New York City is part of ACBL Unit 155, which GNYBA serves. We are also part of ACBL District 24, along with our friends in Long Island (they are Unit 242). Several times a year, our District Director updates the members on things happening within our District and also at ACBL nationwide.
March 2021
It has now been a year since any of us have played face to face bridge – or a lot of other things. The Covid news which we all follow daily seems positive and I feel optimistic that club and tournament play will start by the end of the Summer, if not before. The ACBL is developing standards for the resumption of tournament play. We are looking forward to the Austin NABC.
No plans are finalized, but area regionals this Fall are expected to occur in Danbury and Lancaster. There are a number of districts that are hoping to host their Labor Day regionals this year including Warrick and Atlanta. The ACBL and the districts will provide more guidance in April.
Locally, the GNYBA hopes to run the traditional December tournament at the Hilton December 26-30. Expect a decision this summer. There will not be a Long Island Fall regional.
Below is news from the ACBL and our local units. I have also added some personal stories of bridge success.
ACBL Update
2020 was a good year financially for the ACBL thanks to online play and reduced operational expenses. Net income from operations was over $1 million. Management was able to cancel five NABCs without incurring significant losses from contract penalties.
Membership, which had been falling gradually in recent years due to demographics has dropped significantly in the last 12 months. While many members have enjoyed online play, up to 40% of the membership has not been playing online. Management is implementing plans to bring back members with the return to face-to-face bridge while taking advantage of the interest in bridge that online play has created to market to new members. We all need to work with the clubs, teachers and units to grow the game and the League.
Management will focus on bringing its technology up to date We need to be able to run our operations more efficiently to assist clubs and teachers, manage tournaments and increase online capabilities.
The new alert procedure went into effect Jan 1. A new convention card is being developed. A draft will be posted for comments on Bridge Winners in a few weeks.
Cheating remains a serious issue and a threat to the game. ACBL management and the ethics committees have increased staff to properly and consistently investigate and act on reports. Please continue to report serious allegations using the recorder form: BBO Form.
2021 Grand National Teams
The ACBL will be holding the 2020-2021 GNT as an online event in July as part of the next NAOBC. Our GNT committee is finalizing dates and conditions for the District 24 qualifying event.. Provisional dates at this point depending on flights and entries are:
Initial Rounds Open & B: May 22-23
Initial Rounds A & C June 5-6
Finals All Flights June 13
Specific dates and conditions will be distributed in the next few weeks. Flight eligibility will be as of August 31 2019. Pre-registration will be required. Please direct any questions to our GNT coordinator Lee Lin.
GNYBA Winter Leagues
The GNYBA ran two successful leagues this winter. Thank you to the organizers, Katherine Todd, Lee Lin and Alan Davidson. The leagues attracted local players as well as international and US stars. The NSBA was well represented with Bill Dinner’s team reaching the semi finals of the top bracket in both leagues.See these links for results of League I and League II. The final of the second league was broadcast on Twitch with excellent audio commentary by David Gurvich. See GNYBA.org for articles about the league and some interesting hands. Thank you to all who were involved in setting that up. We hope to run a League 3 or maybe a warm up event for the GNT. Stay tuned.
Elections to ACBL Board and Board of Governors
Last year’s reorganization vote will eventually reduce the size of the ACBL board from 25 to 13 members. As a result District 24 (NYC and Long Island) and District 25 (New England) unit boards will elect one Regional Director to represent both districts beginning January 1, 2022. If you are interested in declaring yourself as a candidate contact Kelley.Trejo@acbl.org by May 31, 2021.
District 24 will also be electing 3 members to the Board of Governors. Please contact Kelley by May 31 if you are interested in running. Contact Kelley or David Moss if you have any questions about any of these positions.
Point Races and Rank Advancement Requirements
The Barry Crane, Mini McKkenney’s and Ace of Clubs races were all active in 2020, as well as in 2021. Congratulations to Gillian Miniter who finished second in the ACBL Barry Crane 500 race in 2020. Check how you did by logging into to “My ACBL” on ACBL.org. Note that points won in Virtual Club games, SYC games and ACBL gold point games all count for these races. “Colorless” points won in the BBO/ hourly ACBL speedball, 18 boards, and robot tournament point games do not count. For rank advancements all points count.
