Bridge Cup: a look back at the August edition

Summary:

Record participation numbers and new faces

New faces among the final four

Check out our exclusive interview with Ajeangue

The expert’s eye: Vincent Gallais dissects two deals from the final

Funbridge heavyweights put to the test

A steady stream of suspense and records

Record participation numbers and new faces

The August edition of the Bridge Cup brought together a record-breaking 2,560 players from across the world as this popular knockout competition scaled new heights. Over the course of 12 days, the participants battled it out in 16-board showdowns, holding nothing back as they looked to reach the final and capture the coveted title.  

The event featured a number of fiercely contested encounters and stunning turnarounds. Every hand counted and there was precious little margin for error.  But which were the most memorable matches? Whose play really came up trumps? Below, we round up the standout stories and key hands and bring you an interview with the winner of the latest Bridge Cup! 🌟

New faces among the final four

Newseeker62 is a regular in KO tournaments, a format in which he particularly excels. His eye-catching results in the past include victory in the Bridge Clash 2 in 2023 and a runner-up finish in the Bridge Cup in January this year.

His run was stopped in the semi-finals by the eventual champion, Ajeangue. There was no separating the pair in terms of points, however, as they were tied at 26-26 after 16 deals. Speed proved the difference-maker, with Ajeangue progressing by virtue of having finished his boards a few hours quicker. Newseeker62 once again turned up the heat at the sharp end of the match, earning 11- and 13-point swings on the last couple of hands. Unfortunately for his sake, it was too little, too late.

The Austrian could, however, have exited this tournament at the hands of J_Connolly in the sixth round. Down by 3 points with two boards to go, he bounced back thanks to an aggressive 1♠ overcall, which led to him making 2♠. That small gain in a low-level contract set him on course for a big overall achievement.

Another turning point came in match 5, against Polish player squeze, who did not give him any freebies. This is no less than we would have expected from a former Elite League winner, whose average performance stands at almost 67%. The scores were tied after 12 deals out of 16, only for dorian14 to come through 11-6 in the final reckoning.

Dorian14 continued to deliver as the tournament progressed, albeit not without some nervy moments, such as in his round 8 match, which was decided by the stopwatch, and in round 10, when he triumphed by a single point.

He will have fancied his chances of clinching the title after an emphatic 50-6 victory over robbel in the semi-finals, but fate had other plans.

What is the American ace’s secret? A balancing act! He never allows opponents to steal contracts at a low level, repeatedly intervening to keep the auction alive. On top of that, he is a formidable declarer with an 80% success rate – and he understands the value of taking your time, completing deals in an average of 3 minutes and 36 seconds. Does this lull the robots into a slumber and make them drop their guard? We will never know!

While the eventual winner was dominant in most of his matches, he did have to negotiate some tough tests along the way, especially in round 6 against Elemele. With an 8-point deficit going into the final deal, he managed to pull off an extraordinary comeback and make it through to the next round thanks to a combination of adroit bidding and luck. And we must not forget his round 11 meeting with Newseeker62, which, as already mentioned above, was a very tight tussle.

To find out more about Ajeangue’s journey in bridge and his approach to the game, check out our exclusive interview with him below.🎙️

Check out our exclusive interview with Ajeangue, the champion of the August’s Bridge Cup!

• Firstly, how did it feel to win this final? Was it a goal you set yourself from the very beginning?

Winning the final felt incredible! I’ve played in a few of these tournaments before and had never cracked the top 100. Reaching the final 64 was my initial goal, and once I achieved that, I wanted to take advantage of making it that far and had my eyes set on going the distance. The cherry on top of this exciting tournament run was getting to face off against my teammate Dorian who has been putting up great scores in the team championship and gave me a solid match in the finals. I saw there was an outside chance that we could play each other in the finals after round 6 and was thrilled that it actually happened.

• Can you tell us a bit about your bridge journey?

I started playing bridge on Funbridge back in 2020 during the COVID pandemic as I was looking for new hobbies while spending most of my time holed up in my apartment. I played a lot of card games growing up in Michigan in the 90s and 2000s, but nothing that could match the complexity of bridge. While the card play aspect of the game were somewhat intuitive, the auction phase of the game was a whole new puzzle that I wanted to learn and understand better. Each bridge book, article, video, and hand that taught me more of the card play strategy or auction systems got me more and more hooked on the game. I loved being able to compare the same hand I had played with hundreds of people online and see what the best might have done differently. 5 years and 100+ books later, I’m still looking to read and find material online to improve my understanding of the game, while my very supportive wife will joke “Another bridge book?!?”.

