Welcome to Unit 430's Webpage!
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QUICK UPDATE: Matchpointer Online is on a bit of a hiatus until after the Penticton Regional (bulletin link).  Online editor McBruce preduplicated 2,858 boards for the Canadian Bridge Championships in Penticton, which took almost all of my spare time in May and early June.  Some quick capsule reviews of what's in the backlog:

• In the IMP League, playoffs have begun: in Flight A, Isfeld will play Stock for the other spot in the final vs Litwin.  In Strat X the final match between Feng and Segal was won by Segal.  In Flight B, Walker will play Lai for the other spot in the final vs Hu.
• The 14-table May Monthly Unit Game was won by Brian Liu and Edward Hui.  The 10-team June Monthly Unit Game (held after most of the Canadian Bridge Championship players had left) was won by Tao Feng, Rock Shi Yan, David Yu and Jeffrey Ren.  We'll update the leaderboards and winners lists when we have time.
• The Unit 430 STaC is over and results will be added to this site eventually; for now they are at the District 19 Site (click here).
• The Spring 2009 FUNdraiser game raised about $800 for the subsidy fund and reduced the number of players receiving subsidies by about one-third. Those remaining who played or donated an entry fee to the fund will on average get about twice as much of a subsidy for the Canadian Bridge Championships as they could have originally expected, although the different formulas of money distribution for the different events means this is an average.
• The Victoria Day Sectional at Queensborough Community Centre attracted a few less tables each session than last year's tournament. Winners and masterpoint leaders will be posted here, but perhaps not for some time. In the meantime, the ACBL site will have the information probably by Tuesday evening.  Same goes for the Future Stars tournament.

Once again, my apologies for the hiatus.  It's been a busy month leading up to a very busy two weeks...