However, if you need “color” points to advance to the next rank only virtual club games, SYC and ACBL online Regionals – as well as of course face- to- face play – count towards the various black red, silver, and gold and platinum point requirements. See Rank Requirements
Rank Changes Stories
We sent out an e-mail to players achieving recent rank changes requesting their bridge stories. See some below. Feel free to submit a story for the next newsletter. Congrats to all!
Shelley Adelman Silver Life Master
Since the pandemic I’ve played on BBO and in online club games. I miss the games at Aces, Honors and the Water Mill Bridge Club. I look forward to playing in person again.
Amy BarashBronze Life Master
Just so happy there is bridge available online through this most difficult time
Kitty Benton Club Master
BBO has been a Godsend for me. I took up Bridge again about 10 years ago, teaching myself with Audrey Grant’s Interactive computer bridge on my iPad, and then progressing to Honors Bridge Club in NYC. Then the Pandemic and quarantine hit. I’m a widow in my mid-eighties, living alone in Manhattan. I’ve had health issues and surgery this year. My children and grandchildren live out of town. I haven’t seen them in a year. As a musician, my greatest pleasure was playing chamber music with friends. That has not been possible, of course. So I am making full use of BBO. I play with several groups, met a very nice lady through the partner desk at a Friday night 99er, and we did really well, coming in 2nd out of 42 pairs yesterday. I’m also really enjoying the graduated difficulty practice hands in the teaching section. Now I’ve signed up for two separate classes with two separate partners. It keeps my mind occupied and keeps me connected with the world.
Ann Block Life Master & Bronze Life Master
I started playing bridge in college and stopped a few years later. For the next forty years, I raised my family, went to law school, ran my matrimonial law practice and painted portraits in oil. In 2012, when I retired, I began playing kitchen bridge in my condo community. After a couple of years , my husband and I started playing in the nuplicate bridge game at Sagamore . My new bridge companions encouraged me to join the ACBL. Alas, I was not grandfathered in and needed 500 points, of which, at least 50 had to be gold, to become a life master. Such a feat seemed unattainable. By 2020, the Life Master status was only a few gold points away. The black points accumulated easily but the last gold took almost a year. My big fear as I neared 750 points, was that I would no longer be eligible to play in Gold Rush. With 745 points and a fraction of gold needed, I entered the ACBL Gold Rush tournament and became a Life Master and Bronze Life Master at the same time. This achievement would not have been possible without my wonderful bridge friends and partners.
Joanne Brumberg Bronze Life Master
I am delighted to reach this next level. Unfortunately, I fear I will never reach the next level given the difficulty of getting gold and silver during this pandemic. Competition with players from all over the world is not the way it was in regionals in the past. I began to play bridge in college socially. I didn’t begin to play duplicate bridge again until I retired in 2005 and even then, not on a regular basis. Although, in those days, life master was so far from my imagination. It wasn’t until the last three years that I had the goal to become a Life Master and even then, I never thought it would happen. Of course, nobody thought we would be faced with a pandemic either. Prior to the pandemic, I played with friends in various LI clubs and tournaments and enjoyed earning gold and red points. During the pandemic, I was playing bridge online almost every day and sometimes twice a day – As I continued to earn points, silver and gold points were still difficult to obtain, basically because tournaments were limited other than the Regional twice a year, unless you traveled. However, when the ACBL began to include online tournaments where you could earn silver points and then two week-ends for gold points – I saw that I may be able to achieve my Life Master, although it was close until the last day of the Virtual Gold Weekend the end of August that I did earn the additional gold point needed. And that’s my story!
Barbara CooperRuby Life Master
I love bridge so much and am so grateful to have this game. I’ve always felt this but now more than ever. My husband taught me when we were first married when all we knew was Goren-4 card majors, strong 2’s, etc. We stopped playing for years when the children were growing upand when we came back everything had changed to 2 over one. All new conventions had to be learned and I became a bridge addict. Even though we are lucky to have online bridge during this pandemic, I hope to be able to come back to the clubs and see all my bridge friends in person again. The people I’ve met at the clubs are like a second family to me.
