1. Yeh Bros Cup

The 2017 Yeh Bros Cup (Monday 3rd ~ Friday 7th July, 2017 At Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo) 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, Offical Language, and Scoring

The laws of duplicate contract bridge (revised 2007) will be used.
The official language of the tournament is English. When Victory Point (VP) scoring is used the WBF 20.00 VP scale will be used.

3.Entry Fees

Yeh's Cup	:	US$1,000/team, for invited team. US$15,000/team, for non invited team.
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

Note: Due to limited space in the playing area, new entries for the Swiss Plate will be accepted only at the discretion of the organizers.
4. Tournament Format

A. Open Teams

The Open Teams consist of three stages:
Swiss qualifying, Knock-out stage, and Final/3rd Place Play off.

Qualifying Stage：Monday 3rd ~Tuesday 4th July

A 10-round Swiss movement of 10-board matches :
The draw for match 1 is pre-determined.
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	25 v 26

Draw for rounds 2-10
Swiss, no playbacks. Pairings will be made using the algorithm in the JCBL scoring software.
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 5th ~ Thursday 6th July

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 Round 3, the two losers from the upper bracket will join the four winners from the lower bracket to play two 3-way matches. The two winners will advance.
In Round 4, the loser of Round 3 in upper bracket and the two winners of Round 3 in the lower bracket will play a 3-way match for a spot 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： Friday 7th July

Both are 48-boards matches played in three 16 board stanzas.
The top 4 finishers will receive cash prizes.

B. Swiss Plate：Wednesday 5th ~ Thursday 6th July

Non-qualifiers in the Open Teams and teams eliminated in knock-out rounds 1 and 2 play in the Swiss Plate free of charge.
The Swiss Plate consists of 8-rounds of 10-board matches, with a swiss draw, no playbacks, pairing made using the JCBL scoring software. The top 3 finishers will receive cash prizes.
The four first-round losers in the lower knock-out bracket may join Round 4 of the Swiss Plate on the afternoon of Wednesday 5th July.
They will be assigned a VP score equal to that of the 4th position score at the end of 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 4 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 6th July. They will be assigned a VP score equal to that of the 4th position score at the end of 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 6 including the new teams which have entered the Swiss Plate.

C. Open Pairs：Thursday 6th pm ~ 7th July

A total of at most 44 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.
The four teams qualified for the Finals/3rd Place Playoff (i.e., the winner of the upper Knockout bracket and the three teams playing in the fourth round of the lower Knockout bracket) will not enter the Open Pairs.

Open Pairs Qualifying ：Thursday 6th July, 16:20-19:50, 27 boards (3 boards×9 rounds)
Pair numbers will be randomly assigned. Two sections of 5 tables, and two sections of six tables, each with a Howell movement (nine rounds with three boards per round). Scoring in all stages of the Open Pairs and Consolation Pairs will be by IMPs, but with the IMP scale truncated at a maximum of 17 IMPs.
The top 5 pairs in each section (a total of 20 pairs), advance to the Semi-final.
The non-qualifiers are eliminated. However the highest scoring non-qualifier (ranked 21st) will advance without charge to play in the Open Pair Consolation on the afternoon of day 5 (Friday 7th July).

Open Pairs Semi-Final  : Friday 7th July, 09:30 - 13:00, 27 boards (3 boards x 9 rounds)

Two sections of 5 tables each with a Howell movement.
The top four pairs from each section together with the host pair (Mr.Yeh and his partner), and the fifth place pair with the higher score will advance to the final, for a total of 10 pairs.
Non-qualifiers from the semi-final can play the Open pairs consolation free of charge on the afternoon of Friday 7th July.

Open Pairs Final  : Friday 7th July, 14:00 - 17:30, 27 boards (3 boards x 9 rounds)
5 Tables Howell.

Open Pairs Consolation : Friday 7th July, 14:00 - 17:30, 6 tables, Howell.

