USA II in Finals of Bermuda Bowl!

So USA II defeated USA I to make the finals of the Bermuda Bowl -- a huge accomplishment. This team was very underestimated. In the other semi-final, the Netherlands defeated the favorite to win the event -- the Italian Blue Team.

After the first 3 sets of the Finals, the Netherlands is beating USA II by 22 IMPs. With 5 more sets to go (80 boards), this lead is not much at all and I expect a very tight match. Justin mentioned his team played pretty much its worst Bridge in this first session, so I expect them to come back strong tomorrow.

Here was the 2nd set of the Finals.

USA I vs USA II Bridge Bermuda Bowl Semi-Finals

This is a vugraph video of the first set of the Bermuda Bowl semi finals -- USA I vs USA II. The table image you see on the left is generated by an operator who sits by the actual table and enters the cards, bidding, and play as it proceeds so that we can view it online in real time.

United States Bridge

The US is the only country to have 2 teams represented in the Bermuda Bowl (because of its enormous depth). One of the rules of the Bermuda Bowl is that if both US teams qualify for the semi-finals, they must face each other. Since both US teams did in fact get to the semi-finals, their match began last night, and this video covers the very first set.

The legendary Italian Blue Team is the heavy favorite to win the gold, and both US teams are considered contenders.

USA II is the youngest American team to ever qualify for this event, and one of my friends Justin Lall plays for them. They are still relatively green and very unproven in international competition. To win this event is the highest award in Bridge. For them to make it this far in their first Bermuda Bowl is a huge accomplishment in itself.

Justin's team plays an extremely aggressive modern style. Similar to how Poker has evolved in recent years, Bridge is evolving on a similar path into a much more aggressive auction. USA II illustrates this evolution better than any other team (in particular, Lall/Grue "Grall"). This extremely aggressive approach is a thrill for spectators to watch and provides many high variance deals. This team is already being called the future of American Bridge.

Here is a bit more about Justin's Team

About The Bermuda Bowl

The Bermuda Bowl is the main world team championship in Bridge and is held every 2 years. It is an incredibly difficult feat to just to make it there -- especially for a team as young as USA II (young for Bridge standards).

There are 22 national teams in the field, who represent the eight WBF (World Bridge Federation) zones. Each zone gets a designated number of teams allowed. Below are the countries that qualified this year for each zone.

Europe: Italy, Poland, Israel, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, Bulgaria —1st to 7th in the European championship
North America: Canada, USA 1, USA 2
South America: Brazil, Chile
Asia & Middle East: India, Pakistan
Central America & Caribbean: Guadeloupe
Pacific Asia: China, Japan, Singapore
South Pacific: Australia, New Zealand
Africa: Egypt, South Africa

The first stage is a single round-robin (21 rounds of 16 deals each at three rounds per day), scheduled in advance. The top 8 teams from the Round Robin qualify for the second stage which is a single elimination knock out format.

To qualify and become USA II, Justin's team had to beat both the past Bermuda Bowl champs (The legendary Nickell team -- Meckstroth/Rodwell, Hamman/Mahmood, etc. who have been in every Bermuda Bowl since the 90's winning 4 of them), as well as the Rosenblum Cup champions (the other main world championship in Bridge). Because of the very deep talent in the US, it is extremely difficult to qualify. The competition is nearly as difficult as the Bermuda Bowl itself.

Team Bridge

To give a brief summary of how competitive team Bridge works, there will be a team of 4 playing against another team of 4. Justin's team is actually 6 people, so not all the team plays at once. Two people from one team play against a pair from the opposing team, and another pair of your team play against a second pair from the opposing team on a second table in opposite directions.

So, if you and your partner sit N/S, your teammates will be sitting E/W at the other table. The same deals are then dealt to each table so that each team will see all 4 hands on any given deal.

So for example if Justin and Joe play two Italians, the Italians at the other table are given the same cards Justin and Joe get, and Justin's teammates get the Italians' cards. Your score is based on how well you did compared to your opponents at the other table (sitting in your seats). Scores on any hand range from -24 to +24. 5 is considered a decent score, 10 is a big score, 15 is a gigantic score, 24 is a once in a lifetime hand. At this level of play, most deals are "par" results or "no score".

