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02/02/12 |
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Don joined the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) on October 23, 1992. He only won a few points each year as he played almost entirely in Club games the first five years. The first year he won more than 100 points was in 1997. Don became an ACBL Life Master in March 1998. This milestone was achieved playing with Mary in Reno for two days after skiing in Tahoe .Here are our teammates from Prince George, British Columbia. They helped him pick up the 0.15 gold points he needed.
Although an excellent player, Mary does not share Don's addiction to the game. Don reached 500 master points two years later and became a Bronze Life Master in September 1999 in Whitehall, NY playing with Ray Johnson. He had a great start in January 2000, winning almost 50 points. In Orlando in January 2000 he reluctantly played in one KO with an 80 plus year old Anna Kuhns and our win made her a Life Master.
Don won as many points in 2000 as in 1998 & 1999 combined. 2001 started slowly, but the 50 points in May in Ottawa was great. He became a Silver Life Master when he reached 1000 total points in March 2002 playing with Julie Van Stone. That year he won 50 points in April in Ft Lauderdale, 35 points in June in Saratoga, and 30 points in July in Montreal. Don played fewer tournaments in 2003, with his best result in October in Kingston, ON winning 34 points. In 2004 he won 58 points in February in Reno, 27 points in March in Miami, 34 points in May in Kingston, and 56 points in November in Orlando. His best results in 2005 were in April in Orlando and in October in Ottawa where he won 31 and 32 points respectively. In July 2006 at the Chicago NABC Don played with two partners: Scott Hiller and Audrey O Connor to win 43 points. Here is a winning Knockout Team of Tom Doyle, Ed Lewis, Don, and Scott Hiller.
In August 2006 in Montreal he won 21 points playing with Barb Hastings and Paul Lord. In early October 2006, there was a Regional Tournament in Naples, Florida. Don played with 8 different partners, 6 of which he had never played with, earning over 30 points. In playing in a Knock Out event with Greg Goggin and helped Greg get the points Greg needed to become a Life Master.
In mid October 2006 he played in Danbury, CT winning only 16 points. Don started well in January 2007, winning 39 points in Orlando. In April he went to the tournament in Gatlinburg for the first time (instead of Fort Lauderdale), and collected 83 points. The June issue of Table Talk, a publication of the Vermont Bridge Association, included an article about Don.
Don won over 85 points and became a Gold Life Master playing with Eddie Katten at the National Tournament in Nashville in July 2007. In August, Cathy Chell and Don won 42 points in Montreal. Then in September 2007 he picked up 65 points in Naples, FL playing with Steve Wallis, an excellent young player from Tampa. Don played with Eddie Katten the last seven days of the National Tournament after Thanksgiving in San Francisco. Only picked up 33 points...most by winning a Knockout. Here is our team:
In January 2008, picked up 35 points in Orlando in the five days he was there. Don roomed with Scott and played with Steve and Cathy. Here is Don and various teammates:
In April 2008, he won 37 points with Mike Patel, Ed Katten, and Sam Atabaki in Gatlinburg where he also had dinner with Lars Moquist a fantastic bridge player and disk jockey from Sweden.
Don played eighteen days in April and was the top master point winner with over 19 points. The article below was written about Don. Don had an OK tournament in Saratoga Springs, NY in May 2008 winning 25 points with Don Robertson. We also played together in a five day tournament in Sturbridge, MA in June and picked up 18 points. In August Don went to Las Vegas for a National Tournament. He played a lot of team games with his roommate Ed Katten. Carl Gueli and his wife Lydia Betz were the other teammates and Don won 67 points. He played with Cathy Chell in Montreal for 5 days in August and picked up 22 points. Skipped the tournament in Naples in September, as Mary was recovering from a heart attack. Don did attend the first week of the National tournament in Boston before Thanksgiving. A poor result, winning only 19 points. January 2009 started poorly with only 19 points won in Orlando. No better in March in Houston with 24 points. The best part was meeting Wanda King, a blues singer from Big D, in The House of Blues. Upon returning to Naples, had dinner with part of our team: Scott Hiller, my roommate and Lynne Cook and her husband Jim. On April 2, 2009 there was a luncheon at the Naples Bridge Center followed by a game to help celebrate Mary Mason 's 98th birthday. Here she is with Walt Steffen. Don went to Montreal in August 2009 for 4.5 days and played with Cathy Chell from Ottawa. Sam Tekbas and Suzanne Kingsley were our teammates for the first KO. We came in second. Suzanne only needed 11 Gold points to become a Life Master and we won over 13. Second place was our best result. Suzanne was not available and a substitute with a lot of points caused us to play in the top bracket in the next two KOs. We had our heads handed to us and only won 17 points for the few days we were there.
