The 2026 Penticton Regional Start Page

“And Now ... Football”

Most will be aware that there is a major event in the initial stages during the Penticton Regional, one that we dare not name for fear of being attacked by lawyers protecting overpriced branding and rights. We can, however, run a fun, no-prizes contest to predict the results! 24 matches involving all 48 teams are happening between Monday and Saturday, predict the final scores using the form below and we’ll see who wins! You can predict all 24 scores and re-pick later if you wish, or just pick tomorrow’s games each day before. The scoring system takes into account whether you picked the winner or a draw correctly and how far off the actual goals total you were. Only your best 16 games count, so you can get in later and still win, but predicting all the games gives you the best chance since you can discard more duds!

The form will stay up but the program used to process the data that comes in will timestamp every entry and discard picks that arrive after kickoff, so waiting until the last minute may cost you if there is a sudden internet delay, ten minutes before kickoff should be safe. Leaders will be printed (use a nickname if you wish) in each daily page of the Daily Bulletin, along with the Hideous Hog (In Training)'s predictions.

The form is here. Good luck!

 

Basic Tournament Information

Location: Penticton is one of several main cities of the Okanagan region of British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province. The tournament site is the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre in northern Penticton, near the Okanagan Lake waterfront and its many surrounding hotels and motels. Downtown shopping, as well as dozens of hotels, motels and restaurants of all types, are all within a few city blocks, while several larger shopping centres are a short drive away in central and south Penticton. Penticton’s climate in early June is usually nice, with very little rain (they warn vociferously on the local weather channels if rain is coming and often it lasts only a few minutes!) and very warm temperatures.

Driving: Penticton is right in the middle of a sequence of south Okanagan communities from Kelowna and West Kelowna in the north, south along highway 97 through Peachland, Summerland, Penticton, then further south through Kaleden, Okanagan Falls, Oliver, and Osoyoos near the U.S. Border. From the west coast most will take the Trans-Canada highway from Vancouver to Hope, then the Coquihalla Highway to Merritt, then east on 97C to the Peachland exit, then south to Penticton, but an alternate route is Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton, east to Keremeos, then north on 3A to Kaleden and then north to Penticton. From the north Okanagan and eastern BC, most will go through Kelowna to West Kelowna and Peachland, then south, but there are other routes. From the USA there are no interstates in northern Washington state, but several highway crossings into the Okanagan region, and Highway 3 on the Canadian side connects Osoyoos, near Oroville WA, to points east and west just north of the border: from Hope and Princeton in the west to Grand Forks and Castlegar and Creston in eastern B.C. This means that you can easily reach Penticton from wherever you choose to cross.

Transit: Penticton Transit has several routes that go past the tournament site, and connects places as far as Cherry Lane Mall, Skaha Lake, and downtown to the Trade and Convention Centre. Some routes go way up the eastern hillside and allow for panoramic views of the city! Other routes go as far as Princeton, Osoyoos and Kelowna, but are much less frequent than the city routes.

Restaurants and Shops: The Trade and Convention Centre is near many local restaurants and shops of all types, some close by, others near the northern beachfront, and many good options a short drive away. Cherry Lane Mall, about 10-15 minutes drive in south central Penticton is the main shopping mall, about 2 km away on Main Street, but there are several other shopping centres. The downtown area has a few small grocery stores but for a large grocery store you will need to travel a bit further.

Tournament Site: Parking in the lots outside the main playing area is free; as the complex expands they have built a bit more parking on the southwest side a short walk from the site. Like most places, Penticton bylaws ask that smokers not smoke near entrance doorways, so let's do our best to comply please.

The north entrance is closed but for people parking west of the site, near the baseball field, or walking in from the northwest, loading bay C on the building’s west side, behind third base on the ballfield, is open to save you the walk around.

COVID: ACBL and District policy no longer requires that all players be fully or even partially vaccinated. Masks are not required but players should expect to possibly be asked to wear one if requested by opponents who must supply them. Just as some players are more uncomfortable with strong scents, some have serious concerns about the closeness of players at the table, and courtesy dictates that we do our best to accomodate both. Please co-operate if asked: masks will be available for those without one on hand.

Let’s use common sense and remember that while we are all happy to see the end of the mandatory restrictions, COVID is still out there and some are still returning to normal at their own pace. Players should stay away from the crowded playing areas when symptoms suddenly develop that might be COVID. Most pharmacies have COVID testing kits available for free if you’d like to be sure before you play. At the same time, let’s not ostracize anyone who sneezes or coughs a time or two and trust that they are being as vigilant as we all should.

