Minnesota Bridge

Two for You!

 

How do the days zip by so rapidly?!  We are nearing the end of summer, celebrating first with Labor Day and the Labor Day Sectional at the Twin City Bridge Center.  The flyer and schedule for this tournament, starting on August 30th and ending on September 2nd, can be found here.

 

 

Soon thereafter, as fall begins, head Up North to compete in the Paul Bunyan Bridge Tournament.  This Carleton Sectional starts September 5th and concludes on the 7th.  The schedule and details are here.

Two great opportunities to enjoy our game and score some masterpoints!  A fine way to celebrate Labor Day and herald in autumn!

Aquatennial Sectional 2019 Results

 

Loads of players headed to the Twin City Bridge Center this past week to enjoy many sessions of great bridge - and escape some our steamy weather!  Over 1000 masterpoints were earned - and - the most were earned by Dave Collins!  Dave's total came to almost 32.  Other fine masterpoint winnings were accomplished by Paul Meerschaert with almost 30, Gary Knippenberg with 27.71, Harry Sapienza at 27.75 and Brian Crossley with 26.67.  The full list of those who earned masterpoints is here.  And the overall finishes in each event is here.

 

 

Thanks to Kim Hayward for her ever wise directing skills and happy smiles - to Teri and Chip Blu for the TCBC and hospitality - and OF COURSE to all of you for being our great competitors!  Whether decade long experts or newbies - we welcome you all!

 

 

A special "shout out" too to two of our college stars - Sarah Emmons and Jackson Wahl from Carleton College. Not only did Sarah and Jackson place 1st or 2nd in FOUR different 49er games .... they are headed to the Summer NABC Collegiate Pairs competition in Las Vegas after having won a trip to compete there!  So - applause to them and to all of our other superb college kids who are learning and succeeding.  (And sorry for any for whom I missed grabbing a photo; too busy week for your webmaster.)

 

 

One more shot of True Love at the Bridge Table, with Paul Meerschaert and Sandy Fisher - then a bunch of our other competitors below the line!  Thank you for coming and having a great time, everyone!

 

Aquatennial Silver Point Sectional - July 10 - July 15

 

Summer's Aquatennial Silver Point Sectional begins today!  Enjoy stratified open pairs and stratified 499er pairs throughout the week, with Charity Pairs (paying extra points) on Sunday.

Head on over to the Twin City Bridge Center with it's convenient daytime schedule and have a blast!  The full schedule with more details is below.  See you there!

St. Cloud Granite City Sectional Results

 

With summer in full form now, the Granite City Sectional enjoyed a fine turnout!  Players from throughout Minnesota - and even several states beyond - came, competed and conquered!

Results can be found here. Currently, masterpoint winners are not listed. But if they do appear, I will share them with you.

Of particular note was the success of Carleton College students Jackson Wahl and Sarah Emmons.  After a most successful Gopher Regional, Jackson and Sarah followed up in St. Cloud with two wins, a second place and another overall position!  Their first event, they managed to score over 64%; quite impressive!  We are delighted to see that younger people can fall in love with our great game - and succeed big time at it, too!

  Jackson and Sarah are two of our college students who won a trip to Las Vegas this summer in the ACBL collegiate competition.  Please join me in wishing them well!

Our thanks to tournament & partnership chair Kory Solarz and tournament director Kim Hayward for their fine efforts.  And we thank all our competitors for attending Granite City and enjoying an excellent sectional! 

Granite City Sectional - June 13-15

 

The Granite City Sectional in St. Cloud will soon be upon us!  Thursday, June 13th is the start date. 

Get your favorite partner and teammates and join in the competition!

The sectional flyer is below.

Rochester Med City Regional - Partnership Chair Change

Please note that we have had a change in for the Partnership Chair at our Rochester Regional in September.

John Ryder was the Partnership Chair, but had to step down from that position.  

We thank John for his efforts - and are most fortunate that we have a fine new Partnership Chair:  Sheri French.

