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The United States Bridge Federation competition for junior players started Friday - and continues on today and beyond. We are thrilled that a number of our Minnesota competitors are in Atlanta playing - and that four of them continue on today!
In the finals for U26, we will see the Kaplan team with one of our junior super stars, Ben Kristensen, compete against the Hallerman team. Sean McNally, at U of MN and another of our up and coming talented players, had quite the dramatic finish yesterday. Sean's team tied at the end of competition! Yet the fact that his team had finished ahead of their opponents in the initial round robin sent the Hallerman team to the final match today! Should be a thriller to watch Ben vs Sean!
In the quest for U26 #2 team, two more of our Minnesota students will be battling. Morgan Johnstone, from U of MN is on the Y Yu team. Thomas Scruggs of Carleton College is on the Xu team. We wish both Morgan and Thomas the best of luck today!
Finally, in the Roma event (women's teams), Alexandar ("Allie") Clark from Carleton College will compete with her teammates on Team Huang for Stage 3 of this event.
We are so very proud of our new generation of bridge players in Minnesota! Huge thanks to those at our schools who are training new students for our game - and applause for the students who are learning and loving bridge, as many of us did decades ago.
If you have some time available today, you can watch our competitors on BBO. We sure hope that you do!
And - as always - thanks to the many people throughout North America who devote so much time and energy to the USBF competitions. Big shout out to Jan Martel, who can (and does!) do anything and everything at USBF events - and Suzi Subeck for her marvelous bulletins. Today's is below; enjoy reading about our Juniors - and cheer on our Minnesota players!
Continue reading "Michael Seamon Junior U.S. Bridge Championships - MN Players Shine!" »
Posted by Peg on December 29, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Each of us has our own unique bridge story. Some of us learned as a child or in college; some of us took up the game in retirement. Some enjoy mostly social bridge at a local club. Others like to attend tournaments - and some play at the most challenging levels around.
There isn't a "right or wrong" way to choose the bridge activities of your choice. But what we all wish for the game is for bridge to continue to grow and flourish - irrespective of our personal goals.
As some of you know, I have the honor of being the "bridge coach" at one of our elite liberal arts schools, Carleton College. I am so delighted that students there are learning the game - and that a number of the students already have a passion for bridge, coupled with their talents.
One of the first Carleton players I met, Jackson Wahl, sent me this absolutely wonderful email! Not only is Jackson, along with his partner, Sarah Emmons, achieving remarkably well at our game - Jackson is embracing bridge to the fullest!
Please read Jackson's wonderful letter below. Big thanks to Teri and Chip for aiding Jackson in achieving this big goal - and to Jackson, for becoming a "bridge lover" AND director/promoter! The Greatest Game has captured Jackson - and - we hope his love lasts and grows for decades, as it has for many of us.
**************************************************************************************************
Posted by Peg on December 26, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
We all know what a blast it is to compete in a big tournament. And we also know how much fun it is to do well.
But perhaps one of the biggest thrills is when we compete against elite competition in the toughest field - and beat some of the stars!
Just this past week, one of our own Minnesota college stars, Sean McNally, experienced this excitement. Sean played with one of his regular junior partners, Raphael Hallerman, and they competed with teammates George Berger and Michael Kopera in Bracket #1 of the Thursday/Friday Knockouts at the Coral Gables Regional.
As is often the case in a well attended regional, a number of world class players were in the event. Yet, when the smoke cleared, Sean, Raphael, George and Michael had seized 2nd place! Only a mighty team of Italians could stop their juggernaut!
Big congratulations to (from left to right) Raphael, George, Michael and Sean. Take a gander at who was in the field - and see their impressive #2 spot appearing on the results! Way to go, guys!
Big thanks to another world class player who alerted us to Sean's triumph: Ron Smith. Ron has worked with and encouraged our junior players for decades, for which we are most grateful. And - though Ron is quiet and mild mannered at the table, don't let him fool you. He knows just what to do and when to do it - which is why Ron himself wins vastly more often than the average bear.
In fact, were you wondering who won the most masterpoints Coral Gables? Guess who! Ronnie along with teammates Adam Grossack and Josh Donn. Very well done, boys!
"Playing up" is a challenge. Yet when you do super well? A super high!
Posted by Peg on December 23, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
As always, big thanks and gratefulness to those who serve on the Unit 178 Board of Directors and contribute so mightily to Minnesota Bridge!
The meeting was called to order by Board President Barb Zipoy.
Board Members Present: John Schlundt, Liz Hughes, Richard Cottle, Kerry Holloway and Cass Weil.
MN State Sectional at Oak Marsh—Kerry/John
Sunday game was successful—19 teams; 276 total tables (215 last year);
$1,600 profit realized.
