Minnesota Bridge

CBO Special - Tuesday, December 15th

A super opportunity for those in our college bridge group and juniors!  Details below! Begins tomorrow! Act fast & have a GREAT GAME!

Don't forget about the CBO Club Special Tournament this Tuesday, December 15, which will award masterpoints and special prizes. First through third place finishers will receive an Amazon gift card. Additionally, ACBL will draw the name of one random CBO tournament participant to receive a gift card.   You do need to be an ACBL member (only $5 for ages 25 and younger), have a BBO account (free) and be registered as a CBO member to participate in a CBO Tournament. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours to gain access to the CBO Club on BBO.   If you've never played in a CBO tournament before, simply log into BBO and click Competitive / Tournaments / All Tournaments or Free Tournaments / Collegiate. The CBO tournament should be first on the list.   If you have any bridge playing college friends, encourage them to join the CBO. Membership is open to any college undergrad or grad student age 35 and under. If you don’t have a student bridge org/club at your school, consider starting one. We can help! www.acbl.org/college Discounts for Juniors playing in online tournaments! 2020 Online Schedule Juniors playing in ACBL Sanctioned regionally rated online tournaments are eligible to have a portion of their entry fees rebated so that your final cost is only $5 per session. Just email onlinetournament@acbl.org and let them know when you played. Discounts will be applied for tournaments after 7/1/2020.

Dr. John Continues to Amass the Masterpoints!

It's December 1.  Perhaps no one will ever read this (too late, Rich - I did!  PK), but I thought I would post an update to Dr. John's advances.

Dr. John regularly plays 300-350 hands each week. (Google "BBO My Hands" and type in Gus94 and see for yourself!)  He accumulates 50+points each month (google "BBO Points") playing 18-board tourneys on BBO.  I only play with him Tuesdays at 7:15PM, but other people with more time on their hands give him several games per eek.  I'm sure that Dr. John would like to be playing face to face again - and I find it amusing that he is now playing 4 times as much as he used to play with the migration to online bridge.

I sure hope I shall get the chance to play with him face to face sometime in 2021!

            Rich Newell

 

Note - Peg again here.  I'm not too swift on what can be done playing online with different friends, but I do believe that some areas area able to "cross over" and play with others from different clubs, cities and states.  

Rich, if Dr. John is willing to play with some "foreigners" (ha ha ha), check around and see if some of our people are available!

 

 

 

 

Collegiate Initiative - Sunday November 15

Great opportunities for our college players and our Juniors!  If you want to compete in events with your peers, and learn more and more about the Greatest Game - then sign up for Sunday's event!

Fun - prizes - great competitors.  What's not to like!  

Details below!

 

Don't forget about the CBO Club Special Tournament this Sunday, November 15, which will award masterpoints and special prizes. First through third place finishers will receive an Amazon gift card. Additionally, ACBL will draw the name of one random CBO tournament participant to receive a gift card.   You do need to be an ACBL member (only $5 for ages 25 and younger), have a BBO account (free) and be registered as a CBO member to participate in a CBO Tournament. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours to gain access to the CBO Club on BBO.   If you've never played in a CBO tournament before, simply log into BBO and click Competitive / Tournaments / All Tournaments or Free Tournaments / Collegiate. The CBO tournament should be first on the list.   If you have any bridge playing college friends, encourage them to join the CBO. Membership is open to any college undergrad or grad student age 35 and under. If you don’t have a student bridge org/club at your school, consider starting one. We can help! www.acbl.org/college Discounts for Juniors playing in online tournaments! 2020 Online Schedule Juniors playing in ACBL Sanctioned regionally rated online tournaments are eligible to have a portion of their entry fees rebated so that your final cost is only $5 per session. Just email online.tournament@acbl.org and let them know when you played. Discounts will be applied for tournaments after 7/1/2020.

College Bridge Continues

Despite our most unusual 2020 year, students in school, students competing in various conditions, our Juniors players continue to enjoy, improve, compete and WIN in the CBO events!

Here are the latest competitors, top finishers and our Juniors loving bridge!

 

Bridge for Juniors!

Yes, the trees are starting to lose most of their leaves and the colors are starting to fade.  But our juniors have another great opportunity to compete with one another!

