Beam me somewhere, Scotty!

• The right side of the main page now has transporter boxes.  These are select boxes which link to results pages, masterpoint race standings, IMP League information, and others.  It is a two-step process: 1) Select a page in one of the boxes (scroll down to see more selectable content) by clicking and highlighting it, and 2) click the button below.  In most cases this will open a new tab (see below) in your browser window with the page requested.  To return to the site, just close the tab and the original page will still be there.  Those few still looking at computer screens with small resolutions may need to scroll over to the right to fully view these boxes (hint: time to get a new monitor).  If the transporter boxes don't work for you, it may mean that your browser is dated and you need to download a more modern version, or that you need to enable JavaScript within your browser, at least for this page.
• * If your browser doesn't support tabbed browsing (most do these days), instead of opening a new tab in the current window, it will open the selected page in a new window. This page will remain open; when you are finished looking at the selected page, close it and you'll be back here.

Recently Completed:

• 2012 Spring Sectional at Burnaby Engineers Hall, May 10-13, 2012. Results and Masterpoints.
• 2012 Spring Future Stars Sectional at the Vancouver Bridge Centre, May 5-6, 2012. Results and Masterpoints
• 2012 Vancouver Regional: Richmond BC (at the River Rock), April 23-29, 2012.        Info Article        Flyer schedule page        Daily Bulletins (all now posted including Wrapup edition)        Results (all now posted and trouble areas cleaned up)

Next Up on the Unit Calendar:

• Next Open Sectional: Evergreen Sectional, October 7-9, 2012, site to be determined.
• Next 0-300 Sectional: Fall Future Stars, late October 2012 in South Surrey (details not yet provided by Unit Board).
• Next STaC: Unit 430 District-wide STaC, June 4-10, 2012.
• Next Monthly Unit Game: 7:00pm, Saturday, May 5 at Vancouver Bridge Centre (pairs), now including a separate non-Life Master section.
• Next Mentor-Mentee Game: 1:00pm, Saturday, May 19, 2012 at Vancouver Bridge Centre, Swiss Teams.  (To pre-register for the game, send an e-mail to David Dilkes)
• IMP League News:
  • Flight A/X/B: Playoff time!  The standings are here.  Playoff schedule and results table is here.  The one-page playoff diagram is now posted at the VBC (pdf here).  Masterpoints won in the regular season are below.
  • Flight C: had seven teams of non-Life Masters and a interesting alternative format.  After the first day of play, players preferred not to play 24 boards against the same team.  The remainder of the season was conducted on selected Sunday afternoons, with six of the seven teams playing four six-board segments.  Over the course of the season each team played the others for four segments, and the results slowly took shape, like the results of an election.  Complete match results are here, with special web pages for each Flight C league team now set up, showing each team member's statistics.  Playoffs have begun and in the first semifinal, team Nours/Main defeated Bye/Ottridge in a close match.  The second playoff match between Moffatt/Stark and Zhou/Ion was won by Zhou/Ion.
  • Masterpoints for the 2011-12 IMP League: Flight A Overalls: A#1 Litwin (18.08), A#2 Vincent (13.56), A#3 Ayukawa (10.17), A#4 Nystrom (8.34), A#5 Yue Su (7.75); X#1 Ayukawa (strat A award is bigger), X#2 Yue Su (strat A award is bigger), X#3 Segal (4.98, but some members of the team scored better by winning six matches); B#1 Tang (5.66), all other teams won match awards of 0.90 per match win.  Flight C Overalls: C#1 Stark (6.01), #2 Ottridge (4.51), #3 Main (3.38), all other teams won 0.55 per match win.  All awards are BLACK points; the playoffs currently in progress are NOT played for masterpoints, only for the permanent trophy engravings of players on each team.
• Next District 19 Regional: Penticton, June 11-17
• Next NABC: Philadelphia PA, July 11-22.

News Items:

• Brad Bart takes the lead in a very close Phil Wood Trophy Race, following the Spring Sectional last weekend.  Julie Smith has an 10½ point lead in the Edie Bonnell Trophy Race, and Paul Yip takes the lead (by 0.05!) in a very tight Phil Wood Under 200 Trophy Race!
• New players: Unit 430 has added a new masterpoint race for 2012 designed to create an exciting competition among our eager non-Life Masters.  In the Rocket Rookie Race, only points earned by non-Life Masters playing with other non-Life Masters will count (with one exception: results from the Mentor-Mentee games, where new players play with mentors, will count, but at a 50% discount so these games alone do not decide the winner).  All limited unit-run games count, at open sectionals, Future Stars Sectionals, Flight C of Monthly Unit Games (plus the new non-Life Master section starting in March), Mentor-Mentee Games, even the Flight C IMP League that started last fall.  Stephen Ottridge has taken the lead following the Spring Sectional, mostly due to the results of the Flight C IMP League, but it is a very close race!  The next RRR-eligible event is the Mentor-Mentee team game on May 19.      How it works      Schedule of RRR-eligible events      Current Standings
• Aidan Ballantyne and Rock Shi Yan win the 12-table May Monthly Unit Game!
  • May 5 Game Results (and links to others)
  • 2012 MUG Trophy Race Standings after five games
  • Final 2011 MUG Trophy Race Standings
  • Next Monthly Unit Game: Saturday, June 2 - 7:00 pm (teams).
  • Alert!  Starting in March 2012, we will be running a separate non-Life Master section at the Monthly Unit Game.  The game will use the same boards as the main game and will be a 'go' as long as we have six pairs or more.  With less than six, players will be given both a full refund and the chance to play in the main game for free if they wish.  We do ask that non-Life Masters wishing to play in the game arrive before 6:50, so that we know whether there are enough to proceed with a separate non-Life Master section.
  • Recent Results and Hand Records
• Kathy Adachi and Marguerite Chiarenza win the 18-table Ev Hodge Charity Classic!  March 31 Game Results
• New players: Unit 430 has added a new masterpoint race for 2012 designed to create an exciting competition among our eager non-Life Masters.  In the Rocket Rookie race, only points earned by non-Life Masters playing with other non-Life Masters will count (with one exception: results from the Mentor-Mentee games, where new players play with mentors, will count, but at a 50% discount so these games alone do not decide the winner).  All limited unit-run games count, at open sectionals, Future Stars Sectionals, Flight C of Monthly Unit Games (plus the new non-Life Master section starting in March), Mentor-Mentee Games, even the Flight C IMP League that started last fall.  Standings are here
• 2011 Mini-McKenney and Ace of Clubs Winners: The Mini-McKenney competition counts points from all sources, while the Ace of Clubs counts points from club games only.  These races are finalized only after the February masterpoint cycle each year, so all clubs have ample time to get their results in with any corrections necessary.  Before you send me an irate e-mail (believe me, it has happened before) saying that you have more points than indicated, please understand that these lists are based on categories players were placed in based on how many points the ACBL thought you had on January 1, 2011.  For 2012 you may well be in a new category.  Winners from Unit 430 for 2011 were:
• 0-5 winners: Mini-McKenney: Jim Garnier, Maple Ridge BC.  Ace of Clubs: Michael Williams, Vancouver BC.
• 5-20 winners: Mini-McKenney: James Wu, Surrey BC.  Ace of Clubs: James Wu, Surrey BC.
• 20-50 winners: Mini-McKenney: Dennis Peacock, Palm Desert CA.  Ace of Clubs: Sania Begovic, Burnaby BC.
• 50-100 winners: Mini-McKenney: Huan Zhao, Vancouver BC.  Ace of Clubs: Huan Zhao, Vancouver BC.
• 100-200 winners: Mini-McKenney: Edee Rumley, Langley BC.  Ace of Clubs: L Ralph Buckley, Vancouver BC.
• 200-300 winners: Mini-McKenney: Diane Griffiths, Langley BC.  Ace of Clubs: Siavosh Siassi, Vancouver BC.
• 300-500 winners: Mini-McKenney: Diana Jing, Burnaby BC.  Ace of Clubs: Marta Zahorecz, Vancouver BC.
• 500-1000 winners: Mini-McKenney: Jane Youngberg, Surrey BC.  Ace of Clubs: Allan Karro, Surrey BC.
• 1000-2500 winners: Mini-McKenney: Baixiang Liu, Burnaby BC.  Ace of Clubs: John Teschke, Vancouver BC.
• 2500-5000 winners: Mini-McKenney: Jack Lee, Richmond BC.  Ace of Clubs: Samantha Nystrom, Burnaby BC.
• 5000-7500 winners: Mini-McKenney: Kathy Adachi, Surrey BC.  Ace of Clubs: Kathy Adachi, Surrey BC.
• 7500-10000 winners: Mini-McKenney: Michael Yuen, Vancouver BC.  Ace of Clubs: Michael Yuen, Vancouver BC.
• Over 10000 winners: Mini-McKenney: Cameron Doner, Richmond BC.  Ace of Clubs: Aidan Ballantyne, Burnaby BC.
• Links to the complete results, including the top 10 in each category and the points won: Mini-McKenney Ace of Clubs
• Lucy Zhong and Gilbert Lambert win the 14-table February Mentor-Mentee Game!
• Two in a row: they won the October 1, 2011 Mentor-Mentee game as well!
• February 19Game Results
• Next Mentor-Mentee Game will be held on Saturday, May 19, 2012, at the VBC -- Swiss Teams.
• To pre-register for the next game, send an e-mail to David Dilkes
• An article based on a hand in the April 2011 game, here
• A program called ACBLmerge allows viewers to:
  
  • See the cards in each hand beside the results of the deal, ordered from N-S top to E-W top,
  • Hover the mouse over a player in the list at the top to see that player's approximate masterpoint holding,
  • Click on your pair number in the list at the top and a window will come up with all your results
  • Check the field strength of the game you were in, by average MP and by geometric mean
  • See the double-dummy makes with each hand.
  Check it out here (Victoria Day Sectional) or here (Penticton Regional).
• New Rookies Section added: The former Special Events area has been relocated to other spots on the site to open up the purple section as a new Rookies area!  Lots of new content has been added to this area:
  • A page for general articles geared at rookies (here, four new articles already added)
  • A page with details on the Unit mentoring program and local teachers (here, teacher list coming)
  • A page with lists of events for newer players coming up (here, check it out!)
  • A page of articles illustrating duplicate play by spotlighting a single deal (here; one hand so far, hoping for more).
  • Local Bridge Teachers: help us out!  Send me a quick write-up of one of your favorite lesson hands.  You may attract some new students this way!