We apologize for any confusion. An earlier GNYBA email newsletter sent out to the Unit included the incorrect date for Flights A and C for NAPs.
The date has not changed, it is the same Sunday, October 27th that we have mentioned since June. Also, the top 3 pairs in Flight A are invited to represent the District during the Spring NABCs, in addition to the top 4 pairs in Flights B and C.
We updated the latest District 24 NAP Flyer. Don’t worry, all dates on times are the same.
Flights A & C – Oct 27th: 110 East 55th St, 6th Fl, New York, NY 10022
11:00am 1st session / 3:00pm 2nd session
We thank Honors once again for hosting Flight A and Flight C NAPs. This is a District event and therefore you are not able to use your club prepaid credits or player vouchers.
Flight B – Nov 3rd: 354 Lakeville Rd, Great Neck, NY 11020
11:00am 1st session / 3:00pm 2nd session
We are very happy to have BRIDGExpress in Great Neck, NY hosting our Flight B NAPs this year. All players planning to attend the Flight B NAPs, please email glennmartin@bridgexpress.com.
As usual, NAP pays a very generous amount of Masterpoints for a one-day event. First place overall awards for each flight:
Flight A: 32 gold points + $1400/pair travel subsidy
Flight B: 22.50 gold points + $1400/pair travel subsidy
Flight C: 15 half gold / half red + $1400/pair travel subsidy
The 2nd place pair in each flight also receives a slightly lower Masterpoint award and $600/pair in travel subsidies. The 3rd place team in all flights as well as the 4th place team in Flights B and C may represent the district at the Spring NABC but will not receive a subsidy.
If you choose not to attend the national finals in March 2024, you will not be eligible for the travel subsidy but you may still keep the Masterpoints awarded.
To double check whether you and your partner qualified, go to the D24 NAP qualifier list. https://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/play/NAP_Qualifiers/NAP_D24.htm
It’s back! The extremely popular Pro-Am-Am-Am game, which consists of one experienced “pro” captaining a team of three up-and-coming players (the amateurs). The Pro-Am is an amazing introduction to team games in a friendly and social setting. Join the fun on Friday, October 18 at 6pm at Honors: 110 East 55th St, 6th Floor New York.
See the Pro-Am flyer for October 18th, 2024
Each team will consist of three non-Life Master Ams and one Pro or expert player. The teams will play in brackets determined by the Am’s Master Points. Your team remains the same all night, but you switch partners each round. Every member of the team spends 1/3 of the night playing with your Pro as your partner.
Players must register by Oct 8 either as individuals, with a partner, or with 2 other Ams. We may reach capacity so send in your registration as soon as possible. If you want to play with a specific Pro please contact the Pro before you register and include the Pro’s name. Send registration requests or questions to proam@gnyba.org Include Master Point amounts and ACBL player numbers for the Ams if known. Ams do not need to be ACBL members.
Card fees are $40 per Am and must be paid in advance by credit card. After you register, we will send you payment instructions.
We hope to see you!
ACBL at all levels, from management, to the Board of Directors, to the Advisory Council, and various committees have discussed and debated for quite some time now. What should the new requirements be for GNT and NAP stratifications, now that both events have four flights?
The latest decision revises the original motions from the Bridge Committee. Flight C limits will rise from 500 to 750, but still not allow players who achieved Life Master before the season cutoff (usually June 1st for NAP and Sept 1st for GNT).
Here are the latest changes to the National GNT Conditions of Contest.
As a reminder, NAP does NOT change this year, because the motions passed during Summer 2024 NABC, after the current NAP season already began. So for this coming Fall, we still use the old NAP rules with three flights: Open, Flight B (0-2500), and Flight C (NLM 0-500).
Starting next summer with club qualifiers, there will be four flights: Open, Flight A (0-6000), Flight B (0-3000), and Flight C (NLM 0-750).
For this Fall, we have the regularly scheduled 3 flights, with Flights Open and C held at Honors on October 27th, and Flight B held at BRIDGEXpress on November 3rd.