Tomorrow is THE day - data below!  And we hope you can all have a great game and have tons of fun!

 

Don't forget about the CBO Club Special Tournament this Thursday, October 15, which will award masterpoints and special prizes. First through third place finishers will receive an Amazon gift card. Additionally, ACBL will draw the name of one random CBO tournament participant to receive a gift card.   You do need to be an ACBL member (only $5 for ages 25 and younger), have a BBO account (free) and be registered as a CBO member to participate in a CBO Tournament. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours to gain access to the CBO Club on BBO. Our attendance in both the daily and special tournaments is down. Please encourage your friends to participate so that we can continue to offer these games if there is enough interest.   If you've never played in a CBO tournament before, simply log into BBO and click Competitive / Tournaments / All Tournaments or Free Tournaments / Collegiate. The CBO tournament should be first on the list.   If you have any bridge playing college friends, encourage them to join the CBO. Membership is open to any college undergrad or grad student age 35 and under. If you don’t have a student bridge org/club at your school, consider starting one. We can help! www.acbl.org/college

Discounts for Juniors playing in online tournaments! 2020 Online Schedule Juniors playing in ACBL Sanctioned regionally rated online tournaments are eligible to have a portion of their entry fees rebated so that your final cost is only $5 per session. Just email onlinetournament@acbl.org and let them know when you played. Discounts will be applied for tournaments after 7/1/2020.

College Bridge Online!

 

Time passes for everyone, including the students at U of MN who graduate and sometimes head for different pastures.  One of those students is Sean McNally, a first class bridge junior at the U - and now at Georgia Tech.  Sean finished first in the tournament with over 75%!  Bravo, Sean!  And something is going on at Georgia Tech; 2nd and third place were Georgia Tech students also!  

Note that our Minnesota players are still active and enthused; so glad to see them up in lights, too.

We are glad Minnesota students are still playing and competing - and we look forward to what the future brings for all of our young bridge players!

Also, Stephanie Threlkeld, ACBL's fabulous Education and Communications Manager would like us to have a look at a youtube created for us all.  Big thanks to Stephanie for ALL she does for us - and enjoy the show!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZvqKlR-uPM&feature=youtu.be 

 

Junior Bridge Players Shine!

As we know, the path of Juniors can alter from year to year.  Many start out as neophytes, then start learning a great deal - and then sometimes fly away from their original college or university.

We are very proud of all our junior players - and feel confident that one day, some will turn out to be some of our superb competitors.

In the meantime, please note the success of those who played in our most recent CBO event.

We are excited to share their achievements.  And we look forward to more and more success and knowledge as the years go by.  Very well done, Juniors!

 

The Year of Living Differently

Dear District Presidents, District GNT Coordinators and District 14 competitors,

This year in so many ways, bridge and life are different.  Our thanks to the many people who contribute to our special events, and to our many competitors who are excited to compete against their peers at a national level.

We thank you all for your contributions to our game, and we thank Brian Weikle for his detailed information about GNT in these special times.  Thank you for reading what Brian has shared with us, and we hope that many of you will be able to compete in GNT.

Dear District Presidents and District GNT Coordinators,

The 2021 Grand National Teams qualifying season began September 1. Given this year's unique circumstances, we are providing this summary of important details.

Club Qualifying

Club qualifying is optional. All players who qualified at the club level during the 2019-20 season are automatically qualified for Unit and District play in 2021. Districts may choose to permit club qualifying games to qualify additional players, although we expect that most Districts will not. Such games must be team games and submitted to ACBL Live for Clubs in an ACBLscore file.

District Finals

Districts which completed their GNT Finals in 2020 may choose to send those winners to the National Final in 2021. Districts whose Finals were not completed in 2020 must hold District Finals in 2021 to qualify teams for the National Finals.

Player Eligibility

Player eligibility status is "frozen" from the 2019-20 cycle. In other words, players are eligible for the same flight they were eligible for in 2019, no matter how many masterpoints they have won in the meantime. Similarly, players are eligible to play in the District in which they lived in August 2019. Players who have moved to a new District will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Action Required (by Oct 1, 2020 please)

Determine whether your District will be permitting club qualifying games. Notify ACBL (specialevents@acbl.org) and the clubs in your District.