Dan Eschensay Life Master
Started to play bridge in college (as one would expect in Romania!). After 30 years of zero play, I started to play online and on and off at West 57 evenings. I have been and still am working. Brought back to bridge by a childhood friend that lives in NJ. We could play together only on weekends and by end of 2017 I had over 100 gold points and 70 silver, but less than 30 black. Working during the day and spending time with family on weekends I was able to play only evenings. But chances to find a partner to play evenings in NYC are close to zero. It took me four years to accumulate the balance of black points. I am a mediocre player, but still four years. And the fact is that without Covid and possibility to accumulate black points online would not have advanced
Bonnie Gellas Sapphire Life Master
Bonnie is too modest to write a story but besides her accomplishments at the table, she has contributed massively to bridge, holding many positions with the GNYBA including two stints as President.
Nanci KowalLife Master
I joined ACBL over 50 years ago never thinking I would achieve this milestone. About 7 years ago I began my serious bridge playing at Sagamore Bridge Club. It was like a home that I visited several days a week. My Bridge Buddies became friends and some like family. Some of us even traveled on a bridge cruise together with our spouses. It was not only about bridge, but forming wonderful friendships. Many of my Gold points needed for Life Master were earned on that cruise. Since Covid, BBO has become a way of life for many of us that met at Sagamore.These friends have continued to be the support system needed for me to become a Life master and I thank all of them for being there at this critical time in our lives. My husband has been next to me thru all the ups and downs of almost getting the right amount of points and was GREATLY RELIEVED when I achieved this goal.
Lynne Koeppel Gold Life Master
Mustafa is the key to my success!! He has patiently taught me so much plus what a partner he is.
Zac McClureSectional Master
I grew up playing bridge with my aunt and uncle (Renee and Jim McClure) as a kid. Sixteen months ago I was in Chicago visiting my uncle when a plane ran off the runway at O’Hare and I ended up getting to stay a few more days – just long enough to play in a Wednesday morning silver points tournament in Deerfield, IL. That was my first ever tournament but miraculously we ended up winning first place and got maybe 8 silver points. I was hooked from there. That was also the last and only tournament I’ve ever played in person because of Covid and everything that happened in the past year. My aunt Renee was truly a unique genius and wrote the CBG (Complete Bidding Guide) – a 20 page basic tutorial on how to bid. I mentioned this surprising tournament success to a friend in NYC and he invited me to play at a weekly Sunday gathering held at the house of Gerry Ohrstrom – the “Gramercy Bridge Club”. This was my first time playing bridge in NYC after living there for 10 years. Now, I try to go every week and have become part of a wonderful community of bridge players of a wide range of ages. The CBG was a big hit with the Gramercy Bridge Club. It was really nice to see my aunt’s creation live on after she sadly passed away from ALS back in 2015. My wife is pregnant with our first child and we’re planning to give her the middle name Renee in honor of my brilliant aunt. What a whirlwind; within a year of that first tournament I was a Club Master, and now I am really excited to earn the rank of Sectional Master. And hopefully this is just the beginning! I’ve met so many wonderful new people through my playing in the past years, and spent a lot of quality time with my uncle playing in tournaments. Even my 70-year old father — who is tech averse and proudly only has a flip phone now has his own computer and plays bridge every week with my uncle. Crazy that it was less than a year from when I played my first ever tournament and even learned what the ACBL was to earning Club Master, and now this.
Betty Mintz Silver Life Master
Covid & Robots!
Rosette Scheib Ruby Life Master
I miss seeing you and other bridge colleagues at Aces and other clubs bridge very much. I do hope once this Covid situation is in control that we can have a bridge club in Manhattan. At present time I am only playing online in ACBL Robot Duplicate occasionally, trying to play correct bridge , I do miss the clubs very much.
Seth Shepetin NABC Master
BBO has made it a lot easier for me to play bridge, although I have been playing in-person duplicate tournaments since 1974. My first master points came when I was still in high school, on little slips of paper I picked up a week later, when I came back to the club where results were tallied by hand with a pencil and paper..
Paul Sleven Club Master
My father, now 88 years old, is a Life Master. He taught me bridge when I was a kid, and I played in a lot of duplicate tournaments in the mid-1970’s while I was in high school. By the mid-1980’s, however, I had given up competitive bridge. No time. Since then, I’ve played with my father a few times over the years and that’s it. Meanwhile, bridge has been a major part of my father’s life throughout his retirement. Fast forward to Covid. The lockdown in March quickly closed my father’s local bridge club, depriving him of one of his most important activities in retirement. To ameliorate the loss, I offered to start playing online bridge with him, and since April we’ve been playing every weekend. There was a lot for me to learn. When I was playing back in the 1970’s it was pretty much basic Goren. My father spent a lot of time on the phone with me teaching me the system he plays. It has taken a lot of time for me to internalize that system. For me, resuming competitive bridge after many decades and playing every weekend with my father has been a major silver lining in this Covid horror through which we are all living.
