Greater New York Bridge Association

D24 GNT Feedback – Please Let Us Know!

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Lee Lin

Today is the opening round for GNT-A and GNT-C flights. Last weekend we did GNT-Championship and GNT-B. Soon we enter the knock-out phase of the GNTs, where surviving teams schedule a match on their own time and report results to the Unit and District GNT Coordinators. By end of May, we will know which teams will be representing New York City and Long Island in the 2020 Montreal NABC.

Timing and Logistics?

But it’s not too soon to think about future years. While the experience is fresh in all our minds, let’s try to get an open discussion about things we could have done better. Was it fair? Is the 11am start time too awkward if it means a late lunch? Remember, some teams are travelling more than an hour to come to Midtown Manhattan, so there are some limits to the start time.

Overall Format?

How about the followup format with 4 or 8 surviving teams into a knockout? We are one of the few districts that have such a complex followup process in ALL four flights. Many districts decide the eventual NABC representatives after only 2 sessions (and in some cases, no one goes because there are no flight C teams that show up). It’s obviously painful to find a day that works for an entire group of 8 or 12 busy people.

However, having some knockout practice is extremely valuable. It feels very different from a swiss and round robin, it is more similar to the eventual GNT experience, and it should reduce the level of randomness. Would it be better to schedule specific dates for the followup semi finals and finals? Or is the “schedule youself” system the best?

Seeding? Anything Else?

The conditions of contest had some provisions for seeding, but in most cases seeding wouldn’t matter because not enough teams showed up to require it. Once 10 teams or more show up, however, seeding suddenly becomes an issue because the teams must be split into 2 groups. We did it this time primarily by defending champions, a seeding committee, and ultimately good ole masterpoint averages in the lower flights. Would it help to encourage say a 1-day advance pregistration in order to ensure favorable seeding (walk-ins still welcome)?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged GNT, GNT-A, GNT-B, GNT-C, GNT-Championship, grand national teams | Leave a comment

Can We Muster Up 20 Teams This Sunday?

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Lee Lin

Last Sunday was a great showing of 17 teams for GNT-B. There are some logistics we could do better. Maybe we can figure out seeding and groups without such a long delay (sorry). Maybe lunch doesn’t need to be at 3pm. But overall, it was our most successful GNT-B event ever.

GNT-A and GNT-C Next Sunday!

Ok, let’s try to hit 20 teams next Sunday. All of the 8 teams who survived to the quarter finals of B are also eligible to play in GNT-A. You can’t go to Montreal for multiple flights if you end up winning the District A and B, but that’s a good problem to have. Plus, the runners up who get promoted will love you for dropping out and giving them the chance. Either way, it’s a great field to practice as you work through your KO matches.

How about the 9 teams that didn’t survive? If your team consists entirely of 0-500 NLMs, then you should definitely try GNT-C. And if not, you are eligible for GNT-A. The results were so tight, might as well give it a shot? Is there really such a big difference between a field with all players 0-2500 vs 0-6000? Do people learn great new superpowers in those last 3000 points that they didn’t have in the first 2500?

Some Key Numbers To Hit

For the GNT-A, there will most likely be a round robin unless we hit 10 teams. Then we default to our favorite CoC to get the format. Unfortunately, only one team will represent in Montreal.

For GNT-C, a key number is 8 teams. That lets the district send TWO teams to Montreal, and ensures the top four teams get 10-20 gold and red points. If we can cross 12 teams, then we will advance 8 survivors, just like in Championship and GNT-B. Please come join the fun. All are welcome (just make sure everyone is a District 24 resident, there was one disqualified team because one team member lived JUST a touch too far upstate).

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

GNT-Championship Semi Finalists

Posted on February 24, 2020 by Lee Lin

After a 2-session round robin with 12 teams on Saturday, the championship flight District 24 GNT field continued Sunday with the round of 8. Similar to the Flight B format, a seeding committee created two balanced groups with four survivors each. The winner of each group chooses an opponent from the 3rd / 4th place team of the other group.

The four surviving teams are now 102 boards deep into the 2020 GNT-Championship tournament. Unlike Flights B and C, only one team will represent us in Montreal, and they will need to pay their own way, as they do not get the $1000 Grass Roots Fund subsidy.

Team Miniter

As defending district champions, Team Miniter was automatically given the most favorable seeding (between us, I suspect the seeding committee might have given it to them regardless). Last year they represented New York and Long Island at the Las Vegas NABC, going all the way into the national finals for 2nd place!