Determine whether your District will hold District Finals in 2021, or whether the 2020 winners will represent your District at the National Finals. Notify ACBL (tournaments@acbl.org) and any affected players.

If you are holding District Finals in 2021, send the dates and sites to tournaments@acbl.org. Note that, as in past years, District Finals may be held online. If Finals are played face-to-face, they must be held after March 1, 2021.

Send your District's Conditions of Contest to specialevents@acbl.org.

2021 GNT National Finals

The GNT Finals will be played, in person, at the Summer NABC in Providence, RI.

 

Sincerely,

Brian Weikle

Manager, Bridge Operations

ACBL Field Operations

CC: ACBL Board of Directors

CBO Club Special Tournament this Saturday!

Don't forget about the CBO Club Special Tournament this Tuesday, September 1, which will award masterpoints and special prizes.

 

 

First through third place finishers will receive an Amazon gift card. Additionally, ACBL will draw the name of one random CBO tournament participant to receive a gift card.

You do need to be an ACBL member (only $5 for ages 25 and younger), have a BBO account (free) and be registered as a CBO member to participate in a CBO Tournament. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours to gain access to the CBO Club on BBO.

If you've never played in a CBO tournament before, simply log into BBO and click Competitive / Tournaments / All Tournaments or Free Tournaments / Collegiate. The CBO tournament should be first on the list.

 

If you have any bridge playing college friends, encourage them to join the CBO. Membership is open to any college undergrad or grad student age 35 and under. If you don't have a student bridge org/club at your school, consider starting one. We can help! www.acbl.org/college

 

Discounts for Juniors playing in online tournaments!

2020 Online Schedule

Juniors playing in ACBL Sanctioned regionally rated online tournaments are eligible to have a portion of their entry fees rebated so that your final cost is only $5 per session.

Just email online.tournament@acbl.org and let them know when you played. Discounts will be applied for tournaments after 7/1/2020.

CBO Club Special Tournament this Saturday

Calling all CBO Club Special Tournament Players!

Don't forget about the CBO Club Special Tournament this Saturday, August 15, which will award masterpoints and special prizes.

Have Fun - Win Prizes - Play Today!

Don't forget about the CBO Club Special Tournament this Saturday, August 15, which will award masterpoints and special prizes.   First through third place finishers will receive an Amazon gift card. Additionally, ACBL will draw the name of one random CBO tournament participant to receive a gift card.

You do need to be an ACBL member (only $5 for ages 25 and younger), have a BBO account (free) and be registered as a CBO member to participate in a CBO Tournament. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours to gain access to the CBO Club on BBO.   If you've never played in a CBO tournament before, simply log into BBO and click Competitive / Tournaments / All Tournaments or Free Tournaments / Collegiate. The CBO tournament should be first on the list.   If you have any bridge playing college friends, encourage them to join the CBO. Membership is open to any college undergrad or grad student age 35 and under. If you don’t have a student bridge org/club at your school, consider starting one. We can help! www.acbl.org/college

Discounts for Juniors playing in online tournaments!   2020 Online Event Schedule   Junior members playing in ACBL-sanctioned regionally rated online tournaments are now eligible to have a portion of their entry fees rebated so that their final cost is only $5 per session.   Just email online.tournament@acbl.org with your information and let them know when you played. Rebates are for tournaments held after 7/1/2020.

 

August 1 College Bridge Online Club - Congratulations to our Juniors!!

Minnesotans Shine!

Once again, Minnesota Junior players do well!  Congrats to all!

 

 

Junior Championships!

Eric Hendrikson alerted me to news about our juniors.  Morgan Johnstone has the details!  Big thanks to Eric and Morgan!

Captains,

 

Congratulations on advancing to the Knockout Stage of the 2020 Online Collegiate Bridge Championship! At the meeting held earlier this evening, a random draw was conducted to form the bracket for the KO stage, as per the CoC. The captains from 5 of the 8 KO stage teams were present to witness the KO draw, and I believe Giorgio Casinovi sent out a video.

