The Top Bidders for Set 2023-12

This was another tough set, with the most popular choice of the competition entrants scoring a ‘10’ on only one hand. The average score was a respectable 45.26, but voting with the most popular choice of competition entrants on every deal would have scored only 45/80.  

We have three co-winners this month, with a score of 79/80:

Paul Dubois (pottsca) from San Diego CA, USA
David Williams (dave251164) from Llangollen, Wales, and
Owen Lien (olien) from USA

Also on the December 'Roll of Honor’ with a score of 77/80:

Emanuel Unge (EmanuelU) from Sweden,
Peter Law (petelaw) from Broadstairs, Kent, England,
Alexander Cook (spade70) from Australia,
Michael van Gulik (bananatree) from Canada,
Lysandra Zheng (Opal_P) from New Zealand, and
Bartosz Kopras (kojman) from Poland

As this was a fairly difficult set, a score of 68/80 or higher in needed to make it onto the leader board this month. Congratulations to everyone who makes the list.

The 2023 Annual Competition Winners

The Overall results are in for the Bidders Challenge 2023. Thanks to the thousands of you who took part over the course of the year, and for making the competition such a close run thing.

Special congratulations go to the players who made the podium!

It is fitting that Dave Williams should finish this year as one of the co-winners of the December set. Over the three years of this competition, he has been the most consistent bidder, finishing third in the 2021 annual competition and fourth last year. This year, he leads the field with a larger winning margin (9 points) than any of the previous winners. Congratulations, too, to the other two players who made the podium. Paul Bodreau was amongst the leaders throughout the year, and Alexander Cook, the reigning champion from last year, put in another impressive performance. All three players on the podium returned an average score in excess of 75/80 over their best nine scores during the year. “Chapeau” to all three of you.

David Williams from Llangollen, Wales

Paul Boudreau from Los Angeles CA, USA and Alexander Cook from Sydney, Australia

A couple of other players are also deserving of a special mention. Ian Findlay is again the leading Canadian, and another one who has demonstrated remarkable consistency throughout the three years of this competition, finishing sixth, fifth and, this year, fourth. The other two podium finishers from 2021, winner Luwen Koh from Singapore and second-placed Hanoi Rondon from Chile, both finished in the Top 10 for the third consecutive year. And, finally, one of my students, Paul Dubois, who does not claim to be an expert player. Paul not only shared the win in this month's competition, but also finished a highly commendable 15^th overall despite missing the first month of the year and thus having only eleven counting scores. I hope that the many sessions he has spent with me, working mostly on competitive bidding and slam auctions, has helped.

Congratulations are due to everyone who finished in the Top 20, for which you needed an average score exceeding 71.66/80 over your nine best scores. Impressive bidding over the course of the year by all of those players.

Indeed, well done to everyone who made the annual competition leader-board.  You need an average score of 60/80 or more (ie a total of 540 from your best nine scores) to make that list, which represents around the top 120 bidders from amongst the many thousands who have taken part every month.

The Fall Seasonal Winners

Congratulations to all four players, who came away with the spoils in the quarterly competition. Special congratulations go to Alexander Cook and Dave Williams who came top with a whopping average of 77/80 over the last three months.