PHL_BRIDGE is an informal group of serious Philippine (PHL) tournament bridge players. Whether based in PHL or living overseas, most of us are Filipinos who have represented the country in international competition. Some of us are foreign bridge players with a special affinity to PHL, such as expatriates/assignees, former residents, long-term visitors, or spouses.

In the absence of the traditional face-to-face international and national-level bridge tournaments (at least in our country), we have banded together to maintain/practice our tournament skills and enhance our competitive game, by playing serious on-line bridge during this pandemic.

The above simple words guide our games. We try our best to play well. After all, our objective is to maintain and enhance our competitive bridge skills. But sometimes, we do not play well, not for lack of trying. There are unlucky or off days, when our table presence is weak, when our our reading of the hands is wrong, or when every finesse we take fails. But win or lose, whether we play well or not, we make sure that we enjoy the game and have fun. Like every other avid player, we all share a very strong love for the game. And lastly, we will always be nice at the table, to our opponents, to our partner, to the director, to the tournament support staff, and to kibitzers. Respect for fellow bridge lovers is another value we share.

We do not hold large tournaments, as we believe that is the job of the NBO's and the bigger bridge clubs. Rather, we hold small tournaments by invitation only, focusing on quality of play rather than on quantity of players.

This is consistent with our main objective of maintaining and enhancing our skills, even during the pandemic. Thus, our typical event consists of 2 up to a maximum of 6 tables. They are usually scored in IMPs, to encourage strategies and tactics more attuned to teams play (which forms the bulk of international and national events).

With 4 pairs, we usually hold either a direct team match, or a "3-round rotating pairs" movement, where each pair teams up with every other pair for one round.  With 6 to 12 pairs in play, we typically go with IMP's Pairs in a Full Howell movement, where each pair gets to face every other pair. We can also do simultaneous team direct matches. In all cases, our games would last for 4+ hours, with maybe 36 to 45 boards in play.

While members of our group form the majority of players in our events, we do invite outsiders (both overseas and local) to join us. Usually, these are friends and colleagues that we have played against (or with) over the years, and who share our values and objectives.

Most of our events are held after lunch at around 1400 (PHL time, or UTC+08:00). This timing allows us to play with Europe-based players, as well as with players from Australia and New Zealand.

If you wish to play a game together with our players, or if you wish to organize a team match with or against us, please contact:

Felipe "Phil" Manalang

mobile:

+63 (917) 5355787 via voice call or messaging (SMS, Viber or WhatsApp)

email:

FRManalang@gmail.com 

Only the latest three events are listed below. To examine results of all tournaments, click "Results" in the menu column at the left side of this page.