Don’t worry, there is still plenty of time to qualify for NAPs this year. The NYC face-to-face club has over half a dozen dates for NAP qualifier games. Here they are:
August Bridge and Games NAP Club Qualifier Dates:
1:00 pm times: Friday, August 5th Thursday, August 11th Wednesday, August 17th Saturday, August 20th Tuesday, August 23rd Saturday, August 27th Monday, August 29th
All NAP Club Qualifiers pay bonus masterpoints using the more generous tournament formula, with half red half black pigmentation.
Online Alliance Bridge Club Qualifier Dates:
If you played at either Honors or Sagamore pre-pandemic, you are almost certainly a member of the Alliance Bridge Club. They are holding NAP qualifiers online from August 18th to August 31st. In fact, almost all of their games during those dates are club qualifiers — you only need to qualify once to be eligible to compete in the district NAP finals.
Qualification Complexities
Qualifying requires placing in the top 50% of the field for your eligible flight. For example, a pair of Flight C eligible players who are overall in the top half would qualifier for NAP Flight A, B, and C. A pair that is only 45% overall but still in the top half of Flight B and C pairs would qualify for Flights B and C.
When a pair qualifies for an NAP Flight, both individuals are qualified but may play in the district finals with a different qualified partner. In other words, you do not have to play in the district finals with the same partner as your club qualifier.
When a partnership includes players from different flights (say a Flight B and Flight C player), then that pair may only qualify for the higher flights during that game (Flight A or B). There are also special club qualifier games for 0-500 players (check the online schedule), which can be helpful for Flight C pairs attempting to qualify. You may also qualify in a different district’s NAP club qualifier game, both face-to-face or online, if the Bridge and Games and Alliance schedules do not align with yours.
NAP Club Qualification is always a complicated and confusing process, but fortunately, there are a still lots of chances to qualify.
District 24 NAP Finals October 2022
The D24 NAP finals for all flights will be held in late October, most likely online. Check back soon for the final and official announcement.
With so much attention focused on district NAPs and club qualifiers, let’s not forget about the NJLB sectional coming up in less than 3 weeks.
Our neighbors in Unit 140 have another update to their sectional. Directly from the source, here is the latest:
Now that both NYC and almost all of NJ counties are deemed “High” Covid transmissibility by the CDC, we have changed the Flyer to reflect that Masking will probably be required under ACBL Protocols. – Brett
Almost an eternity ago in late 2019, we announced the Woodbridge sectionals were at risk, with the very last Woodbridge sectional held in March 2020. Our neighbors in the New Jersey Bridge League had long used the Hungarian American Citizens Club for sectional tournaments, and along with Allendale, these sectionals were a crucial source of silver points for New York players.
Good news, Unit 140 is back with their summer sectional, this time hosted at the Edison Elks Club in Edison, NJ.
New Venue Notes
Good news, Unit 140 is back with their summer sectional, this time hosted at the Edison Elks Club in Edison, NJ. It is still driving distance from NYC and Long Island, with some parking provided. They will have free coffee and tea, with sodas and bottled water on sale for $1. Due to Covid restrictions, there will be no food or snacks provided, proof of vaccination required.
One Woodbridge staple seems to be gone, which is the “backroom” $1 pizza slices and $1 salads. The upgraded swiss teams lunch buffet is also no go. It’s ok, safety first!
New Playing Schedule
On the docket is a new 10am and 3pm style pairs schedule, with a slightly longer lunch break than the pre-pandemic 10am / 2:30pm schedule. The Sunday swiss begins at 10am sharp now, instead of the prior 10:30am start. I once nearly delayed our car pool thinking the Saturday pairs game also started at 10:30 — fortunately the Holland and Lincoln tunnels are very empty on Saturday mornings.
GrassRoots Afternoons on Fri and Sat
One tradition they are keeping: the afternoon sessions on Friday and Saturday are designated as Grassroots events. That means they pay 27.27% more masterpoints with no additional cost to the players. The bonus applies to both the open and 499er game.
New Symmetrical Morning and Afternoon Stratifications
Another major change for the Friday and Saturday schedule: the morning and afternoon pairs sessions are exactly identical. In previous years, the morning section had an Open and 299er section, while the afternoon had an open section (A/X), a mid-flight section (B/C/D), and a section for intermediate and newcomer players (299er). Now, both morning and afternoon will be Open and 0-500.
To be honest, I didn’t mind the old schedule, because in practice in forced mid-flight players to play-up in the morning, then decide in the afternoon if they wanted to continue playing up or slide back down to the B/C/D. However, it caused some confusion and partnership disagreements. It also meant that players in the 250-750 range felt extra intimidated in the morning. So we welcome the symmetry!
