prizes.

Back to the Internet – my favorites

July 16th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

With fewer distraction it’s time to continue my review of Internet resources.  I have decided that today I will talk about the bridge sites where I personally spend most of my time when I am on the Internet.  They are in this order: Bridge blogging, BBO, ACBL website and especially at this time of year, ecatsbridge.

If you are reading my blog I don’t need to describe Bridge blogging to you so I will move on to BBO.  I am on BBO every day.  I know there are other excellent online bridge playing sites but Bridgebase is the one I love.  I expect that all of you are there too.   I don’t really need to say much about it because you all know it so well but let me say a few things.  This is what I do on Bridgebase:

• I watch Vugraph from all over the world.  Some times I am a commentator too
• I watch other people play
• I practice bidding in a bidding room setting parameters
• I play with my favorite partners from around the world
• I play set team games or pickup team games
• I look at my results and study them, using the built-in GIB
• I can review hand records from matches
• I play with students in a relaxed game; we look at the results and discuss the hands together.  I can insert hands or control the parameters

BBO Forums. also has one of the top two most active discussion boards on the web.  The majority of the posts are on the forums about interesting deals.  For fair disclosure even on the expert forum a lot of the discussions is at a fairly low level from my point of view and it takes me a while to find an interesting hand but here is one:

Red vs White, you hold:

♠Void

♥A953

♦JT95

♣Q9652

Auction: 2♠* X 4♠ ???

*Spades and a minor (at least 5♠’s, at least 4 in a minor)

This is a poll and the vast majority of the players opt for 4NT.

What is the difference between double here and 4NT?  The people on the forum seem to think it promises exactly two places to play but think it is much preferable to double.  There is one interesting comment that bidding five hearts might be better since you are not going to be playing in opener’s minor.  But the author missing the point that if opener has at least nine cards in spades and a minor hearts are probably not splitting either.

I gave this hand to Ray when we went for coffee and he doubled.  He didn’t like 4NT at all.  Even if you and partner are on the same wavelength do you really want to commit to a game at the five level when suits aren’t breaking.  After all you only have an Ace, Queen and Jack.  At the table I (who am a bit of a wimp vulnerable) would likely pass.  The question is what to do if partner doubles again.

BBO continues to grow and improve and long may it do so.

The ACBL website ACBL is well known to most North American players.  Over the years this website has been a leader in establishing a solid Internet presence on the web.   It is beautifully designed, well organized and chock full of stuff you want to know.  I am moved to write an email to the web manager and tell them what I think.

There are services for members (which you log on to using your ACBL number, the number everyone knows!).  Its been a very long time since I cared about masterpoints but I was amused to know that despite this (and almost never playing in a masterpoint game) that at my range I am well into the 90 percentile of MP holders (maybe they aren’t that easy to get?)

To my pleasure I can also get copies of the Bridge Bulletin online back about a 3/4 of a year.  How cool is that.  If you want to see what is happening in unit and district MP races (strangely this is interesting) you can see them easily for your district (which of course big brother knows).  I wonder if I can see another district?

I can submit an answer to the It’s Your Call feature of the magazine.  I fill out all the answers and woops I get an error when I try to send it.  It was fun to fill it out though.  Oh well next time.

There is an extensive contact list with more departments than I knew existed.  The tournament section is a joy.  Want to see the hand records, daily bulletins, team roster, results etc. for NABC’s  You can even see the bracket sheets in major events all the way back to Reno, Spring 2004.  Wow.  I love the guide to NABC’s that you can download from the site.  (I already loved the IN – novice intermediate program) but seeing it spelled out in the guide it shone.   It was also fun to read Peggy Kaplan’s report on the Houston NABC’s with lots of interviews.  The NABC Insider also provide some good ideas.  Since we are driving to Washington I read with interest the section on where to park.  In fact the amount of information available for the upcoming nationals is staggering from tours and the weather, to  celebrity speakers and other events.  Regional and sectional tournaments are handled well too.  With information, links and results.

There is so much information on this site I can only say if there is something you want to know about bridge it is probably here somewhere.  Here is just a short list of some random questions I came up with and the answers on the ACBL website.

If you need gold points and you only play at the club what is your best best?  The answer is the ACBL Instant Matchpoint game where you can get 1 gold for a section top with the remainder being 50/50 red and black.  The event is sectionally rated and takes place once a year in September.