 

The quarterfinal matchups are:

A1: Harvard - Crimson Aces vs B2: Minnesota - Gopher the Squeeze

C1: The Claremont Colleges vs D2: UChicago

B1: UC Santa Barbara - Overbidders Anonymous vs C2: Northwestern - NORTH deals, east-WEST vulERNable
D1: Georgia Tech Gold vs A2: UNC Chapel Hill

The semifinal matchups are:
Winner of A1-B2 vs Winner of  C1-D2

Winner of B1-C2 vs Winner of  D1-A2

 

The KO bracket is now on the results spreadsheet. I will add a KO Results tab for y'all to report match times and results. As a reminder, quarterfinal matches must be scheduled and played by the end of Sunday 7/19. As per the CoC, quarterfinal matches must be 32 boards long. Also, they will be divided into two segments of 16 boards, unless the team captains agree otherwise. If captains can't come to an agreeable arrangement regarding seating rights, email Giorgio Casinovi (giorgio.casinovi@ece.gatech.edu) and he will conduct a random draw to sort that out. 

 

We would like to publicize this event as much as possible. In particular, if your college bridge club has a Twitch channel, feel free to stream quarterfinal matches on a 30 minute delay. If your college bridge club does not have a Twitch channel or other method of streaming, email Sriram Ganesan (sganesan34@gatech.edu) and he might be able to stream it himself or find someone else to do so (on a 30 minute delay, of course). 

 

Also, the following issues need to be decided no later than Sunday 7/19:

1. Do we want directors for the semifinal matches? If so, those matches will most likely need to be scheduled in advance and completed on a single day at times that work for both teams and the director. 
2.  What date should the final be held? Right now, we seem to be leaning towards Sunday 7/26, but other dates are possible. Since we will have a director for the finals, the finals will likely need to be played in one day, and scheduled in advance.

3. Do we want a match between the 3rd and 4th place teams? If so, we probably want to set the date in advance to publicize it. 

We will likely have a meeting on Sunday 7/19 to finalize these issues. 

 

Anyway, good luck to all in the KO stage of the 2020 OCBC!

Santhosh.

--

Morgan Johnstone
University of Minnesota Class of 2020

Bridge for Juniors - Happy 4th of July!

We are very proud of the juniors who are learning bridge, having fun and doing SO well!

ACBL recently had another CBO game for our junior players, and OF COURSE Minnesotans competed and of course played well!  

We hope that more and more juniors will start learning bridge, as it truly is the greatest game.  And we wish all our juniors the best, too, as they continue on to new jobs, higher levels of education - and more bridge!

Happy 4th of July to all!!

 

Motion Passed by ACBL Board of Directors this Morning

Shared with all in District 14 from our District Director Sharon Anderson:

 

Motion: The 2020 NAP Finals will be held at the Montreal Summer 2020 NABC. The 2020 GNT Finals will be held at the Tampa Fall 2020 NABC. The details of the Finals, including the scheduling of those events, will be established by management at a later date.

 

The deadline for the completion of District GNT Finals will be October 1, 2020.

District 14 Grand National Teams Finals - April 18-19

 

Grand National Team Finals is always an exciting event for District 14. Not only are you able to compete against your peers in Flights Open, A, B or C. You also have the opportunity to win a subsidized trip to the Summer NABC.  This year, the site is Montreal, one of Canada's most lovely cities.

In addition, our Minnesota competitors don't have to travel too far; the event will be held on Saturday and Sunday, April 18-19 at the Edina Senior Center. (Please be sure to look at the flyer below; the schedule varies depending upon the flight in which you play.)

Additionally, if you are competing in GNT, you can play on Friday in the Spring IMP Sectional, again with details in our flyer.

Whether you are one of Minnesota's top competitors, fairly new to bridge OR somewhere inbetween - GNT is THE event for YOU!  Organize your team and then look forward to fun and perhaps a trip to Montreal this summer!  The details are below the line!

On Top of the World!

Sean - Morgan - Julia - Zeren

 

Yesterday, February 24th, collegiate teams from all over the U.S. competed in the second Collegiate Tournament.  This exciting event would deliver a subsidized trip to the top 3 teams to compete in the Summer 2020 NABC collegiate event in Montreal.

We were thrilled to have multiple students from Minnesota competing in the Collegiate Tournament. And we are head over heels excited for the team from U of MN - "Gopher the Squeeze" - who not only won a trip - but were first overall!  Indeed - not only did the team win the event, they were victorious in every match throughout the day!  Quite the accomplishment!