• In the 6th round, you were trailing by 8 points before the last deal, how did you manage to turn things around?

Down 20-12 with 4 boards left, I went for a walk with my wife. As we got back to our apartment, I told her I needed to stay outside on a park bench to finish the last four boards, as things weren’t looking too good and I didn’t want there to be any unexpected distractions. While the next 3 boards were all pushes, the peace and quiet helped me to decide to take the low road on the last board instead of pursuing a slam without 5 level safety. There was a similar board, #11, in our match where “Elemele” made an aggressive slam that was down double dummy but the robots let through with the wrong lead, so I figured I was more likely to win imps by staying low (which I would have done without barometer scoring) than trying to outplay him in a slam. A little luck with a misguess of the trumps from my opponent led to 5H going down 1, giving me a very fortunate win in a tough fought match.

• You were one of the most meticulous players, with an average of 3 minutes 36 seconds per deal. Do you usually take your time on every hand to make sure you don’t miss anything ?

It depends on what type of event I’m playing in. Sometimes in imps, I don’t always take my time to get the extra overtrick if I’ve ensured my contract, but in this knockout format with only 16 boards a match, I wanted to win every imp I could in case the handful of higher variance / imp outcomes evened out between me and my opponent. I try to take even more time on hands where I’m defending or trying to make a game or slam (such as board 5 in the semifinal) as these boards can often decide the match by swinging 10+ imps one way or another. Boards 10 of the quarterfinals and 7 of the semifinals are good examples of cases where the extra time I took made a big difference and ended up being necessary to win those close matches.

• You’re holding a 68% average performance and you’ve already won the Elite League along with many other tournaments, including this one. You look invulnerable, do you have a Achilles’ heel?

I think my biggest weakness for bridge in general is lack of sleep or eating a lot of food before I play. My brain just isn’t able to keep track of everything it usually can, while it’s card counting, watching the spots, and trying to put myself in the robots shoes that gives me my biggest edge. If I’m tired or have just had a big meal, a lot of this edge goes out the window. I was worried this would do me in for the finals as I had to wake up at 4am to fly to see my family for labor day weekend and wasn’t able to find time to play my match until 10pm. I did a quick workout right before which I think made a big difference.

• Do you regularly participate in Funbridge tournaments? What are your favourite game modes and what do you like most about these formats?

I try to play almost every single day. I love the league tournament with the goal of staying up in the Elite league as long as I can, but my favorite format recently has been the team championship ever since I got invited to play about 6 months ago. The competition is quite challenging in the top division with several big names that I know from the live circuit, and I like the team aspect of it which helps with meeting new people and making new friends.

• What was your favourite hand of the tournament?

One of my favorite hands was board 10 from the quarterfinals. While there were ways to take 10 tricks on the hand it was far from trivial to make 9 tricks. I took my time, paid attention to all of the spots, and was confident in what I thought was the layout for each opponent to go for an endplay where I didn’t know which opponent would be endplayed but I knew whoever it was would give me the 9th trick in the suit they were long. As things ended, I needed this board to make it to the semis.

• What’s one of your best bridge memories?

Aside from winning this tournament, one of my best recent bridge memories was getting to play live against Versace and Sementa in a side teams swiss in the Philadelphia NABCs. On our very first deal, my partner and I bid and made 7S where my first four bids as responder were 2NT, 3NT, 4NT, 5NT. They told my partner I wanted to play in NT but thankfully my partner got the joke.

The expert’s eye: Vincent Gallais dissects two deals from the final  🔍

During a thrilling title decider, Vincent Gallais, aka Galesh, had his notebook at hand as he examined the action with a fine-tooth comb. Read on for his take on two key boards that tilted the balance of the final. From contrasting strategies to crucial choices, learn to see the game from a different perspective with his analysis.

Analysis of deal 3:

Analysis of deal 9:

You are declaring 4♥ and receive a lead of ♣8.

Your first reaction after dummy is revealed should be to count your losers to determine whether the contract is in jeopardy. At IMP scoring, the absolute priority is to make the contract. In pairs, on the other hand, I would approach things differently, counting my winners to identify opportunities for potential overtricks.

I can see a definite loser in spades and another possible loser in clubs, while the situation in hearts is more uncertain, although losing two trump tricks would not be a surprise. In short, the contract is indeed at risk. If the lead is from the king of clubs, taking the trick with the queen would avoid a loser. Meanwhile, if the lead is from JT, playing the 9 would be beneficial, although this is relatively unlikely. In all other scenarios, we have no way of avoiding a club loser, and dummy’s queen will be of no use to us later. Therefore, it is advisable to make the most of the chance to play it at this stage.

