OK, you are going to play some bridge at the Regional Tournament that is being held at the Coralville Marriott June 24 thru June 29, 2014.
How do you decide what games to enter?? How can you read that full page schedule of events??? I am hopeful I can help you and if you still have questions, email me or Gary Edwards, Wyn Seeley or Bill Kent.
The events are expensive…$13 per session…so you hardly have the funds to get a cheap burger left from your 3-$10 bills if you play both afternoon and evening. But, you are lucky…because you are staying in your home. If you were traveling (with that cost) and had to pay for the hotel room, you would have to add about $125 per day for lodging (I may be a bit low.) So what is everyone seeking…GOLD MASTER POINTS.
If you are not trying to win some of these Gold Master Points (awarded only at Regional and National Bridge Events) there is no need to pay these kind of fees to play bridge. Heck, you can play on Tuesday Night for $2-5 for the session. Don’t pay big bucks for a session of bridge if the event does not offer you a good chance to collect some of the Gold Master Points.
My next question, is what amount of time do you have available? Can you play only in the evening or can you play all day?? Are you only available on the weekend?? How is your stamina? This tournament lasts 6 days and after the first day…..you can play about 15 hours per day….with breaks for lunch and dinner. It can be exhausting and toward the end……you are lucky to be able to hold your cards and sit in your chair…let alone remember how to bid or play the hand. If you are physically exhausted, you are just wasting your money…..so I am going to give you some events and put a priority on which ones to enter, which offer the best deals.
Bracketed KO1 and Bracketed KO2
These are the best events to enter. These are two separate events. The Bracketed KO 1 begins on Tuesday (June 24) at 1:15 p.m. and the Bracketed KO 2 begins on Friday (June 27) at 1:15 p.m. These events are team games so you will need at least four players to enter them. It is best if you play with two partnerships as opposed to four bridge players that are just thrown together.
If you enter either KO Team event and win your match in the afternoon, you will advance to play another match in the evening at 7:00 p.m. If you win that second match, you will now have qualified for the Gold Point Rounds. You have to advance to the third round of this event to get any GOLD POINTS….but if you make it that far….YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO WIN GOLD POINTS. How many you win will be determined during the 3rd and (if you advance) the 4th rounds. Let’s say the winner of your bracket is going to get 9 gold points…..2nd place will get about 6.5 and the 3rd/4th tie will earn about 4. Once you win your second match on the first day of the event…you are guaranteed the 4 point award (my estimate)….if you win in the afternoon of the second day, you are guaranteed to get 6.5 and if you win in the evening of the second day you are the champion of your bracket and you win the 9 points. Each member of your team gets the awards earned.
So if you are entering the Bracketed KO 1 event for Tuesday Afternoon or the Bracketed KO 2 event for Friday afternoon….if you keep advancing (winning) you are going to be playing for two days (Tuesday & Wednesday) and/or (Friday & Saturday). You CANNOT make a date to play with different partners or teams for events for Tuesday or Friday evenings…..or for the following day when the event starts. Now if you LOSE…..and don’t advance…..you are free to enter other events….and I will discuss those in a minute.
On Tuesday Nights since last September I have been trying to teach you the difference of how to play in Team Events. I have laid out a set of RULES HOW YOU CAN LOSE IN A TEAM EVENT. If you break my rules…..you are likely to lose your KO matches. If you don’t break my rules….you should win your match. TEAM GAMES ARE LOST…..NOT WON. If you sit at the table in a KO Team Event, bid as you know you should bid to reach an appropriate contract; play and make what you bid; use good defense to beat your opponents’ contract; don’t go for big penalties in competitive auctions; and don’t double opponents’ contracts without a big trump stack (and then maybe not)…….you can just wait for your opponents to not do one of these things……and your opponents will lose the match…..and when they lose……you win.
Team games are the easiest way to win master points. You have two partnerships working together. In a pair game….you are all alone. In team games you just have to beat the one team you are playing…..in the pair game, you have to beat all the other pairs in your strata. Team games should be relaxing…..you need to keep your wits about you……but you don’t have to beat up the pair at your table…..just play, bid and defend well…..and the other team will either have to do the same…..or they will lose and you will win. In team games your team has ALL THE CARDS….the good ones and the bad ones; in pair games you only have the cards that were dealt to you….so if they are the little cards…..you have to make the best you can with the little cards.
