Greater St. Louis Bridge News

News from Greater St. Louis Unit 143

Editor:  Sheryl Finkenstadt, St. Louis MO   sheryl@finkenstadt.com

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Do you suppose this explains why some messed up auctions still let you find a good contract?

St Louis Team Wins NABC Title for District 8

The team of Thomas O'Reilly-Pol, Debbie Romero, Jonathan Goldberg and Sandy Bigg posted a 200-124 win in the final match to claim the Grand National Teams Flight C National Championship with IMPs to spare. Congratulations!!

Metropolis Regional: Unit 143 members who placed 1st – either in their brackets or flights.

Mon/Tue KO Bracket 3 (16 Tables)
   Ann Ruwitch & Gayle McLean, St Louis Moplayed with Julie Pehlke - Maria Restuccia, Ann Arbor MI

Tue/Wed KO Bracket 1 (9 Tables)
   Roger Lord, Richard Riezman, Jacqueline Sincoff, Eunice Garrison

Thursday Choice Pairs (13.0 Tables)
   Flight C: Helene Siegfried & Gretchen Smith

Friday Afternoon Side Pairs (8.0 Tables)
   Flights B & C: Dennis Spencer & Carol Hamilton

Brkt I Sat Compact KO (6 Tables)
   Glafkos Galanos - Judith Eaton, Carbondale IL; Susan Perez, Maryland Hts MO; Dalton Darnell, Murray KY

Saturday Choice Pairs (9.0 Tables)
   Flight B: David Shanahan & Carol Warner

Sunday Swiss Teams (22 Tables)
  Flight B: George Marvin, Maryland Hts MO; Yonsey Karasek, Hayward WI; Elizabeth Moore - David Toth, Glasgow KY

Club Corner

Lake St. Louis Duplicate Club -- Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm, current fee $5

Janet & Mike Vontz (left) have developed a winning combination. She runs a weekly evening stratified open game, with strat breaks at 50 MPs for B and 200 for A. She thinks this levels the playing field, as the Unit 143 demographics show almost half the Unit membership to have under 50 MP, and less than 1/3 to have more than 200. She has been baking cookies for the club for over 10 years.

Janet sends out a weekly email to her members with thanks to various players who bring goodies to share. And in her emails, she not only appends the weekly game results, she highlights a few of the more interesting hands. Some emails are more interesting than others, of course. This is part of a recent email:

“It was as if we made a trip back into time when we had fire drills in elementary school. The fire alarms went off in the middle of a hand. Gilda took her cards with her. All the ladies grabbed their handbags. Mike grabbed the computer. I hoped the sprinkler system would not activate. Joan stood up and said we needed to exit the building, and we did just that. Everybody got an "A" for their performance. The firemen, the staff, and the bridge players.”

[The game resumed when it was determined to be a childish prank. And the game even ended on time!]
 

Congratulations to these Unit members who advanced in rank since June 1, 2008:

Total Members in Unit 143: 1076

Members receiving the Bridge Bulletin: 969

ROOKIE -- 217
JUNIOR MASTER -- 108
CLUB MASTER -- 132
SECTIONAL MASTER -- 104
REGIONAL MASTER -- 118
NABC MASTER -- 61
LIFE MASTER -- 69
BRONZE LM -- 112
SILVER LM -- 106
GOLD LM -- 30
DIAMOND LM -- 12
EMERALD LM -- 5
PLATINUM LM -- 2
GRAND LM -- 0