Joel Wooldridge, Kent Mignocchi, Joe Grue, Gillian Miniter, and John Hurd

Team Koeppel

Another all-star team. Lynne Koeppel, Max Rotaru, Erez Hendelman, Radu Nistor, and Mustafa Cem Tokay. Sadly, we don’t have a full team photo, but we do have the SF NABC victory shot from the Nail Life Master Pairs. They will face off against Team Miniter in a 52-board match sometime prior to April 25th, at an undisclosed location (probably Honors, backup location the Midnight KOs during Columbus).

Team Trenka vs Team Herman

Peter Trenka, Igor Savchenko, Giorgia Botta, and Ahmed Soliman will face off against Ira Herman, Allen Kahn, Jeffrey Rothstein, and David Rosenberg .

I would try to sad something intelligent about the lineup, but I’ve run into a classic Good Will Hunting problem: I can’t distinguish between Will Hunting and professor Lambo. To me, they are all world class players who can consistently depend on me to gift them cold tops at the club.

Quarter-Final Recap

Team Miniter defeats Team Moss (David Moss, Kerry Kappel, Cathy Nathan, Marc Nathan, Raluca Dobrescu, Jesus Arias)

Team Herman defeats Team Eisenstein (Glenn Eisenstein, Magnus Olafsson, David Gurvich, Michael Radin, John Rengstorff, Michael Lipkin)

Team Trenka defeats Team Rosenthal ( Andrew Rosenthal, Chris Willenken, Aaron Silverstein, Jan Jansma)

Team Koeppel defeats Team Parrish ( Adam Parrish, Dana Berkowitz, Franco Baseggio, Adam Kaplan, Craig Ganzer)

Posted in Events, Results | Tagged GNT, GNT-Championship, grand national teams, Grassroots | Leave a comment

Record Breaking 17 Teams Contest GNT-B (District 24)

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Lee Lin

Absolutely amazing. Last year we had 10 teams show up for the GNT-B opening round, but today we broke a district record at 17 teams! The conditions of contest didn’t even account for 12+ teams resulting in 8 survivors. But that’s what we had. Our seeding committee split the 17 teams into a group of 8 and a group of 9, each with 4 survivors. Here are some of the teams moving forward:

Team Warren

Image may contain: 4 people, including Mee Warren, beard and indoor — Mee Warren, Allison Rudary, Matt Rudary, James Keiger – photo by Erwin Dionisio

The winners of the larger Group of 9 teams is Team Warren. All four members of the team are NABC Grassroots veterans: Allison and Matt represented the GNT-C’s during Summer 2016 in DC, where they reached the quarter finals nationwide. James and Mee were 2018 and 2019 repeat President’s Cup NAP-C District winners, representing us last year in Memphis and next month in Columbus.

Team Merlo

The team of Stefano Merlo, Christopher Moh, Jordan Lampe, and Jin Hu won the Group of 8 teams. Last summer in NABC Las Vegas, Jordan gained more experience playing behind bidding screens than anyone else in the district – he was on the GNT-B team with Stefano that went all the way to semi-finals, then after a short break, entered the micro Spingold with Chris for the eventual win!

Team Trabulus

Norman Trabulus has represented our district during NABCs more than any other Flight B Grassroots player. His GNT-B team took 2nd in the district last year. He also competed in the national finals for either GNT or NAP every year since 2015. If his name sounds familiar, he recently joined the GNYBA Board of Directors, and might be part of the secret committee planning a NYC silver point sectional. It’s only fitting that such a tournament would certainly hold a special Grass Roots Fund game.

More Teams?

If any of the other teams have a team photo or bio to post, please let us know. We’ll be happy to post!

Full Standings

Let’s just say the seeding committee must have done a great job. Both groups came down to an extremely tight finish. The cutoff in the Group of 8 between Team Liebhaber and Team Goodspeed was only ONE VICTORY POINT. To make things more fun, those two teams faced off in the final round. The Group of 9 was amazingly more tight. Team Sigward lost by one victory point. But Team Duvshani lost by 0 victory points – both were tied at 69 after 7 rounds, so the total net imps across all matches became the tiebreaker (simulating what would happen if we used the continuous VP scale).

What Next?

The winners will play 26-board knockout matches for the quarter and semi finals (in March or April). Then the final 52-board match will take place in May. Both teams making the finals will go to Montreal to represent the district – but only the winners will take home the 33.5 Gold Points for first prize and the $1000 travel subsidy.

