Lots of good NABC updates, but first, there remains only the end of August to qualify for the NAPs. Here is the link to see if you are qualified for NAP in District 24:
For the remaining club qualifier dates, we are trying to do our best to post it on gnyba.org/nap. If you are a club manager and plan to run more qualifier games, let us know.
Yesterday was a super close match for Team Miniter in the GNT Championship Flight, with the final score 129 to 126, a 3-IMP victory after 56 long boards (who says overtricks don’t matter?). That’s after coming from behind 83 to 90 af the end of the 3rd quarter.
On the GNT Flight C side, Team Li also in the final KO. Their opponents withdrew and conceded defeat after the first half of the day, trailing by over 80 IMPs. Music Li’s team kicked off the first quarter with a 63 to 9 lead, then widened it to 115 to 31 by the half.
Many New York City pairs continue to advance to the finals of their Life Master Pairs event! Today we have:
Jared Lilienstein Michael Polowan
Simon Hult and Margie Cole
Aaron Silverstein and David Moss
Michael Bodell and Aaron Mayerson
Adam Wildavsky and Ron Gerard
Bruce LM Pairs 0-6000 Qualifiers
Michael Krevor and Charles Bilich
Mark Blanchard and Amy Rhodes
Young Pairs 0-3000 Qualifiers
Ivan Smirnov and Francis Gupta
Lee Lin and Alan Davidson
Joshua Allen and Komal Kamat
Elizabeth Greenfield and Aviv Shahaf
Gloria Tamlyn and Ralph Tamlyn
Susan Davison and Daniel Lev
Camilla Schiaffino and Zain Mahmood
We have a strong start to the Life Master Pairs. But first, congrats to Lori Rosen and Stephanie Chamberlain for winning the Deb Klinger Gold Rush Pairs, held today, Friday July 25, 2025.
Good luck to the many New York City pairs advancing to the semi-final round of the Life Master Pairs.
Jared Lilienstein Michael Polowan (5th on leaderboard)
Allen Kahn and Jeffrey Rothstein
Kathrine Bertheau and Jacqueline Chang
Simon Hult and Margie Cole
Aaron Silverstein and David Moss
Jordan Lampe and Christopher Moh
Michael Bodell and Aaron Mayerson
Rodrigo Garcia Da Rosa and Linda Einhorn-Ihde
David Gurvich and Michael Lipkin
Adam Wildavsky and Ron Gerard
Stephannie Culbertson and John Fout
Bruce LM Pairs 0-6000 Qualifiers
Michael Krevor and Charles Bilich
Mark Blanchard and Amy Rhodes
Benjamin Levine and Nicole Hudak
Young Pairs 0-3000 Qualifiers
Camilla Schiaffino and Zain Mahmood
Lee Lin and Alan Davidson
Joshua Allen and Komal Kamat
Elizabeth Greenfield and Aviv Shahaf
Gloria Tamlyn and Ralph Tamlyn
Susan Davison and Daniel Lev
*Note, if anyone is missing from the list please let us know. The above is not meant to be exhaustive. These are folks who we’ve seen around the club and tournament scene in U155
The Championship Flight and Flight C teams have advanced to the Round of 8 quarterfinals in the Grand National Teams. Congrats to Gillian Miniter, Joe Grue, John Hurd, Iulian Rotaru, and Joel Wooldridge in the open flight and to Music Li, Yuchen Xu, Hengrui Xing, and Yang Xu representing 0-750 NLMs in New York City and Long Island.
For the rest of us, the Life Master Pairs begins today, and alongside it, the mini-LM Pairs for 0-6000 and the micro-LM Pairs, aka the Young Pairs, for 0-3000 players. These are the only 6-session events all year long for 0-3000 players. Red Ribbon and NAP Flight C are all 0-3000 but last only two days (for the 0-6000, the mini-blue ribbon pairs are also 3 days).
So far so good, District 24 has teams advancing to the KO phase of all four flights of GNT.
Team Miniter in the Championship Flight is in 7th seed.
Team Byrnes in Flight A begins in the 10th seed spot.
Team Davidson in Flight B has the 8th seed position.
Team Li in Flight C made a dramatic comeback, reaching 4th seed with solid back to back wins toward the middle and second half of the day.
Good luck to all teams!
Today kicked off the national finals of the Grand National Teams. ACBL Executive Director Bronia Jenkins took the New York City and Long Island team photo below.
This year ACBL made a much appreciated improvement — the first day qualifying Swiss uses pre-duplicated boards with hand records, as well as BridgeMates for scoring. There is also a live scoreboard adding to the suspense for any spectators, but decreasing the suspense because you no longer need to do the comparing scores ritual (“push”, “lose 8”, “win 1”).
Everyone in the room is playing the same boards more of less at the same time, so even the Flight B and C players can ask their championship players how they handled each hand during the water cooler or bar post mortems.
Here are the hand records from the first 4 rounds. Also ACBL Live results
This year, representing Unit 155’s Greater New York Bridge Association and Unit 242’s Nassau Suffolk Bridge Association at the Philadelphia North American Bridge Championships:
Championship Flight
Gillian Miniter
Joe Grue
John Hurd (not pictured)
Joel Wooldridge (not pictured)
Iulian Rotaru
Flight A
Joseph Byrnes
Monique France
Dina Schechter
Charles Bilich
Michael Krevor
Flight B1
Andrew Jeanguenat
Matthew Gordon
Jack Latta
Maya Jonas-Silver
Lee Lin
Alan Davidson
Flight B2
Vladimir Kolbun
Amit Duvshani
William Sigward
Nancy Marshall
Flight C1
Music Li
Yuchen Xu
Hengrui Xing
Yang Xu
Flight C2
Sam Bellows
Ellie Gossage
Michael Zhao
Cooper Pierce
Unfortunately, Norman Trabulus was unable to attend the national finals, despite captaining both the winning Flight A and Flight B teams in Distrct 24 this year.
