BAND Blog

The 2011 Vanderbelt Finals will feature the Grue Team vs. the Fleisher Team.   Both teams took care of their opponents in fine fashion – with no close calls in the final few boards.  The Grue team includes Curtis Cheek who is still dealing with his bout with swine flu.  He is playing like his old self and showing no mercy on his opponents.  His has lots of people cheering for him to show the bridge world that he is BACK to play - including yours truly.

The Fleisher Team qualified to represent the US in the 2011 Bermuda Bowl in last year’s United States Team Trials and they are showing that their Bermuda Bowl qualification was no accident.  The Final match-up should be one to watch!  Kick off time is 10am Dallas Time.

Meanwhile in the Two-Day Open Swiss, Chris’ team is in second place heading into the final day.  With a little luck and some great play – Team Sonsini is positioned to finish in the money.  My team qualified for the second day of the Two-Day Women’s Swiss and also has chances to win it all. 

Time for sleep – See you tomorrow!

Well, it looked like Team Nickell was going to survive to see another day with 9 boards to go in the Round of 8 – but it wasn’t meant to be.   The wheels fell off and it wasn’t even close at the end.  It was a good run, however, and Team Nickell still has their beye to the Round of 16 in the United States Team Trials. 

Congratualations to Fleisher, Diamond, Kang and Grue – The Final Four!  Interestingly, Diamond is the only top four seed to make it to the Round of Four.  For all of you Nickell fans – thanks for the support!  I will let you know when the Team Trials begin in May so we can carry Team Nickell to the USA II so we can defend the Bermuda Bowl in October!

No time to stop cheering, however.  Now that Nickell is out of the running – I will be cheering for the Grue Team which includes Joe Grue, New York NY; Leslie Amoils, Toronto ON; Ishmael Delmonte, New South Wales Australia; Curtis Cheek, Las Vegas NV; David Bakhshi, London England.  One team member in particular, is worth cheering for – Curtis Cheek.  He was the player that got swine flu from Sao Paulo and was in a coma for three months in a Brazilian hospital.  He has recovered for the most part but he lost parts of his hands and feet.  For a while, they thought his short term memory had been affected but now here he is in the Final Four showing the world that he can still play this game!  The rest of the guys on the team are nice too!

I will be on BBO watching along with all of you tomorrow!  Be sure to drop in on a game tomorrow at BAND and follow along with the play on the big screen TVs!  Wear a creative Scarf/Tie for the chance to win a club game with Donna!  Can’t wait to see the pictures!

See you tomorrow…

Another exciting day in the 2011 Vanderbilt Cup!  Top seeded Monaco Z fell to the original 17 seed Team Deutsch who now takes over the top seed and are favorites over their opponents in the Round of 8.  Chris’s team fell to the Number 4 Seed Cayne – Out gunned and out matched…it was a great run for Team Sonsini who debuted in her first BIG team event in Louisville.  I am sure we will see more of her (and Chris) in future tournaments.

If you are wondering why I am writing the blog at 2am…our match just finished a while ago and after the team debriefing I starting writing this blog.  For those of you who watched the Nickell – O’Rourke match on BBO – wow what a match.  I have definitely aged dramatically since the match started this morning.  When the final board scored - Team Nickell won by 1 (event though the score shows 3) but one imp is enough to survive to play in the Round of 8!  We received more good news at the end of the match as well – in adding our seeding points for the United States Team Trials by winning today’s match, we now have a beye to the Round of 16 in the Team trials in May.  As you may remember, if Team Nickell wins a beye to the Round of 8 in the team trials if they win the match tomorrow…we need all of you to watch the vugraph show at BAND or go online at BBO and cheer for Team Nickell!

Two other matches are being decided in committee – which means there was a director’s ruling and a committee of players are deciding the fate of four teams.  I am going to sleep and will find out the results of those matches in tomorrow’s bulletin.  For those who can’t wait for tomorrow night’s blog…go to Brackets or Results.

See you online tomorrow!

WOW!  What an exciting Round of 32…Sweet 16 coming up!  Of the 16 matches – we saw five upsets (which means a lower seeded team lost their seed to a higher seeded team.  One of these upsets included the Sonsini Team (Chris’s team) which was the 20th seed and they won their match taking over the 13th seed.  Team Sonsini faces a tough match in the Sweet 16 Round facing the Cayne Team which includes four italians (not my italians, thank goodness – but none the less, four italians.  Team Sonsini is clearly the underdog in this match but the team is playing “in the zone” so perhaps we will see another upset on Thursday. 