Posted in Events, Results | Tagged GNT, GNT-B, grand national teams | 2 Comments

GNT-Championship 2020 Update

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Lee Lin

Today kicked off GNT season with 12 teams showing up for the opening round! By now, everyone should know the preferred format with 12 teams. To recap, a seeding committee nominated by the director, District Representative, and Unit GNT Coordinator must split the 12 teams into two balanced groups of 6.

(Edit: Read the latest posts about GNT-Championship 2020)

Each group plays round robin among themselves, and the top four in each group survive to Sunday Feb 23rd. The top finisher in each group chooses from among the 3rd and 4th place finishers of the OTHER group, to play a round of 8 knockout tomorrow. Here are the results of the round robin, with matchups to watch tomorrow:

(Group 1 Winners chooses from Group 2 4th Place)
Gillian Miniter, Joe Grue, John Hurd, Joel Wooldridge, Kent Mignocchi
vs
David Moss, Kerry Kappel, Cathy Nathan, Marc Nathan, Raluca Dobrescu

(Group 2 Winners chooses Group 1 4th Place)
Glenn Eisenstein, Magnus Olafsson, David Gurvich, Michael Radin, John Rengstorff, Michael Lipkin
vs
Ira Herman , Allen Kahn, Jeffrey Rothstein, David Rosenberg

(2nd place in each group plays the remaining opponent)

Peter Trenka, Igor Savchenko, Giorgia Botta, Long Island Cit NY; Ahmed Solima
vs
Andrew Rosenthal – Chris Willenken – Aaron Silverstein, Jan Jansma

Adam Parrish, Dana Berkowitz, Franco Baseggio, Adam Kaplan, Craig Ganzer
vs
Lynne Koeppel, Iulian Rotaru, Erez Hendelman, Radu Nistor, Mustafa Cem Tokay

For The Rest Of Us

Our team had a great time. We are very lucky to have so many resident professionals and world class players in the New York bridge scene. Every player in the four non-qualifying team will continue their GNT 2020 ambitions in the GNT-B opening round tomorrow, or next weekend’s GNT-A and GNT-C event (or both!).

Posted in Events, Results | Tagged GNT, GNT-Championship, grand nationals teams | Leave a comment

Free Online ACBL Silver Point Sectional

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Lee Lin

It’s raining silver points these days! We just finished another successful unit STaC weekend with three separate Swiss teams events (two for 0-750, one for open). The winning pair on Friday afternoon netted 13.31 silver points!

The next nearby sectional is in Woodbridge early March (the last time at the location – rumor is Edison will become the new Woodbridge). There might also be a June NYC sectional in the works…

Now you can earn silver points online.

Online ACBL Points?

Decades ago, ACBL raised many eyebrows when they first sanctioned online masterpoints for OK Bridge and Bridge Base Online. Back then, everyone in the tournament was human and present at the same time. They just played from the comfort of their homes. Much more recently, ACBL sanctioned robot tournaments, which would award online masterpoints playing entirely against robots with a robot partner.

Online Gold and Red Points?

In 2017, ACBL began the online individual NABC, an amazingly fun event that lets everyone join the excitement of the 3 annual NABC tournaments. It was also the first time lots of players could win gold and red points playing with robots. Does it also give blue ribbon qualifiers to the top spots?

Online Silver Points!

For the first time ever, there will be an online sectional. Start practicing now, for free if you would like, so you get a feel for playing with bots. Monday and Tuesday March 2nd and 3rd, there will be an all day long sectional. You just need to play 24 boards at your own pace, and each day you start on a clean slate.

Go to ACBL World section after logging in to BBO.

Online Life Master?!?

So now it’s possible to get Gold, Red, Silver, and Online points against robots. It’s only a matter of time – some day, someone somewhere will become the first life master to never step foot in a live game. Currently, there is no way to get the required black points online, so you will still need to visit your local club.

It’s an exciting time to be learning bridge and there are more opportunities than ever to practice and play competitively. There are some naysayers when it comes to playing against bots, but they have been immensely helpful for improving my game. You can also review how other humans played each hand, for the boards that didn’t quite go so well.

Posted in Events, Software | Tagged BBO, Robot Bridge, sectional, silver points, STaC | 2 Comments

Format for GNT Opening Round D24

Posted on February 19, 2020 by Lee Lin

Hopefully by now everyone knows the dates for the 2020 Grand National Teams opening round in District 24 (New York City and Long Island). If you don’t, check out the GNT flyer one more time, it’s this weekend and next weekend, depending on which flights you play. More fun if you play more flights with more teams.