If you want to read the club managers newsletter which you can download you can find some interesting stuff.  The top clubs reporting the most tables in 2008 are actually Bridge Base Online, Okbridge and Swan games!  But the online clubs so have an advantage in drawing tables from the entire continent.  The fourth place club is the Essex Bridge Center in New Jersey.  Congratulations.

Want a defense to an opening one heart bid that actually shows five or more spades and an opening bid?  The ACBL suggests that you make the same bids as you would have if they had bid one spade and you use one spade as a kind of mini Michaels.

I even like to read the news that the ACBL posts and of course you can follow the results at all the National Tournaments.

Some of you may not be familiar with Ecatsbridge.  This website is operated by Anna Gudge and Mark Newton

Mark Newton

Anna writes a blog (we pick up the feed on bridgeblogging.com) Anna’s blog.  When I once asked why the website was named ecatsbridge, Anna told me that it was named after her cats!  There is a fair bit on this site but for me the most important stuff is the information about bridge tournaments especially all the world championships.  To start with their is an archive of all the WBF convention cards submitted by all of the players who play in world championships.  That means that if you want to know what system Meckwell play you can review their current convention card and you can even look and see how it evolved over the years.  I use this archive when I am doing commentary on matches on BBO or writing blogs about matches.  But it can also be helpful if you are looking for some system ideas.  You can also get a list of all the members of all the teams that are playing in the world championships (also available on the WBF site of course).  In fact you can get information about all of the WBF events.  Are you interested in Philadelphia which will be held October 16th 2010.  I was surprised to find a link to a brochure for the event.  I copied this schedule from the Philadelphia Brochure.  But please look at it yourself, I could easily  have made a mistake.

In addition:

• A Regional Tournament will be held all the days of the World Bridge Series.
• It is more than likely that the World Youth Bridge Team championships will also take place during the   World Bridge Series.
• A World Mixed Team championship from Wednesday October 13 to Saturday October 16.

One other tool is the document section which includes among other things the 2007 laws of duplicate bridge and the later revisions.  I did find the organization of the website confusing at times but for most of us the focus of this website is the worldwide events.  If you are interested in those you will often be on ecatsbridge.

Reviewed: BBO, ACBL, Ecatsbridge

How Did Canada Lose to Mexico

July 16th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I have heard a lot of discussion about how the Canadian Open Team lost to Mexico in the playoffs. 

This is posted on the ACBL website.

The Canadian Bridge Federation website posted the half-time scores.

So you can see that the Canadians struggled in the first set.  Lost a little in the second set.  Had a big win in the third set and then a flat set in the fourth round.  They ended the first day down 18 and you can see that Mexico had shown that they could play well.  Canada obviously started off the second day better and was well in the lead going into the fourth set.  But just as in the first set Mexico was able to put on a big rally and win the match.

Nobody knows better than me how accidents can happen and how some times you just have a bad set.  Usually there is a luck factor too.  I am so sorry that Canada doesn’t have a chance to send its fine young team to Brazil.

I would be happy to publish some hands from any of the players who were at the trials on either of our teams.  Just email me at [email protected]

Mexico vs Canada Playoff Results

July 13th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  4 Comments 

It is very sad to hear that the Canadian Open team lost to Mexico in the playoff this weekend.  The team consisted of

Nicolas L’Ecuyer, Kamel Fergani, Darren Wolpert, Jurek Czyzowicz, David Grainger, Daniel Korbel with NPC Nadar Hanna.

I know how hard you fought and how hard it is to lose by such a small margin (11 imps).  This is a good young team and they will be back in the future.

As reported by Mike Yuen http://mikeyuen.bridgeblogging.com/?p=659 the Women’s team easily won.  Pamela Nisbet was sending me frequent updates and I thank her for that. 

The Canadian Women have never lost but the Open team did lose once before.   Some times we take for granted the need to earn the Bermuda Bowl spot but obviously Mexico has a good team and this challenge can’t be taken lightly.  We congratulate Mexico and wish them well.

Canadians In Mexico

July 12th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

The Canadian teams are currently playing the Canada-Mexico match in Mexico for the spots in the World Championships.  I hear from Pamela Nisbet that the Women are up by 30 and the Open team is trailing by a little bit after a poor start.  As I told Pamela I have complete confidence that both of our teams will win.  We all wish them great luck.  The Mexicans have always shown us great hospitality so I am sure that they will also have a very enjoyable time.