• The Friday-Saturday Knockout at the recent Victoria Regional was the event in which Aidan Ballantyne (right) passed the 10,000 masterpoint plateau, making him a Grand Life Master, Unit 430's first.  Grand Life Master is the ACBL's highest rank, restricted to players who have won an open championship at an NABC or a world championship.  Aidan won the North American Open Pairs with Gord McOrmond in 1997 and may well have added more titles since.  Congratulations!
• Unit 430 Spring FUNdraiser, May 9 at the VBC (noon/TBA).  A two-session StratiFlighted team game to support players attending the Canadian Bridge Championships in June.  Open to all players, championship-bound or not.  Penticton-bound players must attend (or make a $25 donation to the Unit Subsidy Fund) to be eligible for a subsidy.  Click here for complete details; here for Unit Subsidy Policy recent changes.
• ALERT.  Flyers printed for the November 2009 Regional has slightly erroneous dates, one day off the actual dates.  The Surrey tournament will begin on November 9 (not 10) and end on November 15 (not 16).  New flyers have been printed with the correct dates.
• Grand National Teams District Final at the Vancouver Bridge Centre April 4 and 5: results
• IMP League regular season ends April 29 in A/X (standings), and has ended in B (standings) -- matches must be played before then.  The A playoff teams are known after Bart defeated Litwin to break Litwin's eleven game winning streak, grabbing the fourth and final spot.  The top three teams are Litwin (265, one match left), Stock (247, one match left), and Isfeld (265, finished).  In Strat X, Feng has earned the top seed and the bye to the Flight X Final, with Williams to play Segal for the other spot.   In Flight B, the playoffs have begun, with Hu defeating Walker in the #1-#2 game.  The other first-round match is Meyer vs Lai.  The amazing stories from Wacky Wednesday, February 25 are here.
• Victoria Regional, April 13-19 at the new expansion of the Victoria Convention Centre, across the street in the new Crystal Gardens wing. McBruce's Daily Bulletin page is here.  Wrapup Bulletin Issue now posted, with complete masterpoint lists, and photos of winners and of the amazing site.
• Grand National Teams District Final, held April 4-5 at the VBC: winners are here.
• David Hu and John Chen win the 16½-table April Monthly Unit Game!
• April Game Results  Hand Records
• Current 2009 Trophy Race Standings
• Next Monthly Unit Game: Saturday, May 2 - 7:30 pm (pairs).  
• Remaining 2009 Monthly Unit Games (gametime: 7:30): May 2 (matchpoints), June 6, July 4 (matchpoints), August 8 (matchpoints - August 1 is during the Summer NABC), September 5 (matchpoints), October 3 (teams), November 7 (matchpoints), December 12 (matchpoints and pre-game Christmas cheer - December 5 is during the Fall NABC).
• Complete 2009 MUG Schedule
• Recent Results and Hand Records
• Ev Hodge Charity Classic On January 31, 34 tables participated in the inaugural Ev Hodge Charity Classic game.  A new trophy was revealed and $530 was raised for Canuck Place, a charity decided by the guest of honour, Ev Hodge.  The event happened only days after Ev's 90th birthday and a wonderful time was had by all.  Winners were Mike Dimich and Don Brazeau.  Results.  Photos.
• Kai Zhou leads the Phil Wood Trophy Race after the 2009 Trophy Sectional, at which attendance was up 12% from last year's event!  Winners.  Masterpoint Leaders.  Alphabetical List of all masterpoint winners.
• New Unit Subsidy Policy Approved The elimination of qualifying rounds for many events forced a major rehaul of the subsidy policy.  Get ready for the new FUNdraiser Games! Full details (and a summarized version) here.
• Next local tournament: Victoria Day Sectional, May 15-18, 2009 at Queensborough Community Centre
• Tournament Information
• Flyer (for printing on a black and white printer)
• Flyer (for Internet viewing or printing on a colour printer)
• Next under-300 tournament: Future Stars Sectional, May 2-3, 2009 at the Vancouver Bridge Centre
• ALERT!  Date changed from previous postings on Matchpointer Online.  Also, an error in the online info page had the Swiss Teams on Saturday May 3 (it's a Sunday).
• Tournament Information
• Flyer (for printing on a black and white printer)
• Flyer (for Internet viewing or printing on a colour printer)
• IMP League is nearly done, with 14 in A/X and 6 in B.  All links go from the table below.  The usual colourful VBC wall display is now up (and in the case of Flight A/X, where there are 14 teams, rather far down as well).  NEW: below the standings, we now have the All-Star teams, and on the Flight A standings page we have tweaked Whizbang to find out the Flight X playoff probabilities.
  

  Flight A/X — Unlimited Masterpoints						Flight B — 0-1000 MP (team average)
  Flight X: 0-2000 MP (team average)						Flight B Standings and Schedule
  Teams eligible for X in Italics						Flight B Notes & News
  Flight A/X Standings and Schedule			Flight A/X Notes & News			Flight B Team Pages:
  Flight A/X Team Pages:						Brown
  Bart		Feng		Fenton		Hu
  Isfeld		Lee		Litwin		Lai
  Moffatt		Nalos		Peters		McIntyre
  Sache		Segal		Stock		Meyer
  Takemori			Williams			Walker

This is the Start Page of the Home Area, the front page of the site.  Above, under the headline you can see the nine Areas making up this Web Site.  Click on a coloured rectangle above, or on a single-lettered bid-box in the graphic, to go to the Start Page of that Area.  The pages we expect to be most frequently accessed are in the 32 clickable links in the back of the bid-box over to the left of your screen.  If you hover your mouse over any of the bid-box links (back or front areas) for about a half-second, you'll see a short description of that page.  You'll find many more tips on site navigation on the Help! page.

You may also wish to add this site to your browser's bookmarks or favorites.  If the site becomes unavailable for an extended period of time, Matchpointer Online editor Bruce McIntyre will add most of the content to his own personal web space at this link, which you may also want to add to your browser's bookmarks or favorites.

