[mtvesuvius]

I'm headed to the Airport to catch my flight to Gatlinburg in like 5 minutes... Just wondering, is there anyone else here who is going?

And Yes... I promise to return with many interesting hands!!

Well, that's all for me. See you in a few weeks.
(Ow, my posting average...)

[PrecisionL]

I'll be there! Often helping at the Partnership Desk.

Larry

[whereagles]

Well, I won't be going. But then again, I got 6000 km worth of excuses

[Hanoi5]

I have a lack of visa, money and free time as excuses.

[jdonn]

You are the only one going Adam.

[awm]

I'd be interested to hear your experiences at Gatlinburg. A couple different people have recommended to Elianna and I that we go sometime, but it's been hard for us to understand the appeal since the tourney seems to be mostly a zillion brackets of KOs, and we don't have the kind of masterpoints to get into the top few brackets (so our chances of playing against good opponents are better if we go to nationals and play NABC+ events rather than being in bracket 15 out of 30 KO or whatever). But perhaps I am wrong about this, people who go to Gatlinburg usually seem to enjoy!

[mycroft]

What I have heard (besides it being a great time if you get it right) is "don't go unless you have a team". In the wilds of District 18, people don't get the kinds of masterpoints they get out Gatlinburg and Florida way (or even Ontario way) as there isn't a sectional every couple of weeks within a couple of hours drive; there is only one (smallish) regional in province/state every year (in Ontario, I think I went to 4, largish, regionals without thinking every year - and only one was more than two hours' drive).

Therefore, not only will you end up in bracket 19 of 30, you'll be playing with people who can't follow suit - because they can get 3-500 masterpoints out there, and the ones who can play certainly wont play with someone without 1000 (because - well, see above).

Please note, I got this message from someone in the second hundred of Canadian Masterpoint holders, so it applies to 6500 MP pairs as well.

[mtvesuvius]

jdonn, on Apr 13 2009, 12:25 PM, said:

You are the only one going Adam.

I had a feeling...

I agree that you should always come to tournements with a team... Particularly Gatlinburg... I have picked up pairs before, but I tend to stay away from the partnership desk unless I absolutely must.

Anyway, I'm at the hotel and will play the first session tonight at 7.

[JLOL]

First time Ive missed gat in a while

[PrecisionL]

Having played at Gatlinburg 5 years now, and helping at the Partnership Desk:

Our 5500 MP team is in bracket 12 of 30 yesterday. Top 5 bracket teams were 20,000 MP per team or higher. Meckstroth won Bracket One on Monday - Tuesday for 61 Gold Points. Bracket 5 payed 30 and Bracket 10 payed 23 Gold for the winners. Bracket 15 paid 17, Bracket 20 paid 11, Bracket 25 paid 7 and all for $10 per entry / person.

Pairs: Open Charity Pairs paid 20 MP (112 tables) and 299 winner won 5.4 MP (28 tables).

Mon eve Charity pairs won 21 MP (121 tables). Pair awards seem higher this year.

I have paired up successfully people over 3000 MP and around 1000 MP for pairs and teams. Other volunteers do under 1000 MP partnerships.

Larry

[mtvesuvius]

PrecisionL, on Apr 16 2009, 07:37 AM, said:

Our 5500 MP team is in bracket 12 of 30 yesterday.  Top 5 bracket teams were 20,000 MP per team or higher.

Our team has 5745, we were in bracket 11 and won it on Tues-Wed.

Anyway, we started a new KO today, and won our 1st match by 1 IMP today, on a slam that I bid using one of my toys that I invented (Although I'm not that big of a fan of it... LOL):

Scoring: IMP

1NT - 3♥
4♦ - 6♦

3♥ = ♥ Void + Stayman

---

[mtvesuvius]

Well, Gatlinburg is over, and my Dad and I finished with around 59 points... Not too bad. We got to play Larry in the compact KOs the final day, and had a good time. Anyway, my posting average didn't suffer too badly because I had lots of interesting hands. I'm off to New York tommorow for the Smithtown Regional, I'll try to post interesting hands when I can . Now I need to do laundry and repack.

[PrecisionL]

And I got to play Adam and his Dad.

Final Statistics for Gatlinburg Regional 2009:

9,711.5 Tables (down 600 from 2008 and first decrease in six years!)

3,878 players attending (down about 200 from 2008)

Total MP won = 62,820.49 (down about 5500 from 2008)

Number of players winning NO POINTS = 100 (2.6%)

http://www.mabcbridge.org/RegionalTourname...3/InfoIndex.htm

Overall Leading Winners
Pos MP Won Name, City
1 173.65 Gary Cohler, Miami FL
2 173.65 Michael Rosenberg, New Rochelle NY
3 172.15 Jim Mahaffey, Winter Park FL
4 172.15 Sam Lev, New York NY
5 172.15 Michael Seamon, Hollywood FL
6 172.15 Jacek Pszczola, Chapel Hill NC
7 129.41 Jeff Meckstroth, Tampa FL
8 129.41 Eric Rodwell, Clearwater Bch FL
9 128.05 Robert Hampton, Blythewood SC
10 128.05 Gavin Wolpert, Singer Island FL

Larry