District 24 Director Report

District 24 Director Newsletter  July 2020

While we are all unhappy that it doesn’t look like there will much face to face bridge for the rest of the year, there is a lot happening in our area and the ACBL. Below I will try to provide some information about: Online Options, 2020 GNTs, 2021 Tournaments, the ACBL board reorganization and some thoughts on the impact of cheating on the game.

ACBL Board Meeting Summary – Board Reorganization

The ACBL board held a full set of meetings last week.

• Most significantly, the motion to reduce the size of the board from 25 to 13 by Jan 1, 2024 was approved. Our district will be paired with District 25 (New England). During the summer of 2021, the unit board of both districts will elect a single Regional Director whose term will start Jan 1, 2022..  
• Other approved motions included a 0-2500 two-day Swiss to go along with the recently approved 0-2500 pair game, and a change to the master point calculations to partially include strength of field.
• The detailed agenda including the reorg motion is HERE. The reorg motion starts on page 30. Item 202-40 is the motion that passed. Minutes will be posted in August. Contact me if you are curious about the fate of any of the motions.
• There were many discussions about the league’s future and online bridge. I am a member of an online task force that will deliver recommendations in August. Contact me if you would like to have some input.

Playing Online Bridge – How do you choose a Game?

Online bridge is thriving. There are multiple types of games and many excellent teachers and clubs making novel use of technologies. If you wish to play in an ACBL-sanctioned game, you have a lot of options that can appear confusing. Here are my personal thoughts:

Virtual Club Games

These are the online games run by our clubs. From a local stand point, these are the preferred games to play in:

• They award the highest amount of master points – usually black, but the points will be Silver the week of July 27-August 2!
• The majority portion of the entry fee goes directly to the clubs.
• You are playing against the same people you played against in the “good old days” – pre- virus.

To find these games: 

• Sign into BBO
• Click “Virtual Clubs” and then “North America”
• You will then see a listing of club games that you are eligible for that start in the next 2 hours (to verify).
• Note that some of the clubs have pooled themselves.  “All for One” and “Alliance” include most of the largest clubs in the district.
• If you do not see your club’s games, contact your club manager.

SYC – Save Your Club Games

These games are run by the ACBL.  Points are black. A portion of the revenue is distributed back to the clubs based on the clubs that players attended in 2019 and early 2020. To find them, click on “ACBL World.”  SYC games are shown with “ACBLSYC” as host.  In addition to scheduled pair games, there are daylong robot games that can be a lot of fun if you are so inclined.

BBO run ACBL Games

The games showing “ACBL” as host are actually run by BBO for its benefit.  They award “pigmentless” masterpoints which do not count for ACBL races, but do count for your total points. They provide some revenue to the ACBL but no revenue for the clubs.

Special Events

In addition to next week’s Silver Lining game, the ACBL plans to run a third online Regional in August.. The ACBL is running a spingold-like North American Online KO this weekend and next weekend. Selected matches will be shown on BBO Viewgraph. Details can be found on ACBL.org or Bridgewinners.com

2021 Regionals

The NSBA and GNYBA are each considering running regionals next Spring. We do not know if a local tournament in April or May will be feasible or well attended. Stay tuned.

2020 GNT

After the well-attended opening rounds, completion of the events through additional matches at the clubs became impossible in March. The NABC GNT in Montreal was cancelled. Our district opted to continue the events through online matches to determine “glory” and master points only. Here is the current status:

Open Flight: Winners: Peter Trenka, Igor Savchenko, Giorgia Botto and Ahmed Soliman
Flight A: Final: Bill Dinner, David Joseph, , Bart Cirker and Dina Schechter vs. Igor Milman, Oleg Rubinchik. Albert Shekhter and Florin Neamtu
Flight B: Final: Norman Trabulus, Charles Bilich, Michale Krevor, Barry Walfish and Robert Kuhnreich vs. Stefano Merlo, Christopher Moh, Jin Hu, Jordan Lampe and Robert Forster
Flight C: Final: Aaron Liebhaber, Adam Siegel, Lee Lin and Frank Dinoff vs. Damon Suden, Anthony Chiocci, Mary Ann Oehlerking and Marla Lawson

NAP

The District 24 pairs that qualified for the NAP NABC final in Columbus, which was not held, are now automatically qualified for the final in St Louis in March 2021 – assuming that event will be held.

Point Races

The Barry Crane, Mini Mckenney’s and Ace of Clubs races are definitely active in 2020, although online play is becoming more important.

• 3 of the top 5 places in the Barry Crane race are currently held by New Yorkers
• You may be surprised at how well you are doing in the District 24 and two unit’s Mini McKenney and Ace of Clubs races. Check these by logging into to “My ACBL” on ACBL.org.

Cheating

Since everyone talks about it now and it is a threat to the game, I will only add: Don’t do it!

• Cheating online or anywhere in bridge defeats the whole point. Most of us play online or face to face because we are competitive and enjoy the game. Cheating could ruin the game for all of us.
• You will get caught. Players are encouraged to report suspicious results. No one will be penalized for achieving a few good results, but results on each board are stored and it’s pretty easy to detect suspicious patterns

Like all of us, I very much look forward to the return of face to face bridge in our area. I admit I have no way of predicting when this will occur.

Thanks,
David Moss
ACBL District 24 Director