Big news – the ACBL National Board has voted and passed a motion to move NAP 2020 to Montreal Summer 2020, and GNT to Tamp Fall 2020.
ACBL Board Journal, March 20, 2020 Motion: The 2020 NAP Finals will be held at the Montreal Summer 2020 NABC. The 2020 GNT Finals will be held at the Tampa Fall 2020 NABC. The details of the Finals, including the scheduling of those events, will be established by management at a later date.
The deadline for the completion of District GNT Finals will be October 1, 2020.
Meeting minutes posted for the March 2020 GNYBA Board Meeting. This meeting had 5 board members dialing in, with a full switch to Zoom for next time.
NABC Cancelled We confirmed that the Columbus Spring 2020 NABC was cancelled. That’s a shame, but there seems to be no makeup date. Unfortunately, NAP was scheduled for Spring 2020. Edit: most recent proposal is moving NAP to summer 2020.
Spring 2020 Big Apple Regional Cancelled May seemed reasonably far away just two weeks ago. But now it’s clear we needed to cancel the regional. With each passing day, more and more cities go into some form of lockdown or orders to stay home. Even if we wanted to continue, we could not. The host hotel itself closes next week.
June NYC Sectional We are in a a wait and see mode. No one can really plan far enough ahead now.
Montreal Summer 2020 NABCand GNT Still on the books. It’s reasonably far away, but again no one can really plan ahead these days. However, we were still slowly working through the GNT Knockouts all the way through this past Monday. Many of the quarterfinals in the Championship, B, and C flights are already completed (not all). For now, the knockouts are on hold. In theory, teams can agree to hold the knockouts online, but with no director present, a dispute would not be fun to resolve.
Edit: Most recent proposal is moving GNT to the Tampa Fall 2020 NABC, and shifting knockout deadlines back accordingly.
Helping the Clubs As we know, the clubs are hard hit during these times – Honors, Aces, and Cavendish are currently closed (as are most private clubs). The board voted to waive the STaC fees for the most recent March weeklong STaC. GNYBA normally earns a few dollars per table during STaC week, which we use for hosting the regionals and related Unit initiatives.
The GNYBA is writing to let you know that the Big Apple Spring Tournament has been cancelled. While all of us would have preferred to play bridge, the progressing pandemic and the wholesale closures have made it impossible to conduct this tournament.
If you have made a hotel reservation for the tournament, you can cancel without penalty by calling 212-261-5870 at least 72 hours before what would have been your arrival date.
Conditions permitting, we fully intend to hold the November Regional (11/8-13).
The Online NABC is winding down, clubs are temporarily closing, and many of us are spending a whole lot more time at home together. These day-to-day interactions are causing abrupt shifts to everyone’s routine, and we all need to adapt. Today’s email from Sherry Kavaler, organizer of the Pro-Am-Am-Am events captures it well:
…quite an adjustment to do when you don’t see anyone outside your life, as well the interaction we had at Honors. I even miss the players I don’t like, LOL’s
Now more than ever, let’s be there for each other. Stay positive, stay happy, and we will get through whatever comes our way.
Anyone Want To Post?
As the weekdays and weekends blur and our many hobbies wind down, how do we stay engaged and stimulated? When I first took over this website, I didn’t know what to expect. Like that scene in Forrest Gump when he just runs across the country with no expectations, I just decided to try writing. No expectations, no idea if anyone would read. As it turns out, people do and we even get occasional warm fuzzies.
If you have any photos or stories to share, just let us know in a short comment or directly via email. I’m sure people would love to hear from you.
Last board of Day 2, I had one of those hands where you are just really scared the bots are going to misinterpret and do something crazy. LHO opens a club, two passes to my hand, which is right on the borderline of a simple heart overcall and a power double with hearts.
Then I remembered Giorgia Botta’s Wine and Cheese lesson just last Friday, held at Honors and organized by Mo Oehlerking. “There *ARE* *NO* pre-empts in the balancing seat!” (Try to say that as loud as you can in Giorgia’s voice).
Indeed, I’ll confess maybe 2 weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought to hover over the other bids – but with the powers of the Wine and Cheese crew, I found the right bid: a balancing seat jump overcall!
Tell Me More About Wine And Cheese?
In normal times (not Covid-19 times), most Friday evenings at Honors include a seminar by one of our local pros, then supervised teaching boards to solidify the featured topic of the night (last Friday was… various bidding options in the balancing seat). In addition to the usual Honors dinner, you get wine, hot and cold appetizers, and many dessert options.
The usual crowd is 10 to 15 tables, and you can sign up solo, in a pair, or even a full table. In addition to the pro, a crew of volunteers are on hand to help answer questions or help you with a lend you a lifeline bidding suggestion. I highly recommend it – and you never know, the concepts can come to you when you need it most!
Onwards To Day 3!
Good luck everyone on Day 3. For those in the running for overalls – your consistency is impressive. For the rest of us, let’s try to have some fun, or at least earn some red points.
The GNYBA is writing to provide you with an update on the status of the Big Apple Spring Regional in May. Earlier today, Honors sent an e-mail to their mailing list stating that the GNYBA Board had voted to cancel the tournament.
In fact, we have not. We voted to monitor the situation in light of Governor Cuomo’s ban on gatherings of over 500 people, which currently runs through April 11 and may be extended.
No final decision has been made, but rest assured that whatever decision we ultimately make will be in the best interests of our players.
As things develop, the GNYBA will provide you with updates.
Alright, the clock has struck midnight, which means we have confirmed our awful Day 1 results. However, with the pressures of overalls behind us, we can go high vol for the rest of the tournament. If this were a poker table, I’ve become the Loose-Aggressive Maniac. If you don’t believe me, here are my first 5 boards – no holding back versus the bots!
