Masterpoint Leaders thru Friday

(completed events only)

The Friday-Saturday Knockout and the Friday-Saturday Morning Swiss Teams, not completed yet, are the only events not included today.  Masterpoints already earned in these events will not be added to totals until the event is over.

Non-Life Master Masterpoint Leaders thru Friday

(completed events only)

The Friday-Saturday Knockout and the Friday-Saturday Morning Swiss Teams, not completed yet, are the only events not included today.  Masterpoints already earned in these events will not be added to totals until the event is over.

Have a look at the masterpoints page to see totals for everyone, including red-gold breakdowns, updated each night by about midnight.

Saturday's noon hour speaker (in the Colwood room) is Kirk Homis and the topic will probably be posted today.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Entries go on sale about an hour before each session (later than that in the evening since many in the two-session games already have assignments.  Afternoon and evening pair events will be sold in the rather spacious area (now that we have moved the coat racks to the Metchosin room) overlooking Douglas St., while team events and knockout purchases for the next session for surviving teams will be sold at the teams station near the front of the room.  A new selling area has been set up behind the main selling area for the afternoon 199er games, which are taking place in the smaller rooms out that way.
• In line for an entry, you will need to know what event you are playing in and (for pairs) how many masterpoints your pair has combined, so entry sellers can seed and distribute players in each event and section optimally, or (for knockouts) you will need a good current estimate of the total masterpoints your team's players currently have.  Remember to let us know if (for pairs) you need a North-South, or North-South for both sessions, or can offer to play East-West in both to help us balance things out.
• Washrooms are on the Douglas St. side of the main playing area and also just outside the front near the teams station past the bookstore area.  Staff from the Victoria Conference Centre (they are conspicuous by their fine sense of clothing style!) are ready to help you find one.
• Convention cards are near the pairs computer stations in the side entrance area in the middle of the main room.
• Smoking must be done outdoors and a fair distance away from entry doors.  There is no smoking inside the Conference Centre or on the balcony overlooking Douglas St.
• Please remember to turn your electronic devices off when the game begins, so as not to create distractions for nearby tables and force the Directors to give obligatory penalties they don't want to give.  Absolutely necessary calls must be taken well outside the playing area and cannot delay the progress of the game.  Let's focus on bridge and leave the devices for later.
• Weekends at Regionals are excellent times to peruse the flyer desk and take some home to display at your local clubs.  Even in this modern world where information is available online, we still react to flyers that are within sight more than online versions that we have to find.  Tell players who ask about these big tournaments how much fun they are: the more the merrier!
• Bridge books and supplies: David Taylor will be glad to help you find something interesting to read, wear or use as you become a better bridge player.  Check out the display just outside the teams area!
• Lost Items: The bus driver on my run into Victoria made a short speech that all bridge players should hear:  "Please remember to take all of your personal belongings with you, for at the end of the day, anything left on the bus becomes mine...and my garage is getting full!"  A quick walk through the room at the dinner break reveals dozens of items: glasses, convention card holders, purses, books, and all sorts of things that players must realize they have forgotten but decide that it will magically be floating around somewhere when they return.  Since this is not always the case, let's all try to do better in taking the things with us that we don't want to lose through bad luck.  Lost items will make their way to the Hospitality Desk and not stay at any of the Director computer stations, which are crowded and busy enough.  That's the first place to check.
• And with that in mind: The item in the photo below (resting on a pencil so you can see it's shape a little better) is in the Director's room.  Bets have been made as to exactly what it is, so when you claim it you can tell us.  (I'm joking about the bets.)

Special Schedule notice: It's not on the official schedule for the tournament, but the District Final in two of the four flights of the Grand National Teams will be held today and Sunday here at the tournament site.  The Flight C (non-Life Master) and Flight A (0-6000 MP) events were held March 16-17 in Everett, and the winners were:

Flight A winners: Alex Hong, West Vancouver BC; Sidney Yang, Richmond BC; Lu Gan - Kai Zhou, Burnaby BC.

Flight C winners: Jennifer Hong, Burnaby BC; Henry Yao, Vancouver BC; Lisa Li, Surrey BC; Flora Yan, Langley BC.

(Your Daily Bulletin editor was directing a game in Vancouver when he remembered that the GNT A and C finals had taken place the previous weekend, so he looked up the results to find that two Vancouver teams had won and would be flying to Las Vegas to represent District 19 in the National Final of the GNT.  He announced the good news to the room, adding that "this proves the old adage that two Hongs make a flight"!)

The other two flights, the B Flight (0-2500) and the unlimited Championship Flight, will be contested this weekend as part of the Regional.  To play your team must have earned a club qualification at club games held during the qualifying period from September thru February (and in some cases into March), or pay a fee for all unqualified players.  Both events will be full two-day events with the actual format depending on the turnout.  In the championship flight especially, there are regulations about pre-disclosure of unusual methods and it is recommended that you sign up early (by 12:30) so that everything required can be taken care of before the game.