Six Round Swiss on Sunday
The swiss on Sunday is only 36 boards, consisting of six rounds of 6 boards. That is an interesting departure from 7 times 7, but it seems their director in charge has approved the change. One nice benefit is the NYC crowd will likely be home in time well before dinner, as opposed to the prior 7pm and beyond after accounting for tunnel traffic.
New 20% Bonus
This is one of the first nearby sectionals to receive the new 20% bonus in overall awards for face-to-face tournaments. The bonus applies to the event-wide overall awards of each stratum, but not to the section awards in the event there are multiple sections. It also applies to the overall awards in the swiss, but not to match awards.
I know we just finished District GNTs for 2022, but it’s already time to prepare for the next season of NAPs. Again, the North American Pairs will be played during Spring 2023 NABCs, which had a great NYC showing in Reno a few months back.
Club Qualifiers for NAP
The club qualifier process is a bit complicated. First, you need to find a club holding an NAP qualifier game. They are help somewhat randomly through June, July, and August 2022, both at face-to-face clubs and online virtual clubs. For example, June 6th to 12th was a set of NAP qualifiers (sorry if you missed it). Don’t worry, there will be plenty more.
How Do I Qualify In a Qualifier Game?
The rule is, you need to be in the top 50% of your flight. For example, if your partnership is in Flight C that day in an open game and you end up below average for Flight A but above 50% in Flight B and C, then you will have qualified for NAP Flights B and C.
Do I Need to Qualify with my Regular Partner?
No! Amazingly, there is a lot of flexibility here. You may qualify with any partner during any of the many club qualifier games. However, the partner you choose might impact your eligibility for Flight C and B. This part causes a lot of confusion – if your partner is Flight B and you are Flight C, presumably you should not be eligible to qualify for Flight C during that game, only A or B.
How Do I Know That I Qualified?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a great way for players to check in real time. ACBL tends to release tools to help you check throughout the summer. However, between online games and face-to-face games, it isn’t really updated in real-time and has been known to have a few bugs. If you have doubts, ask your district NAP coordinator.
District Finals
District Finals are usually held during late October or early November. This year should be the same, but stay tuned for final dates. Likely dates are October 16th, 23rd, or October 30th to avoid conflicts with the regional.
Other News:
We will announce GNT winners once the official ACBL results are up.
More news about the Fall 2022 NYC Hilton Regional is also coming soon! The dates are October 6th to October 11th.
The GNT Seeding committee has assigned the top seed position to Andrew Rosenthal, Migry Zur Campanile, Aaron Silverstein, and Chris Willenken in the Championship Flight. Assuming no further changes to the registered teams, they will play against Team Moller in the semi-finals of the District 24 Championship Flight Grand National Teams. In the other bracket, Team Parrish will play Team Eisenstein.
Our District tries to minimize the impact and need for seeding teams. Most of the time, the opening round consists of a complete round robin with top teams surviving into a KO based on cumulative victory points. However, in the rare case when exactly 4 or 8 teams register in the Open flight, we defer to a seeding committee of District experts to draw brackets. In the lower flights, we seed entirely based on team average masterpoints (and defending winners from the prior year).
All that said, we would love to NOT require any seeding. Seeding is subjective and far from perfect, given that the true effectiveness of a team is far more complicated than the sum of the individuals. If one more team joins, we revert back to the usual round robin format.
There is still time to put together a team and spend this Saturday challenging multiple world class players to an all-day team game. You may even win a chance to represent New York City and Long Island during the national finals in Providence.
Team Ogden Defeats Team Poon Team Rivera Defeats Team Xu
The semi-final knockouts for District 24 GNT Flight B concluded this weekend with two very close matches. In the left bracket, Team Rivera won with a margin of only 2 IMPs to win 121-119 (although that includes a 4 IMP penalty in favor of Team Xu from an infraction early in the day).
Rivera vs. Xu 39-16 44-42 86-53 121-119
In the other match, Team Poon was ahead the entire first half of the day, but Team Ogden staged a comeback by the 3rd segment and pulled head on the last 12 boards.
Ogden vs. Poon 9-12 39-40 68-61 93-70
Odgen and Rivera Advance to Finals
The GNT Flight B finalists will play a two-session KO on Sunday, June 5th, along with the finalist from the various other GNT flights.
Team Ogden’s roster includes Cynthia Ogden, Catherine Williams, Susan Davison, Michael Schwartz, Joann Goodspeed, and Barbara Schwartz.
Team Rivera’s roster includes Christopher Rivera, Ilan Tadmor, James Southern, Yoko Sobel, Siqing Yu, and Florin Neamtu.
