The Contest

Monday September 14, 2009 – Winners!

One downside, of course, of the World Championship results being announced over the weekend is I was not in the office, entries at hand, to announce the winners of the Seniors contest on Saturday and the Bermuda Bowl contest on Sunday.

BUT, I’m here now, and as we all know, England won the Seniors Bowl and USA 2 won the Bermuda Bowl. Let’s see who won our little contest, shall we?

…Actually, the winner of the Seniors contest isn’t that hard to determine. As stated during my last round of number-crunching, only Antony Edwards and Glen Ashton bet on England – and since Mr. Ashton was a point ahead during the last round, so he remains a point ahead after receiving six additional points this round. So the winner of our Seniors Contest, with 20 points, is Glen Ashton! Congratulations are also in order for Mr. Edwards, who came in a close second with 19.

In case you’re wondering, their tie-breaker picks were Canada and USA 1, respectively. The actual third-place winner was Indonesia.

Before I bore you with the Bermuda Bowl winner, let me share the interesting results of my “what if” bracket: What if Italy had won? MANY more contestants bet on Italy than USA 2 to win, and had Italy won, no less than twelve entrants would have finished with more than twenty points. These “winners” would have been:

- Linda Lee with 24 points
- Loo Choon Chou with 24 points
- Gal Hegedus with 21 points
- Me with 24 points
- Peter Gill with 24 points
- Kevin Lane with 23 points
- Paolo Treossi with 24 points
- Jenna G. Tichon with 23 points
- Peteris Erins with 24 points
- Edgars Sedols with 22 points
- Ivars Zubkans with 23 points
- Antony Edwards with 22 points

As you can see, the race would have been close. Linda Lee, Loo Choon Chou, Peter Gill, Paolo Treossi, Peteris Erins and myself would have all been winners, because none of our third-place picks (the most popular, including mine, was Netherlands) even made the finals.

…But Italy didn’t win, USA 2 did. Which means only four entrants – Christoph Grosset, Todd Holes, Nad Lewis, and Jeffrey Smith – earned more than 20 points, and with 25 points. Mr. Holes is the clear winner. (Messrs. Grosset, Lewis and Smith finished with 21, 24 and 24 points, respectively.)

So, congratulations to our winners! If Mr. Ashton and Mr. Hughes care to contact us with their choices, each will soon have a free book on its way.

Also, Luise will soon be e-mailing every one of the entrants to award them their $10 eBooksBridge gift certificates – our sincere way of saying thanks to all who entered!

- Eric Emin

Thursday September 10, 2009

As you may have noticed, the seniors’ results from yesterday have disappeared – this is because I got the finalists wrong. England and Poland are competing in the seniors’ finals, not Indonesia and USA 2. This means that while Michael Yuen, Frank Van Wezel and Gal Hegedus remain the technical front-runners with 16 points each, it is Yuen, who bet on Poland to win, who now has the greater chance of winning, rather than Van Wezel and Hegedus, who bet on USA 2 and Indonesia, respectively (my sincerest apologies to both!).

Notice I wrote “greater,” not “greatest” – Mr. Yuen is now tied with Todd Holes (who is also doing quite well in the open contest). Mr. Holes bet on USA 1 and Poland making it to the semi-finals, with Poland winning, so if Poland wins, the seniors’ prize will be taken by either Mr. Yuen or Mr. Holes.

If England wins, you may ask? Only Antony Edwards, currently with 13 points, and Glen Ashton, currently with 14, bet on England to win – so if England wins, Mr. Ashton will receive the seniors’ prize, though congratulations will also be in order for Mr. Edwards.

As before, not one entrant bet on both England and Poland making it to the semi-finals; however, since the average entrant (represented by me) bet on Poland and USA 1 making the finals, they at least reached this stage of the contest with 14 points instead of 10. They are still finished, as they bet on USA 1 to win. May we (and the USA 1 team!) have better luck next time.

- Eric Emin

Wednesday September 9 (9/9/09), 2009

And the semi-final results have been posted! If you were among the many, MANY entrants who voted on the USA 2 and Italy teams in the open, congratulations! SEVENTEEN entrants in the Bermuda Bowl contest have sixteen or more points:

- Linda Lee
- Peiyi Wang
- Loo Choon Chou
- Peter Gill
- Kevin Lane
- Paolo Treossi
- Jenna G. Tichon
- Peteris Erins
- Edgars Sedols
- Lolita Er
- Ivars Zubkans
- Nad Lewis
- Jeffrey Smith
- Antony Edwards
- Glen Ashton
- Myself, the average, with 18 points.