The GNT changes take place immediately, meaning in time for this season. Thankfully, District 24 eliminated the team club qualifiers for GNT many years ago (2020 to be exact), during the final year Amy Rhodes was GNT Coordinator. While some Districts find Flight C qualifiers useful for marketing, in D24, the clubs always have a tricky problem making room in their schedule, in particular for a purely Flight C group. Team games are already hard to organize, and once you add the additional restriction that every player must be 0-750 and a NLM, the interest level plummets.
Therefore, the first time the changes impact us will be February 2025, when the GNT District Finals begin (you just register your team straight into the District Finals). There will be quite a few other scheduling changes based on feedback from last year, so that hopefully the crazy KO phase is less of a chore. Stay tuned!
The ACBL Board passed sweeping changes to the Grand National Teams and North American Pairs grassroots events, leveraging much feedback from multiple groups including the Competitions and Conventions Committee, Advisory Council, and the Bridge Committee. We first reported the NAP 4th flight proposals back in November, but what we didn’t expect was a slew of other changes and tweaks.
There will now be four flights in both NAP and GNT.
Championship Flight: No Masterpoint restriction, Open+ chart
Flight A: 0-6000 Masterpoints, Open Chart
Flight B: 0-3000 Masterpoints, Basic+ Chart
Flight C: 0-750 Masterpoints, Basic+ Chart
Probably the most unfortunate aspect: the changes start in different years. For GNTs, the change starts this season, meaning the most immediate upcoming season. Most District Finals occur in winter 2025 and then the NABC is summer 2025. For NAP, we start NEXT year, with club qualifier starting 2025, District finals in the fall, and NABC in Spring 2026.
So we get one more year of the old NAP, but immediately start the new GNTs. That makes for one confusing transition year. It was simply too late to change the conditions in time for NAP, which already began club qualifiers in June and had national conditions already posted months prior.
Flight C for many years did not allow Life Masters. After much discussion and points from all sides, the decision stands to raise Flight C to the same level as the gold rush, which allows all players with 0-750 Masterpoints, whether or not they are a Life Master.
To be honest, the old Non Life Master restriction was primarily for marketing purposes. There seems to be very little difference in the strength of a random player with 700 Masterpoints who is or is not a Life Master, and to further complicate matters, some people got it under the grandfathered 300 cutoff as opposed to the 500 minimum. But teachers and club managers loved being able to market event that is specifically for newer players who are not yet Life Masters.
On the other hand, it was a logistical hassle for GNT Coordinators and ACBL Directors who need to explain what NLM under 500 or NLM under 750 means on every flyer and piece of marketing. Ultimately, matching the Gold Rush seemed the best compromise.
Interesting question for the Masterpoints Committee: Does Flight C pay full gold now that the limit is 0-750 instead of 0-500, instead of the half gold half red?
There was an inflation adjustment of Flight B from 0-2500 to 0-3000, smaller than the originally proposed 0-3500. And while 500 points doesn’t seem huge, it has the very big impact of keeping Flight B using the Basic+ Chart. That means no systems that open 1C with ambiguous shapes and ranges, no opening 1D when you might not have any diamonds, and no systems that heavily use transfer responses or artificial responses without a game force.
The idea is by next summer, ALL related mid-flight events will match GNT Flight B and rise to 3000. That includes the popular Young Pairs (aka Micro LM Pairs), the Micro Spingold, and the Red Ribbon Pairs. It also means for Spring 2026 NABCs, not only will NAP Flight B be 0-3000, but so will the four days prior (0-2500 Pairs and 0-2500 Swiss upgraded to 0-3000).
Our District and Unit had many solid performances in Toronto! For those who made top 20 in NABC events, you’ll be in the Bridge Bulletin in a few months. Since we don’t have a District GNT photo, we can only offer the D24 NAP Team Photo from Louisville.
There are so many notable District 24 successes from this latest two NABCs. If you finished in the top 20 of a named NABC event, your name will appear in the bridge sometime in the September or October issue. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the one-day regional events, such as the daily Gold Rush, Open Pairs, or Bracketed Team events.
The C&C committee meets soon and influences events and scheduling – they especially want to continue attracting mid-flight players to the NABCs. Send your feedback in the comments or write to any GNYBA officer or board member.