The St. Paul chapter will host the tournament next year.
Regional Tournament—Patti looking for additional volunteer help. She
would like more people to stay at the hotel (Crown Plaza).
GNT 2020—4/18, Edina Senior Center—Larry in charge
Old Business
New Business
Next Meeting
Thursday, January 9 at 9:00.
Posted by Peg on December 22, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yet again, big thanks from your webmaster, moi, and from all the rest of our bridge community for another excellent report from Our Woman in St. Cloud - Connie Nelson.
We appreciate all the stories, the great photos - and - we congratulate Connie herself for achieving that goal to which all bridge players aspire: Life Master!
Connie's story and others who have attained great heights are below!
The year 2019 might be unprecedented for the number of St. Cloud Bridge Club members who became new Life Masters, or achieved other Bridge master point milestones!
New Life Masters
Club Director Kory Solarz & Life Master Connie Nelson
Kicking off the year, I reached my 500th point at the Winter Tournament in St. Paul on January 26th. After earning three silver points there and having more than enough colored points, I remember frantically asking Director Kim Hayward: “Do Silver points count for Black?” When she answered “Yes,” I was thrilled. Kim interrupted the play to introduce me as a new Life Master. Back in St. Cloud, I brought in a home-baked cake to celebrate with the Club.
Life Master Jim Schnepf and Director Kory Solarz
In March 2019, during regular club play, Jim Schnepf hit the magic number of 500 points. He has always said that points don’t matter to him as much as playing each hand well, but he also brought in a cake to celebrate!
Life Master Tom Buttweiller
Tom Buttweiller became a Life Master fittingly at our own St. Cloud Sectional in June. With his philosophy of “live one day at a time,” he took it in stride - modestly saying it was just another day. However, he later sponsored a pizza and cake party for the whole club to enjoy, so it must have been a somewhat special milestone for him.
At the Rochester Regional in September, Club Member Beverly Berg received the final gold points she needed and was announced as a new Life Master.
Life Master Bev Berg
Sadly, Bev left for her winter home of Florida before the St. Cloud Club could celebrate with her. But, we celebrated her with a cake and sent her a picture across the miles.
Bev kiddingly responded, “Sending me a picture of you all enjoying a cake to celebrate my Life Master is kind of like having a going away party for me -- and not inviting me!"
Carol Ross hit her magic number during the Worldwide Instant Match Point Game held Halloween afternoon at our local club. Carol and her partner Jane Curtis came in first East-West, garnering 3 points – including the one Gold point Carol needed. When I asked Carol what becoming a Life Master meant to her, she answered, “Now I don’t have to run all over chasing that last elusive Gold point. I can sit back and have fun playing bridge. I am smiling today!”
For Carol’s partner Jane Curtis, that Worldwide Game gave her the last Gold Point she needed as well. But, Jane still had 2.6 Silver Points to go to achieve Life Master. Just as the year was drawing to a close, she accomplished that at the St. Paul Winter Sectional. Her team came in first overall on December 7th, and Jane became our sixth Life Master of 2019!
Life Master Jane Curtis
New Heights
One of our Club Directors - Joe Lisbon - announced at our Halloween party that he achieved Ruby Life Master during regular October Club play. Unfortunately, Joe took off for Florida the very next day, so we haven’t had a chance to celebrate his achievement with him.
Ruby Life Master Joe Lisbon
Also at the Rochester Regional in September, Paul Sitz became a Gold Life Master! Paul drives up to play at our Club from Ramsey MN, and volunteers as a mentor for others. We all appreciate his weekly journey…. as well as his heart of “Gold!”
Gold Life Master Paul Sitz
Cheers to all these 2019 “Masters! And here’s wishing all a happy and blessed 2020.
Posted by Peg on December 19, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 27th will herald a thrilling time for our junior players. The 2019 Michael Seamon USBF Junior Championships will begin that day. And - people from all over the world (even in Minnesota! :D ) will be able to watch the action of our talented young players through to the last day of 2019.
Although the photo above is of two players who are not Minnesotans, the success of one in particular, Finn Kolesnik, was quite astounding. Finn is now 15 or 16 years old. Yet despite his youthful age, he and partner John Ramos finished in third place in the Blue Ribbon Pairs in San Francisco! The BR Pairs is one of our elite events, thus this is quite the achievement for Finn and John!
Finn's huge showing in SF didn't stop there, though. With teammate Bo Han Zhu (above with Finn), plus Cristal Nell and John Ramos, their team was 20th in the NABC+ North American Swiss event.