The winners of the final KO will each win 22.45 gold points and a blue ribbon qualifier to play in the fall NABC Blue Ribbon Pairs. The team will also be invited to represent the district in the summer NABC GNT-B national finals in Providence, along with a $1000 travel subsidy from the district.
Still Time To Register for Open, Flight A, and Flight C
An earlier version of the GNT Flyer reported a lower amount of masterpoints assuming a possible online District final. However, because we are holding GNTs face-to-face this year, the winning team will receive 33.5 gold points, 2nd place 25.13 gold points, and 3rd/4th 16.75 gold points.
The opening round of GNT Flight B is this Saturday, April 30th 10am at the Bridge and Games club at 177 East 87th Street (register at Suite 302A, playing may be on a different floor). The top four teams will survive into a two-session KO semi-final on Sunday, May 1st.
If at least 12 teams participate in the opening round, then up to 8 teams may survive into the Sunday KO and play single-session matches in the round of 8 and semi finals.
Read the conditions of contest for rules on when a team of 5 or 6 is allowed to have members of the team miss one of the two days.
Any team of 4-6 players with ACBL membership residency in District 24 is eligible to compete in the GNT Championship Flight. The opening round of May 7th will likely be a round robin, however with exactly 8 teams, a seeding committee will create a bracket and being a Round of 8 KO with two-session matches.
After the opening round, 4 teams will survive into a two-session KO on May 8th, and a final on June 5th. In the event more than 12 teams show up to the opening round, May 7th will be the round of 8, May 15th the semi-finals, and June 5th the finals.
On May 14th, we will hold the opening round for both Flight A and Flight C. Players are eligible to play as long as they meet the requirements for the designated flight, AND are not on any other team which is playing in the GNT finals on June 5th. For example, if your GNT Flight B team is still in the finals after May 1st, you may not forfeit or drop off the team in order to play on a Flight A or Flight C team.
For players with 0-2500 masterpoints interested in GNT Flight B or non life masters with 0-500 points interested in Flight C, we can help you form teams. Please send us your currently confirmed roster with each player’s ACBL number.
To sign up or ask questions, email gnt@gnyba.org with the subject “GNT Partnership Desk Flight (B or C)”
I logged in to BBO randomly and saw this notice. What is Crazy Week? I’m not sure. It looks like many robot tournaments that normally cost money are free this week. It’s a way to get people to try out robot tournaments who haven’t already tried them out. I believe these are the unpigmented ACBL day longs, meaning they are not the Support Your Club robot tournaments that give you black points.
Indeed, back when I did lots of robot tournaments, there were 3 different types or daily robot tournaments – the Just Declare, MPs and IMPs. For the ACBL Daylong tournaments, I believe they are all 12 boards, Best Hand, Advanced Robot, and Human Declare. There might not be a Just Declare that gives ACBL masterpoints, so it’s only IMPs or 3 types of MPs.
Edit: It seems there is some fine print. “Offer not available to all players.” So perhaps not everyone is seeing this promotion.
Crazy Weekend in NYC
However, even more crazy is this weekend. It is New York City’s standalone silver point sectional! The ACBL Unit, aka Unit 155 aka GNYBA aka the Greater New York Bridge Association, is subsidizing various events. Make sure you register early to get the discounts. If you are need teammates for the two-session swiss on Sunday, email teams@gnyba.org
Information below excerpted from the Bridge and Games website:
A VERY SPECIAL GNYBA/B&G EVENT #3. Sunday afternoon, April 10th…Two-session Bracketed Open Swiss. Game time will be 10:00 am. Lunch about 2:00 pm. Ending around 6:00 pm. Four morning matches. A break for lunch at the club. Then three afternoon matches. Cost for the two sessions with lunch: At the door…$50 per person/$200 per team.
***GNYBA SPECIAL: If you register and pay for your team online through Bridge Winners by midnight, Thursday, April 7th, you’ll save $40 per team. You’ll pay only $160.
Amazingly, the Advisory Council is meeting for a 3rd time in March 2022, but for a very important reason. The first meeting was a pre-NABC Reno meeting, to discuss the Board of Directors agenda items in case the constituents of the Advisory Council members wanted to opine or intervene prior.
From the Spring 2022 Management Report
The second meeting occurred on Sunday morning, March 13th, in Reno physically as well as on Zoom. However, there were a few technical issues for those who joined via zoom, in particular audio from the hotel was not feeding properly to the zoom call. Those joining remotely were unable to participate fully. This seems to be entirely the hotel’s fault, unfortunately, and they had previously given assurances and tested the day prior. However, sometimes technology has ways of failing us when least convenient.
So this is neither a special meeting or a formal meeting. However, it is important because it is a makeup from the normal meeting during NABC. The only practical difference is that the meeting is not mandatory. That is, missing the meeting does not jeopardize a member’s standing on the Advisory Council.
