2015 Yeh Bros Cup Site
BBO Schedule Bulletins
The 2015 Yeh Bros Cup (at The Shanghai ) which is staged by The Shanghai Financial Bridge Club, includes the Open Teams, Swiss Plate and Open Pairs.
Sunday April 12, 2015
In an incredible three sets (16 boards each) final, where the $ 150,000 prize changed hands as the boards were played, just three boards before the last one, was defined the 2015 Yeh Bros, with China Open as the new 2015 champion and owner of the larger money bag distributed by bridge. Second arrived Red Bull who had to console himself with 36,000 dollar prize, I guess still reproaching some board that cost them 114,000 dollars.
How Much Did the Musicians of Woodstock Get Paid?
Held from August 15 to 18, 1969 on a dairy farm in upstate New York, Woodstock was arguably the most epic music festival in history. It is cited as one of Rolling Stone‘s «50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll,» and more importantly, as the «definitive nexus for the larger counterculture generation.» The weekend featured many of the era’s most lauded rock and folk musicians — Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater, Carlos Santana — all of whom gave legendary performances before a crowd of 400,000 mud-soaked flower children.
Thanks to an old Variety Magazine chart that recently resurfaced, we now know how much these artists were paid for their efforts — and some figures are rather surprising:
In 2015 dollars, the 18,000 dollars that Jimi Hendrix was paid, would be 114,000 dollars.
The difference between winning and losing in the final of the 2015 Yeh Bros was exactly 114,000 dollars. At the end of the three sets of 16 boards each match, China Open was only 7.5 IMPs ahead… So some board that gave China Open 7.5 IMPs or more, was worth 114,000 dollars .
It could be concluded that in 2015; Open China needed only eight minutes (average playing time of a board) to earn the same as Jimmy Hendrix, when in 1966 he performed for 400,000 people for over two hours … all the rest, including Joan Baez, Creedence, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joe Cocker, Santana … among others, charged much less even …
Here are some of the boards of the Final which could be that of U$S 114,000, always remembering that a mere change in any of them could have turned the scores upside down … Surely all of them are now in the minds of all the Red Bull’s players, and surely everyone has his favorite as his own nightmare.
Bulletin Editors
Note from the Editor: All the boards comments are extracted from the event Official Bulletins, edited by: Barry Rigal y David Stern.
1st Set
Board 4
After a quiet Board three, a paradoxical deal appeared in which the side that opened the bidding let their opponents pre-empt them out of their fit while the table that had an opening bid against them reached their fit easily.
♣ Q73
In the Closed Room both North and South were close to acting over the pre-empt, but neither had any safety at high levels here. Kang Meng did extremely well to guess clubs in 3
(particularly when North false-carded by winning the first diamond with the ace). The marginal value of making 3 as opposed to going one down was only 2 IMPs. In the other room Li’s canapé 1
worked better than it ever does for me in such situations…After a diamond lead the four finesses in spades, hearts and diamonds all worked, and China Open had 13 IMPs to lead 17-8.
Board 7
Don’t you just hate it when partner leads a singleton trump to pick up your queen-third? Particularly when all the other three suit leads are safe, and you have bid and raised two of the suits? Maybe you’d better reconsider…
Both tables played 4 by East: In 4 on a top club lead declarer timed the play well. He won the ace and ruffed a diamond then ducked a heart. North won and cashed a club then exited in spades, won in dummy. Now declarer ruffed three more diamonds and two hearts in dummy, and eventually scored one club, one heart, two heart ruffs and six trumps. But in the other room Hu argued that with partner known to have values declarer’s only source of tricks would be a cross-ruff. He led a trump and Li continued the suit when in with a heart. Declarer had seven trump tricks and two aces, and Hu had earned 12 IMPs for his side. That made it 29-9.
Board 15
Hu and Li had virtually their first bad board of the set on the next deal, letting through a partscore by failing to cash out correctly. That made it 31-16, but China Open still had one more good board to come.
The lead of either minor defeats 3]. Both Wests led a trump. Both Easts carefully ducked this, and were therefore still in the game. (If they cover declarer ducks a diamond and ducks a spade if the defenders shift to one. He can then set up a spade for a club discard). After winning the first trump in dummy both declarers drew a second trump. Muller played ace, king and a third club, and Sun shifted to {8 to let his partner win and play a spade through. Nicely done.
In the other room Hu played a diamond at trick three, which makes sense, in that as the cards lie it puts West under pressure whenever he holds the 
K. (He can’t have both honours, but if he has the A not the K, it might make the defence easier. Nothing matters if he has neither honour.) Yuewu took his K to return the suit, and declarer ruffed then played on clubs, and claimed ten tricks when West had to win the third round, as a spade loser could be discarded from dummy and two spades ruffed. That made it 43-16 at the break.
(CsbNews editor: The second set was all for Red Bull: 68 IMPs, while China Open only could manage to generate 29. But on Board 32, China Open changed air and scored 13 IMPs with a Grand Slam, made thanks to a favorable lead, while in the other table with a different lead the slam that was being played was in jeopardy. Personally I would say that this was the championship board).
Board 32 The final deal of the set gave China Open some consolation, and hope for the final stanza:
7 on a club lead saw declarer take the 
A and ruff a club, then play K, covered and ruffed. Now Sun ruffed two more clubs to establish the suit, drew trumps, cashed the diamonds and went to the A to take the established club winner at trick 13. Easy game bridge!
In the other room declarer wasn’t cold even for 6 on a spade lead. His plan was to ruff out the clubs to pitch the spade, having ruffed the low diamond in dummy. When trumps turned out to be 3-0 he switched to the ruffing finesse in diamonds, and brought home 12 tricks considerably more painfully than 13 had been made in the other room. That was still 13 IMPs to China Open, now trailing 72-84 with 16 deals to go.
3rd Set
A tough board all round:
Board 37
While N/S can make a lot of tricks at double dummy this might be a hand where ‘Last bidder gets the zero’. Both Norths led a diamond rather than a trump; declarer finessed and ruffed out the K then led a heart up and made ten tricks. 3 IMPs to China Open, down 84-80.
RedBull reopened the gap a little when a 2 opener with a 1-4-3-5 pattern got Sun for China Open to 3} for +130 with all the cards right for him. In the other room a 1 opener for de Wijs with the same cards allowed the next hand to overcall 1NT and that led to his defending 2 for +300, when the same favourable lie of the cards worked out better for vulnerable undertricks. 89-80 to RedBull.