One Week Until The Gold Points Online Bridge Tournament

If you haven’t filled your schedule yet, time to start asking your partners. We are only 4 days away from the beginning of the Endless Summer Regional.

To recap, you can play 4 sessions per day: morning and afternoon, or evening and late evening. At the very least, you should try to do 2 sessions when you play – that’s the only way to get Gold Points. If you are playing the 99er or 499er, then it doesnt matter. Each session is stand-alone.

Side Game Gambit?

There is one gambit that hasn’t been discussed enough. What if you go for the side game series? It’s designed for people who can’t block off 6 hours in one day (or simply don’t enjoy that much bridge in one day). Instead, you can play the same time two days in a row, and they will count towards an overall series score, awarding you gold points.

If you go this route, take a careful look at the side game schedule:

Most importantly, if you only want to play at say, 2pm each day, then it’s better to pick Thursday and Friday, or Saturday and Sunday. If you pick Friday and Saturday, you won’t get any Gold!

Also, they take the best two sessions out of each series. I think that means playing three or all four session in the series puts you at an advantage – they usually take the best two, not your average.

Strength of the Side Game vs Open Game?

Don’t worry if you can’t play every game in the series. Anyone who has time to play all 4 sessions of a side game would probably opt for the main game each day – unless they are specifically going for the side game gambit. Certainly during the previous Big Apple Regional, there were some specialists who seemed to do very well dominating the side games.

Has anyone tried playing in these side games? What do you think of the field versus the open game? About the same, or is it more of a mid-flight?