Slience Those Ringtones Please! While we discuss courtesy (which I have always found in abundance with Okanagan players in many pleasant visits), let’s be sure to silence our gadgets. For today’s cellphones this means more than simply setting the volume to zero: some phones play alarms and ringtones and connection jingles even if the sound is turned down. ACBL has relaxed the rules on penalties when a ringer goes off, but this shouldn’t be happening. The onus is on each of us to discover how to prevent our gadgets from causing unnecessary distractions — not just cellphones: tablets you carry with you, watches that beep every hour, music players that sound a few tones every time they pair with headphones, gadgets you’ve left inside a coat somewhere, all can be major distractions to someone trying to recall the auction or the cardplay or the conventions they need to remember. Take a moment and find out how to silence all of your gadgets, and get into the habit of doing it before each session, and undoing it afterwards. If you must be ‘available,’ vibrate mode is entertaining to all (as long as it is set to a level that avoids the production of penalty cards...)! “It‘s only just the once” is no excuse to the player at the next table who has dropped a key card when your one-time alarm went off. Silence them please.

Another Common Issue: A British tournament director’s amusing article about his daily trials included this recurring gag of complaints received from players at roughly the same time, familiar to any tournament director in the world and adjusted here for ACBL play:

“Director, it is far too hot in here. You would think the ACBL could get a decent venue sometimes, considering all the money we spend on them. What are you going to do about it?’

‘Director, it is awfully cold in here. You would think the ACBL could get a decent venue sometimes, considering all the money we spend on them. What are you going to do about it?’

Welcome to the Director’s Endplay. Here’s what I know from experience. We usually* get both complaints in roughly equal proportions. This means that there is a wide variation in perception among players themselves. The majority do not complain and are comfortable with the current temperature. If you are not in the majority and freeze up in air-conditioned space, taking matters into your own hands by opening doors to let in warm air from outside may work temporarily, but the sensors will soon detect this warm air and compensate for it, making you and others even colder! Modern buildings constantly monitor the temperature and are making the changes you are demanding before you even ask. Even so, at a bridge tournament, where at 12:20 there may be 36 people in the playing area and twenty minutes later there may be ten times as many warm bodies affecting the temperature, all changes are gradual. The best solution is to be prepared and have a sweater or jacket with you.

* Usually, but not always. In Osoyoos in May 2024 we were faced with a venue where the AC was stuck (apparently by order of the mayor, who was out of town) on August mode, in a warm but not particularly hot late May. “Fifteen to seventeen” was not a notrump range, it was an estimate of the room temperature in Celsius! By the fourth session, with help from the players, we were out in the hallway where it was a bit dark, but the blasts of cold air couldn’t reach us.

Dates, Times, Events, Fees: The Regional tournament begins on Monday evening at 7:00pm, with event sales starting about 6:15 or so. (I have learned not to arrive early to look around, because somehow there is always someone looking to buy an entry at 3:45pm....) The tournament schedule (with Monday Evening and Tuesday Morning added back in after they were unavailable last year) is mostly the same as in previous years with a few exciting additions as we continue to (we hope) grow back to pre-pandemic norms. 9:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 7:00 pm are the start times, except for the Sunday Fast Pairs which will begin its final session a little earlier at about 12:15pm. Here’s the summary and what’s new:

• Knockout Teams: Four of these, beginning Monday at 7pm (plus morning-afternoon-evening on Tuesday if you are successful!), and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1pm, with sessions at 1pm and 7pm on that day and the one following. These are traditional-style knockouts where there may be three-way matches in the first or second rounds, to reduce teams to four in each bracket.
• Bracketed Round-Robin Teams: These are described as Bracketed Swiss on the flyer, but ‘Swiss’ is the scoring system where teams are matched according to the current standings. Bracketed Team events are different: usually there are 7-9 teams in a bracket and teams play all (or almost all) of the other teams in their bracket over two sessions of short matches. It takes a few minutes to initially put the teams into brackets, but from that point on, the schedule is set for the event and your next assignment will be posted when you complete each match (although the new table may still have players completing the previous round if you’re superfast...). There are five such events: Thursday and Saturday, both at 1pm and 7pm, a Sunday 0-3000 event, and two Morning events on Wednesday-Thursday at 9am and Friday-Saturday at 9am. For all bracketed team events, round-robin or knockout, it is very important to have an accurate masterpoint total for your team with you as you buy your entry.
• Other team events: There is a top-flight Swiss Teams on Sunday above the 0-3000 bracketed event. Single session Swiss Team events happen on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday evening. No need to calculate or give us your team total masterpoints for Swiss Teams.
• Two-Session Pairs: Tuesday thru Saturday at 1pm and 7pm. All of the two-session events require you to pay for both sessions when you buy your entry at noon hour. Single session entries are only accepted for the Gold Rush 0-750 pairs (two session play is reccommended to maximize your gold point potential), but in the higher games you just might be able to get into the evening session to fill a half-table. On Friday and Saturday, the two-session pairs events are Open Pairs, and Gold Rush 0-750 Pairs. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there are three events: Top Flight Pairs, Mid Flight 0-3000 Pairs, and Gold Rush 0-750 Pairs. Both members of a partnership must be below the event limit: for example, a pair with 800 and 600 cannot play in the Gold Rush claiming their average is below 750.
• NEW! Morning Gold Rush 0-750 Pairs over two days!: Wednesday-Thursday morning, and Friday-Saturday morning. Single sessions are OK, but best is to play both sessions.
• ALSO NEW! Morning 99er games on Wednesday and Thursday, instead of 299ers. Pairs with players over 100 can play in the Morning Gold Rush or the Side Game.
• Single Session Pairs: Two flavours here, as well: Side Games and 299er Games. The first open Side Game is on Monday Evening when the tournament begins, and they take place at 9am, 1pm, and 7pm until Saturday Evening. The Morning and Afternoon series are Tuesday thru Saturday, five sessions, while the Evening series is Monday thru Saturday, six sessions. Anyone can play in any number of these, even with different partners. Within the five or six games of each series, every players’ best two session percentages are added together and the top scores among these will win gold point overalls. The 299er games are every session from Tuesday Morning thru Friday Afternoon, except for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning, where there is a two-day Morning Gold Rush you may wish to enter instead, or a Side Game, or for Wednesday and Thursday, a 99er pairs. Weekend players under 300 will be welcomed into the Saturday Gold Rush or may eagerly form teams and enter the bracketed team events on Saturday or Sunday, and discover the fun of team play.