Sheri will do a fine job for us!  A new flyer is below with the changes.

From Here to (Almost) Eternity!

 

Yet again - our thanks to Steve Gaynor for delivering all the news and events that are fit to print for Minnesotans!  His latest and greatest is below the line.

From Steve:  My latest schedule.  Let me know if you have any corrections.  I encourage anyone who is planning any kind of activity that includes bridge players to check out dates so they can avoid conflicts.

And from yours truly, your webmaster.  For all who celebrate, best wishes for a wonderful and meaningful Passover and Easter this weekend!

April 14 CBO Stratified Pairs Tournament - Minnesota Shines!

 

Sunday, April 14, a total of 40 pairs of college competitors entered the first College Bridge Online Stratified Pairs Tournament.  We are so very proud to announce that of the top 10 pairs, 3 of those pairs were from Minnesota colleges!

At the top of the list we found the uber-successful partnership of Sean McNally and Morgan Johnstone. You might wonder why they did not win a trip when they secured first place. That was because their U of MN team had already secured a spot in the Collegiate Bowl Team competition!  Way to go, Sean and Morgan!

One of our Carleton College pairs did indeed win a trip to the pair competition.  Congratulations to Jackson Wahl and Sarah Emmmons. We know that they will represent our fair state admirably come this summer.

And - although they were one spot shy of securing their own trip, applause for Carleton students Thomas Scruggs and Jeffrey Boitnott.  Thomas and Jeffrey finished in 6th place; an admirable accomplishment.

Final overall scores can be found here.

As many of you may know, the Minneapolis Grand Slam Club is hosting a fundraiser at their game this coming Friday, April 19th. Eric Hendrickson, one of the professors at U of MN who instructs students there, has done yeoman's work with efforts toward raising funds so more of our students can attend the NABC Collegiate events in Las Vegas. Sharon and Roger Anderson are preparing a repast for those who attend; we hope many of you do, for the meal, the fundraising and the bridge!  (Note that a number of our students shall be in attendance Friday!)

Additionally, Roger recently zoomed over the 10,000 masterpoint mountain to become a Platinum Life Master!  Congrats to Rog on his achievement!

Bridge is the most fascinating mind game ever. You can enjoy it at any age, at any level - no matter where in the world you live.

Here's to years and years of competition in the future for our college students - and - much fun for ALL Minnesotans who love and play our game!

Congratulations again to all!

(P.S. Big kudos and thanks to Stephanie Threlkeld, Education and Communications Manager at ACBL. Stephanie is a tireless worker for out bridge students; we are forever grateful for all she does!

 

Congratulations to the winners of the April 14 CBO Stratified Pairs Tournament An awesome turnout of 40 pairs from 17 colleges competed in our first College Bridge Online Club Stratified Pairs Tournament, with six college pairs receiving travel packages to attend the 2019 Collegiate Bridge Bowl in Las Vegas this July.  Congratulations to our top pairs, who will receive airfare up to $500 per person, three hotel nights (double occupancy) and a $50 per-diem per person. Sean McNally and Morgan Johnstone from the University of Minnesota came in first, but since they previously won a team travel package, they were not eligible to win in the pairs event. Travel package winners are: UC Santa Barbara, UCSB 4 - Danning Lu and Sarp Kurgan Georgia Tech, GT Tech 4 - Justin Shio and Sriram Ganesan Carnegie Mellon, CMU 1 - Mathew Shi and Brent Xiao Carleton College, Carleton 1 - Jackson Wahl and Sarah Emmons Tufts University, Tufts - William Scott and Jeffry Silver Rice University, Rice - Varun Suriyanarayana and Mark Saving A really BIG thank you to director-in-charge Michael Weber and tournament director Trisha Malazdrewicz. This was the first time we have held a stratified pairs event, and they did an fantastic job keeping it running smoothly. Also, thank you to BBO for hosting the event. TOURNAMENT SUMMARY

Pairs Participation winners to be announced May 3 We will be announcing the pairs participation winners on May 3, so if you are registered, keep playing! Five pairs will receive a travel package to compete in the new Stratified Pairs Championship at the Bridge Bowl. If your team and/or pair did not win a travel package, you can still come play in Las Vegas. It's FREE to play and a lot of fun (in addition to masterpoints and scholarship opportunities). Register between Monday, May 6 and Monday, July 1 to guarantee a spot. Walk-up participants must show proof of college enrollment. For complete rules and Conditions of Contest, visit acbl.org/bridgebowl.