Here is the Edison July 2025 Tournament Flyer
For those planning to attend the Philly NABC, or just those in need of silver points, the Edison sectional is yet another good opportunity to play 2 sessions a day within easy driving distance from NYC. Perhaps your team can use it as your last chance to practice before the GNTs and Spingold! Or play pairs Friday and Saturday to work out some kinks before the Life Master Pairs and Red Ribbon Pairs.
One new change, recognizing that almost all players opt for both the morning and afternoon sessions, and also realizing everyone wants to get home earlier (New Yorkers in particular), the afternoon session begins earlier. The sessions are on a 10am and 2:15pm schedule, shortening the lunch break even more than usual. The good news, they are still offering the subsidized $1.00 slice of pizza and other various lunch offerings. Who knows, there might even be a new surprise…
This Weeks’ Regional at ASTORIA Manor: Come play Thursday through Monday
Subway changes Late Night Thursday and Friday, and all Weekend — Here is how to get Astoria Saturday Sunday and Monday:
Late night Thursday and Friday (after 11:45pm) and all weekend (Saturday, Sunday & Monday) the N and W trains will not be running across the East River.
You can still get there from Manhattan via the subway. Take the 7 train from Manhattan to Queensboro Plaza (first Queens stop) and change to the N, which will operate north from there to Astoria Boulevard. Returning to Manhattan, change from the N to the 7 at Queensboro Plaza.
You can also get there via public transit on the M60-SBS+Select Bus towards LaGuardia Airport. You can board the bus along 125th Street, easily accessible by the A/C, 2/3, or 4/5 subways, and get off at the Hoyt Ave South/31 St. stop, which is very near the N train Astoria Boulevard stop.
See you there!
Link to our May 2025 Regional Tournament Flyer
Daily Events
Open Stratified Pairs (open/3500/1500) (10am and 2:30pm)
Gold Rush Pairs (750/300/150) (10am and 2:30pm)
Bracketed Round Robin Teams (10am and TBD)
While we have not yet received our official sanctions, the District NAP Committee navigated a very packed October and November schedule to plan suitable dates for the District NAP finals held about 6 months from now. We also have major changes planned, some at the national level and others specific to New York City and Long Island. Our goal is to keep what worked last year, embrace the new NAP changes, and experiment with a new split-site format for our Flight B players.
Open Flight: Sunday, Oct 5th, 10am at Honors
Flight A: Sunday, Nov 2nd, 10am at Honors
Flight B: Sunday, Oct 26th, 11am at both BRIDGExpress and Honors
Flight C: Sunday, Nov 2nd, 10am at Honors
The big change this year is the 4th flight. To mirror GNT flights, players with 0-6000 Masterpoints will play in Flight A, while the old Flight A will now be called the Open or Championship Flight. All flights send the top 3 pairs to the NABCs to represent the District, as opposed to the old method of Open Flight sending 3 pairs and Flights B and C sending 4 each. Do the math and it really means we are sending 12 pairs, up from 11 pairs, with many more pairs coming from the Mid-Flight and post Mid-Flight range (750-6000).
We recognize that our District has a unique problem: even though we are geographically quite small, moving the hosting location by 10 miles can mean adding an hour or more to the commute. While navigating tunnels, rivers, and train lines is part of the NY experience, it’s not ideal for tournament attendance.
Edit: Unfortunately, our search to find hosting venues continue. We were unable to find a Long Island club able and willing to host our NAPs.
For as long as any of us can remember, the GNT and NAP start times have been 11am. We always heard vague explanations that the later time helps the people commuting from Long Island, or that maybe the hosting clubs or directors need the extra time. However, it seems everyone prefers the event end earlier — players, director, and club. Therefore, we are moving the event to begin at 10am, just like every other major two-session bridge event in ACBL. That should also mean a more reasonable lunch time with everyone finishing before 6pm.
This year the Masterpoint cutoffs are identical to GNTs. Open is unlimiteed, A is 0-6000, B is 0-3000, and C is NLM 0-750. However, you still need to do NAP club qualifiers during June, July, and August as usual. Various clubs in D24 will announce their club qualfiier dates, or you can try to qualify with an online club game. Also, for folks right on the borderline between two flights, the NAP cutoff for Masterpoint qualification is based on your June Bridge Bulletin each year while GNT is the September Bridge Bulletin.
Link to our May 2025 Regional Tournament Flyer
Open Stratified Pairs (open/3500/1500) (10am and 2:30pm)
Gold Rush Pairs (750/300/150) (10am and 2:30pm)
Bracketed Round Robin Teams (10am and TBD)
Goldman Pairs:
Sat May 24th Qualifier Day (10am and 2:30pm)
Sun May 25th Finals (10am and 2:30pm)
Newcomer Pairs (all players 0-100 Masterpoints):
Thu May 22nd: Morning Game: 10am / Afternoon Game: 2:30pm
Sat May 24th: Morning Game: 10am / Afternoon Game: 2:30pm
Newcomer Pairs may play just morning, just afternoon, or both