We look forward to seeing how Finn and his team does in Atlanta during these championships. But of course we will be rooting big time for our Minnesota junior players, many of whom are competing! We are proud to have talented and earnest competitors from our state. A number of them have competed in and won trips to the summer collegiate competitions. Some have competed in open competition with great success - and earned medals in world wide competition! We hope that many from our state and all over will be able to watch some of the events and root for our talented players!
Big thanks to the many who contribute to the USBF Junior Championships: donors, board members, Vugraph operators, the Bulletin Editor (go Suzi Subeck!) - and last but not least - our stupendous juniors!
The first Bulletin for the event is below the line. Hope many of us can watch at least some of the action and cheer on our many wonderful and talented Minnesota bridge players!
Continue reading " Michael Seamon Junior United States Bridge Championships - 2019" »
Posted by Peg on December 17, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Holiday Sectional in North St. Paul was well planned! Great bridge and avoidance of snowstorms with frigid weather!
That fine planning was followed with excellent competition and success from a number of our players. At the top of the masterpoint list, we find one of our areas elite players: Robert Schacter. With an impressive weekend score of 33.01, Robert outdid the rest of the field. Two other players did grab much success, too. Brian Crossley's 26.92 and Gary Knippenberg's 26.19 rewarded them with 2nd and 3rd overall for point tallies.
The full report for who did what is here. And to see the overall results of each event, check out these results.
We are most grateful for our hardworking tournament chair, Tom Owens. And big thanks also to the woman who does superb double duty: Kim Hayward, both director in charge and partnership chairman. Of course, there are all of our wonderful players, too; we appreciate every one of you!
The photo above is becoming a reality, everyone! So stay safe and warm over this week - and - go to your favorite bridge club to achieve this goal!
Posted by Peg on December 09, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bruce's obituary has been published today in the Star Tribune.
Posted by Peg on December 04, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
A big shoutout to Tom Owens, the tournament chair for the Holiday Sectional Tournament this weekend at the Bridge Center of St. Paul! Not only is there a dedicated Swiss Team section for the I/N players, Tom has extended the Pair/Team format to the 0 to 500 I/N players for all 5 sessions of pair play on Friday and Saturday!
What is a pair/team game? In a pair/team game, you play with your partner just as you would during a regular pairs game. But the table-mates with whom you start the game with are considered your teammates for a new section based on board-a-match scoring.
You don’t need to do anything different, but this format allows for two different ways for a pair to earn masterpoints. It is extra work for the director in charge to set up the additional sections, and it is extra work for the partnership chair to have fill-ins available to keep the tables full. Yet it is a great opportunity for I/N pairs to experience a team game setting, and another way to earn points.
If you score well as a pair, you would earn a certain number of masterpoints. If your teammates do well also, your team score may be higher than your pair score. You earn the highest of the two scores (you cannot earn separate points, though, for each format). You won’t lose your pair result - but you may better it!
Keith Thompson
And don't forget; the Holiday Sectional starts this Friday, December 6th! Have fun, play bridge and get into the holiday spirit! The flyer is below! Our thanks to Keith and everyone else who is working hard for a great tourney and for all our competitors!
Continue reading "Special I/N Focus! Holiday Sectional Tournament in St. Paul This Weekend!" »
Posted by Peg on December 04, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
As others have learned of Bruce's passing, I have been receiving more remembrances. Some have shared this fun photo and post from 11 years ago, when Bruce had the thrill of competing against two of our bridge playing billionaires, Bill G & Warren B.
And - two more people, Tony Ames and Nick Erpelding, who have special memories and accolades about Bruce.
Bruce Boje was a "renaissance" man. His interests ran from Bridge to Pickle Ball to ROKU, whatever you needed to understand. He was a solid partner willing to learn and willing to teach. His death is a huge loss to our bridge community.
Tony Ames
I too was shocked and saddened to hear of Bruce's passing yesterday. I first met Bruce after taking a new job in 2007. Bruce was a long-time expert in the traffic engineering industry and I was semi-new to the field. Bruce took me under his wing and helped me learn the technical details of the profession.
As noted by Vern, Bruce was a tech lover and tech expert. He was a whiz with computers and spreadsheets. Several of the tools I use in my work to this day are based on templates Bruce developed decades ago. His knowledge of the 80's era equipment still used to operate modern traffic signals was amazing. Even after his retirement, and after I had moved on to another firm, I would still reach out to him for advice and guidance, and he would happily provide it.
On one of our work road trips, Bruce asked if I knew how to play bridge, and was more than slightly surprised when I said "Yes!" From that point forward we spent many hours discussing bridge, playing together as partners occasionally.
Of the countless guidance, tips and recommendations I received from Bruce as an up-and-coming player, one of my favorites was when he lent me Mel Colchamiro's book, "How You Can Play Like an Expert." In seemingly every session I've played since, there is at least one "Rule of X" hand in the set, and the tips from that book always seem to pay off!