Rochester Sectional - In Pics!

Everyone likes to hear how competitors did at a tournament. Yet - we also like to see everyone having a great time!

Our thanks to Sue Greenberg providing some photos from the sectional. And thanks to all our players, organizers, volunteers and directors, too!

Deb Ernster - Partnerships (she quipped she is now ready to get a job with Match.com!)

Director, Please!

Tom & Linda Grigoleit - Tournament Chairs

Rochester Spring Sectional Results - Take Two

 

A second time at congratulations to all our players who attended the Rochester Spring Sectional - along with all those who volunteered and made the tournament great.  My apologies for having inaccurate information in my post below.  I am, however, leaving it up for extra thanks to everyone. And also I am leaving it up in the hopes that those who are in charge of ACBL Live will not publish results about masterpoints until and unless they are accurate!

Our real masterpoint results are here.  The same 3 pairs were the top masterpoint winners.

And overalls for each event can be viewed here.

Once again - many thanks to the friends who alerted me about the need to revise our reporting!  Very grateful that you have my back and care about our community!

Rochester Spring Sectional Results

UPDATE ON RESULTS!

Everyone - my apologies for attempting to post results from Rochester via ACBL Live

You may see from comments below that the ACBL Live stats were incorrect.

I am not able to correct this post at present. But - I shall later this evening (assuming I make it back to Minnesota!!)

Thanks for the heads up and sorry for the errors.

 

For a moment, prior to the return of winter, we had spring. And in Rochester, it meant a fun tournament with superb competition!

Six of our competitors earned over 30 masterpoints each!  John Koch and Carole Miner tied at almost 39 per person! Kathy and Terry Beckman were close to that impressive feat with 35.09.  Joseph Pieper and Mark Patton from Dubuque also scored in the 30's with 31.53.

Six other players earned over 20 points; very well done!  The overall masterpoint list can be found here.

To see who did what in each event in Rochester, check overalls on this list.

Our thanks to all the organizers and volunteers; the tournament wouldn't be a success without you!

And - big thanks, too, to Director Tony Ames.

Also, you might note that we are doing a new format. I couldn't find results for the tourney on the calendar at ACBL - but Tony told me he sent them in on Sunday night. So, I instead searched at ACBL Live - and - there they were.  I suggested to Tony that perhaps using that resource would be superior.  "Great idea," said Tony!

So, do note that from now on, we will use ACBL Live for reporting - and for lots more info for those of you who want to know everything!

Thanks again to all - and - here's hoping after a blast of winter, spring does come back again!

Rochester Spring Sectional - April 5-7

Rochester Spring Sectional

April 5th - 7th 2019

Rochester International Event Center

Starting this Friday, you can experience the Rochester Spring Sectional Tournament April 5 - 7, a spring get together for all bridge players that is super!!  And the weather promises to be fabulous!

  The Rochester Sectional offers something for everyone:

• Beautiful and spacious event facility with lots of free parking
• Legendary Rochester hospitality
• I/N and Open Pairs games every day along with Swiss Team events
• Partnership Desk to assist if you need a partner
• Lunch to purchase on site
• Free coffee, cookies and chocolate all weekend

Check out the flyer on the left of Minnesota Bridge for the details!

We can't wait to meet you!

