Philly update -- part way through round 8 of 9

The 64 team KO stage begins tomorrow morning.

Doug and I are sitting out the penultimate match. Our team (Robinson) lies 3rd in our group, but only 4 points ahead of 5th.

Live standings at swangames.com: http://htxt.it/j4NG

Trying out hellotxt.

Trying out hellotxt.com. ping.fm, if this works you are dead to me.

We blitzed our 5th match, 25-4. That puts us 8 VP over average but still in the 5th spot with 4 qualifiers. Doug and I are out the 6th,

We’re in a bracket of 9 teams. 4 will qualify. We won our 1st match 18-2, lost the 2nd 20-10 (Doug and I sat out), and have a bye next.

Our team is the same as for last year's Bermuda Bowl in Brazil: Steve Robinson, Peter Boyd, Kit Woolsey, Fred Stewart, Doug Doub, and me.

I'm in Philadelphia for the World Bridge Championships. 134 teams or so have entered the Rosenblum teams, which is open to all comers.

Summer Nationals in New Orleans

I arrived in New Orleans last Tuesday for the Summer Nationals. Doug had to cancel -- he just got out of the hospital. He's doing well now.

Wednesday and Thursday my team represented New York in the Grand National Teams. We lost Thursday in the round of 16, to a team from Nevada.

Friday through Sunday I played with Jacob Morgan in the Life Master Pairs. We finished a lackluster 45th. Jacob played well, me not so much.

Mon and Tue I played in the Spingold KO teams with a new partner, Philippe Cronier. On Monday our opponents conceded after three quarters. Tuesday we had good results at our table, but the Aubrey Strul team was too much for us in the end.

I'll take a day off from Bridge Wednesday, and perhaps several more!