Many players know about the bracketed Ace of Clubs, Ace of Virtual Clubs, and Mini-McKenney races. Every year, 15 players in each Unit and each District win their bracketed “Mini-McKenney” award, starting low with the 0-5 bracket, 5-20 bracket, 20-50, etc. based on how many points you have in the beginning of the year.
Has anyone ever stopped to think, if this is the Mini-McKenney, then what is the McKenney (the non-mini version)?
Barry Crane Top 500 Record: Joe Grue (Year 2018)
The main race for number of total Masterpoints won in a calendar year used to be called, “The McKenney” race, later renamed the Barry Crane Top 500 Race.
Anyway, GNYBA member Joe Grue is the current record holder for the Barry Crane Top 500, breaking the record in 2018 with a staggering 3676.40 points (for comparison, the 2017 winner Chris Compton scored 2746.50 points and the 2019 winner Mark Itabashi scored 2607.46 points). As with all McKenney style races, the total includes all pigmented points, from platinum down to black, including online black from virtual club games, but the total does NOT include the colorless online points from non-virtual club events*.
Record Broken This Year at GNYBA Regional?
Jiang Gu is a local New Jersey expert who as of November 2024 earned 3426.84 points YTD! That excludes his strong showings in the recent Vegas NABC plus the Palm Springs and Boca Raton regionals. Either way, there is a very good chance he will exceed the 250 points required to break Joe Grue’s 2018 record and set the new annual high water mark. And it all comes down to the GNYBA Regional held in Times Square this December 26 to December 29, where Jiang will play with partner Glenn Robbins in the daily Open Pairs.
Stop by any day during the Regional to root them on. Whether you win or lose against them, or avoid them entirely by playing in the Gold Rush or Brackted Teams, you can witness history in the making next week.
Don’t be too sad for the prior record holder. Joe Grue has made bridge history plenty of times beyond the Barry Crane Top 500. The two of them caught up on friendly terms during the Vegas NABC.
—-
*For the purists, yes, the total also includes the online gold and red from the Online Individual NABC, online gold from the NAOBC, and online pigments on special silver linings and stardust weeks, most of which did not exist in 2018. However, the sum of all of the online events are small compared to the awards received at old fashioned face-to-face tournaments.