Automatic entry into Australia's first bridge lottery will apply to all competitors in the Summer Festival of Bridge's TBIB National Open Swiss Pairs Championship being held on 14-15 January 2017 at the QT Hotel, Canberra.

The full program for the Summer Festival of Bridge can be accessed here.

Please bring this lottery to the attention of your members by placing a flyer (click here) on your club notice board.

How does it work?

All competitors will play eleven, nine board matches over the two-day period.  After completion of each nine board match, pairs will be allocated individual International Matchpoints (IMPs).  An IMP is a unit of scoring used according to a schedule established by the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge.

Six winning lottery pool numbers will be randomly selected by an independent person who will draw six distinct winning pool numbers from the range of 40 to -40 IMPs.

The winner will need to match FIVE of these six numbers with eligible qualifying numbers from their eleven match results to win the Lottery.

Match scores that fall outside the lottery range of +40 to -40 will not be an eligible qualifying number in the Lottery.

Where pairs achieve a match result with a decimal point, eg 19.2 or 19.8 IMPs, they will be considered to have achieved the full number (eg 19).  Decimal points will not be subject to rounding up or down.

Multiple occurrences of winning numbers will not count towards a lottery win.

The three most important features of this lottery are:

1. it cannot be unlawfully manipulated by the players or administrators
2. the random numbers will be selected and 'held' by an independent person; and
3. to avoid an elitist lottery, all pairs have an equal chance of winning.

WANT TO WIN IT?  BE IN IT!

Terms and Conditions (Lottery Approval TP 16/02084)

1. Free entry is provided to all pairs registered for the TBIB Open Swiss Pairs Championship being held on 14 and 15 January 2017 at the QT Hotel, Canberra.
2. The lottery prize is $50,000 if there is a winning pair.  In the event of a draw, the prize will be divided equally between winning pairs.
3. the lottery will close on 15 January at completion of play for the competition.  Competitors will be notified of the winning numbers at this time.  To win, a pair must match 5 out of 6 randomly selected IMP scores in the range of +40 to -40 IMPs.
4. The winning numbers will be announced at the competition venue, the QT Hotel, Canberra.
5. The winning numbers will be notified in the SFOB Daily Bulletin and the ABF homepage on 16 January and for those who have provided their email address on their registration form for the event, an email will issue.
6. The promoter for this Trade Promotion Lottery is the Australian Bridge Federation, Australian Business Number 70 053 651 666.
7. In the event that no pair has claimed the winning numbers, the prize will be withdrawn.
8. The prize cannot be given away.