Suzy Salama NABC Master
I earned those points the hard way, drop by drop, with most of the time different partners, worse with weaker partners. As you know a player with extra points would not play with anyone at a lower level. For me, since I started playing duplicate, the fun was gone. But that is also because of the fierce competition among strangers, not friends, and because I was intent on earning those points. Perhaps now with my new rank I will learn to relax and have fun.
Deborah Tormey Sectional Master
I have been working on these points for years. Aren’t the interesting stories the ones that tell of those who meet these goals in record time? Or those who give up everything to progress? I have not given up anything and I do not have a super fast brain to process the material in record time. I do have a love of learning, I have had very good teachers and, well, I am quite persistent. I think everyone is doing a remarkable job of helping those of us who are advancing players find ways to improve and a variety of ways to play.
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Like all of us, I am anxiously awaiting the return of face to face bridge in our area and seeing everyone very soon.
Thanks,
David Moss
ACBL District 24 Director
davidcmoss@aol.com
November 2020
Posted on November 24, 2020 by David Moss
No one has ever accused me of being a glass half full person, but given recent vaccine news, we might be more than half way through our time with no face-to-face bridge. Let’s hope. In the mean time, new options to enjoy the game from home are being rolled out frequently.
Below is news from the ACBL and our local units. I have also added some personal stories of bridge success.
ACBL Board Meeting Summary
The ACBL board held a full set of meetings last week.
Georgia Heth was elected for another year as ACBL president. Usually presidents serve a one year term, but the majority felt that she would provide consistent leadership during this unique period.
North American Pairs – The pairs that qualified in the Fall of 2019 for the 2020 NAP are now qualified for the NAP event to be held in March 2021 in St. Louis, or more likely on line. Amy Rhodes has information for District 24.
GNT – There will be an event next spring to determine qualifiers for the GNT to be held in July 2021. The event will likely be on line. Lee Lin is chair of the committee that is creating conditions.
District 24 is proud that Uday Ivatury was named ACBL Volunteer of the Year for all of his efforts to implement on line club bridge.
Membership numbers continue to decline during the epidemic. Management has put forward an aggressive plan for growth once we hit a normal world. We will create a new marketing face beginning with a new logo. You will see a preview the December bulletin.
2020 ACBL finances were good, but 2021 may depend on the status of hotel contracts for the NABCs.
The board adopted a new cleaner alert procedure. You will see it next year.
New events: BBO is almost ready to roll out Swiss Team scoring which should be a lot of fun for the virtual clubs and units.
The premier NAOBC teams starts this weekend and the pairs next weekend: https://nabc.acbl.org/naobc/
Cheating
Cheating remains the most discussed topic throughout our world. The ACBL needs to balance a harsh stance with due process. Please report incidents from ACBL events that may rise to the level of cheating to the director or the ACBL Recorder using this BBO Form. Discussions are under way with other bridge organizations to help counter cheating.
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. See the July Newsletterfor my take on the options.
There are many special event weeks, as well as gold and silver point events available. Clubs will be offering Swiss and more social events soon. Contact your club. .
DIstrict 24
News Ray Elias will continue to serve as NSBA and District 24 President Adam Parrish will become GNYBA president on Jan 1. Many thanks to Bonnie Gellas who served as president in 2020 after many years as an officer for the GNYBA.
2020 GNT
Our GNT event is finally over. Here are the winners:
Open Flight: Peter Trenka, Igor Savchenko, Giorgia Botto and Ahmed Soliman
Flight A; Igor Milman, Oleg Rubinchik. Albert Shekhter and Florin Neamtu
Flight B: Stefano Merlo, Christopher Moh, Jin Hu, Jordan Lampe and Robert Forster
Flight C: Aaron Liebhaber, Adam Siegel, Lee Lin and Frank Dinoff
See above for 2021 GNT and NAP plans
GNYBA Winter League
Thanks to the efforts of Katherine Todd and Lee Lin 30 teams are currently playing in the GNYBA Winter Teams. There are 5 weekly swiss matches and a KO to determine the winners that starts Dec 7. The event is “just for fun” and very popular.
