Welcome

Believe it or not, only one bridge player has joined ACBL since this column was last written. The friendly members of Unit 239 welcome Dana Dreher of Saint Charles.

Rank Advancements

We may have had only one new member join the district, but we have had six members advance their standing with the ACBL. Four of those six individuals submitted information for this column.

Janice Koerner of Huntley achieved life master at the Crystal Lake Regional in June. She has been playing bridge for 44 years, but began playing duplicate about six or seven years ago. Her mentor that helped her reach this achievement is Janet Brandt.

Illinois has always been Janice’s home, having lived in Buffalo Grove, Mount Prospect, and now Huntley. She is a registered nurse and worked for 22 years. Her family consists of her husband, two children and four grandchildren. She and her husband enjoy travel and Janice reads, crochets and plays bridge.

Janice’s advice to players is to be courteous and patient. (Her patience was tested as it took her eight months to earn the .33 gold points she needed for life master status.)

Linda Shaw of Geneva began playing duplicate in 2001, reached life master status in 2008, and is now a silver life master. (Not sure if that color designation matches her hair color as Linda is always wearing a hat at the bridge table.)

Not surprisingly, Linda states that making mistakes was her biggest obstacle to achieving silver status. Partner, Tim O’Reilly, was most helpful in getting Linda the final 100 points she needed.

A story Linda shared was the time she was playing with a new partner and they agreed to play Michaels. Of course the opportunity to use this convention began with the first hand. The bidding began 1 diamond, partner bid 2 diamonds, and at Linda’s turn she bid 2 no-trump (completely forgetting the convention). The contract went down six tricks, but Linda’s new partner was very gracious about the mistake. The next day, Linda mailed her partner a sympathy card and a blue ribbon for being a good sport.

Linda reminds all duplicate players that bridge is a game, not a war, so every player should enjoy being at the table.

Diane Clark of Elgin is now a sapphire life master (3500 points). She is a retired music teacher and has something in common with all readers, she loves playing bridge. She began duplicate in the late 60’s. She and a neighbor would deal out hands and discuss them while their toddlers were napping. Eventually they went to the Baker Center in Saint Charles for lessons and a novice game. It wasn’t too long before they felt confident to play in the big game at the Baker Center. Diane met and played with many partners, and on many teams, and regularly attended tournaments and became life master in 1977.

Like many players, Diane took a bridge hiatus in the 1980’s due to work and family. She returned to duplicate bridge in 1997 and attained bronze life master status that year. Returning to the game sparked her love and “addiction” for duplicate bridge. In 2003 she advanced to silver life master, ten years later gold life master, and reached sapphire life master at the Crystal Lake Regional in June of this year. More often than not, she plays bridge four times a week. She limits her tournament play to area locales.

Diane has witnessed many changes to the game since her humble beginnings in the 60’s. The game sites, the directors, and the conventions have changed. Her advice to bridge players is to “leave your ego at home,” ask questions, read bridge columns, articles and books, and hopefully be as lucky as she to find great bridge partners.

In closing, Diane gives a shout out to another District 8 player, Alma Karas. Alma is the partner Diane plays the most with and her partner for the longest time. Diane wishes that all bridge players could find such a wonderful partner and friend to play this great game with.

A second sapphire life master is Kay Korte of Woodstock. She began playing bridge in the late 50’s as a matter of “survival.” She was working in downtown Chicago and everyone in her office played bridge at lunch time. So, Kay took lessons at Carson’s and was paired with an experienced partner who wanted to learn Goren (instead of playing Culbertson). That partnership was not too successful.

Kay met and married her partner for life, the late Bob Korte. Kay taught Bob the game and they did well despite their lack of experience. With the arrival of two sons and a new home, they found a game through Newcomers and played with three other couples. Bob began duplicate bridge in the 60’s, became rather serious about the game, so Kay decided she better learn duplicate too. The two of them became life masters in the 70’s after winning a Masters Pairs in Minneapolis. Due to family commitments, Kay and Bob played bridge sporadically (totally taking a hiatus from the game while the boys were teenagers).

Kay relates that bridge helped her career. She met a partner who worked for a major accounting firm. He recognized Kay’s abilities and told her to call him if she wanted a job. Well, Kay did make that call and she worked for that organization for 15 years. Subsequently she did open her own business in the 1980’s.

Silver life master status was achieved in 1994 and Kay reached gold status in 2009. Kay prefers tournaments to club games, but does play two to three times a week at clubs. She plays mostly in Rockford, Saint Charles, Elgin and Crystal Lake with a variety of partners (all of whom she enjoys). Though Kay has amassed over 3500 points, points are not all that important to Kay. Her goal is to have a good game. Therefore her advice to new players: “Don’t worry about the points; they will come. Try to enjoy yourself and everything will fall into place. It is not wrong to laugh and have fun while playing bridge.” Kay readily admits that she needs to remind herself of that advice every now and then.

Other members who have advanced their standing in ACBL are:

New Junior Masters:  Kathy Cates, Cherry Valley; Beverly and Douglas Giloy, Lorna Sullivan, Rockford; Bonnie Caswell, Sugar Grove.

New Club Masters:  Jane and Roger Landreth, Dixon.

New Regional Masters:  Judy Feltes, Aurora; Diana and Nels Jacobson, Montgomery; Phyllis Learish, Saint Charles.

New NABC Masters:  Philip Cummuta, Huntley; Martin Hartlieb, Rockford.

Advanced NABC Master:  Nancy Riley, Huntley.

New Life Master:  Richard Frier, Crystal Lake; Janice Koerner, Huntley.

New Bronze Life Master:  Richard Frier, Crystal Lake.

New Silver Life Masters:  Linda Shaw, Geneva; Burton Moore, Rockford.

New Sapphire Life Master:  Diane Clark, Elgin; Kay Korte, Woodstock.

   TURKEY BOWL SILVER SECTIONAL

           NOVEMBER 25-27, 2016

       Prisco Community Center, 150 Illinois Avenue

       (SE corner of Rt. 31 & Illinois Ave.), Aurora IL

             Chairman:   John Pree – 630-631-9141    camptonjohn@gmail.com

             Partnerships:  Dave & Lu Jenkins -- 815-229-7799     davelu@comcast.net

  SNOWFLAKE SILVER SECTIONAL

             JANUARY 6-8, 2017

        Jameson’s Restaurant/Drendl Ballroom

       12860 Del Webb Boulevard, Sun City Huntley IL

           Chairman:  Ron Hopman – 847-659-1780    ronandcaralee@comcast.net

           Partnerships:  Jerry Johnson – 224-600-9912    GEJCL530@gmail.com