So once you’ve decided to sacrifice an entire weekend day, what is the format? That’s actually a VERY complicated question, and it depends on the number of teams.

The Registration

First off, don’t show up at 10:58am. This is a hectic event for the one ACBL director who needs to collect payment, fire up the software, AND determine the format for an unknown number of teams. The venue also runs their normal club games and lessons, so there are just lots of bridge players running around asking where they need to be, and the answer could be three different places on two different floors.

If you are playing in the Grand National Teams, go to Honors Bridge Club well before 11:00 and go to the 12th floor to register your team for GNT. It helps to know the masterpoints of your team members, but a seeding committee can override the usual masterpoint seeding.

The Format

Here is where things get tricky. The number of teams that show up drastically changes the format of the event. You’ll play close to 50 boards for the day, but how is it done? We have to dig all the way into Appendix A of the GNT D24 conditions of contest.

When 7 teams show up, it looks like a standard round robin. Everyone plays 6 matches of 8 boards each, comparing scores every 2 rounds (just like in a 3-way). But if a team shows up last minute for 8 total teams, the event becomes an 8-team knockout for championship flight (A/B/C still do round robin). Add a 9th team we are back to round robin, but things get crazy at 10 teams.

Seeding Extra Important With 10

With 10 teams, the director, perhaps with help from the seeding committee, must separate the teams into 2 groups of 5 teams. In each group, the teams play a round robin of 12 board matches, only within your group. Two teams from each group continue to semifinals where 1st place of each group plays 2nd place of the other.

No Swiss Formats – Round Robin Only

Of course, once the 11th team shows up, we are back to round robin! Note the conditions never call for a swiss. The luck factor in swiss is undesirable, so all 11 teams would presumably play against the 10 other teams in shorter matches (5 board matches?).

Two Groups AGAIN – More Survivors

What if we hit 12 teams? Oh boy, we are back to two groups of 6 teams. Each group plays a round robin with 10-board matches, but now we get 4 survivors per group (only 2 eliminated). A total of 8 teams move onward to a Knockout “Round of 8.”

Importance of Seeding?

Truth is, there is always going to be plenty of luck in any bridge tournament. We try to minimize the obvious sources unfairness – the two teams deemed strongest should not be knocking each other out in the first round. Similarly, the two groups should be relatively balanced – it should not be obvious that one group feels easier than the other.

In many ACBL events, seeding is done entirely on masterpoint averages, but we DO have a seeding committee for at least the Championship Flight event. The conditions also say that a team with a majority of members on the prior year’s District winning team will automatically get the favorable top seed (does that require 4 out of 6 members, or can 3 members of a team of 6 form a team of 4 to get it?).

But as we all know, upsets happen all the time, so maybe seeding and format just doesn’t matter a whole lot. In the end, to prevail you’ll need 50 or so boards of smooth sailing (or bumpy sailing by your opponents). Try to have fun!

Posted in Events | Tagged GNT, grand national teams, Grassroots | 1 Comment

Big Apple Spring 2020 Regional

Posted on February 13, 2020 by Lee Lin

We have a tournament flyer for the Big Apple Spring 2020 Regional. Check back for more updates, but for now here are the big changes:

Gold Rush Pairs Every Day

The December 2019 regional was very successful, but one large piece of feedback is having gold rush pairs daily. In the past, the last day only included Fast Pairs and either Bracketed Teams or Flighted Teams (Open, Mid-Flight, Gold Rush Swiss).

Knock Out In A Day

We are taking the best of all worlds. The Tarrytown Freaky KO games were fun, but we are iterating based on the feedback. The KO In A Day will ensure more incentives to win the KO brackets, while still providing the Swiss players with lots of fun and points.

Goldman Pairs

The premiere event of the regional is the Goldman Pairs. Don’t be fooled, there is nothing Gold Rush about this event. It attracts many of the top pros in the district and nation! It is a 4-session pairs event with a qualifying day and final day. It is also an early factor in determining who wins GNYBA Player of the Year.

Spring Newcomer Championship

While not officially The Countess Cup, we will still award a trophy for the winners of our special 0-99er pairs event. This is an all day, 2-session event with full carryover, open to all players with under 100 masterpoints.

