Today was Hump Day! The Round Robin Series is a seven-day event which seems to just drag on and on and on. I call it ground hog day all over again. Each morning we wake up, eat breakfast, play match 1, eat lunch, play match 2, play match 3, eat dinner, go to sleep and THEN DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN. By Day 4, the monotony starts to set in but at least the jet lag is easing a bit! By now, I hope you are realizing that the Round Robin Series is sort of a “last man standing” kinda thing and we hope to still be standing on Saturday night!
Overall, it was a good day at the office ~ 44.17 victory points out of a total of 60. If every day could be that way, we would win the Round Robin Series for Sure! The day started off against our neighbors to the North…Oooo’ Canada! winning 23-13 and taking home 12.8 VPs. Next came Egypt, a team who could easily have surprised USA 1 but in the end, the score was 30-19 for the good guys,13.04 VPs and inching back up the leader board to 3rd overall. The final match of the day was against Jordan. The expectation was high that we should take all 20 VPs. However, a last minute board dropped on the floor meant USA 1 only was 57-15 awarding only 18.33 VPs. But hey! leaving 1.67 VPs on the table isn’t all that bad. All-in-all, a very good day at the office finishing the day less than 1 point out of 1st place on the leader board.
The minimum goal is to be in the top 8 by the end of the Round Robin Series, but for some teams, 1st or 2nd overall is the BIG one because the top team gets to pick from among the 5-8 finishers, then the next team gets the remainder of the field. Getting to choose your opponent in the Round of 8 is a BIG DEAL!
Meanwhile, USA 2 finished the day in 12th place and 11 VPs out of qualifying position. They have some work to do to qualify but I wouldn’t count them out quite yet!
Turning to the Venice Cup (Women), USA 2 and USA 1 had outstanding Day 4 and are sitting 1st and 2nd, respectively, and pulling away from the field. Both teams appear to have rather easy schedules remaining (more weaker teams than strong) and are in good position to stay at the top of the leader board.
Finally, in the D’Orsi Bowl (Seniors), USA 1 is in second place ~ just 3 VPs out of first. while USA 2 is in the last qualifying spot and 9 VPs out of 9th. At this point in the qualifying, all of the teams not only pay attention to how far out of first they are ranked but also how far out of 9th!
As a programming note: Assuming that both USA teams qualify in each event, and they do not play each other in the Round of 8, then the conditions of contest require the two teams to play one another in the Semi-Finals. This is to insure that there is never an all USA Final. So the best USA can ever do at this Championship is the Gold and Bronze medals.
For those that are watching the matches on BBO, there is a cool button called GIB which will analyze whether or not the contract will make or not. Now, a little word of caution, GIB is looking at all 52 cards so the players are not always going to take the same line of play as GIB. However, when it’s been a long day and you just don’t want to do the analyzes yourself, it’s a quick way of seeing whether it is even possible to make the contract!
We had a great Webinar tonight and I look forward to seeing everyone online next Wednesday for “Defend These Hands with Me” at 10am Central Time. Click Here to Save Your Seat! It’s FREE, so why not give it a try!
BREAKING NEWS! There is a Starbucks in Chennai…but it’s not very close to the hotel and the way people drive around here, (I can’t believe I am saying this) it’s not worth risking my life for a Chai Tea Latte!
Now that you have read down to the bottom…I don’t have any updates on the cheating scandal to report. The silence is deafening!
