The 2009 United States Senior Bridge Championship will select the two US teams for the 2009 Senior Bowl (the Ernesto D'Orsi Cup). The 2009 USSBC will be held in Las Vegas, NV; it will start on July 6th and end on July 10th. The Senior Bowl will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil; it will start August 29 and end September 12.

The USSBC will be held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Las Vegas. Regular rooms are $119, One bedroom suite $169 and 2 bedroom suite $319. Call 1-702-869-7777 for reservations. To make a reservation online, click here . This will (should?) take you to the hotel's online reservation page where the information about the USSBC will be filled in for you.The hospitality suite and playing rooms are on the 6th floor of the Palms Tower, so you may want to ask for a nearby room.

The USSBC will be governed by the Special Conditions of Contest for the 2009 USSBC and by the USBF General Conditions of Contest. Click on the Conditions of Contest you are interested in reading to download a PDF version.

Format with Entries Closed

With entries closed, and the Open Trials  over, the Robinson team's win in the USBC has reduced the number of teams in the 2009 USSBC to 8. With 8 teams in the event, it will be a Knockout, with all of the losers in the Round of 8 continuing in the USA2 bracket. The USA1 Finals will be 90 boards long, and will be played on Wednesday, July 8th & half of Thursday, July 9th. The USA2 Finals will be on Friday, July 10th (the losing USA1 finalist will have half of July 9th off during the USA2 Semi-Finals).

LAST MINUTE CHANGE. Thanks to the efforts of Rose Meltzer, Jim Gordon & Keith Garber, among others, a local Las Vegas team has agreed to substitute for the Freed team that had to withdraw because of Gene Freed's health. So we now have 8 teams and the format will be a KO from the beginning of the event on July 6th. Many thanks to Mark & Roberta Epstein and Jan George & Bob LaFleur for playing at the last minute.

The KO bracket has been set in accordance with the Conditions of Contest (teams #1 and #2 remain in seed order, DIC Terry Lavender randomly assigned seeds 3 and 4 as teams 3 and 4, and seeds 5-8 as teams 5-8. The pairings for the USA1 Quarterfinal are:

1. Larsen vs 8. Vernay

2. Lynch vs 7. Epstein

3. Schwartz vs 6. Kasle

4. Wolff vs 5. Wojewoda

A note about competitors' photos.

We are very lucky, and grateful, that Peg Kaplan, photographer extroadinaire, is willing to share with us her pictures of many of our competitors. We try to identify the photographer for individual photos, but sometimes fail.If you like a picture on one of the team profiles, it's almost certainly one Peg took. THANK YOU PEG for helping all of our "readers" put faces with names.