In late September 2009 Don went to a Regional tournament in Naples, FL and played on a four man team consisting of Steve Wallis, Scott Hiller, Adam Kaplan (a 13 year old wizard*), and Don. We messed up a few events but picked up over 56 points, and were in the top 3% of over 1000 players. We came in 4th in the Open Swiss on Sunday, losing only one match, and that by only one International Match Point. Our team had about 8,500 master points and some professional teams had over 100,000 master points. *Adam became the youngest Life Master ever in 2006 at age 10 years and 43 days. His record was broken this year by Richard Jeng, age 9 years, 6 months, and 12 days. See http://www.clairebridge.com/textes/the_prodigy.pdf In January 2010 played in the Orlando Regional. Our team had almost 11,000 points but we were in the bottom of the second Knock Out bracket and lost a number of times in the first round against teams with 20,000 points. Still picked up about 22 points. In March, Don went to the National in Reno and had a poor tournament, picking up only 25 points. On April 2, 2010 the Grande Dame of the Naples Bridge Center celebrated her 99th birthday. Here is a picture with the party organizer, Joyce Makely plus a few more with Charmaine Powers, Dorothy Coakely, Jeanne McCarthy, Dora Carlson, and with Walt Steffen & Betty Searle. And here she is one year ago, in 2009, with Walt Steffen. Don went to the terrific regional in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the third time.. Although he never lost a first round KO, he only got past the second round twice. Still managed to pick up 33 points. On April 28, 2010 we flew home to Vermont where Don started experiencing withdrawal pains, and may try Cow Chip Bingo. The last time Don played in Kingston, Ontario was in 2006. But, in May 2010 he won over 38 points in that lovely city, playing part time with Cathy Chell (below), winning two KO's. Bill was the leader at Kingston with 84.3 master points. Cathy and Peter tied for second, winning 63.04 master points.
Don went to Nashua NH for 2.5 days before Labor Day and picked up 10 points. He played with Paula Mann, an excellent player. We had a 69% and a 55% to win the Wed-Thurs Side game Series. We lost the Regular KO and the Compact KO we entered but played well in the tough top bracket. We were second in a one session Swiss, and won all four of our matches. In Naples, in September 2010, Don played with four different partners: Greg Goggin, Calvin Cobb, Phil Yorston, & Brenda Jaffe. Had a fair tournament picking up over 24 points. Started 2011 in Orlando winning only 17 points. Could only get to two semifinals in the KOs and lost both.
In April 2011 went to the Gatlinburg Regional and played with Eddie Katten in the morning KO's and 6 other pickup partners on pick up teams in the other events. The only KO Don got past the second round was with Eddie, and received only 25 master points. Did not play bridge the next 5 months. Went to the Naples Regional in October and only picked up 19 plus points. 2011 is probably the beginning of fewer and fewer bridge tournaments. MASTER POINTS WON
Mini-McKenney Awards are made by the ACBL each year for various master point levels for the highest number of master points won in each Unit. Don is in Unit 175, a small Unit comprising all of Vermont. The results are no longer available prior to 2002. Don won the award as a Bronze Life Master in 2002. As a Silver Life Master, he: was second by 9 points in 2003, won in 2004, was second in 2005, was fourth in 2006, and won in 2007. However, with Don & Mary's heart attacks, Don has played fewer tournaments. As a Gold Life Master, he finished third in 2008, 6th in 2009, a distant 4th in 2010, and even 5th in 2011. For early background see Actuaries and The Rule of Eleven and Crossing The Finish Line. See info on Conventions at: http://www.pattayabridge.com/convindex.htm BRIDGE HANDS How many bridge hands are possible? The number of bridge hands that can be dealt to one player is 635,013,559,600, only 635 billion. 52! The number of bridge deals that can be dealt to four players is 53,644,737,765,488,792,839,237,440,000 or 53 octillion* 52! *A million is 106 , a billion is 109, a trillion is 1012 , an octillion is 1015 which is a million billion. 13 The next number in the sequence 345 is 1. The next number in the sequence 543 is 1. The next number in the sequence 222 is 7. The next number in the sequence 123 is 7. The next number in the sequence 333 is 4. These are all bridge hand distributions. High Card Points in your hand:
Trump Splits:
Hand Distributions:
All other combinations are less than 1% BRIDGE HUMOR Alan Truscott Bridge is essentially a social game, but unfortunately it attracts a substantial number of antisocial people. Alfred Sheinwold Since the average person's small supply of politeness must last him all his life, he can't afford to waste it on bridge partners. Alfred Sheinwold A player who can't defend accurately should try to be declarer. Alfred Sheinwold Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself. Paul Soloway If 3NT is a viable option, then bid it. Alan Sontag It is not the handling of difficult hands that makes the winning player. There aren't enough of them. It is the ability to avoid messing up the easy ones. We had a partnership misunderstanding. My partner assumed I knew what I was doing. We play forcing hesitations. A "weak response" is a pass after a forcing bid. Every day you play worse and worse but today you are playing like it's tomorrow. Q: How should I have played that hand? Bridge is a great comfort in your old age. It also helps you get there faster. In bridge, one gets use to abuse. It's waiting for it that is so trying. A frustrated bridge player said to his partner: "You may not be the worst player in the world, .... but if that person should die...." A bridge teacher explaining duplicate bridge protocol tells a lady to make her opening lead face down. The lady promptly puts her head on the table and leads a card face up. Patrick Jourdain, a famous bridge player-teacher from Wales is called over to a table at one of his classes where a hand has just passed out, but 4th hand had 17 high card points. "So why did you pass?" asks Patrick. "Because you told us after three passes the bidding is over, so I had to pass." Patrick is called over to a table in a beginners class and a lady tells him that she has opened 1H and there have been three passes back to her so she bid 2H. There were three more passes back to her, and she wants to know if her hand is worth bidding 3H. A woman led a card and her partner said ALERT. I asked what the alert was for. She said: my partner is leading a singleton as she led it with her left hand. I replied that was illegal. She said: but it is on our convention card! A lady was playing bridge very slowly. The Director asked her to speed up her play.. She said: "I'm sorry, but I can't think and play bridge at the same time." Helen Sobel was asked how it feels to be playing with an expert (She always played with Charles Goren) said: "Ask Charlie". John Crawford playing with a beginner for huge stakes. Partner leads the Spade King and Crawford has the 1098. He doesn't want partner to continue, but knows if he plays the 8 he will. So Crawford drops the Spade 8 on the floor and is slow about picking it up. His partner asks what card is it? "Oh, just a low spade" says Crawford. Partner shifts suits. Here is a sure fire way to find the Q from AJ9 of spades (on the board) and K108 in your hand. Lead the J from the board and hope it is covered. If it is not, play a heart from your hand. If your left hand opponent plays the Q, say oops, pick up the heart, and play the K. If your left hand opponent does not play the Q, say oops, pick up the heart, and play the 8. David Bruce was on lead against a grand slam in a suit contract holding two aces and he knew the dummy had to be void in one of those suits. The dummy was Ozzie Jacoby, who always left the table the moment a card was led. David Bruce decided to lead his gum wrapper. When Jacoby saw something hit the table he put this dummy down and David Bruce saw which ace would cash. A bridge player, who never led away from a king, died. He finds himself in a bridge game. He is on lead against 4S holding: Kx, Kxx, Kxxx, Kxxx. Right then and there he knew where he was. The champion in a local bridge club died. His effects were auctioned off. A young player had noticed the champion occasionally referred to a little red book. The youngster bought it. He went home, built a fire, made a martini, sat down by the fire, and started to read the book. Yet, page after page was blank. In the middle of the book he found the only entry: Consider Passing. A Doubleton is 4,000 pounds. Yes, a Singleton is 2000 pounds. Why did you not understand my lead partner? Everyone knows that a singleton is the top of nothing! I know no one whom I would rather see in charge of the dummy. If I did everything right, I wouldn't be playing with you. Q: What do you call an eight card suit? A: Trump! Student has xxx in her hand and AQJ in dummy. Student leads low and puts in the jack which holds. Student plays the ace next. Teacher asks her why she didn't return to her hand and take the finesse again. Student replies: "You told us that only one of two finesses work." Bridge partners are like parking spots. The good ones are taken and the available ones are handicapped. Bridge is all about making mistakes and learning from