On a personal note – congratulations to Barbara Sonsini for going over 4000 masterpoints with her win in the Round of 32 (she won 50 masterpoints).

The Nickell Team (my team) strolled through the Round of 32 playing their opponents around in circles.  The boys have been warming up in these early matches and are playing in form as they enter the Sweet 16 Round.  Our draw tomorrow is the O’Rourke Team which is a formidable Sweet 16 Team but as long as our guys take care of business…it should be an academic match. 

You can watch both of these matches along with the other 6 matches of the day on Bridge Base Online or check in on the Quarter Scores on BridgeWinners.com.  The vugraph matches will be shown on BAND’s big screen TVS – so wear your green, join the fun and cheer for Team Nickell and Team Sonsini!

Team Rosters         Bracket Sheet        Quarter Results

With the Round of 64 all said and done, the Nickell Team advances to the Round of 32 to face the 34th seeded team of Jacek Jerzy Kalita, Warsaw Poland; Krzysztof Kotorowicz, Bialystok 15 Poland; Nicolas L’Ecuyer, Montreal QC; Vincent Demuy, Laval QC; David Grainger, Bend OR; Ron Zambonini, Nepean ON.   Obviously, we are the clear favorite but anything can happen over a 64 board match. 

The Round of 32 will be broadcasted on BBO starting at 12 NOON Dallas time.   The vugraph will be shown throughout the remainder of the week on BAND’s big screen tvs while you play!  Follow the play by play with world class commentary underneith the hands. 

On a personal note:  Chris’ team (Sonsini) also made it through the Round of 64 and faces a fellow Dallasite, Bart Bramely in the Round of 32.  The Sonsini Team is the 20 seed while the Bramely Team is a 13th seed.  Chris’ team is the favorite – but it will definitely be a close match.  Be sure to follow these two matches along with the other Round of 32 matches on Bridge Base Online or at BAND! 

See you tomorrow!

Let the games begin!  Monday was actually Day 1 but the top 54 teams had byes while the bottom 14 teams played off to field a team of 64 for play on Tuesday.  The Team Rosters are now posted but we are still waiting for the Round of 64 Bracket Sheet to be linked.   The Nickell Team (my team) was actually the top seeded team, however, the previous year’s winners jumped ahead and left the Nickell team as a two seed.  (The defender’s are always the top seed).  The key round for the Nickell Team is the semi-finals so that we get a bye to the Round of 8 in the United States Team Trials in May. 

Let me back up a minute…The 2011 World Championships scheduled for the Netherlands in October will host the Bermuda Bowl (the trophy at BAND).  The United States will send two teams.  USA I was determined during last year’s US Team Trials and USA II will be determined during this year’s US Team Trials in Las Vegas starting on May 11.  One key to winning the US Team trials is to get a bye to at least the Round of 8 (obviously, the Round of 4 or finals is even better!).  Byes are awarded based on seeding points won during the Summer Spingold, Fall Reisinger and Spring Vanderbilt.  Unfortunately, the Nickell Team has not accumulated many seeding points up to this point and now has our back against the wall.

The best bye we can get for the US Team Trials is to the Round of 8.  To acheive this bye, we need to get to the semi-finals of the 2011 Vanderbilt.  The mission at hand is clear – but not so easy to accomplish.  We will need all of you cheering for us as we start the Round of 64 on Tuesday.  You can follow the results in this blog and on BBO when the vugraph begins later in the week.

Wish us luck!

The first weekend events have now come to a close.  On deck was the premier event – the three-day Kay Platinum Pairs which is in its second year.  The requirements to play is either 50 platinum points in the last three years or 200+ platinum points life time.  With this type of prerequisite, the starting field was incredible.  At the end of day one, the field was cut from 122 pairs to 52 ffor day two play and then down to 28 pairs for day three.  Congrats to Joel Wooldridge and John Hurd for topping the field.  Be sure to read the Monday Daily Bulletin for full complete overall results.

The secondary National event of the weekend was the two-day Lebhar IMP Pairs which was won by a pair of Norwegians Runar Lillevik and Oyvind Ludvigsen.  Details of this event may be found in the Sunday Daily Bulletin.

The third National event of the first weekend was the Senior Pairs which ends on Monday evening.  Results are not known as I post this blog but may be found in the Tuesday Daily Bulletin.