The Unit has passed a new Subsidy Policy after almost six months of deliberations.  A new policy was needed to replace the old policy following recent changes to almost all of the events covered by Unit Subsidy Funds.  The new focus will be on two Fundraising Events: one in the Spring for Canadian Bridge Championships participants, and one in the Fall for North American Pairs and Grand National Teams hopefuls.  Every Unit Member who attends the national final in one of the six covered events, and is eligible for a subsidy, will receive an equal share of the money available, to a maximum of $400 per individual.

Events Covered: North American Pairs, Grand National Teams, Canadian Open Pairs Championship, Canadian National Team Championship Flight A, Canadian National Team Championship Flight B, and Canadian Women's Team Championship.  A separate fund for each of these events is maintained by the Unit.

Fundraising Events: These are two-session team games, open to anyone, even those not participating in the national final.  The events are meant to be fun (no funding money depends on the final standings), and an easy way for ALL bridge players to support the locals who are going to go to the national finals.  Come out and play against players who will soon be competing for a national championship!
 The Spring Fundraising Event will be held on May 9, and will cover all of the events at the 2009 Canadian Bridge Championships in Penticton (a week before the annual June Regional).  These events are open to any Canadian player willing to put up the considerable cardfees ($920 per team in the CNTC Flight A!) and we expect a large number of local players will play in Penticton.  (Club qualification is required in the CNTC and COPC to avoid an extra "buy-in" fee to play in the national final.  There are still some qualifying games left.)
 The Fall Fundraising Event will be held in Fall 2009 (date to be announced), and will cover the North American Pairs, and the Grand National Teams.  These events will precede the District Final and will raise money for the pairs and teams that go on to the national final.
 IMPORTANT: If you want to earn a subsidy from the Unit, you must pay a two-session entry fee to the corresponding Fundraising Event, OR (if unavailable) make a direct donation of at least the value of a two-session entry fee to Event Revenues.  Missing this hurdle renders you ineligible for a subsidy.

Other subsidy hurdles: To qualify for a subsidy from the Unit, you must be a Unit Member, your ACBL dues must be paid (including Life Master Service Fees), and for CBF events you must have CBF membership by the end of the Spring Fundraising Event.  If you clear all of these hurdles and play in the National Finals, you are eligible for a Unit subsidy.

Subsidy maximums: The subsidies for each of the six events are paid out equally to all eligible subsidy recipients from the money in the fund for that event when the event begins, except that:

• Nobody can get a subsidy more than their costs for cardfees, accomodations, transportation, less any outside subsidies received.  (In practice this will very seldom be a problem.  The cap on individual subsidies for each event makes in virtually impossible to earn more money in subsidies than you need.  The function of the subsidy policy is to assist players, but not to cover all costs.
• Nobody can get a subsidy for the GNT National Finals (at the Summer NABC) more than $400.
• Nobody can get a subsidy for the NAP National Finals (at the Spring NABC) more than $400.
• Nobody can get a subsidy for Canadian Bridge Championship Events (at Bridge Week each year in early summer) more than $400.  If you win subsidies for multiple Canadian Championship events, the maximum total amount you can be subsidized is $400.  Any excess is distributed to the other eligible subsidy winners.

How to apply: Usually, players eligible for a subsidy will be comtacted by the Special Events Coordinator once it is determined that they are on the roster of a national championship pair or team.  If you are missed you need to contact the Unit within four weeks of the end of the Canadian Bridge Championships, or within four weeks of the end of the District Final.

Scope of the subsidy policy: The subsidy policy does not cover world championships.  Subsidies for these events are the responsibility of the CBF or the ACBL.

Matchpointer Online editor Bruce McIntyre edits District 19 Regional Daily Bulletins, except for the Alaska Regionals.  Currently working on: Penticton 2009 Daily Bulletins.  I can be reached by e-mail.  Daily Bulletins are posted online at this page, along with McBruce Bulletins from previous tournaments.