them. I have a partner who got half of it right. Sex is similar to bridge: If you don't have a good partner you better have a good hand. Q: What types of partners do women love the best? A: Those that use a Strong Club with Precision. Q: What method do you use in Hand Evaluation? A: Standard and Poor. Our first discard is Odd/Even. Please explain. Odd is like 3, 5, or 9. Even is like 4, or 8. A woman was the Declarer in 3NT and had 5 clubs in her hand and 5 on the Board. She got a club lead and won the trick on the Board and discarded from her hand. She played all the clubs from the Board and kept discarding from her hand. She then played a diamond from the Board to the ace in her hand and then started playing clubs from her hand. Her left hand opponent said: Here they come again! A bridge expert died and went to Heaven. St Peter met her and started to show the woman around. She said: this is lovely but where do they play bridge? St Peter replied: in the other place but I can only provide one round trip ticket during eternity. The woman decided she wanted it immediately. Upon arriving in Hell, Satan greeted her. She said she wanted to go into the room where they were playing bridge. Satan said: It is $3, you have to give the Devil his due! Not having $3 she went away but returned 10 minutes later with $3. When Satan asked where she got $3, she said: I sold my return ticket! A married couple are not speaking to each other after a horrible game and are driving home from a distant bridge tournament. They pass by a field where there are many donkeys. The husband breaks the silence by asking the wife: "Relatives of yours"? "Yes" she says, "In-laws". A young couple met at the Partnership Desk and played in a two session event and won. They went up to his hotel room to have a drink and to celebrate. After a few drinks followed by some kissing, the gal unzipped the guy's fly. He said: alert! She said: what is the alert? His reply: Could be short! A guy plays bridge with a gal regularly, but not much is happening romantically. Finally, she puts him in this God-awful slam and says: "If you make this contract, I'll sleep with you. "He tries his hardest, but trumps didn't break and a couple of finesses don't work and he winds up going down three! She says: That's close enough! Joe to Sam on Monday: When I get a headache from playing bridge, I put my head on my wife's bosom, and the headache goes away. Sam to Joe on Wednesday: My headache from Monday is gone. By the way, you have a terrific house! A man went to see the doctor for his annual physical. The doctor asked: why do you have such terrible bruises on your shins. The man replied: I just took up duplicate bridge! Q: Why did you lead the 9 from K9752? A: I lead fourth best. Q: Shouldn't you count from the left? There is a web site where you can get information from the computer at
your IQ level. I entered 180 and the computer spewed out data on black
holes, quarks, etc. I then entered 98 and received stats on world
series, batting averages, etc. I then entered 25. The computer
said: one heart, double, redouble. The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning. It does not stop until you sit down at the bridge table.
Sue: Do you play MUD? Sue: 1 NT Opponent: After silence from her left said: what is 1 NT? Blonde: 90 Sue: Why did you lead the 8 from a 98 doubleton? Blonde: My bridge teacher taught me "eight ever, nine never!" Sue: Last week you led your singleton 8 in the suit I bid, but today you did not lead your singleton 9. Blonde: My bridge teacher taught me "eight ever, nine never!" The champion of a local bridge club died. His property was auctioned off. A young player had noted that occasionally the old expert took a small red book out of his pocket and referred to it between bridge hands. The young man bought the book for $25, went home, built a fire , made a martini, sat down by the fire and started reading the book. Page after page was blank. In the middle of the book were two words: consider passing! A lady called the Director and said a card was missing from her bidding box. She had a red card that said DBL on it but the red card that had XXX on it was missing. The Director said they both mean double. The lady said no, I use DBL for Take Out Double and XXX for Penalty Double . A man was playing bridge with his father, who had not played bridge in years. On the first hand the father was the dealer and said: Pass. His son said: Dad, you have to use the bidding box. His father picked up the box and whispered into the box: Pass. In leading against a slam, my partner said to lead the closest card to the setting trick. So I led the Q from AQ.
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This site was last updated 02/02/12