In Attendance From District 24
From our District today, we have David Moss and Lee Lin attending. We were both at the live meeting in Reno, so we have a good idea of what to expect and where there are areas for debate. In particular, we expect questions about privacy and marketing to ACBL members, robots making a pervasive appearance in virtual club games, IT issues in general, and NABC websites that conflict with the NABC.
Remarks from AJ Stephani
Some changes are in the works for investigating and detecting cheating online. As a quick teaser, we should all look for an announcement in the next week or so. It is the result of Marty Hirschman and others on the anti-cheating committee.
Remarks from ACBL President Joseph Jones
Reno was a success by table count. There were 6200 tables in Reno up from 5000 in Austin. At the end of the tournament, some players tested positive for Covid, and he encourages everyone to fill out the post-Reno surveys whether or not you had Covid issues. ACBL will use survey results to rework their policies for safety.
ACBL is still bottlenecked by the massive IT projects.
Q&A: Peter Marcus from D25 asked about online regionals. Why does ACBL continue to host online regionals when face-to-face bridge is suffering? Also, could ACBL allow units and districts to hold online tournaments?
Answer: At this time, it is a management and board decision to centralize online tournaments with ACBL instead of with units and districts. But perhaps that can change in the future.
Q&A: Brett Kunin from Unit 140: Has the positive COVID cases changed ACBL’s masking policy for future tournaments?
Answer: ACBL follows CDC guidelines and does not try to be smarter than the CDC on the issue. That said, Joseph was surprised to see a relatively small percent of players wearing masks. It’s obvious most players do not want to wear masks while playing. He personally did not wear a mask for most of the tournament, but did towards the end of the week as more cases came out.
Q&A: Steve Moese from D11: What is the latest number on tournament attendance?
Answer: Tournaments are down about 50%.
Discussion Items from Advisory Council Chair
Doug Couchman gave a quick recap of some of the Board of Director meeting motions. It was similar to the prior recap in Reno.
Q&A: Steve Moese from D11 mentioned face to face clubs are struggling, and right now there is not a level playing field versus online bridge. Half of all the clubs are operating now versus 2019, and the table count dropped from 2 million to 500,000. Some suggestions: make virtual clubs award white points (a new pigment), so that only face to face clubs pay black points. Eliminate robot and fast pairs that pay pigmented masterpoints. More black points should be required for each rank, including life master and grand life master. One suggestion: 200 black points for life master instead of the current 75. Online alliance have a disproportionate amount of power and should be curbed. Here is an excerpt from his written piece, sent before the first March 2022 Advisory Council Meeting.
Allow tables from online and in-person bridge to complement table counts used for masterpoint awards overall. Reduce the online total tables by proportional board count. e.g., 18/24, or 18/27*. Devise an acceptable approach for multi-club alliances. We feel strongly that an alliance should not have a disproportionate advantage in table count adjustments. Some ideas to spark discussion: a. Each member of an alliance separately claims additional tables played in the alliance online game by one of their original accept list players (difficult to manage). When claiming additional in-person tables, alliance members must list the player numbers of their online players to be added to the in-person game. b. Cap the maximum number of additional tables that can be boosted at 30. c. Allow the online game to boost its table count by tables from all members run in-person by members of the alliance at the same time.
Restrict players from playing online when there is a championship regional in their District or a championship sectional in their Unit. Do this by deleting any MPs won playing online when a tournament is underway. This would not include online sessions started after the in-person tournament day has ended. In-person midnight games do not bar players from playing online.
The Unit is happy to offer 3 unique changes to earn silver points, all subsidized for those who pre-register early enough. Each event is part of an ACBL sanctioned sectional or STaC tournament and pays more generously than a normal club game. At last, this is the long-awaited NYC sectional.
Sunday April 3rd, 1pm: 0-500 swiss teams (single-session, 50% early bird discount)
Each event will be held at Bridge and Games, the club at 177 East 87th Street. To accelerate the return to face-to-face bridge, the unit is covering a significant portion of the costs for those who pre-register early in each event. In fact, the limited 0-500 swiss on April 3rd is half off, but only if you register by Thursday night.
Also, the Sunday April 10th swiss is the first two-session, face-to-face bracketed swiss held in NYC in many years. For the past decade or two, anyone who wanted to earn silver points while playing bracketed teams had to make a trek to Woodbridge or Allendale. And while it’s true we are excited to see Allendale making a return on April 29th and April 30th, their current flyer only has pairs events. They have omitted the usual Sunday teams (I wonder why). That’s ok, though, because NYC folks have GNT Flight B that weekend…
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