See results: GNYBA LEAGUE RESULTSWe are planning a second league in January. Contact Lee or Katherine if interested.
Point RacesThe 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 4 places in the Barry Crane race are currently held by GNYBA members Gilllian Miniter, Joe Grue and John Hurd. See RACES
You may be surprised at how well you are doing in the District 24 and two unit’s Mini McKenney Ace of Clubs and on line races. Check these by logging into to “My ACBL” on ACBL.org.
2021
Its obviously too early to predict tournament schedules for 2021, but hold Dec 26-Dec 30 for a possible GNYBA winter regional. The NSBA is developing contingency plans for next Fall.
Rank Changes Stories
We sent out a mail to players achieving recent rank changes to get their stories. See some below. Feel free to submit a story for the next newsletter. Congrats to all!
Peter Schaffer. I played a lot of “fraternity bridge” at Dartmouth College in the late 60s. It was very informal and usually accompanied by a keg of beer! Fast forward to the spring of 1993. I tried to swing a golf club and fell over. My multiple sclerosis had rendered it impossible for me to play golf anymore. Searching about for a way to engage my mind for a few hours a week, I decided to rediscover bridge. A friend who was an excellent player agreed to take me on as his partner in the duplicate game at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk and gave me homework assignments each week. Over the next couple of years, I managed to accumulate 3.65 ACBL master points. Unfortunately, my MS progressed and I lost the ability to physically hold playing cards. Enter COVID-19. Suddenly, I am able to play weekly games online with both the Maidstone Club and the Devon Yacht Club. It’s a godsend for a quadriplegic like myself. (If you are wondering, I use voice recognition software to do my typing!).
Chris Culp – Junior Master- I find the ACBL platform easy to use and active with a population of interesting and generally congenial people from all over the world. Bridge is a fraternity and a good one. I would like to play more duplicate bridge and play with multiple partners. I don’t know if there’s a junction where those like myself can go to find each other. Any guidance would be most appreciated.
Brooke Cohen – Life Master – Bridge started for me about ten years ago. It took a while to get enough courage to play duplicate. I came back slowly and started to take bridge a little more seriously, especially after my daughter left for college in 2016. The ultimate goal of achieving a 500-point count and grasping that Life Master title seemed daunting and a world away, until a little over a year ago. I decided to set a goal for myself: I was going to become a Life Master before the end of 2020.
As I worked towards my goal, I not only gained greater knowledge of the game, but also met more people to play with and had outstanding instruction from some of the best pros in the world. I found myself traveling to Nationals, Regionals and Sectionals to get my pigmented points. I was loving it all! Connecting with so many people who share a common interest was great, I’m happy to say that this day has come, and I met my goal of Life Master a few months early. I know a lot more than I did, but I still have so much more to learn. I’m looking forward to future challenges, and now have my eye on the Bronze!
Barbara DeTurk – Club Master — I am so excited to become a club master! I started playing duplicate bridge in 2013, and found I had a lot to learn compared to our informal family games! Since the pandemic began I have been playing online and find that I am playing more frequently with greater success. I would have to say that online bridge has truly saved my sanity in these difficult times! I look forward to continuing to play with the Smithtown group online and participating in some of the online tournaments.
Ruth Fleishmann – Silver LM – Once I hit the road my bridge game really took off! I enjoyed going to many regionals and nationals ; 5-10 straight days of bridge helps your confidence and your game! I am grateful to my talented coach Mustafa Cem Tokay who is endlessly patient and a great inspiration.
Aileen MacGahan The online club games have enabled me to progress more rapidly than before. I have always played online, however it was difficult to get anything besides online points. The clubs that I attended were about 1 1/2 hours away in NYC, or 45 minutes away when I was on vacation in FL. I started playing in 2016, after retiring, using the ACBL website for learning and BBO for practice.
Bill Neaton – Regional Master -Any success I have in bridge is due to Honors Bridge Club. They offer an excellent curriculum, and their teachers are outstanding.