Bruce also strongly espoused the value of support doubles and Bergen raises. He was patient when I would inevitably forget one during a set, but at the same time he knew how to motivate me like a parent in order to learn from the mistake and improve for the future.
I will greatly miss my friend and mentor.
Nick Erpelding
Bruce Boje was a Traffic Engineer by occupation. I remember driving to an out-of town bridge tournament with him and asking him about traffic light timing. He spent the next two hours or so explaining in great detail the minutia of how a system is designed that can move traffic through a city-wide grid of intersecting streets efficiently, with timing that can be changed for differing conditions and traffic networks with the use of sensors, timers, and controllers.
When we switched to discussing our bidding system, he demonstrated a similar studied knowledge,-- of hand evaluation and what and why various conventions and treatments are used. In both cases he knew his audience, and was able to convey his knowledge in a way that was understandable by me.
At the table, Bruce was the perfect partner, even-keeled, never critical, making bids that I could depend on, and never asking why I did what I did. He was a delight to partner, and a formidable opponent.
Minnesota has lost a bridge stalwart.
Denny Cerkvenik
Posted by Peg on December 02, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The past week was filled with family and friends gathering together to celebrate Thanksgiving - shopping, eating - and battling the elements. Unfortunately, however, this week also has been one of deep sadness for our Minnesota community. Yet again, we have lost a treasured member of our bridge world: Bruce Boje.
I received a call yesterday from one of Bruce's regular partners, Judy Nassar. Apparently Bruce had a sudden heart attack, went to the hospital, was getting treatment - and - died. Only 71, and seemingly in fine condition; a shock to all.
Judy kindly sent me some thoughts about her good friend and partner. We have memories from other bridge players - and also from Bruce's "main man" at the table - Vern Swing. I am most grateful for their kind, caring, positive and warm thoughts about Bruce.
Bruce was my favorite bridge partner because he was almost always calm and kind. We had a lot of fun playing together for many years. We won more than our fair share of the time! In addition, he was the best teammate because he never focused on the errors of teammates - only his own.
In the fall of 2013 Judy Nassar approached me about developing a partnership with Bruce Boje. I knew Bruce as a fellow traffic engineer at a rival company, but didn’t realize he also was fine bridge player. We hit it off immediately. Bruce was fierce competitor, but never criticized his partner or teammates, always focusing on how he could have improved a play, a defense, or a bid regardless of whether the result was a top or bottom.
Bruce was passionate about life, his wife and family, his career and his hobbies. He was an avid cyclist, loved pickleball, enjoyed his techy toys, loved Mexican food and beer, and loved bridge. Bruce relished the coming of spring so he could get on his bike again and get his 50-mile rides done on the days he wasn’t playing pickleball. In his younger days he raced throughout the summers. When Bruce was introduced to pickleball he dove headlong long into the game. He and Joyce played many tournaments and were considered experts. He was generous with his time and knowledge and encouraged anyone to start playing and offered to teach newcomers the basics, and at the same time was active in the local organization as President, then Treasurer.
Bruce loved his gadgets and could tell you how to remotely open his garage door from his phone, remotely control the temperature in his house from his phone, and how the Tesla he and Joyce bought was getting bi-weekly software updates and what those updates did. He was passionate about alternative energy, and as was always the case with Bruce, if he was passionate about a subject, he was very well studied. Bruce could explain to you in detail how solar panels worked and what to expect in the upcoming decades.
Bruce loved Mexican Food and loved beer. When we attended out of town tournaments, whether in Fargo, anywhere in Iowa, in Toronto or in Vegas he would always choose Mexican Food for dinner between sessions if given a choice. Beer was a requirement after the evening session and if Nachos accompanied it, life didn’t get better than that.
Bruce approached bridge as a partnership game and spent hours developing symmetric wrinkles in our methods to handle all hand types. When we decided to play the Attack System, Bruce converted the Soloway-Goldman notes into a spreadsheet we could modify easily and then insisted we practice bidding on BBO. We spent countless hours bidding hands to improve part score decisions, game decisions and slam bidding.
Needless to say, I was devastated when I received the call from Joyce in the evening of the November 30th, that Bruce had passed away. I will greatly miss you - my good friend - my partner.
Vern Swing
Our bridge community is not enormous. Every player matters; every one is meaningful and plays a role in how we enjoy our game - and our friendships with one another.
Bruce was another of our "bridge jewels."
Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Joyce and other family and friends. And one last look at Bruce - gentleman and student of our game, having a blast playing the game we love with the people we treasure.
Peg
Posted by Peg on December 01, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (1)