And today we have a clear front-runner – Todd Holes, with 19 points! Congratulations to all of the successful entrants!

With the exception of Mr. Ashton, each of the above entrants has bet on either USA 2 or Italy to win. If you’re among those with fewer than 16 points, but still bet on USA 2 or Italy to win (there are seven of you: Salty Warren, Christoph Grosset, Wayne Rauschuber, Michael Yuen, Gal Hegedus, our own Sally Sparrow, and Normunds Vilcins), don’t give up hope yet! Six more points remain to be doled out.

May the others have better luck next time.

- Eric Emin

Tuesday September 8, 2009

Well, the finals in Brazil are underway and the quarter-final and semi-final results have been posted. Let’s see how our contestants are doing, shall we?

The Bermuda Bowl

As you may recall, the open picks were very consistent. Nearly everyone bet on USA 2 and Italy and was rewarded accordingly.

The average picks (which, by astonishing coincidence, meshed perfectly with mine) were:

Quarter finals – USA 1, USA 2, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, China

Semi-finals – USA 2, Italy, Netherlands, Norway

So far, the results are:

Quarter finals: Italy, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, USA 2, Netherlands, China, Norway

Semi-finals: Italy, Bulgaria, USA 2, China

So an average entry, receiving one point for each correct quarter final pick and two points for each correct semi-final pick, yielded ten points. Before you ask, nobody predicted all eight quarter finalists, in either division.

So far, Edgars Sedols, Antony Edwards, and Glen from BridgeMatters are in the lead with twelve points each. What do their entries all have in common? They all bet on either China or Bulgaria in addition to USA 2 and Italy. Sedols and Glen bet on Bulgaria, while Edwards bet on China – it will be interesting to see who wins, no?

Nobody – and I mean NOBODY – else bet on either China or Bulgaria making it to the semi-finals. Most scores hover around 10 to 11 points, and given that USA 2 and Italy are the odds-on favourites you can’t quite count anyone out yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those extra two points earned by the current front-runners end up making all the difference.

Special notice must be given to Luise, whose mathematically random picks for the semi-finals (besides USA 2 and Italy, which she bet on just like everyone else) netted her a grand total of six points. That is, one each for USA 2 and Italy making it to the quarter finals, and two each when they made it to the semis. Not one of her other picks – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, or the Chinese Taipei team – made it to the quarters.

Now, for the Seniors

My sincerest condolences go out to Bobby Wolff, whose USA 1 team lost in the quarter finals, taking many of our readers’ votes (including mine) with him. It’s also with a pang of hometown shame that I report team Canada did not make it to the quarter finals at all.

The results so far:

Quarter finals – England, Egypt, Indonesia, Belgium, USA 1, USA 2, Sweden, Poland

Semi-finals – England, Indonesia, USA 2, Poland

The average picks for our seniors contest (which, as you may recall, by astonishing coincidence meshed almost perfectly with mine) were:

Quarter finals – USA 1, USA 2, Poland, Sweden, England, Canada, Indonesia, Australia

Semi-finals – USA 1, USA 2, Poland, Canada

Each quarter final entry was worth one point, each semi-final worth two. So how did an entrant choosing the average picks (such as me) fare? Ten points.

Two interesting things about the seniors’ contest compared to the open. One, besides the USA 1 team (which, as pointed out, is no longer competing), there were no clear-cut picks for the semi-finals that everyone bet on. Two, despite this, more entrants successfully picked three of the four teams now competing in the semi-finals. Some highlights:

Michael Yuen, Frank Van Wezel, Gal Hegedus and Todd Holes are in the lead with twelve points each. Not coincidentally, each of them successfully picked three of the teams now in the semi-finals.

Interestingly, while each of these four chose USA 2, England, Indonesia and Poland are evenly distributed among their other picks, so it will be fascinating to see how the contest ends between them.

Do not count Peiyi Wang out of the running. With 11 points, she also successfully picked three of the four contestants, as did Jeffrey Smith.

The others entrants hover around 10 or 11 points, having successfully picked two teams, and while the first correct pick is almost always USA 2, the second correct pick seemed to have an equal chance of being England, Poland or Indonesia.

Finally, I think I can safely conclude that my boss, Linda, is out of the running (at least in the seniors’ division) to win a free book published by her own company. She did not pick a single team now competing in the finals. Nor did Luise, though as I said her answers were mathematically random anyway.

- Eric Emin