* Semi-final and final will use Barometer scoring.

5. Procedure

5-1 Computer dealt hands will be used throughout.

5-2 Screens will be used throughout the event.

5-3 Each pair is required to bring two convention cards to the table.
HUM systems are not permitted in any event.
Brown Sticker Conventions (BSC) are permitted only in the Knockout and Final/3rd Place 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 clear and complete explanations together with the implications. Simply referring to a convention 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
In the event of slow play the director is authorized to provisionally or definitively cancel boards that have not yet been played at either table. 

6. Tie Breaking

6-1 Swiss Movement

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) if there is a two-way tie, the greater number of IMPs obtained in the match between the tying teams (should it have occurred)
(c) if there is a two-way tie, the 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. If the tie involves three of more teams each team plays one board against each other team.

6-2 Knockout Phase (Two-way matches)

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

6-3 Knockout Phase (Three-way matches)

If no team wins two matches and two or three teams are tied on VPs then IMP quotient will be used, followed by total point quotient, followed by drawing lots. In the event of a three-way VP tie a team falling short at any stage will be excluded from subsequent tie-breaking stages.

6-4 Final and 3rd place playoff

Since there is a carryover of 6.5 imps for the team from the winner’s bracket in the Final, a tie is impossible. The winner of the Final is the team with the greater imp total, including fractions of an imp. If there is a tie in the 3rd place playoff, the winner is the team with the higher total points, and if still tied, the greater number of boards won (a different of 10 points is considered a winning board, even though no IMPs are gained). If the tie remains, two board sudden death matches until a winner emerges.

6-5 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. Drawing lots if the tie remains.

7. Alert Procedure

Standard alert procedures with screen shall be used. In case when screens are used, players should ask questions and receive answers in writing.  Players might not be protected from misinformation if a misunderstanding occurs due to spoken communication.

8. Seating

Teams play according to the schedules as posted. The team with the higher team number is 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 offenses - 0.8 VPs (Swiss) or 3 IMPs (knock-out)
5 ~10 minutes	:	1.6 VPs (Swiss) or 6 IMPs (knock-out)
10 ~15 minutes	:	2.4 VPs (Swiss) or 10 IMPs (knock-out)
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)
5 ~10 minutes	:	1.6 VPs (Swiss) or 6 IMPs (knock-out)
10 ~15 minutes	:	2.4 VPs (Swiss) or 10 IMPs (knock-out)
Over 15 minutes	:	At the discretion of the Director, including possible cancellation of unplayed boards and assigned scores (Swiss) for both teams

If one team is judged to be primarily responsible, slow-play penalties may be assessed if boards are cancelled by the Director.

Mobile Phone/other Electronic Devices

Mobile phones and other electronic devices capable of receiving/transmitting data (e.g., tablets, personal computers) are prohibited in the playing area during game time. Players with mobile phones or other electronic devices should surrender their phones and/or devices to the staff at the service desk and receive a number tag which is used to collect the phone and/or devices after the game. Answering a phone call, texting, receiving/sending email, etc., during play, or possessing a prohibited device in the playing area during game time, shall receive a penalty according to the following scheme:

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

Smoking is not permitted at any time, except in areas designated as smoking areas by the hotel. Smoking by players during game time, including times when they leave the playing area to go to the toilet, is prohibited.
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 (Swiss) or 10 IMPs (Knock out) for the team. Offences include leaving the playing area during the session for the purpose of smoking.

Kibitzers

Kibitzers will be permitted at the discretion of the Director.

10. Appeal Procedure

An appeal, or request of a ruling by the 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$ 302,000 in total

Yeh's Cup : Winner US$ 175,000  2nd 48,000  3rd 16,000  4th 8,000

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

Swiss Plate : Winner US$ 8,000  2nd 4,000  3rd 2,000

Consolation Pairs : Winner US$ 3,000  2nd 2,000  3rd 1,000