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If you love bridge, then you love a report of fascinating bridge, wherever in the world it is occurring.
This hand is the last hand of the European Championships that just concluded. Mike Cassel, star reporter, was kind enough to spot it and share it with us.
Thanks, Mike! Enjoy seeing world class bridge, Minnesota!
Continue reading "Last Hand of the European Championships" »
Players from around Minnesota and the Dakotas headed to St. Cloud this past weekend to compete in the Granite City Sectional. A fine player from out of state who often finds himself at the top of the leaderboard duplicated that trick. Congratulations to Vern Evans; Vern and partner Maurice Evans of Willmar led the pack with just under 21 masterpoints. New Grand Life Master John Koch was less than one point away, to capture the third spot.
The full list of masterpoints totals is here; results from the weekend are at this link.
Thanks to Co-Chairs Kory Solarz and Jean Leighton for their efforts, to everyone else who worked on the tournament and all our competitors!
Today, June 20th, is the longest day of the year. It is also the ACBL's special fundraiser to battle Alzheimer's.
The Bridge Center of St.Paul's "Longest Day" was superb! The Club had 18.5 tables in play, and raised over $3700! Donations are still coming in, too!
A great lasagna lunch was served at no charge; players could then choose to make a donation of their choice.
Special thanks to Gary and Elaine Mulcahy, for their efforts in helping with lunch and making everyone yummy warm chocolate chip cookies!
Additional thanks to all who helped with St. Paul's Longest Day - and who contributed to this very important battle!
Minnesota summer has plenty to offer bridge tournament goers! This weekend, the Granite City Sectional continues today and tomorrow in St. Cloud.
The schedule and details are here; plenty to enjoy!
I am certain that webmaster Peg Kaplan will never write about her accomplishment during the Gopher Regional. So, I wish to personally acknowledge and congratulate Peg for going over 15,000 life time master points at the tournament.
Peg is one of two Grand Life Masters in Minnesota (John Koch being our other).
Peg is our first Minnesotan to earn 15,000+ master points, an achievement that most players cannot imagine. She needed 2.7 points to go over at the start of the Gopher. Playing with long time partner Bill Kent, and teammates Vern and Monte Evans, Peg and company dominated the tournament, including victories in one KO, the Swiss Team and the Saturday pairs. Peg and Bill finished at the top of the leaderboard, having earned 131.90.
An amazing performance; kudos, Peg!
Nancy Glenn
Nancy - thank you! And - some of my own thoughts below... including - how did this ever happen!?
Have you ever sat at the table, dejectedly thinking "we have no chance"? (Hey - who plays bridge who has not felt this way!)
Bill Voedisch, on the winning team of District 14's 2016 GNT Flight B final, was on his way to "no chance" sentiments. And then....
Well, we'll let Bill tell the story. Good luck to Bill, his teammates, and all our GNT competitors in DC this summer!
After Denny Cerkvenik and I won the District NAP final we were asked by Jonathan Cohn and Andrew Clements of Omaha to team up for the GNT final. What the heck; these guys are solid and we're not gettin' any younger. We said “OK” and took some expected grief back home for our decision.
So the qualifying Swiss starts and after 2 rounds we are something like 14th out of 15 with only the top 4 qualifying for the 2nd day KOs. None of us felt like we were playing poorly - but you can't argue with oh and two. It was what it was. Now in the bottom round robin, we won two matches but not by a bunch, resting 11th at the break.
The Omaha boys remained optimistic. Denny and I? Perhaps not so much. We catch the Henson's and Weiman's after the break and lose another one. Sitting about 12th with three rounds to go, we seemed destined for the Sunday (consolation) Swiss. Then bing, bang, bong ... we leap over a pile of teams with 3 solid wins ... no blitzes ... to finish 3rd. Totally crazy.
Sunday the 4 of us had a good day. We won both KO's. We are proud to represent District 14 at a National grass-roots final, the 7th time for Denny and me.
We'll give it our best.
Bill Voedisch
A new month - a new almost-forever bridge schedule from Steve Gaynor!
Thanks, Steve; enjoy, everyone!
**Please note. Brian Weikle noticed that the Gopher Regional still shows the Ramada in Bloomington to be the site for the tournament. It is not!
In 2017, the Gopher will be at the Sheraton West in Minnetonka. We don't know from there to eternity - but - we will provide that info. Thanks, Brian!
Continue reading "Upcoming Schedule - from Here to (Almost) Eternity!" »
What's the best part of our tournament? Although it's all truly wonderful, it's not the free coffee and tea, nor the enticing candy, nor the KO's, Swiss Teams, Pairs, I/N events, Bulletins .... It's our people.
Thanks for coming to the Gopher Regional 2016. You are what make it great!
More more more below the line!
When a room filled with bridge players applauds, the response is usually polite and respectful.
When the object of accolades is TGLO (The Great Larry Oakey), however, the clapping goes on and on and on, with a standing ovation and many smiles!
So it was on Larry Oakey Day.
Your webmaster was given the honor of announcing this special day, then highlighting just a fraction of Larry's magnificence - and his enormous contributions, for decades, to our bridge world. As someone who was most fortunate to be able to play and learn from Larry for a number of years, I wanted to never stop clapping.
One of Larry's long time partners, at the Gopher specially from Up North to play with TGLO; Dan Sershon.
And - Larry and Dan, preparing to beat up the field!
Larry; you are an institution - the institution - in the Minnesota bridge world. We can never thank you enough.
You don't see this every day at the bridge table - but - what fun when you do!
Two moms and two sons - on one team!
Audrey Weikle played with son Brian - fortunate to get him away from his directing job and ACBL position. Carol Cummings, who was tearing apart the field earlier in the week, sat across from her son, Bill.
With a surge in table count - from 1093 in 2015 to an impressive 1254 in 2016 - Gopher 2016 had lotsa masterpoints to be earned. At the top of the list, with a hair under 132, were long suffering Bill Kent and his not-always awful partner, your webmaster, Peg Kaplan.
A tough round robin for the final knockout event sent us to the Saturday pair event. A win there allowed us to sneak ahead of our teammates of roughly 20 years, Vern and Monte Evans. Vern and Monte earned a figure that would top the list in most years, with a 119.46 total.
When we began playing as a team, Monte had his dad as his partner - and - lower your voice. Now, however, Monte's life is graced with one beautiful wife and three beautiful daughters, all featured in our photo above. Not as much bridge as in the early days, but absolutely a trade up up and away for Monte!
Congratulations to all who played at the Gopher, won events and earned masterpoints!
The list of masterpoint winners can be found here; all the events and those who placed in each one are here.
Additionally, Mike Cassel's Final Bulletin with results, comments and photos is posted below. Feel free to read this new Bulletin, and scroll back through the week to read each day of Mike's publications.
Sue Jackson and Patti Stuhlman, co-chairmen for Gopher 2016, hit it out of the ball park! With a fabulous new venue, big increase in turnout, yummy candy, free drinks, fine schedule and much more, Gopher 2016 had to be one of the best regionals we've seen in some time. Sue and Patti - we cannot thank you enough, along with the fine volunteers working tirelessly and so well to make this a superb tournament.
Of course, without directors we could not have a tournament. Thanks to DIC, Peter Wilke, Kim Hayward, Larry Brobst and Brian Weikle for their efforts throughout.
Mike Cassel kept us up to date every day on schedules, results, awards, highlights and much more with his Daily Bulletins; thanks, Mike!
More, more, more to come on the Gopher; stay tuned!
In the meantime, thanks for giving everyone who contributed a round of applause for a job very well done!