Not fooling around – no small slams allowed, either grand or bust! Sadly, turns out Board 1 I could have made 6C double dummy, and Board 4 should have been +500.
Deal Pools Revisted?
So a huge security feature of the online NABC is that almost every gets completely different boards. About 30 people play each board, and there are 2334 entries. With only 24 boards per day, it is highly unlikely you have even 3 boards in common with anyone. If you don’t believe me – 2334 people play 24 boards = 56,016 scores recorded. Each board played 30 times, meaning at least 1800 unique boards!
How about those within your “section” of 15 tables? I haven’t confirmed, but I believe even those 15 tables are not playing the same boards as you – the section concept is only for the purposes of scoring your percentage for section tops. Does anyone know for sure?
Furthermore, players who are friends with you or in the same geography as you will not get the same boards. Therefore, I don’t feel guilt sharing my preliminary results with GNYBA readers. Besides, even if you got the 7NT board – it won’t be board 5 for you. I could be any of the 1-24, or most likely none at all!
Ah hah, I didn’t take my own advice to step away and get out of tilt. Immediately after four “known” bad boards and publishing the post, I got back on the wagon of blunders. But it was reasonably fun – for those who are on the fence, come join the fun. You will probably do better than me, and you’ll be doing your part in self-quarantining.
Pressure Is Off
Good news, with each passing online NABC, my score has gotten worse and worse. But at least I finish them in a reasonable time. Not joking, somehow the first time I ever played the online NABC, I got a 61% but took a straight 3 hours to do 24 bot boards. Maybe I should slow down?
Bot Training Thoughts?
So we can’t talk about any specific hands until the day is done – but I swear there is a tooltip bug in the bots. Either that, or the bid is counter-intuitive enough that almost all humans assume a different interpretation, so thousands of past experiences have trained the bots to also expect a different hand from their partner.
For example, and this is completely unrelated to the “bug” I think I found. Imagine the bots were coded to play that opener after Jacoby 2NT always shows shortness, even without extras. However, enough humans bid fast arrival, to avoid the bots taking them too high after a light opening. Over time, do the bots start to build slightly higher expectations for partner’s hand in the shortness showing case?
As a gamer and software engineer, I would be curious to see how much bot bidding is lookup table versus constrained simulations. In the simple case, the bot just follows rules. In the second case, the bot generates thousands of hands based on what everyone has promised in the bidding, then figures out how best to bid.
Back in the day, you only had a limited time to finish the Online NABC. It was still 12 hours, so that should be plenty for anyone. But now it is the entire day, midnight to midnight Eastern Time!
That means, if you are off to a rocky start, then consider taking a break. I know, maybe it’s not bridge if you don’t sit through the whole session, but it’s a reasonable strategy.
How Do You Know When It’s Going Badly?
Truth is, you don’t. Maybe difficult boards can be your specialty, and as bad as it feels going down 1 because of the horrible splits, maybe everyone else freaks out and goes down 2 or more. So keep some faith.
Unfortunately, there ARE times when you know you blundered – the old misclick has been around since the days of Yahoo Games, and there is no undo option in the online NABC.
And sometimes, you simply realize there was a better path.
Does a Timeout Help?
I’m not sure. There might be an argument for getting into the zone, so doing the 24 straight boards is the way to go. But if you aren’t feeling great, taking a break shouldn’t hurt. This post is, in fact, my break. Day 1 is off to an awful start. Oh well, there is always the Day 2 and Day 3 comeback. Stay positive – bridge is supposed to be fun.
With over 2000 people expected to join, you are still placed into a small section of 15 “tables” (really 15 people and a lot of robots). Each section is stratified, so there is a good chance you will win points from entering the event. Plus, you get 3 days of fun, playing from the safety of your home. We wrote about what it means to play Best Hand, Human Declare, and have Deal Pools last time.
Last Minute Registration?
You can still register – just go to ACBL World on Bridge Base. As of this writing, 2020 people have entered. You will play 24 boards each day starting tomorrow, and you will receive results around midnight each night. You also get a provisional result right after you finish, which is about as reliable as the “BridgeMate percentages” you see at the club – the later you check, the more accurate. If you are the first table to play the board, of course it will always say 50/50.
Head to ACBL World and register now!
You Should Finish The 72 Boards
Robots can be lots of fun, but they can also be extremely frustrating. Especially when they need to sometimes lie while bidding (come on, you do it too, why should the robots not be allowed?). But whatever you do, don’t go on tilt and quit the tournament. Why?
First off, unlike most robot tournaments, you will be scored regardless of whether you finish. You just get bottom on all the boards you didn’t play. Also, if you miss one of the days, you won’t be allowed to play the other days.
More importantly, each day is considered a separate session. Last time around, I had a hopeless score of 40% on Day 2, only to rally back with a 70% on Day 3! I ended with peanuts for overall awards, but a great “Flight B/C” session award (red points). The overall scores are pretty consistently filled with familiar and famous names. But the daily session scores have plenty of random “lucky civilians” mixed in.
Also, your results won’t show up on ACBL Live. You can find the results in your ACBL Masterpoints History, or in hidden places for those who know where to look…
Well, 1809th place isn’t dead last, but considering how many people quit without finishing, I was pretty close to straight bottoms on Day 2.
NOABC Victories
Katherine Todd (0-5000 Teams Champion)
Zia Mahmood
(Open KO semifinals)
Joe Grue
(Open Pairs 4th)
Team Liebhaber
(0-1500 Teams semifinals)
GNYBA League Nov 2020
Season One Results Team New England
Better Than Ok On A Good Day
Team Sam
