Levin-Weinstein led the final session up until the penultimate board when a disaster by Stewart-Woolsey opponents swung approximately 200 IMPS and the victory of the 2011 Cavendish Invitational Pairs.
BAND’s picks finished 2nd, 7th and 8th…Not a bad take for three days. It was brutal, however, to watch the last round disaster!
Now for the closing party…sleep and prepare for the 2011 United States Team Trials!
The Cavendish Invitational Pairs (CIP) began Friday morning at 10:30am Vegas time with 36 pairs playing 35 rounds of 4 boards over 5 sessions. With $614,000 in the auction pool, the top prize this year pays $146,000! If you are interested in the auction pool – what pairs went for and who bought them follow this link: http://cavendish.bridgewinners.com/auctions-awards.
Now for a little explaination of the primary auction and then the secondary market. Prior to the Back Tie Auction, there is a pre-auction at which each of the competiting pairs cards are placed on a bulletin board. Potential buyers place their bids on the cards until the auction period ends. This year, the pre-auction ended on Thursday at 4pm.
Thursday evening, the live auction included pairs which were bid on during the pre-auction and the remainder of the pairs were deamed to have bought themselves. This year, there were 26 pairs in the live auction. The evening began with an hour of open bar (and dinner) to get the bidders “feeling good” before the live auction period began.
This year, there was a slight scare at the beginning of the auction when Pierre Zimmerman fell ill. Those of you who took a look at the Auction pool will notice that he is a BIG bidder! Luckily, he took a few minutes of fresh air and was back in action about three pairs into the evening.
Chris and I bought the highest pair and previous winners of the last 3 our of 4 years – Bobby Levin and Steve Weinstein who went for 48,000. Now before you guys have a heart attack – we don’t own 100% of the pair even thought we bought them in the auction. The pair themselves has a right to purchase up to 40% of themselves back. The remainder of the pair we save back the percentage we want to keep and sell the rest to the active bidders in the auction. This year we kept 20% .
The secondary market is fun in that you can go around and buy smaller percentages of the pairs you want without buying the entire pair during the live auction. The key, however, is that you must own a pair to trade percentages to other bidders for the pairs you want. Otherwise, you might get left out in the cold.
In the secondary market this year, we bought percentages of the following pairs: Eric Greco & Geoff Hampson, Geir Helgemo & Tor Helness, Michel Bessis & Thomas Bessis, Josef Piekarek & Alex Smirnov and Chris Compton & Mike Passell.
The overalls pay 10 places. At the end of Day 1 (2 of 5 sessions), we have two pairs sitting in first and second position with a third pair just outside the paying spot in 12th position. Look for a few of our others pairs to creep into position during play on Saturday. I will keep you posted here. You can also visit http://cavendish.bridgewinners.com/2011-session-information for up-to-date scores or watch live action at www.bridgebaseonline.com.
These are all world class players – luck (good will – you guys cheering) make the difference!
The 2011 Cavendish Invitational has begun! Breakfast by the pool started the day off right for the eight teams competing in the 2011 John Roberts Teams Prize Pool. It was a sunny day and the players and fans were full of anticipation as they enjoyed their locks on a bagel, omlets, patries, juices and coffee – LOTS of the latter! With all of the time zone differences of the players – there were a lot of sleepy eyes at breakfast! Luckily for most of them, with the game time at 10:30am, there was plenty of time for the caffine to kick in!
Heading into today, the field consisted of 10 teams which was going to be a perfect movement – 9 rounds of 9 boards – and every team played one another. Unfortunately, two of the teams originally signed up had to cancel last minute leaving only 8 teams to compete for this years money prizes. They teams will still be playing 9 rounds of 9 boards but the format will be a bit different. The first seven matches will be played in round robin format – meaning all of the teams will play each other. Then for matches 8 and 9, the format will change to a swiss. Teams 1 and 2 will play, teams 3 and 4 will play and so on and so forth.
As I write this entry, the results of Match 1 are posted at http://cavendish.bridgewinners.com/2011-session-information. The results will continue to be posted there at the end of each match of the John Roberts Teams.
Daily Bulletins ay be found at http://cavendish.bridgewinners.com/daily-bulletin.
You my also follow live action at www.bridgebaseonline.com
Check in regularly starting on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 for an insider’s view of the 2011 Cavendish Invitational. Bridge Base Online vugraph will be shown on BAND’s big screens throughout the tournament while you play!
The Team event starts Wednesday at 12pm Dallas time. It consists of 9 matches over a span of one and a half days ending mid afternoon on Thursay. In this event, Chris will be playing with Jeff Meckstroth as his partner and teammates Dave Caprera & Clem Jackson. Look for this team to be in the $$$!
The Pair event starts Friday at 12pm Dallas time. This is a three-day event with lots of boards and plenty of action! Chris is playing with one of his favorite world-class partners, Mike Passell – and they plan on taking no prisoners!
The pairs will be auctioned off in a live calcuta on Thursday evening. I will post the $$ amounts and owners of the pairs at the end of the auction. I will also post BAND’s picks so you know who to cheer for while you watch! Final standings will be determined around 2:30pm on Sunday.
When the tournament begins, I will post daily reports of the behind the scenes action so be sure to check back starting on Wednesday, May 4th!