Major congratulations to Sean McNally, Morgan Johnstone, Zeren Shui and Julia White for the big win in a big way!  We wish them the best in Montreal!  

I was chatting with Morgan last night, after the team's huge win.  After requesting some details from their day, Morgan contacted Sean; he was kind enough to send lots of details from each match on how they bulldozed their way to victory!

Please note a few items. I copied Sean's email to me about their match without editing. I thought it might be more fun and of interest to all to read one of our most talented young players' impressions and views of their matches.

Yet I feel compelled to add a few of my own thoughts to those of Sean's. 

Part of what makes our game so incredibly fascinating and compelling is how tough it is.  Our students, talented as they are, have only been playing for a few nanoseconds in contrast to thousands of others - including world class players from around the world. Sean refers to "embarrassing hands" and luck. Yet, the greatest players to ever compete at bridge commit atrocities at the table - or bring home a great result due to enormous good fortune.

At the end of the day, what really matters is that we try our hardest to do our best, never stop learning, are good teammates and partners and treat everyone with respect. 

My view is that all our Minnesota collegiate players are doing exactly that; kudos to them all!

For now, though, lots of applause to  Sean, Zeren, Morgan and Julia!  Clearly, to win every single match they were doing a lot right - and - we wish them the best of luck in Montreal continuing to do lots right - and grabbing some good fortune, too!

**************************************************************************

• • Match 1 - UMN - Gopher the Finesse
  • Match 2 - Carleton
  • Match 3 - Princeton
  • Match 4 - Caltech
  • Match 5 - Northwestern
  • Match 6 - CMU

It's a lot of boards to go through to pick something interesting.  I'd like to highlight board 5 of match 4.  I managed to go down in a cold vulnerable 4H I should make (I had a count on the hand minus one card.  It is clear and completely safe to run the c9 in the end position.  You'll see what I mean.)  BUT the girls covered my butt.  They were in 3Dx+2.  Nice to go down in a cold vulnerable game and WIN 11 imps.

 

The award for luckiest game goes to board 4 of Match 5.  Zeren and I were in 4H, needing merely the stiff K of diamonds and then the sJ onside so that lefty gets squeezed in the pointed suits. (okay, the way it was played we *should* have gone down but the fact it's actually cold is absurd).  Yes, we should just be in 3NT...

 

Tons of embarrassing hands in there, and a couple decent ones as well.  I hope you enjoy.  Thanks so much for your constant support!!

Carleton Shines

 

Our photo above may be an "oldie but goodie" - yet these Collegiate Bridge Online Games results from the first of the New Year are New AND Goodie!

Lots of competition on January 1 - but if look below at the overalls for the first 2020 competition, Carleton's #1!

The Carleton players averaged 64.64% in the event; quite the accomplishment!

We know that all our Minnesota bridge players are returning to class, studying and taking exams. But we imagine that in some of their free time, they are honing their games and preparing for the next battle!

Applause for the Carleton competitors in this event - and to all our Minnesota players who continue to grow and show!

 

 

Michael Seamon Junior United States Bridge Championships - 2019

 

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!

Minnesota's College Students SHINE!

Many Minnesotans are aware that we have two superb schools in our state where our great game is enjoyed by up and coming college students:  University of Minnesota and Carleton College.

Not only are these students learning and enjoying the greatest mind game ever - they are performing quite admirably, too!

The most recent College Bridge Online Tournament was held on November 15th. We are so proud that one of our Carleton students finished second, earning an Amazon gift card prize. 

We are also most impressed that Carleton College and University of Minnesota finished 3rd and 4th overall in average scores.  Those participating in the College Initiative are from an array of impressive and high performing institutions. Thus students from our great state are shining brightly in tough competition!

We'd like to send congratulations to our high achievers - and wish all of our bridge students the best as they continue to learn more and more about our fascinating game. 

In addition, big thanks to Carleton President Sophia Maymudes and Erica Helgerud.  Both were very helpful in sending me the photos below of Carleton students learning and loving bridge!

(Please note that I have no current U of MN photos.  Class will start in 2020 and I will be sure to get myself and my camera over to the U to take photos of this year's students!  And as always, my thanks to Honors Dean Matthew Bribitzer-Stull and the other fine bridge playing professors who are educating dozens of students about The Greatest Game ever!)