Steven Petersell – Diamond LM – Much of my recent success has been in the world of online bridge at BBO. More specifically by playing Robot Duplicate. Not many know that last year (2019) I was the Robot Duplicate ACBL Rookie of the Year and also the District 24 Online Player of the Year. This year I am on track to repeat as District 24’s Online Player of the year and I have already surpassed my last year’s total. I am currently making history in this regard while holding on to my place in the Top 10 ACBL 2020 Online Masterpoint winners. I take my representation of our District very seriously because the game of bridge has been a huge and important part of my life these past more than 50 years.
Eva Steiner – Life Master – I started playing when I retired and played as much as I could, taking lessons and playing with pros whenever I had time to improve my skills.
Rica Tarnoff – Gold LM – It’s always exciting to reach a new level. Jacqui Mitchell has been my teacher for over 40 years so a good part of my success is due to her good teaching. I am proud to say that at least 90% of my points I have won at the club level. I would like to add that I hardly played bridge for 21 years as I was working .and have never like playing nights. Aren’t we lucky to have online bridge during these trying times. I think the ACBL has and is doing a wonderful job
Renee Wagenberg – Life Master I began to play bridge in college socially. I didn’t begin to play duplicate bridge again until I retired in 2005 and even then not on a regular basis. Although, in those days, life master was so far from my imagination. It wasn’t until the last three years that I had the goal to become a Life Master and even then I never thought it would happen. Of course, nobody thought we would be faced with a pandemic either. Prior to the pandemic, I played with friends in various LI clubs and tournaments and enjoyed earning gold and red points. During the pandemic, I was playing bridge online almost every day and sometimes twice a day – As I continued to earn points, silver and gold points were still difficult to obtain, basically because tournaments were limited other than the Regional twice a year, unless you traveled. However, when the ACBL began to include online tournaments where you could earn silver points and then two week-ends for gold points – I saw that I may be able to achieve my Life Master, although it was close until the last day of the Virtual Gold Weekend the end of August that I did earn the additional gold point needed. And that’s my story!
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Like all of us, I very much look forward to the return of face to face bridge in our area and seeing you all again.
Thanks,
David Moss
ACBL District 24 Director
davidcmoss@aol.com
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
March 2020
As District Director, I had planned on sending regular updates on the goings on of the ACBL Board and District 24 (New York City and Long Island). Like everything else, the bridge world has been turned upside down by the coronavirus. Both units were set to run Spring regionals with new dates. We have followed government advice and cancelled them. We expect to apply our deposits to the Fall regionals. The Columbus NABC was cancelled.
ACBL Board Meeting Summary The ACBL board was able to hold a full slate of meetings electronically during the NABC time frame. The impact of the coronavirus was first concern. The well being of our players, clubs and employees is the priority. Especially in our district we have a set of large clubs who cannot easily sustain long term closures. ACBL management is working with BBO and others to run “Support Your Club Black Point Games”. Next week clubs expect to hold their own games where you will play against the club regulars. Please check with your club and BBO for more information. This will be a great way for us to stay connected with our fellow club players and provide financial support. Full scale tournaments are also be planned.
GNT and NAP. 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. Lots of details need to be worked out
ACBL Board Size The board did finally agree on a motion to reduce its size. See the actual motion HERE. This will reduce the ACBL board from 25 members to 13. The method used to select the new board is far from ideal, but it will bring the board to a size that is efficient and much more functional.
New NABC Event. Starting next spring there will be a 0-2500 2 day pair event.
Back to Bridge
I know we are all looking forward to a time in the not too distant future when we can get back to life and bridge as usual. Before the virus, the status of bridge in our district simultaneously challenging and promising. The overall challenge is that ACBL members are getting older and fewer in number. Table count at regionals has been falling by a steady 2-4% over recent years.
On the promising side, we have many successful teachers and novice/social programs in the district that are introducing new empty nesters to bridge. We even see a full group of millennials who are drawn to the area for its new economy and are picking up bridge with enthusiasm. A challenge is how to convert these players into ACBL members and tournament attendees.
On Long Island, the NSBA board has a new location for its regionals and is looking at ways to make the tournaments more attractive to its regular club players. In NYC, the GNYBA board has changed the dates of its regionals and added new events. This June for the first time in years, the GNYBA hopes to run an open sectional. Thanks in large part to some energetic younger players, the 2020 GNTs was the best attended in decades. 50 teams competed across the four flights compared to 32 in 2019.
I look forward to future reports of normal bridge activity more focused on our successes at the tables. Stay healthy
Thanks
David Moss
ACBL District 24 Director