Rochester Duplicate Bridge Club

Tournament Co-Chairs:

Linda Grigoleit 507-269-4172 and Tom Grigoleit 507-269-4162 lindagandtomg@gmail.com

Partnership Desk:

Deb Ernster, 507-250-6441, rochestermnbridge@gmail.com

2019 Granite City Sectional - June 13-15

 

While no where in Minnesota looks at all like this lovely photo above - in a few short months, it will!

St. Cloud (pictured above) is hosting the Granite City Sectional on Thursday, June 13 through Saturday the 15th. Enjoy stratified events every day, including Swiss Teams and Pair/Team events.

The brochure for the tournament is below and on the left of the our web page. We hope you will attend this fun tournament in June - and enjoy summer AND bridge!

Rochester Spring Sectional - April 5-7

While we can't predict the weather - we can predict an excellent sectional the first week in April!

The schedule for the Rochester Spring Sectional is on the left panel. Grab your favorite partner and have a fun time in Rochester - no matter what Mother Nature deals!

 

 

ACBL Unit 103

Rochester Spring Sectional  April 5 - 7, 2019 Rochester International Event Center It's March and we know you are ready for spring!!  And with spring comes the fabulous Rochester Spring Sectional tournament April 5 - 7. Grab your partner and plan to attend, there is something for everyone from beginners to seasoned veterans: Play with some of the friendliest people in the area Great opportunity to earn silver points while competing with players at your level A beautiful and spacious event facility with ample free parking and special rate hotel 0 - 499 for I/N's and Open Pairs games every day along with Swiss Team events Partnership desk to help if you need a partner Lunch for purchase on site Free coffee, cookies and chocolate all weekend We are looking forward to meeting you. Rochester Duplicate Bridge Club Tournament Co-Chair: Linda Grigoleit, 507-269-4172, lindagandtomg@gmail.com Tournament Co Chair: Tom Grigoleit, 507-269-4162, lindagandtomg@gmail.com Partnership Desk: Deb Ernster, 507-250-6441, rochestermnbridge@gmail.com

Spring is Coming Sectional Results

Top MP winners Rob Schacter & Paul Meerschaert with the beautiful and talented Cindy Balderson

 

While the past weekend felt more like the first week in January rather than a prelude to spring, many braved the cold and had a wonderful time at the table and inside.

Two of our top players won top honors for masterpoints earned. Rob Schacter headed the list, with a hair under 25 masterpoints. Paul Meerschaert was second, earning an impressive 18.20.  Others who earned double digit points were Mike Cassel, Dave Collins, John Koch, Ingrid Stocking and Bob Balderson.  The full list of masterpoint winners is here.  Who placed where in each event is at this link.

 

 

As mentioned in a post yesterday, juniors Sean McNally and Morgan Johnstone were thrilled to win their first sectional event.  Yay, Sean and Morgan!  Here they are above, posing with super star junior player Ben Kristensen.  We were also delighted to see some of our college students from Carleton attending on Saturday - though your webmaster was sad they snuck out before she could snap a shot of them.  Great to see our new generation playing, enjoying - and doing well!

 

Do you think Dave Collins is having fun?

Of course, irrespective of age, everyone enjoyed the competition (see the above photo for proof).  And - as always - tournament chair Teri Blu and director Kim Hayward performed their usual superb jobs.

More photos of players below the line. Apologies no shots of Teri and Kim; afraid your aging webmaster has a tough enough time as it is trying to follow suit and snap a few of our competitors! 

Big thanks to everyone!

Spring is Coming Sectional - March 1-3

 

Does this look like spring to you?  Nah; not to me either!  Nevertheless, irrespective of cold, snow or whatever else the heavens deliver to us, we are going to have the Spring is Coming Sectional at the Twin City Bridge Center from March 1-3.

A fun schedule is planned, with games for both experienced players and 499er's, too.

The Spring is Coming tournament flyer can be found on the left website column.  Check it out, grab your favorite partner - and - warm up your winter with a hot game!

And before you know it - spring actually will be here!  (I hope!)