By having Micro Spingold start Wed, we hoped it would boost the Red Ribbon attendance, or vice versa. Looking at the data, Micro-Spingold did get a nice boost, but Red Ribbon was much smaller. It seems Red Ribbon is declining in popularity and could use a marketing boost of sorts. Or maybe better to just move it to begin in the infamous Monday / Tuesday gap right after the Micro-LM pairs?
Top chart was Chicago 2023, bottom was original proposed Toronto.
Both Honors and Bridge Express are holding NAP Qualifier games this week from 6/24 to 6/29.
You play the same game of bridge that you always do, except each game awards significantly more Masterpoints, 50% of which are red pigmented points that count towards Life Master and other ranks. Scoring in the top half of the field will also qualify you to play in the District 24 North American Pairs events on Sunday Oct 27th and Sun Nov 3rd.
Note: NAP Flight C allows non life masters with 0-500 Masterpoints, so the usual 750 games will be limited to 500 this week.
Honors Bridge (Manhattan, 55th near Park Ave)
Monday: Open pairs 1:00pm, 0-500 pairs 6:30pm
Tuesday: Open pairs 1:00pm
Wednesday: Open pairs 1:00pm, Open pairs 6:30pm
Thursday: Open pairs 1:00 PM, 0-500 pairs 6:30pm
Friday: Open pairs 1:00 PM
Saturday: Open pairs 11:00am
Call 917-544-1224 or 212-457-0894
BRIDGExpress (Great Neck,Long Island)
Wednesday: Open pairs 12:30 PM
Thursday: Open pairs 12:30 PM
Call or text Cathy Kirshner (516) 299-6064
or email cathykirshner@bridgexpress.com
Here is the latest flyer for the Winter 2024 NYC Regional, taking place at the Marriott Times Square.
GNYBA Winter 2024 Regional Flyer
With pairs and teams every day, there is something for everyone. The tournament begins on Thursday, Dec 26th 2024 concluding on Sunday, Dec 29th, 2024.
Pre-registration highly recommended as we anticipate greater attendance than our past several years of regionals. We will provide pre-registration instructions in the coming weeks.
10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Two-session Open Stratified Pairs (open/3500/1500)
10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Two-session Gold Rush Pairs (750/300/150)
10 a.m. and TBD. Bracketed Round Robin Teams (Top bracket as Open Swiss when possible)
Fri, 12/27: 10am and 3pm Newcomer Pairs (0-99)
Sun, 12/29: 10am and 3pm Newcomer Pairs (0-99)
Sun 12/29: 10am and TBD: A/X Swiss Teams + 0-2500 Bracketed RR
We have four special newcomer games for players with fewer than 100 Masterpoints. They are morning and afternoon on Friday 12/27 and morning and afternoon on Sunday 12/29.
On the final day, 12/29, instead of the daily bracketed round robin team game, there will be one large open, stratified A/X swiss and a concurrent limited 0-2500 bracketed round robin.
Every three years, our District governing bridge in New York City and Long Island needs to elect the three Advisory Council representatives. Think of the Advisory Council as the House of Representatives. They meet on zoom at least 3 times a year around the same time as the three NABCs and reviews ACBL Board of Director motions, sometimes resulting in modification or reconsideration of such motions.
In practice, serving on this all-volunteer body allows one to learn a lot more about what is going on in the higher levels of ACBL management, and even join a specific committee to give direct input to major decision makers. For example, AC members Jeff Bayone and Silvani Morici were previously on the Teachers & Club Owners Committee. Lee Lin has served on the Masterpoints Committee and observer on the Competitions and Conventions Committee.
One can incept real changes by joining. In the past two years, ACBL modified gold rush events and NAP / GNT Flight C to use the Basic+ Chart instead of the Basic Chart, introduced security tablets for the final stages of high level events, unified ways to account for players with international and non-ACBL playing experience, proposed Masterpoint inflation adjustments to the Flight B/C brackets, and reworked bracketing rules for teams who wish to play up. These ideas all originated from committees containing Advisory Council members.
