[Trysalot]

Congratulations to Fred and the rest of the Ekeblad Team on placing Second out of Twenty-Eight teams in the recent U. S. Bridge Championship.

Good luck in turning the 2006 Runner-Up into the 2007 Winner

[fred]

Appreciate the sentiment, but I would have to agree with Jlall here.

The US Team Trials is the one and only tournament each year that I really care about winning (I care about the World Championships too, but I can't even play in that event unless I win the US Team Trials first).

The only consolation you get for coming in 2nd (besides some massive number of masterpoints that I could care less about) is some seeding points that will hopefully be useful for next year's Team Trials. Yahoo!

This particular loss was especially brutal because our team blew a big lead in the last 16-board segment. In fact, we were winning this long (128 boards I think) match going into the last board. When we finished playing, I thought we had won and looked at the computer of the BBO vugraph operator to see the score. We were winning by 4 IMPs and I remember thinking "that was a lot closer than I thought!" and feeling very relieved.

In the next 2 seconds the operator clicked the OK button in the Claim dialog box and the score changed so that we were losing by 5 IMPs.

That was a real Jack of Diamonds moment (if you have seen the movie "The Cincinnati Kid" you will know what I mean - if you have not seen this movie I suggest you rent it).

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Trysalot]

Well I definitely understand Fred's and Jason's points, especially the "all or nothing" status, and can imagine the team's shock when the final score changed like that.

But I wasn't thinking of the saying "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing!" when I said congratulations. I was looking at the placement and reading the article in Bridge Bulletin from the point of view of an average Flight B tournament player who was happy that Fred and his teammates had beaten 26 other teams. LOL.

So I guess I will withdraw the congratulations and instead offer sympathy. **

Trysalot

** But I am still proud of that team's performance even though it didn't win the event.

[Deanrover]

Had no idea any of this had happened, sounds really upsetting, much better just to lose in the first round. Trying to look at things in a positive light - does this mean that BBO will have the benefit of your expert vugraph commentary?

[Aberlour10]

Looking back to all the years of VG watching, I can't remember the more exciting moment than the seconds before Michael Rosenberg bid this 6♥ on the last hand of the final ....and all these "jumps" between the tables to watch what happens.

http://openskywebdesign.com/usbf/vugraphs/..._s8_scores.html

Robert

[csdenmark]

Deanrover, on Oct 27 2006, 09:04 PM, said:

Had no idea any of this had happened, sounds really upsetting, much better just to lose in the first round. Trying to look at things in a positive light - does this mean that BBO will have the benefit of your expert vugraph commentary?

A bit too early Dean - Team Jacobs won the right to respresent USA1 in Bermuda Bowl 2007. Next year the team to represent USA2 will be found in USBF team trials. But now we know either team Nickell or team Ekeblad - or if very unlucky even both - will be missing in Bermuda Bowl 2007.

I also feel the outcome very astonishing and feel much pity with team Ekeblad which looked safe for so very long. But thats the reason a match is 128 boards instead of decided after 16 only.

I see this defeat a bit as a worrying sign - that the succesful days for USA starting with Dallas Aces may have come to a crossroad. Bricklayer here seems to be ACBL. But a bit too early to predict very much about.

[csdenmark]

Jlall, on Oct 28 2006, 09:23 PM, said:

csdenmark, on Oct 28 2006, 09:35 AM, said:

I see this defeat a bit as a worrying sign - that the succesful days for USA starting with Dallas Aces may have come to a crossroad. Bricklayer here seems to be ACBL. But a bit too early to predict very much about.

umm...? I see this as a sign of the depth that USA has in that we can field many great teams. Do you think that the Jacobs team is not an excellent team (and certainly roughly similar in skill as Fred's team)? And what did the ACBL do, they let these teams duke it out for 128 boards and see who won. I couldn't think of a better way to do it. I really am not sure why you think that the Jacobs team will not be successful.

Yes USA have many great players and many great teams, incl. team Jacobs. Thats the reason why USA as the only country has the right to compete with 2 national teams.

I certainly hope I will not be right that this might be the beginning to an end for a long and successful era initiated by Ira Corn with his Dallas Aces.

Who is the driving force behind the constant modifications of the rules? I am not sure but as far as I understand it is ACBL. If so - then I think those will be to blame if the american teams again will need to suffer a long period beneath the spot where they want to be.

[hrothgar]

csdenmark, on Oct 29 2006, 12:55 AM, said:

Who is the driving force behind the constant modifications of the rules? I am not sure but as far as I understand it is ACBL. If so - then I think those will be to blame if the american teams again will need to suffer a long period beneath the spot where they want to be.

I wasn't aware of any significant changes to the selection criteria this year. The USBF used a teams trial, much as the ACBL did when it was running the show...

Could you explain what you mean by "Modification of the rules"