Side Series Continues

The popular side game series will take place at Honors Bridge Center, this time featuring three separate series. There are two horizontal afternoon series and a horizontal evening series. What does it mean for a series to be horizontal? It means the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sessions take place on different days at the same time, rather than the usual different times on the same day (that would be vertical, you have morning and afternoon, get it?).

No More Choose-Your-Flight Swiss Day

There is no longer a day were all players are lumped into larger swiss fields. In previous regionals, there would be at least one day with an A/X, BC, and Gold Rush swiss. For this May, all team events will be bracketed into the usual brackets of 8 or 9, including the KO in a Day. There is still a choose-your-flight pairs day, on Tuesday (Day 2).

Name Change, Same Venue

This year we fully embrace the name “Big Apple” for both of our regionals. We still love the Eastern States and Edgar Kaplan of course! But moving forward we are going with the Big Apple name.

Posted in Events | Tagged Big Apple Regional, freaky KO, regional, spring regional | Leave a comment

Avoiding Board Swapping And Caddy Disasters

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Lee Lin

During a large team event, there is a lot of chaos going on in the room that most of us don’t see. How could we? We are too busy concentrating on the current hand (or the prior hand if we really botched it). From the caddy’s point of view, 20 tables begin the round at the same time. Half inevitably shout “CADDY PLEASE” within the same 2-minute window, just as the round timer hits 34. That’s the point when tables that began with 3 boards have run out.

Never Move The Table Mats, Or Physically Move Tables

I’ve witnessed two caddy disasters in my time, and both involved physically moving tables or table mats, breaking whatever intricate system the head caddy had in place. In one case, a table was wobbly and unsuitable for play. In another case, a player with mobility constraints requested to stay at the same table as the prior round and just change the table mats. Both times, the team informed the director and got permission.

Unfortunately, the caddy didn’t get the memo. One of the incidents even occurred during NABC in the final round of a compact knockout! The director carefully delivered 6 boards to the correct table, which required a slightly diagonal movement. Unfortunately, the diligent caddy took care of the other boards, abiding by the golden rule – boards always go straight down a lane.

What Do They Do?

About 40 minutes later, four different teams realized something had gone horribly wrong and all shouted for the director at the same time. The director said there is nothing to do but use the 6 common boards. A mere 6 boards determined the final round knockout winner.

In cases where there are zero common boards, there isn’t much the director can do. They can’t really stay an extra hour and wait for a tiebreaker, and the players probably don’t have the mental energy to replay a round anyway. The director gave everyone an “average plus” round of 12 Victory Points (win by 3 IMPs).

How Does It Even Work?

When I first began, I was mystified. How is there not some huge mixup each round, where the boards when to the wrong place and entire tables played the wrong hands. Turns out there is a method to the madness.

Table Layout

The tables are set up in a special system to help the caddies. If you’ve ever had trouble finding your table number, there is a reason they aren’t laid out in a nice long line. They are usually rectangular clusters, so that the “other table” is always 3 or 4 tables down the same lane.

Board Numbers

In most 7-board matches, your last board number is divisible by 7 (14,21, 28,35). Based on the boards you shuffle at the beginning, you should know which ones you will play. If you receive a board out of that range, something is wrong! Note, if you have 5-board matches, then your last board is divisible by 5.

Board Colors

I actually didn’t know this for over a year. At larger tournaments, the color of the boards will be the same for your table and your opponent’s table, but should be different from all the nearby tables. If you ever notice you have yellow boards at the beginning of the round and suddenly the caddy drops off green boards, that’s a red flag! Again, we’re talking about the boards holding the cards, not the color of the cardbacks.

Please: Go Easy On the Caddies

For good reason, caddies should operate in a single-threaded manner. Even if your table is “on the way”, having the caddy hold boards from multiple tables is asking for trouble. Just let them drop the boards off! They usually also need to make a round trip delivery, so don’t be offended if you queue for just a little longer. If you are waiting for the caddy, you are probably not the bottleneck.

Posted in Bridge Thoughts | Tagged caddy, knockot, Teams | Leave a comment

Greater New York Bridge Association

D24 GNT Feedback – Please Let Us Know!

Can We Muster Up 20 Teams This Sunday?

GNT-Championship Semi Finalists

Record Breaking 17 Teams Contest GNT-B (District 24)

GNT-Championship 2020 Update

Free Online ACBL Silver Point Sectional

Format for GNT Opening Round D24

Big Apple Spring 2020 Regional

Avoiding Board Swapping And Caddy Disasters

Key Dates

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