Ajeangue reached the same conclusion and notched up 10 IMPs after seeing his club queen claim the first trick.

Funbridge heavyweights put to the test

The standard appears to have been even higher than usual in this edition, with only three players from the top 10 of our Bridge Points Circuit live rankings advancing beyond the fifth round.

As ever, Pikarek made his mark with his precise declarer play. Despite taking just 60 seconds per hand on average (making him the fastest player in the field), he placed among the top declarers, not dropping a single trick opposite dummy and picking up 2.44 IMPs per board. Watch out, Argine, there is another machine in town!

Dominique Fonteneau needs no introduction, and he safely navigated five rounds before suffering a resounding 33-4 defeat to Bakchos. One notable swing came when Bakchos made a magnificent 4♥X +1 for 990 while, in the other room, our favourite professor was unable to find the right switch to beat 3NT after leading the ace of spades. Argine’s cheeky 3NT bid with the stiff king of hearts proved quite the red herring! Cue 17 IMPs to Bakchos (990 plus 600). Despite this defensive mishap, Dominique was supreme when it came to slam hands, posting a 100% success rate.

Bloedi eventually came unstuck in the eighth round, but he could have bowed out much earlier. Having had the stopwatch to thank for his victory in his curtain-raiser, which finished 18-18, he went into overdrive in his next rounds, racking up 56, 41, 32 and 43 IMPs to make sure that no tiebreaker was needed. Bloedi is a master at crunch time, coming into his own and scoring big in the last few hands of matches. He constantly reminds us that nothing is over until the last card has been played.

He was eliminated by the ARB , who prevailed 37-29 after a contest in which the latter was rewarded for bidding more boldly, making gains on a slam and a game that he did well to find. Once again, fortune favoured the brave.

A steady stream of suspense and records

The latest Bridge Cup was packed with drama! In these types of events, every single encounter tends to feature its fair share of unforgettable moments, and this edition was no exception. We were keeping a close eye on every hand of every match and have put together the key facts and figures that sum up how the competition unfolded.  

• Just like the last instalment, this edition saw a remarkable number of close contests. There were no fewer than 37 perfect ties, for which the stopwatch was required to separate opponents who had finished on level pegging. Similarly, 72 matches were settled by the smallest of margins: a single point. 
• France was the most represented country in this edition of the Bridge Cup, with 774 participants, closely followed by Poland and Belgium. 🌍

• A special mention goes to Jacques Lemoine, aka jacq349, who had a perfect record as declarer, making all 18 contracts that he bid: 18 must be the intrepid Frenchman’s new lucky number! 🍀
• More congratulations are due to Newseeker62, who pulled off a veritable high-wire act, bidding 12 slams and successfully making the lot of them.

But nobody would want to be declarer with Aad Ramondt, aka AadRam, sitting to the left! He made the optimal choice in all 19 situations when he was on lead.

A blockbuster bout ⭐

The all-French clash in the round of 16 between Yves Weisselberger, aka yvesw, and GoduLL did not disappoint. The pair both boast superb stats, with Yves averaging 65.78%, only a fraction shy of GoduLL’s 67.05%.

A hard-fought battle ended 18-10 in GoduLL’s favour thanks in no small part to deal 4, in which he gained 14 IMPs by sidestepping the trap of a doomed 2NT contract.

David topples Goliath 👏

It is fair to say that Patk keltia, a League 11 competitor with an average performance of 44%, was probably not expected to make waves in this tournament. Yet he sprang an almighty surprise, triumphing 51-44 in a keenly contested match against League 1 player Alain HERMEZ, whose average performance is above 63%. This perfectly encapsulated how this competition draws together players from different levels and can serve up unpredictable twists and turns and memorable exploits.

Hot stuff 🔥

In the second round, pier51 and MARIPOSA1045 played out a lively, high-scoring encounter, combining for a whopping 125 IMPs. Who ever said that bridge is a boring game?

An epic turnaround 📈

In the third round, our ambassador matilda na mounted an incredible comeback against Adodado. Trailing by 20 points with three hands to go, she turned on the turbo in the final stages.

By scoring 26 IMPs across the last hands, matilda na sealed a dramatic 44-38 victory in a match that went right down to the wire.

Thank you to all the participants!

It is thanks to you that this edition of the Bridge Cup was such a success once again. Your performances, commitment and passion set the tone for the competition and delivered unforgettable matches. ⚔️ 

What did you make of this edition? What were your standout moments? We would love to hear from you. You can share your feedback in the comments below. Oh, and do let us know what you think about this article too.

See you soon for more competitions on Funbridge!