Players in all games will need to have an ACBL number (even from a membership that has lapsed); those who have never had an ACBL number will need to obtain a free guest membership at this link — be sure to write the seven-digit number the online form gives you. The (Canadian dollars) $21.00 per-session entry fee will have a $4.00 surcharge per session for players whose memberships have lapsed. Paying for entries will be on debit or credit cards only, but you can split payments among multiple cards. It’s important to let the seller know what the plan is as we try to process many pairs and teams as quickly as possible.

This Web Site: Our plan for the Daily Bulletin site is to provide you with a quick daily digest of the events of the tournament, with links to ACBL Live for each event if you want the complete details and deals. I write (or create software that writes) simple HTML that should render well on computers, tablets, or phone screens of most sizes. We have a group of pages linked together by links bars like this one:

Last year’s Monday page had no results but contained two McBruce articles on the basics of tournament play for newer players. You can check that out here if you’d like a refresher on live bridge tournament play, or a few McBruce tips on errors and misconceptions that newer players often get tripped up by.

Daily Pages: Before the day’s events are processed, these will contain a schedule of Today’s Events in this order:

• Morning-only Games
• Two Session Afternoon and Evening Games
• Afternoon-only Single Session Games
• Evening-only Single Session Games

There will be details on each event, what type of game it is, what the strat limits are, and who the winners were last year. Near the end of each page we will add a list of Tomorrow’s Events, in the same format.

At the end of the day Director-In-Charge Matt Koltnow will send me the day’s results and I will process them into the website in the early hours of the morning, bit by bit. First, I will update the table count page and masterpoints page, and add that information into the page for the day just completed, removing the Today’s Schedule section (since all of those events are now complete) and creating a Preliminary Version. Next is the processing of the results for the day, which in a tournament of this size takes the computer a few minutes as it automates its way through a process which juggles very large files and creates some (a lot of) HTML to add to the results section. A few oddities may fall through the cracks and force me to do a bit of work getting the data that the program was unable to extract, but by 1am or so there should be a final version with all of the results from the day, as well as brackets for incomplete knockouts. Here is what the Final Version of each daily page will contain once the process is complete:

• Table Counts thus far and a comparison to previous tournaments here. This is a nice colourfully graphic way to see which events are on at which times, as well as how they’ve fared for attendance.
• Masterpoint Leaders at the end of the day (not including events that are not yet complete) here.
• Noteworthy News Items Received — tournament chair Dave Johnson and other members of the Penticton organizing team will have messages and you’ll see them interspersed throughout, with the heavy double purple rounded border and a separate typeface to let you know this is official info!
• A results section with events in roughly this order:
• Two Session Pair Games: Open or Top Flight Pairs, Mid Flight Pairs, Gold Rush Pairs
• Two Session Swiss or Bracketed Teams
• Single Session Swiss Teams
• Completed Knockouts
• Rosters for Surviving Teams in Knockouts that are not yet complete
• Side Games
• Side Game Series Leaders (once a few sessions in each series are complete)
• Side Game Series Overalls (when a series is finished)
• 299er Pairs
• 99er Pairs
• Race for the overalls!: Most events will include, just after the overall leaders, a colourful round-by-round account of the top pairs in each strat: where you were after each round, what you did, how far you were from the lead. There is much more on this new feature here. All events will have a direct link to the ACBL Live page with the complete results. Many events will have, just below the main headline, a few lines of commentary listing the winners of each strat and the route they took to get there. I’ve begun posting the Final Version without these little blurbs and adding them in a bit later, so people could see the results first. This seems to be a good idea and I will probably continue that here in Penticton, so refresh the page often to see if things have been added!
• Each daily page also has a set of puzzles from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, a free online source of endless puzzling fun, some sort of trivia question set at the top and an answer at the bottom, sometimes an actual bridge deal with bid-by-bid and play-by-play commentary from my collection, and Tomorrow's Schedule (which of course, is a virtual copy of the first thing you will see on the page for the following day). I might even include some funny stuff from the internet from the strange bookmarks I’ve collected. Enjoy!

