Tournament Dates & Locations

Womens: Eight teams have entered the USWBC, which will start on May 22nd and end on May 26th (Memorial Day). It is in Raleigh, NC, in conjunction with the Mid Atlantic Raleigh Regional. 

Open:Twenty-five teams have entered the USBC, 22 of whom will start in the Round Robin on May 28th. The Round Robin will be a 2-stage event: 1-1/2 days in which the field will be split in half and each 11 team group will play a complete Round Robin, after which the bottom 3 teams in each 11 team group will be eliminated and the remaining 16 teams will continue to play for another day, with each team playing every team from the other original group. At the end of the second stage of the Round Robin, the 11 top teams will advance to the Round of 16. The USBC will end on June 6th. The USBC is in West Palm Beach FL, overlapping the Palm Beach Gardens Regional. Hotel rate is $129. For reservations, either go to our booking site, or call the hotel at 800-633-9150. Reservations must be made by May 7th.

Seniors: The USSBC will start on June 16th and end on June 18th or 19th depending on the number of teams. It is in Sturbridge, MA, overlapping the New England Summer Regional. Room rate is $74 per night. For reservations, either go to the hotel's website and click on "group reservations" then enter our code (USBDG) or call the hotel at 508-347-7393 and mention USBF. Reservations must be made by June 1st, which is before entries close. You will be able to cancel with 24 hours notice.

Rental Cars

For both the Open and Senior events, you may want a car. We have negotiated a group rate with Avis rental car that should give you the lowest possible rate in the tournament area. To get that rate, either give Avis our Group Number (D757498) when you call to reserve a car or make your reservation on their website by clicking on this link. The website refers to the USBC in Florida, but you can reserve for the Seniors or Women's and get the same good rates.

How to Enter

To enter a team in one of the USBF events, you need to have paid your 2008 USBF dues and to be logged in to this site. To log in, click on LOG IN in the upper right corner and enter your username and password. If you’ve forgotten them, the log in page has information about what to do. After you log in, a new menu called User Menu will appear below the Main Menu. Click on “Enter 2008 USXBC” to enter an event. Follow instructions on the entry page. If you did not pay the entry fee when you entered your team, the team captain can do so by logging in to the site and then clicking on “Teams Entered” under the event you are interested in. Under your team will be a button labeled “Click here to update or pay.” Click on that and then on Pay Entry Fee to pay the entry fee.

When to Enter

Entries for the Women's and Open have closed. Closing date for entry to the Senior event is June 8th.
Not sure whether to Enter? You might want to read this article by Howard Einberg who took the plunge last year.

System Requirements

Each pair entered in a USBF tournament must complete a USBF System Summary Form at least 2 weeks in advance of the starting date of the event in which you are playing. To complete the form, log in to this site and click on “SSF or ASF” under the User Menu. Then follow instructions. Note that if you completed a SSF last year, you can use it this year as is, or edit it for this year. You must have paid your 2008 USBF dues to complete the System forms.

Any pair that is playing an opening bid or overcall other than the following must also complete a USBF Advance Submission Form at least 4 weeks in advance of the starting date for the event. Do that from the SSF. NOTE - the methods requiring ASFs are very limited. Responses to opening bids NEVER require an ASF. The following opening bids and overcalls do NOT require an ASF:
        a)    Methods included on the ACBL General Convention Chart
        b)    Defenses to an opening bid of 1NT
        c)    A bid that shows at least 5 cards in the suit named
        d)    Any bid for which there is an approved defense on the ACBL website at the closing date for entries to the USBF Championship.
        e)    Any game forcing bid.

Each player must bring the USBF System forms and a completed ACBL convention card to the table for the use of your opponents. If you are playing an unusual method that has an ACBL approved defense, you must also bring that approved defense to the table.

NEW THIS YEAR. We are going to try to post your ACBL convention card online this year. If you have an electronic version of your card, please email it to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you don’t have an electronic version of your ACBL card, please send a legible paper copy of it to Rena Hetzer, 2990 Airways Blvd., Memphis, TN 38116-3847 and she will scan and upload it for you. We’d like to have the ACBL cards posted at least a week before the event starts. Thank you for your assistance with this.

NEW AT THE TOURNAMENTS

This year for the first time we will be using BRIDGEMATES for scoring. This will allow us to have scores posted to this website almost in real time, as well speed up the posting of scores on site. If you haven’t used Bridgemates before, don’t worry. It’s very easy, and we will have some available for people to play with the day before play starts, as well as people available to help you during the first day.

This year we will also be asking you to submit your line-ups electronically. You will be able to do so either from your own laptop or using computers in the lobby outside the playing rooms. All you will have to do is log onto this site and then click on “lineup submission” (which doesn’t exist yet, but will) to get to a page that will show the next match, matches or segment for which you need to submit your lineup(s). During the KO phase of each event, if you are the “home” team, the page will show the lineup that your opponent has submitted. You will then be able to click on the players’ names to say which person is N, S, E & W. After you’ve done that, you’ll have a chance to review what you did and then can confirm that it’s what you intended. This should be much faster and easier than hand-writing line-ups or reporting them to the DIC before the segment.

I hope that this and the pages about each tournament will answer most of your questions about this year’s USBF Championships. If you have any more questions, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and I’ll try to answer them.

Jan Martel