1. Yeh Bros Cup

The 2013 Yeh Bros Cup (Monday 22nd ~ Friday 26th April, 2013 At Pacifico Yokohama) which is staged by the Japan Contract Bridge League includes the Open Teams, Swiss Plate and Open Pairs. Entries from all WBF zones are on invitation basis.

2. Laws

The laws of duplicate contract bridge (revised 2007) will be used.
The official language of the tournament is English.

3.Entry Fees

Yeh's Cup	:	US$500/team, for invited team. US$10,500/team, for non invited team. (US$10,000 goes to prize money pool)
Swiss Plate	:	Free of charge for non-qualifiers from main event; US$500 for new comers.
Open Pairs	:	US$300 per pair to be paid in 3 phases : US$100 for qualifying. US$100 for semi-final. US$100 for final

4. Tournament Format

A. Open Teams

The Open Teams consist of three stages:
Swiss qualifying, Knock-out stage, and Final/Play off.

Qualifying Stage：Monday 22nd ~Tuesday 23rd April

A 10-round Swiss movement of 10-boards matches :
The draw for matches 1 and 2 is pre-determined.
The draw for subsequent rounds will be swiss, one round delayed.
(the draw for team numbers will be conducted at the captain’s meeting)：

Draw for round 1

1 v 2	3 v 4	5 v 6	7 v 8	9 v 10	11 v 12
13 v 14	15 v 16	17 v 18	19 v 20	21 v 22	23 v 24

Draw for round 2

1 v 6	3 v 8	5 v 10	7 v 12	9 v 14	11 v 16
13 v 18	15 v 20	17 v 22	19 v 24	21 v 2	23 v 4

The top 15 teams, not including the pre-seeded number one seed, the Yeh’ team, will advance to the Knock-out phase of the tournament.

Knockout Stage：Wednesday 24th ~ Thursday 25th April

Four rounds of 32 board (2 stanzas of 16 board) matches in two different brackets.
The top 8 seeded teams will start in the upper bracket with knock-out match, losers dropping to the lower bracket.
The next 8 teams will start in the lower bracket and be eliminated with a loss.
After Round 3 there will be one undefeated team in the upper bracket. This team has a bye to the Final with a 6.5 IMP carryover.
In Match 3, the two losers from upper bracket will join the four winners from the lower bracket to play two 3-way matches. The two winners will advance.
In Match 4, the loser of match 3 in upper bracket and the two winners of match 3 in the lower bracket will play a 3-way match for a sport in the final.
In all 3-way matches, the team winning both their matches will be declared winner. Otherwise, total VPs will decide the winner.

Final and Third-Place Playoff

Both are 48-boards match played in three segments-each of 16 board stanzas.
The top 4 finishers will receive cash prize.

B. Swiss Plate：Wednesday 24th April ~ Thursday 25th April

Non-qualifiers in the Open Teams and teams eliminated in knock-out round 1 and 2 play in the swiss plate free of charge.
In addition, place are available for 4 additional new comer teams to join the swiss plate on payment of the prescribed entry fee.
The swiss plate consists of 8-rounds of 10-board matches, with a swiss draw, one round delayed. The top 3 finishers will receive cash prize.
The four first-round losers in the lower knock-out bracket may join the round 4 of the swiss plate on the afternoon of Wednesday 24th April.
They will be assigned a VP score equal to that of the 4th position score at the end of the round 3. These 4 teams will match up against each other in round 4, by means of a random draw.
The draw for round 5 will be based on the results of round 3 including the new teams which have entered the swiss plate.
The 4 second- round losers in the lower knock-out bracket join round 6 of the swiss plate on the morning of Thursday 25th April. They will be assigned a VP score equal to that of the 4th position score at the end of the round 5. These 4 teams will match up against each other in round 6, by means of a random draw. The draw for round 7 will be based on the results of round 5 including the new teams which have entered the swiss plate.

C. Open Pairs：Thursday 25th pm ~ 26th April

Total 60 pairs with 2 pairs reserved for each competing Team. Team captains are responsible for determining the pairs from their team who will be nominated for entry.
The nominations must be given to the Director prior to the start of the knock-out stage of the Open teams.

Open Pairs Qualifying, ：Thursday 25th April, 16:20-19:50, 27 boards(3 boards×9 rounds)
Six sections of 5 tables each, with a Howell movement. Scoring is by IMPs.
The top 5 pairs in each section (a total of 30 pairs), advanced to Semi-final.
The 30 non-qualifiers are eliminate. However the highest scoring non-qualifier (ranked 31st) will advance without charge to play in Open Pair Consolation on the afternoon of day 5 (Friday 26th April).

Open Pairs Semi-Final  : Friday 26th April, 09:30 - 13:00, 27 boards (3 boards x 9 rounds)

Three sections of 5 tables each with a Howell movement. Scoring is by IMPs.
The top three pairs from each section together with the host pair (Mr.Yeh and his partner) will advance to the final, for a total of 10 pairs.
Non-qualifiers from semi-final can play the Open pairs consolation free of charge on the afternoon of Friday 26th April.

Open Pairs Final  : Friday 26th April, 14:00 - 17:30, 27 boards (3 boards x 9 rounds)
5 Tables Howell.

Open Pairs Consolation : Friday 26th April, 14:00 - 17:30, 11 tables, Howell.

* Semi-final and final will use Barometer IMP scoring.

