The Big Apple Winter Regional – Tournament Recap

Posted on January 2, 2020 by David Moss

To all participants of the 2019 Big Apple Winter Regional, we hope you had a fun and successful tournament! On behalf of the GNYBA we would like to thank all of the directors, caddies, volunteers and especially the players for making it happen. Please plan to play in our 2020 regionals back at the Hilton – each with new dates:

May 25 – 30 (starting on Memorial Day)
November 8 – 13
Full results from this week available through ACBL Live. Here are some final updates:

Master Point Races
Congratulations to the winners of all of the Master Point Races.

The open race ended in a 3 way tie between Max Rotaru, John Kranyak and Susie Schnelwar. Winners of the other races each won $100. Wendy Wen won the 0-300 race. Matthew Gordon won the 300-750 race (last year he won 0-300).

For the second year in a row we were able to demonstrate our hospitality by letting Toronto junior Jacob Freeman play for free (GNYBA student policy) and letting him walk off with the 0-2000 prize. We were thrilled he could join us. He may have to miss school to attend next November.

Player of the Year

The races all ended dramatically:

GNYBA Player of the Year was a tie: Glenn Robbins & Lloyd Arvedon
Team Player of the Year was a tie: Michael Polowan & Adam Wildavsky
Bob Factor Flight B Player of the Year: Stefano Merlo

Frequent Play Drawing

There were 179 players with under 2,000 points who played 5 sessions or more. The winner of the drawing for $100 in free entries for a future GNYBA regional was Christopher Moh. 

Other Cash and door Prize winners were listed in the daily bulletins, on our Web site and with lots of pictures on FaceBook

See you in May!
The Greater New York Bridge Association

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Happy New GNYBA Players of the Year!

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Lee Lin

The Big Apple Winter Regional has concluded along with the final results of our GNYBA Player of the Year rankings. Congratulations to Lloyd Arvedon and Glenn Robbins as tied 2019 winners. For team player of the year, we also have a tie for first: Michael Polowan and Adam Wildavsky. Stefano Merlo was the Flight B Player of the year (also a member of the District Grand National Teams Flight B team that reached the semi-finals at NABC)

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Masterpoint Races – 2019 Final

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Uday Ivatury

Masterpoint winners galore, from the just-concluded Winter Regional

$100 winners are Wendy Wen from New York City,  Matthew Gordon from Northport and   Jacob Freeman from Toronto. Matt won the 0-300 race last December.  Jacob won the 0-2,000 last year .

There were 179 players with under 2,000 points who played 5 sessions or more.  The winner of the drawing for $100 in free entries for a future GNYBA regional was Christopher Moh 

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Big Apple Bridge Tournament Cash Prize Winners

Posted on December 30, 2019 by Lee Lin

What an exciting regional so far! Let’s thank the tournament hospitality staff for all their efforts, awarding daily door prizes, hidden coffee vouchers, cash prizes, and candy bowls to all. I personally won none of those things except for the latter – but I will say the candy quality is top notch.

No tootsie rolls, jaw breakers, or other weak options here – you will find strong and invitational holdings: Butterfinger, fun-size Snickers (not the square minis, but the rectangular bars), Babe Ruth, Twix Left and Twix Right. Someone even told me they found Almond Joy! We went bowl-by-bowl, rummaging together, but could not confirm the rumor.

Cash Prizes Recap

Mid-Flight Pairs Matchpoints: $100 winning pair
Gold Rush Pairs Day 2: $100 winning pair
Straitified Open Pairs Day 3: $50 to flight A, B, and C winners
Mid-Flight Swiss Teams: $120 winning team
Bracketed Swiss Day 5: $120 to bottom bracket winning team

Door Prizes: Twice-daily gift cards for Starbucks and Amazon

Frequent Player Drawing: Players with 0-2000 mps who play 5 sessions or more at the Hilton to be entered into the drawing: $100 free entry to future NYC regionals.