Exploring the Internet but woops USA 2 Final is too close

July 11th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  6 Comments 

The last of the selection process continues with the finals of US2 Senior Team with Schwartz playing Lynch for the opportunity.  There will also is a match coming up in Mexico when the Canadian Open and Women’s teams play Mexico for the spots in the World Championships.

This is the photo from the USBF website of seniors US1

Paul Swanson, John Solodar, Arnie Fisher, Dan Morse, Fred Hamilton, Bobby Wolff

Well I am at it I thought I might review the USBF Website website as part of my explore the internet effort.  The USBF has a clear focus, the responsibility for the participation of US teams in world events.  They have designed an excellent website to support this role.  It is easy to navigate and everything I want to know is right their.  Things I love:

• the hand records and results for all the deals are available.
• Team profiles and convention cards are posted on the site.
• Lots of photos from events flash by
• The Bulletins
• Photo albums
• All those great archives

I am sure that for competitors things like the conditions of contest and schedule are also helpful.

I was about to find some more interesting websites but something bad happened I logged onto BBO and saw that score in the Trials for USA 2 early in the third quarter is Schwartz 57 and Lynch 51.  There was an interesting play hand in the second quartet that I watched.  It does involve some deduction and some odds consideration.  Here is the hand.  You are in white on red and arrive in 6D with no opposition bidding.  I have rotated the deal).

You have done a good job to get to 6D and now it is up to you to make it.  The opening lead is the SQ and Passell follows with the S6 How do you play the hand?

You start out by winning the SQ presumably.  Let’s say you decide to draw trump.  If you do Lynch follows to four trump and Passell throws three hearts.  You might finesse clubs but the better line seems to be to play off the top two clubs.  Both follow with Lynch playing the five and then the nine and Passell playing the four and then the two.  You lead the CJ off dummy and Passell plays small.  Do you ruff or do you pass the CJ?

The winning play found by Schwartz at the table is to take the ruffing finesse.  I believe that the mathematical odds are very close between the two plays.  The plays in the spade suit suggest that Lynch started with the stiff SQ.  So what you know is that Lynch is 1-5-4-3 or 1-6-4-2.  From the play in the heart suit it is likely that Passell has one heart honor but not two.  If Lynch held SQ H KJ1097 D 9753 C Q95 would he overcall?  I would.  But perhaps not with SQ HJQ10975 D 9753 C 95.  that is what Lynch hand and Schwartz got it right and in my opinion you need to be able to do that to win serious competitions.

Back to segment 3 there are only three boards to go.  Some imps have changed hands but there is still only a 6 imp differences.  The last segment will be exciting.

The Last Leg of the USA 2 Senior Quarterfinals – could it get more exciting than this

July 9th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

This is a very tight match and with nine boards to go Kasle leads Larsen by 13 imps.  I find this all compelling.  The bridge is good and it is exciting.  As you may be aware the blog site has been down for support so all of these blogs are going to get posted in one fell swoop.  Woosh.  I hope you enjoy them anyway.  This is an interesting board which demonstrates the fun.

Getting to 4S on this board was not easy by Schermer and Chambers of the Kasle team demonstrated how.

Board 54 is another bidding challenge.  Red on white you have

Do you like an opening bid of 2D?  Smith opened 2D for Kasle and ended in 3D  But in the Open Room Ca Chambers passed and Bramley opened 1C in third chair.  The auction proceeded

Bramley has:

He certainly made a “big” bid when he bid 5C and it works,  13 imps.  On to Board 55 with Kasle holding a 6 imp lead.  But Bramley and Stansby are going for a vulnerable number.    

Schermer opened 1H in third chair.  Chambers bid 2D. 

Bramley held:

Do you think Bramley should enter this auction vulnerable?  I confess I have done the same thing from time to time.  Bidding double leads to –800.   Overcalling spades works better.  For one thing the level is one lower and for another the 5-2 plays better than the 4-3.  This whole fiasco ends up in 15 imps.  That might spell the end of Larsen’s run.  We will see.   There are still five boards to go and 21 imps difference.  Board 56 has come up and we see Larsen has a good result and in the end wins back 9 imps to trail by12 imp.  Interesting, there are two good results for Larsen on Board 57 and Board 58.  I am definitely not leaving my BBO seat now. 