5. Procedure

5-1 Computer dealt hands will be used throughout.

5-2 Screens will be used throughout the event.

5-3 Each pairs are required to bring two convention cards to the table.
Hum systems are not permitted in any event.
Brown Sticker Conventions are permitted only in the Knockout and Final/Playoff.
BSC users are required to provide adequate defenses.
All teams must submit convention cards of their players one month in advance, which will be posted on the tournament website. Players are required to alert their artificial bids at table, and upon inquiry to write down clear and complete explanation together with its implications. Simply referring to a covention name may not be enough since some names have become generic terms encompassing many different versions. The requirements to play a natural/standard system can be waived by the opposing teams if both agree to. The mechanism of doing so will be announced at the Captain's meeting. The pair playing against Mr. Yeh will be asked to play a natural/standard system, and if necessary, to have a separately filled convention card.

5-4 Time Limit

10-board : One hour and 20 minutes
16-board : Two hour and 10 minutes

6. Tie Breaking

6-1 Swiss Movement

The higher IMP quotient, and if still tied, the Total Point quotient in all matches played by the tied teams. If the tie remains, the winner will be determined by a draw.
After round 10, ties on Victory Points will be broken in the following order :
(a) higher IMP quotient in all matches played by the tying teams
(b) greater number of IMPs obtained in the match between the tying teams (should it have occurred)
(c) great number of total points obtained in the match between the tying teams (should it have occurred)
(d) higher Total Point quotient in all matches played by the tying teams
(e) Successive one board play off until a winner is determined.

6-2 Knockout Phase

The higher total point, and if still tied, the number of boards won (a different of 10 points is considered a winning board, even though no IMP are gained). Draw if the tie remains.

6-3 Final and Playoff

The higher total point, and if still tied, the number of boards won (a different of 10 points is considered a winning board, even though no IMP are gained). If the tie remains, two boards sudden death matches until a winner emerges.

6-4 Pairs

For any stage of the competition, the pair with the greater number of boards on which they scored positive IMPs will be ranked higher. Draw if the tie remains.

7. Alert Procedure

Standard alert procedures with screen shall be used. In case when screens are used, questions and answers shall be written on the memo pad provided. Otherwise the director may not accept any complaints on misinformation later on.

8. Seating

Teams play according to the schedules as posted. The team with higher team number are designated as the Home Team and the other team as the Visiting Team. The Home Team sits NS direction in the Open Room and EW in the Closed Room. The Visiting Team sits NS in the Closed Room and EW in the Open Room. There will be blind seating for all matches in the Qualifying and knock-out stages and in the swiss plate. Prior to the start of the final and 3rd place playoff, the team captains will draw to determine choice of seating right. The winner of the draw may choose to sit first in any of the three stanzas, then the choice alternates. Team captains are required to submit their line-up within 5 minute of the scheduled finishing time of the previous round.

9. Penalties

Late Start

0~5 minutes	:	1st offense- Warning
		2nd and subsequent offense - 0.8 VPs (Swiss) or 3 IMPs (knock -out) each
5 ~10 minutes	:	1.6 VPs (Swiss) or 6 IMPs (knock-out) each
10 ~15 minutes	:	2.4 VPs (Swiss) or 10 IMPs (knock-out) each
Over 15 minutes	:	Forfeiture

Slow Play

0~5 minutes	:	1st offense- Warning
		2nd and subsequent offense - 0.8 VPs (Swiss) or 3 IMPs (knock -out) each
5 ~10 minutes	:	1.6 VPs (Swiss) or 6 IMPs (knock-out) each
10 ~15 minutes	:	2.4 VPs (Swiss) or 10 IMPs (knock-out) each
Over 15 minutes	:	At the discretion of the CTD, including cancellation of unplayed boards and assigned scores (Swiss) for both teams

Mobile Phone

Mobile phones in the playing area are prohibited during game time. Players with mobile phones should surrender their phones to the staff at the service desk and receive a number tag which is used to collect the phone after the game. Answering to a phone call during play shall receive a penalty according to the following scheme.

Answering the phone :

1st offense	:	3 VPs (Swiss) or 15IMPs (Knock-out)
2nd offense	:	10 VPs (Swiss) or 30IMPs (Knock out)
3rd offense	:	20 VPs (Swiss) or Forfeiture of the match (Knock out)

Smoking

By law, smoking is not permitted indoors nor within 4 metres of any doorway.
Penalties for breach of the smoking regulations :
Each offense：US$50 for the offender to be donated to a youth development program and 2 VPs for the team. Offences include leaving the playing area during the session for the purpose of smoking.

Kibitzers

Kibitzers will be permitted at discretion of the Director.

10. Appeal Procedure

An appeal, or request of a ruling by a Tournament Director must be lodged by the Captain of a team within 30 minutes of the official completion time of a match in which the ruling was made.
A deposit of US$100 must be accompanied with the appeal, which may not be refunded if the appeal is deemed frivolous or without merit.

11. Prizes

Prize Money of US$ 210,000 in total

Yeh's Cup : Winner US$ 110,000  2nd 32,000  3rd 15,000  4th 7,500

Open Pairs : Winner US$ 20,000  2nd 10,000  3rd 5,000

Swiss Plate : Winner US$ 4,000  2nd 2,000  3rd 1,000

Consolation(B) Pairs : Winner US$ 2,000  2nd 1,000  3rd 500