Once a day’s results are posted, I may revise it later if there are late scoring corrections. Some browsers save a copy of a page and do not check to see if the content has changed; in most browsers you should be able to hit F5 to reload the page and stop using the one your computer has saved. On tablets there is usually a circular arrow that does the same thing.

Other Pages: You’re looking at the Welcome page right now. The Masterpoints! Page, which we call DUMPS (Daily Updated Master Point Summary) will be updated every night first, before the daily pages of results take shape, and will contain the latest masterpoint totals and tournament leaders, both overall and limited to non-Life Masters. Also, they will have everyone's current total broken down into red and gold points, but will not include masterpoints already won in events that have yet to be completed. I've added two more lists that will not change nightly: the complete masterpoint results from the previous District 19 Regional, Leavenworth in April 2026; and, the final standings of the 2025 Kirkwood Trophy, which covers all District 19 Regionals in a calendar year. The Photos Page will depend on people sending me photos taken (although we may add some information later here; Penticton usually has a dedicated photo taker who cleverly sets up in the room where they give out the door prizes, so you can’t claim one for a win without getting your photo taken!). Now that everyone’s cellphone has a camera, anyone can take a photo of winners for the Daily Bulletin! Here is a good guideline on how to get best results:

• Above the Strike Zone: Try not to include in the frame any part of the body below where the letters would be on a baseball uniform. People want to see faces, not waistlines. If you have people of different heights, you might have to include the tall one’s strike zone(s), but make faces your focus.
• Fill the Frame: Don’t stand so far back that only 10%-20% of the frame is faces. Move up close and look at your screen as a guide. I will always crop out legs and shoes, and if this leaves an image that is small, the quality will suffer.
• Send the biggest version you can: It’s important. bm@mcbruce.ca is the new address to send photo files to. Don’t send the one that takes up the least bandwidth, it will look blurred on a screen if the resolution is lowered beyond a reasonable level.
• Identify!: I need to know who the people are and what they did. If they won an event, tell me which one and first names from left to right in the photo will suffice (I can get the rest from the game data, unless you have a team of four Freds or something....). I’d also like to credit the photo taker, so tell me who you are as well.
• Watch the lighting and background: At night, photos taken in the dark may not look too well and require touchup. The playing area is usually best for light. I have taken a lot of photos that seem to have trees coming out of the tops of people’s heads, so avoid that if you can, although now that all photos will appear online in colour (as opposed to monochrome on paper), this is not as big an issue as it used to be. Penticton has some great outdoor scenes that would make great photos: if your team goes out for dinner, take a photo of the team somewhere and send it along if you win! Simple is usually best, against a wall inside the playing area, or even in a space in the middle with people milling around a distance away can sometimes work.
• Patience: There’s a lot to do at scary hours during a Daily Bulletin week, especially when I have daily Director duties that require a reasonable amount of rest, and it may take a day or two before I can get around to posting photos. Or responding to those who have sent them.

The Table Counts page puts the attendance data into a colourful HTML table. You can check it out here to see a graphical display of the events of each session, by type, and compare our attendance in 2026 to that of 2025, as best we can considering the changes to the schedule. On the daily pages near the top we’ll also be comparing current attendance to the 2019 attendance (3217½ tables!) before the hiatus and hoping to get to 60% of that lofty figure, making the target 1930 tables this time. Maybe we can do even better!

Finally, the ACBL Live link goes to the list of tournament events, from which you will need another click or three to find the one you want. Direct links for each event, even each bracket in the knockouts, are available from the event result headlines on the daily pages and should be quicker.

Thanks for visiting! This is still a work in progress and the progress in getting it where I want it to be continues slowly, but that’s web development for you! I should be on the floor directing most days and will be set up somewhere after the evening session putting it all together. Feel free to contact me (new e-mail address: bm@mcbruce.ca ) with reports of errors or if something isn't working for you.