 

 

Minnesota Winter Super Silver Tourney 2019 Results

 

Despite a "warm up" (odd choice of words!) to the record breaking frigid weather we are having this week, the Minnesota Winter Super Silver Tourney in New Brighton turned out a pretty good crowd. Competitors enjoyed pair/team games, 499er games, plus a Swiss Friday night. Saturday, the final day of play, had two 2-session games; one for Life Masters and one for non-LM's.

 

 

When all the events concluded, one guy earned the most masterpoints:  Kerry Holloway. Kerry snagged 35.33 masterpoints in 7 sessions of play.  Your webmaster, Kerry's partner for all but one event, was 2nd with 32.26.  Joe Koster, Gary Knippenberg, Tom Knier, Barry Purrington, Carole Miner, Mike Cassel and Frank Knier rounded out those who earned over 20 masterpoints.

The full list of masterpoint winners is here.  And overall results for each event are here.

Intermediate/novice players were treated to two "lunch and learn" sessions. Our thanks to Mike Flader and Steve Gaynor for expertly conducting them.

 

 

Additionally, appreciation goes to Tournament Chair Larry Huiras, and to the lady who manned the partnership desk, Patti Huiras.  Super contributions!  Big thanks!

 

 

Let us not forget, either, our two fine directors:  Bjorgvin Kristinsson and Kim Hayward. Integral for a smooth running tournament!

 

And - a final fun feature of our tournament - our young super star, Ben Kristensen, who competed for a couple of events. Did a lot of us wish to get our photo taken with our uber-talented college player?  You bet they did!  (Gotta stand in line to be in the limelight with Ben!)

Thanks to everyone for braving the icy roads and elements to enjoy our favorite game!  More photos below!

Speaking of January ....

In addition to Jean's wonderful report about June - we have a sectional starting tomorrow, January 23rd. Our first sectional of 2019.

It runs Jan 23-24-25 and is being held in New Brighton.  The details are below.  Please come to enjoy fine bridge and avoid the cold that is coming!

 

ACBL Unit 103

Minnesota Winter       Super Silver Sectional        January 24-26, 2019  New Brighton Community Center         400 10th Street NW      New Brighton, MN 55112 Only 1 more day until the "coolest" sectional around! So brrrrriiinng a friend and we'll see you there! See the attached flyer for details. Tournament Chair:      Larry Huiras         phone: 715-410-8705         email:   bridge.kibitzer@gmail.com  Partnerships:      Patti Huiras         phone: 651-343-2078         email:   patti.huiras@gmail.com   Tournament Director:      Kim Hayward         Sanction #S1901046

 

 

 

 

Minnesota Winter Super Silver Sectional - January 24-26

 

 New Brighton Community Center
        400 10th Street NW
     New Brighton, MN 55112

Only 2 more weeks until the "coolest" sectional around!

So brrrrriiinng a friend and we'll see you there!

See the flyer below for details

 

SPECIAL I/N LUNCH & LEARNS

Learn from experts Mike Flader or Steve Gaynor
in a comfortable environment for only 
$5.00 with a box lunch included. 
Space is limited so sign up early.

Tournament Chair:

 Larry Huiras
        phone: 715-410-8705
        email:   bridge.kibitzer@gmail.com

 Partnerships:

     Patti Huiras
        phone: 651-343-2078
        email:   patti.huiras@gmail.com

  Tournament Director:

     Kim Hayward
        Sanction #S1901046

 

First Place Intermediate/Novice Winners at the State Tournament in Oakdale

 

Congratulations to Theresa and Paul Wurst! The I/N pair tied for 1st place, having won over 5 Masterpoints in Intermediate/Newcomer games at the State Tournament. The three day event was held at the Oak Marsh Golf Club in Oakdale, MN. 

Theresa and Paul plan to compete again next year - perhaps earning back to back wins!

We invite you all to plan to play in these fun games next year, too. 

(Webmaster side bar:  Congrats on your achievement; big and beautiful trophy you have there!)