More detailed information is here and on the GNT flyer (pdf) here.

Friday Open Pairs

Comeback Win of the Week for Debbie Mineault and Duncan Smith

Top on a board was 25, average for two sessions 650.  Winning Scores: 719½ (A), 753 (B), 715 (C).  To make the overalls you needed: 689 (A), 676 (B), 662½ (C).

They won the event by more than a full board, despite going off to the break in eighteenth place!  Debbie Mineault and Duncan Smith had a 67.85% evening session to win all the gold points!  Flight B winners Debbie Hargreaves and William Harris rebounded from eighth at the break to finish second overall and almost a full board ahead in strat B.  Just to be different, strat C winnners Mark Beduz and Marla Nickerson led strat C at halftime and scored 53% in the evening, which would normally be enough to easily take the third strat, but last night it put them only in the clear by 4 matchpoints on a 25 top!

Friday Gold Rush Pairs

Runaway win for Heather McIntosh and Frances Newall

Top on a board was 21, average for two sessions 552.  Winning Scores: 693 (7), 629 (3), 590½ (1).  To make the overalls you needed: 589½ (A), 582 (B, C).

Over 63% in the evening session put Heather McIntosh and Frances Newall over two boards ahead for the easy win.  Under-300 winners Mike Black and Paul Retallack were second at the break but 57% in the evening left them almost two-thirds of a board clear.  The under-100 winners, Larraine Smith and Irene Dundon, finished strong with 55% which was just enough to beat their closest competitor, only a few matchpoints behind.

Thursday-Friday Rose Bracketed Knockout Teams

Winners: Lewis, Busby, Deutsch, Wallace, Drysdale

To his great surprise, the Hideous Hog's Predictions have taken a turn for the better.  The scoring system is five points for picking the winner and the loser, four for getting them reversed, three for picking the winner only if the pick wins, two for picking the winner only if the pick loses, one for getting either the winner or the loser, and zero if both picks don't make it to the final.  On Tuesday-Wednesday the HHIT picks were 1-0-2-1-1 for 5 points out of 25.  But on Wednesday-Thursday the Hog-In-Training improved to 1-5-2-3, and for the Thursday-Friday picks he was more accurate than he has ever been: 3-4-4-5-5!  Total so far (we're not counting the quarterfinal picks for the Monday-Tuesday KO) is 37/70, over average!

Knockouts Continuing Saturday:

Friday-Saturday Morning Swiss Teams Leaders

To be concluded Saturday Morning...

As previously stated, one of the teams in the lower half will contend for masterpoints; it happens all the time in Swiss Teams.

Friday Evening Swiss Teams

Winners: Tradewell and Barton (tie - A), Smith (B, C)

As often happens in a large single session Swiss, the leaders at the end never quite got a chance to meet, and in fact the only two teams with four wins were Barton and third-place Heino.  Fourth overall Smith was also undefeated, with three wins and a tie to take strats B and C!

Friday Morning Side Game

Game 4 of 5 in the Morning Series

Series Leaders are below...

Friday Afternoon Side Game

Game 4 of 5 in the Afternoon Side Game Series

Series leaders are below...

Friday Evening Side Game

Game 5 of 6 in the Evening Side Game Series

Series Leaders are below...

Side Game Series Leaders

One game left in each series!

Here is how Side Games work at this tournament:

• Anyone can play in a Side Game at any time.  Strats are 2000+ / 750 - 2000 / 0 - 750  All Side Games are single session pair games.
• There are games every session from Monday Evening through to Saturday Evening, including Afternoon and Morning games.
• The games are grouped into series: Morning (5 games from Tuesday thru Saturday), Afternoon (5 games from Tuesday thru Saturday), and Evening (6 games from Monday thru Saturday).
• Masterpoints in Side Games are red unless you play in two or more sessions of the same series and win a game, or are one of the top players in a series.
• Individual players in each side game series are ranked by the sum of their best two games (even if those games were played with different partners.  Two games of 60% will give you a score of 120% and put you in contention for the top spot.

Friday Morning 199er Pairs

Duelling 60% games before noon!

Bulletin editor (who does not awake easily in the morning) wonders how they do it...

Friday Afternoon 199er Pairs

Spoke BC?

Even Google thinks this is a spelling error and expects Kenneth Putt is from Sooke BC, not Spoke BC....Only four pairs signed up for the Friday Evening 199er Pairs game and were placed in the Friday Evening Side Game, which is a little tougher. But one of the four pairs, Mary Frances Bishop - Bud Bishop, Delta BC, finished third overall and won nearly four masterpoints!