At the moment, you might even be able to run unopposed! If interested email elections@acbl.org to declare your candidacy – you don’t have to prepare any campaign materials at this time. Also, give your unit officers a heads up (either your Unit 155 or Unit 242 president and VP). You do not need to be on your local Unit board to run, although the Unit board meetings are probably one of the best ways to share info upstream and downstream.
If you are shy about elections, don’t worry. Several of us have been on the AC for quite a number of years and will gladly make room for an eager new volunteer.
Kudos to Kent Mignocchi and Joel Wooldridge who won the prestigious Kay Platinum Pairs Tournament at the 2024 NABC in Louisville. While Joel and Kent are no strangers to winning bridge tournaments, this Platinum Pairs event is considered the premier pairs event for the year and players from all over the world come to compete so it is a strong competitive field of players. It was an important win for the men and just the latest way Joel and Kent have demonstrated excellence in duplicate bridge competition. We congratulate them on this important win!!
In general, bridge players compete for Master Points awarded by ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) but it may interest many bridge players to note that this Platinum Pairs Tournament is not considered a ‘Master Point race’ by these elite players. Joel indicated that, while it isn’t about the points, it does contribute to one category that he cares about and that is “Player of the Year” which is based on how many times a player has done well in National Tournaments in the US that year and how the points have accumulated.
Both Joel and Kent began learning bridge as children and participated in the Juniors Program, sponsored by ACBL. In 1990 Joel, at age 11, became the youngest person to reach the level of Life Master. This record has since been broken but it remains a remarkable achievement. It was in the Juniors Program that Joel and Kent met while representing the United States in international tournaments. ACBL sponsored their travel and supplied them with a coach. As an adult, Joel has served as a mentor in that program.
Joel said that bridge has benefited him in a number of ways – 1) it was a bonding experience with his parents and people his own age, 2) it improved his ability to think logically and to make judgements, 3) it gave him a reason to travel the world, 4) it opened his mind to new ways of thinking, 5) it gave him discipline, 6) it provided him with a passion for something that started as a game and became a career because he is good at both playing and teaching. He plays all the time but continues to love it because, as he says, “it is just that interesting and it can’t exactly be mastered and there is something to be learned from it no matter how long you have played. It is a great game and more people should be playing.”
Clearly, both Joel and Kent have talent. They were also given excellent guidance and opportunity from a very young age so they both already have an impressive list of bridge wins and accomplishments. That said, it is likely they have not yet peaked in their careers and we can expect to see much more of them in the future.
Research continues to show multiple health benefits from playing bridge so it may be helpful to expose more people of all ages. Research coordinated by Samantha Punch at BAMSA (Bridge as Mind-Sport) in Scotland has shown benefits for memory and brain health but, these days, given the prevalence of loneliness (CBS reported 80% of young people report feeling lonely) perhaps the most important health benefit may be that playing bridge decreases the sense of loneliness.
ACBL is a charitable organization which is continually working to support and encourage participation in bridge, including young people. They sponsor and partner with groups that help young people learn the game and compete in bridge games. Both ACBL and The World Bridge Federation sponsor tournaments just for young players. ACBL also sponsors both online and in-person bridge camps for juniors, offers scholarships to college-age players, and partners with groups promoting bridge education to young people. One such group, BridgeWhiz, is a free online beginning bridge program for students (and parents) in grades 4 through 12 and an ‘Improver’ series which is open to 4th through 12th graders who know the basics of bridge or are BridgeWhiz graduates. A free, one-year ACBL Junior Membership will be awarded to anyone completing the series. (Www.BridgeWhiz.org)
Coming up – Youth NABC has youth championships July 25-27, 2024 in Toronto and the games are free to ACBL members 20 years of age and younger. (ACBL.org/ynabc)
The World Youth Bridge Teams Championships occur every two years. The JUSBC (Junior US Bridge Championships) is held in December of the year before to select teams to represent the USA. The 2024 JUSBC will be named after Sam Amer, a NY Bridge professional who, according to Bridge Bulletin “was a beloved member of the bridge community and a former member of the USBF Junior Program. He was known for his incredible kindness toward others and his infectious passion for the game.” Teams sign-up will open mid-2024.