Tournament masterpoint races: 0-300, 300-750, and 750-2000 players who earn the most points at this regional will win cash prizes at the end of the five days

Any section top: stop by the hospitality desk for $3 off your next entry

Winners and Photos

Jim Giblette, winners of the Gold Rush cash prize

Top Bracket Swiss Teams winners: Uday Uvatury, Nancy Katz, Migry Zur, Christal Henner
Mid-Flight Swiss $120 cash prize winners: Joan Leiberman, Stephanie Weisberg, and brothers Gary and Bob Russell
Trustcott BAM Winners: Adam Wildavsky, Jared Lillienstein, Michael Polowan, Jan Jansma
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Amazing 7 brackets in NYC regional Day 2

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Lee Lin

We had an amazing 7 brackets yesterday, all with at least 8 players (none of them were small brackets). The high turnout and level of granularity should ensure almost everyone has a reasonable chance of wining, as you are always playing against teams with roughly the same level of average masterpoints as your team.

The directors also do a good job clustering the teams in the event one bracket needs to be slightly larger. In this case, the bottom bracket was the most reasonable place to put a 9th and 10th player, looking at the masterpoint ranges of the field. It’s also nice not to have any 3-way matches, which for whatever reason no one likes.

Compare with Prior Regionals?

That means we had a massive 60 teams total yesterday, or 120 “table sessions” in the bracketed teams, a much higher number than the Spring 2019 Friday number and anecdotally higher than most of us remember in recent times. Are more players itching for teams over pairs? Or is the regional turnout simply much higher? We will sort it all out in the coming days.

We expect the bracket count to drop a bit Day 3 as the concurrent Truscott BAM event begins. However, Sunday should be the largest team day, with 3 flights of swiss – Open, Mid-Flight, and Gold Rush, each in one large bracket paying many overall spots.

Last Spring when there were 3 flights of team swiss, the A/X swiss had 14 teams, The Mid-Flight Swiss 17 teams, and the Gold Rush 28 teams. Can we beat that on Sunday?

Prize Pool Data

For the number crunchers, here are the first place prizes for each bracket, which also lets you deduce the masterpoint levels of each bracket. Remember, Bracket 7 pays has 10 teams instead of 8, which is why the award gap seems so small.

Bracket 1: 26.67 Gold
Bracket 2: 12.37 Gold
Bracket 3: 9.66 Gold
Bracket 4: 7.64 Gold
Bracket 5: 6.43 Gold / Red (67% / 33%)
Bracket 6: 5.95 Gold / Red (67%/33%)
Bracket 7: 5.73 Gold / Red (50% / 50%)

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NYC Bridge Regional, Day 2 Countess Cup

Posted on December 27, 2019 by Lee Lin

Today we awarded the 2nd annual Countess Cup trophies! New York City hosts possibly the only trophy-awarding, 2-session 99er pairs event in the country. Even at nationals, all the 299er events are all single session with no carryover. This year we had 12.5 tables entering the event.

Congratulations Karen Jenkins and Eileen Serwer (GNYBA 2020 president Bonnie Gellas presenting the trophies).

Mid-Flight Winners

Also congratulations to Ronald Weiss and Mark Oettinger, the winners of the $100 cash prize Mid-Flight awards.

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More Day 1 Photos, Fast Pairs Winners

Posted on December 27, 2019 by Lee Lin

Some more photos from the Day 1 action below. Also, remember that section top winners should stop by the hospitality desk to pick up your prize:

Section Tops:

Newcomer Game (2 sections)
Ava Donellan – Margot Donnellan
Nathan Sudakoff – Roger Parker

Gold Rush Pairs AM (6 sections)
Laszlo Seress – Pei Lin
Mary Ann Oehlerking – Shelley Mendelsohn (tied first)
Charles Dvorkin – Francis Gupta (tied first)
Amy Schottenstein – Phyllis Richter
Sari Kassin – Lynn Gindi
Thelma Klein – William Rittenhouse
Lewis Lefkowitz – Michael Fried

Mid-Flight Pairs PM (2 sections)
Hans Neuteboom – Bruce Altschuler
Ronald Weiss – Mark Oettinger

Open Pairs AM (2 sections)
Warren Chang – Stephen Jansen (tied first)
Tim Archdeacon – Melvin Colchamiro (tied first)
Robert Kuhnreich – David Maidman

Gold Rush Pairs PM (6 sections)
Fred Malamet – Eileen Rosen
Charles Dvorkin – Francis Gupta
Tihomir Stanicic – Mladen Mirkovic
Lewis Lefkowitz – Michael Fried
Constance Breslin – Barbara Seplow
Thelma Klein – William Rittenhouse