The Mechanics of the KO Team
Let’s say there are 30 tables (my estimate) for these two KO events (KO 1 on Tuesday and KO 2 on Friday). The directors will divide the 30 tables into 3 groups based upon the teams’ average master point holding (total points of all the members of the team divided by the members on the team). KO events can have teams with 4, 5 or 6 players…..but only 4 play at a time. As less experience players you should be one of the 10 tables in the last group. Those 10 tables will be randomly selected to form 4 groups,. two groups of 3 and two groups of 2. If you are in a group of 2, you will play the other team all afternoon….24 hands (12 hand and then a break). If you are in one of the groups of 3, you will play 12 hands against each of the other two teams in your group. You will play 6 hands against each…..and then break and then do it again. The match outcome will depend upon your score for all 24 hands against one or 12 against two. You will know where you stand at the break…..but you are in one or two matches. If you win the match of two, you advance….the other team is out. If you win one of the two 12-board matches if you are in a group of three…..you will probably advance. Only one team does not advance in the groups of three….so you have a slightly better chance if you are assigned a group of three.
Those teams who advance (1 team from each of the groups of 2 and 2 teams from each of the groups of 3) will leave 6 teams still in the event after the afternoon session. Now those 6 teams are divided into two groups of 3 and you repeat the process I have described above, so you play 12 hands against each other team in your group and two teams will advance. This process has reduced the 10 teams that entered the event to 4, and those four teams are on to the Gold Point Session the following afternoon.
In order to get to the Gold Point Session, you have had to beat just two teams. One team to beat in the afternoon and one team to beat in the evening will advance your team to the Gold Point Sessions. You have played 24 hands or 12 hands in each match. On Tuesday Nights you have only had 4-6 hands to determine a winner. At the regional you will play many more hands….so you can still win if you break a rule….but only one. On Tuesday Nights, you may have had to play some Life Masters. At the regional, in your event……there will be no LMs unless you have a LM on your team. I will bet your opponents have NO CLUE about the RULES. You have had a lot of instruction of HOW NOT TO LOSE TEAM EVENTS. Your opponents will not have had that information. Actually, they may have that information…..because you may draw another Tuesday Night Team to compete against….but your competition will have a similar number of master points. If they don’t…..you will be awarded a handicap.
Those are the mechanics of the KO Team events. Trust me, they are the simplest way to get a group of those gold points. If you played in just the two KO events…..I would expect you to win at least 6 gold points. If you play in the pairs…..you may be lucky to win any….since in the pairs only the overall winners and the top of the section get gold points.
If you are going to play in the best deal…one or both of the Bracketed KO Events, then you can’t make other plans for Wednesday or Saturday. If you lose, you can look at the other opportunities…but think positive, and make no other plans than the KOs.
Gold Rush Teams
The Gold Rush Team Event is a Swiss Team, not a KO event. This is an event that is held on Thursday. This is a two-session event that is played at 1:15 p.m and 7:00 p.m on June 26, 2014. This has a strata for the 0-300 point player. If I am concerned about my stamina and playing every day, I would take off Thursday to recharge my batteries so I would be fresh for the next KO event that starts on Friday. You need a team for this event…two partnerships.
Stratiflighted Swiss Teams
The Sunday Event is another play thru Swiss Team. There is a strata for 0-500. This is also a Team Event. You need two partnerships to play in this event.
OK, we are just a pair…with no team, what pair events should we play???
Gold Rush Pairs
You have two days of Gold Rush Pair Games. Wednesday June 25 and Saturday June 28. These two events have a strata for 0-300.
Stratified Open Pairs
These pair events are available on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. These games are stratified, but the strata are not as good for players with limited experience as the Gold Rush Pair Events.
The pair events are every day…but are not as good an opportunity to get the Gold Points as the Team Games…but if you do not have a team…these pair games are your best hope.
I would not play in the Novice Pairs or Continuous Pairs. These games cost you $13 per session for very little possible rewards. You would not drive hundreds of miles and pay hundreds of dollars in expenses to play in these events. Just because the regional is in your back yard…don’t waste your resources and time when you have such a much better opportunity.
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