Baldersons Achieve Platinum!!

The 10K Run!

Bob and Cindy Hit Platinum!
Bob Shares Stories
And I, your Editor, Plan to Do So, Too!
Applause for Cindy & Bob - with MORE TO COME!!

Last week, Cindy and I finally went over the 10,000 Masterpoint mark, with the last push courtesy of Carole Miner, Terry Beckman, Harry Sapienza, and each other. It seemed to take an eternity, with the finish line stretching on and on.

As soon-to-be Platinum Masters, I’ve been informed that we are supposed to wax philosophical at this point in the game. Cindy and I have been playing Bridge together for over 30 years (including a 10-year bridge divorce in which we played, just not as partners). During that time, we formed teams and partnerships with a multitude of players, including (but certainly not limited to) Carole Miner, Peg Waller, Kurt Schaeffer, Craig Satersmoen, Peder Langsetmo, Paul Meerschaert, Peg Kaplan, Billy Kent, Rob Schacter, Mark Krusemeyer, Harry Sapienza, Jerry Lee, Jonathan Cohen, Charlie Nauen, Patti Stuhlman, Ron DeHarportte, John Koch, Terry Beckman, and Dan Sershon.

For many years we traveled around the country, playing in Nationals, Regionals, Sectionals, and whatever, compiling a pretty good record with some great, some good, and some not-so-good results, while having a lot of fun in the process.

Cindy’s favorite team memory is actually quite a bit more exotic—she, Carole Miner, Lynn Deas, Disa Eythorsdottir, Rozanne Pollack, and Cheri Bjerkan represented the U.S. in Beijing, China at the 2013 World Mind Games. They finished 2^nd in the KO, placed high in the other events, and hobnobbed with the best players in the world (it was reported that the food could have been better).

My favorite team Bridge memory was the Kaplan-Kent-Meerschaert-Miner-Balderson-Balderson GNT team knocking Meckwell, Berkowitz/Cohen, and company out of the chance to win their 3^rd GNT title in a row. My favorite personal Bridge memory was making 6H in a National KO by picking off the stiff King of trump offside playing against the Overcall system: an overcall was required anytime the person overcalling had 7 or more points. LHO didn’t overcall, so the King had to be with RHO.

Some other “great” Bridge memories include:

In Seaside Oregon, our team won a Regional KO against a strong team by 51 in a 3-board tie-breaker after being tied in regulation.

In Madison, our team won a Regional KO by 50 against a Pro team after I told my partner, Peder Langsetmo, that “When the ladies return, we compare at halftime and we’re down by 100, we are going to drop out.” (When we compared, we were actually down by 7, which neither the ladies nor Peder and I could believe, but for different reasons.)

Some of the “good” memories include coming within inches of winning the GNT Flight A in Washington D.C. playing with Kurt Schaeffer (a feat which he later accomplished with a different team).

Or, Peg Waller, Cindy, Carole, and I losing to a very strong team in Florida by 1 after being down by 35 at the half and outscoring them 34-0 the second half.

Even some of my “bad” bridge memories aren’t too bad—in Anaheim Cindy, Carole, Dan Sershon and I spent an entire day at Universal Studios as a result of arriving too late to play on Sunday morning (forgetting that the last day of the Nationals they start the play an hour earlier).

Peder and I once played in a 2-day National Pairs event, with 70% and 65% (1^st and 2^nd), and didn’t make the overalls. During the event, we made 4HXX against Alan Truscott and his partner.

To be honest, it was never just about the Bridge. We also always focused on where we were going and how we were going to get there. For example…

We took the train to Portland to play in the Seaside Oregon Regional.

Cindy and I spent a week on the Outer Banks before competing in the Summer Nationals in Washington D.C for the first time.

In Boston, we took a day trip from the playing site to see Gloucester, Massachusetts, the town where they filmed The Perfect Storm (“A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem”), and were rained out.

In San Francisco we toured Alcatraz, went to a drag queen show, and spent the night in Bodega Bay, eating breakfast at the café where they filmed Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

In Vancouver, we had a ball sightseeing and day-tripping, but Paul Meerschaert almost didn’t make it on the plane in time. Cindy innocently asked him to carry some effervescent bath balls that she had bought, resulting in the drug-sniffing dogs really “liking him” and an extended visit to Customs.

All in all, it’s been 30+ years of great memories, Bridge, travel, and otherwise, that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Here’s to the next 30!

 

Bob Balderson

612-281-5222 (cell)
baldersonbob@gmail.com

 

"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow."

- Swedish proverb S

Comments

[Annie Schaeffer]

Way to go, Baldersons!

[Rebecca Anspach]

Congratulations! It is amazing that you both went over 10,000 at the same time, since you both played with so many others. I can't wait to read about you in the Bulletin.

[Paul J Meerschaert]

Congrats, you couldn't have timed it better. I love how you focused as much on the non-playing aspects of your bridge adventures as the bridge itself!