Larsen wins 6 on Board 57 when they do not bid a nonvulnerable game which is on a finesse which loses while Kasle did bid the game in the closed room.   Now Larsen has a chance to pick up 10 imps and the lead for the first time in the match.  It’s up to Stansby.  He hold

With everyone vulnerable his partner opens 1S and his RHO doubles.  He did bid 4S.  Bramley has

The 5-5 spade fit and the quick tricks make this a good vulnerable game.  With the club finesse onside it’s there.  And the lead changes hands, Larsen is now leading by 4 as we start Board 59 of 60.   Board 59 turns out to be a swing board.  There was an accident in the Open Room.  Kasle got to a strange 4D contract.  Bramley-Stansby are in an aggressive 3NT.  It will be touch and go and will likely decide the match.

Here is the layout.  You decide if you want to play or defend.

Bramley got the lead of the S5 which went to the S6, a surprising S9 and the SQ.  A diamond to the D10 might work well now but Bramley tries a heart.  Schermer plays the HJ and Bramley will duck.  Schermer finds a spade back.  That’s not giving anything away.  .  Bramley ducks the spade to the SK and now Chambers returns a heart and Bramley won the ace.  Bramley can’t make it from here.  Down 1.   The last board is flat and Larsen loses the match by 1.  That’s even less than my normal losing score when I play critical matches.  Of course this score is unofficial.

The Second Segment of the Seniors Semifinal

July 9th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I am watching the Seniors Semifinal.  It is board 24 and the Morse team has pulled ahead of the Larsen team winning about 20 imps this segment to lead 52-13.  But we are on a swing board right now and Bobby Wolff is playing the hand.  Bobby Wolff is declarer in 6C.  Here is the auction with nobody vulnerable.

In the open room they play 5D so this is going to be a swing.  The open lead is the SA on which Meltzer throws the S7.  Then after a lot of thought Larsen switches to the D8 on which Meltzer deposits the D2.  Now Wolff leads a club from dummy and see the C4.  Do you finesse or not?  There are two inferences.  The first is that Larsen preempted.  That would suggest that he is short in clubs.  The second is that Larsen did not attempt to punch dummy with a heart.  Does that mean anything?  In any case Wolff finessed and as it turned out the clubs were 2-2 and unfortunately the queen was offside.   The stanza finished off with Morse picking up only 3 imps to add to their previous total.  After two sets they lead 58-35. 

The other match is fairly tight as well with the score Schwartz 64 and Lynch 45 with two boards to be scored.  But Berkowitz-Lair have arrived in 3NT which is off six heart tricks – down 2.   Both teams in the other match found the best contract, 4S.   Hearts have been bid and raised at this table.  Somehow they still get to 3NT with Qx of hearts opposite x. There was obviously some confusion on this auction.

Since Jones had a singleton small heart he obviously thought that 2NT was not natural.  At the end of the second stanza Schwartz leads Lynch 64-45

Back in two hours.

The Quarterfinals for USA 2 Seniors

July 9th, 2009  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

With Morse having a big lead in USA 1 Seniors Final after two segments.  I am watching the Quarterfinals for the USA 2 spot.  At the moment Kasle is leading Larsen by a mere 9 imps.  The result for Larsen in the Closed Room looks soft (4S down 3 minus 300( but it might well be repeated in the Open Room.  The auction seems to lead there.  Here is the reason:

Schermer (west) for Kasle has

Everyone is vulnerable and Stansby starts things off with a pass.  You pass and Bramley bids 2H.  Stansby now jumps to 4H.  What do you do?  You bid 4S right?  But we have a script change in this room.   It now went pass, pass to Stansby and he bid 5H which Chambers doubled.  Let’s see how that works out.  Down one too bad

Stansby held

Do you like his bid?  Some days it might make.  But still he does have some defense here.  This choice cost 11 imps.  Bramley held

Larsen is back with a 20 imp lead.  It wasn’t really that bad a choice but it was costly.  A few imps change back and forth but the stanza ends with the same imp differences.  Kasle 97 Larsen 77.  A quick check on Lynch Vernay shows that Lynch has added to their lead against Vernay winning the stanza 43-16 and leading the match 114-59.