This match is 96 boards (hands) total, broken into 6 sets of 16 boards each. The first day they played the first 3 sets, and today they will play the final 3 sets. If you are a spades player, you might wonder why they can't play more than 48 boards in one day. Bridge at this level is played much slower than Spades (about 8 min per hand), and requires A LOT more thought and concentration (literally each card played is critical). Also because the bidding auction is more than 1 round, it is much more involved/takes longer than Spades. Playing this many boards per day quickly fatigues a player which is why each team has 3 pairs for rotation. These guys have been playing the highest level of World Class Bridge for 10 days straight now at 48 boards per day. Because of that, they're pretty fatigued and unfortunately we likely won't be seeing their A games. If you're a baseball fan, this is similar to having your ace pitch on 2-3 days rest continuously.

Updated scores can be viewed here: Bridge Winners. After the first 3 sets, USA II leads USA I 112-61. A nice lead, but not overwhelming -- this is easily surmountable with 48 boards to go.

Why don't more Spades players play Bridge?

Why aren't more Spades players making the switch to the king of all partnership card games? In my opinion, Bridge is the greatest card game ever invented.

Is it because of the complicated bidding? Or is the perception that it's an LOL (little old lady)game? Maybe people aren't aware you can play professionally and make a comfortable living. I admit Bridge at first seems pretty overwhelming to learn, and getting a new player through that initial phase is the hardest part.

When my dad tried to get me into Bridge when I was 15, he would take me to the club and it was filled with 65+ yr olds. This obviously made it difficult for me to get into the game and I decided to stick with Spades. I regret not getting into the game at a younger age, as now I have a lot of catch up to do. Fortunately during those years I decided to read a lot of bridge books knowing eventually I'd make the switch.

Spades is really the ideal groundwork to prepare for learning Bridge. The card play in Bridge takes years to become proficient in, but Spades players have a nice head start. Bridge experts will tell you that defense is the hardest area to get proficient in, and Spades players are already playing "defense" on every hand. This is a huge asset Spaders bring when they start out.

Contrary to what most think, the bidding is probably the easiest area to become proficient in even though it seems foreign and hard to grasp when you start (like any new language).

Last week I was playing Spades with one of the top professional Bridge players in the country (Justin Lall) and we were discussing this subject. He started playing Spades many yrs ago at a very young age, and now plays professional Bridge. He had said many times that Spades is the ideal primer for Bridge and is what got him started.

Here is a post Justin Lall made on this subject (under JLOGIC)

Is Bridge Dying?

STAT and UDAT

In the spirit of improving the game, I'd like to propose that we incorporate a "standardized" carding system for the game of Spades. This will provide 3 major needed improvements to the game:

1) Play of the hand will improve with added information (from both sides).
2) You will be able to play with a number of different partners without having to discuss signaling and carding methods in detail.
3) Disclosure to opponents will be easier.

Note: Currently, spades doesn't require disclosure of carding methods because very few pairs have agreements and it would confuse average players. As agreements become more mainstream, disclosure will be not only needed, but it will help to elevate the game.

I will be making a video which will cover the basic system
-- STAT (Standard Attitude and Trump Signals)

The same system with reversed carding will be
-- UDAT (Upside down Attitude and Trump Signals).

The system is as follows and applies to non-bagging hands:
-----------------------------------------------------------
STAT Standard Attitude and Trump Signals

Leads

* Top of sequences AKx KQx QJx J10x KJ10x
* Low from Strength Q82 K73
* Top-of-Nothing 976 102

Attitude

* Standard Attitude (high = encouraging, low = discouraging) applies when we lead a suit for the first time.
* If Attitude is obvious, standard suit preference is next priority.

Trump

* When the opposition leads for the first time, we signal trump length. High = good trumps Low = bad trumps
* Subsequent leads we signal standard suit preference.

Conventional Spades Signals -- Suit Preference

Conventional Spades Signals -- Leads

Conventional Spades Signals -- Attitude