Mid-Flight Pairs PM (2 sections)
Ronald Weiss – Mark Oettinger
Bruce Ross – Michael Hellman

Open Pairs PM (2 sections)
Tom Bishel – John Bishel
Melih Ozdil – Sharon Goldman

Fast Pairs Evening (2 sections)
Samuel Amer – Barbara Hendra
Alene Friedman – David Rosenberg

Happy Birthday to one of our favorite local pros!
First regional for many local players and alumni of the Honors wine and cheese series
Lots of action at the Gold Rush and Newcomer games
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Day 1 Photos and Winners

Posted on December 27, 2019 by Lee Lin

The consolidated daily bulletin from the Big Apple Regional Day One. The cash prize goes to Ronald Weiss and Mark Oettinger, winners of the Mid-Flight pairs event. In the Gold Rush, Lewis Lefkowitz and Michael Fried win overall first of 26 tables with an astounding 70.54%!

Newcomer Game Photos

Top Bracket Winners (plus one kibitzer)

And More Familiar Faces

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Regional Begins Today!

Posted on December 26, 2019 by Lee Lin

Good luck everyone playing and happy holidays from GNYBA!

Remember, wear layers! We are playing in a large room which might be too hot or too cold for you. With 300 players in the same room, it will be impossible to please everyone.

Stop by the hospitality desk or the website for daily updates and bulletins.

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Truscott BAM 2019 at the NYC Regional

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Lee Lin

The Truscott Open Board-A-Match will be held on Saturday and Sunday of the Big Apple Winter Regional. There is a 2-session qualifier on Saturday Dec. 28 and final on Sunday Dec 29th.

The Truscott BAM is the premiere event of the entire tournament, and one of the strongest fields you will find at any regional. GNYBA President David Moss says, “The Truscott BAM provides top teams with a very competitive field and it gives aspiring players an opportunity to play against national and world champions.”

Truscott BAM 2018 Winners
Truscott BAM 2018 Winners: Alfredo Versace, Sam Lev, Dan Lev, and Mustafa Cem Tokay (not pictured Jim Mahaffey)

Defending Champions

The defending champions are returning this year – but on two separate and formidable teams! The team captained by Jim Mahaffey will return with father and son team Sam and Dan Lev (featured in last Spring’s Bridge Bulletin). David Berkowitz and Gary Cohler will also join the team.

Mustafa Cem Tokay and Alfredo Versace will join Lynne Koeppel, and Valerio Giubilo on another powerhouse team. But the full list of pre-registered teams below is filled with grand life masters, hall of famers, and national title holders. Best of all, it’s open to any eligible ACBL team of four. Step right up and you can guarantee yourself a full day of playing with the best of the best.

Pre-Registered Teams (not seeded, just ordered by pre-registration date)

1. David Moss, Andrew Rosenthal, Robert B Stayman, and John H Boyer
2. Mustafa Cem Tokay, Alfredo Versace, Lynne Koeppel, and Valerio Giubilo
3. Jeffrey Rothstein, Allen M Kahn, David Rosenberg, and Ira Herman
4. Reno Bianchi, Leonardo Cima, Unknown Player, and Unknown Player
5. Sandrea Friedman, Michael J Rosen, Jerry S Goldberg, and Jane Dillenberg
6. Glenn B Robbins, Brian Glubok, Jiang Gu, and Hailong Ao
7. Sheng Li, Stefano P Merlo, Jason Ji, and Jian Wang
8. Mike Lipkin, Michael L Radin, Kismet Fung, and Ranald Davidson
9. Ljudmila Kamenova, Bo Han Zhu, Igor Savchenko, and Alex Perlin
10. Adam Wildavsky, Michael Polowan, Jared E Lilienstein, and Jan Jansma
11. Sam Ehrlichman, Franco Baseggio, Steve Nellissen, and Bob Gwirtzman
12. Gary Donner, Yoko Sobel, Christina L Madsen, and Simon Hult
13. Jim W Mahaffey, David Berkowitz, Sam Lev, Daniel Lev, and Gary Cohler


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