Greater
St. Louis Bridge NewsGreater
St. Louis Bridge NewsEditor:
Mary Dolan, 10806 Charlton Way, St. Louis, MO 63146
dolanmary@sbcglobal.net
“Some
players are luckier than others.
The reason is that they give their opponents the chance to be unlucky.”
From Card Play Technique: the Art of Being Lucky by Victor Mollo and Nico Gardener
These Unit 143 pairs gave opponents many chances to be unlucky during their outstanding performance in the District 8 North American Pair Finals held in November in Champaign IL.
At the top of the list are Flight A’s Milt Zlatic and Tom Oppenheimer. After a 54.76% afternoon game, Milt and Tom came back with a stellar 70.24% evening result to take 1st place overall with their 62.50%.
Flight B’s Norman Goldman and Clay Cuthbertson, with 60+% games in both the afternoon and evening sessions, took first place with a final 60.35%.
Flight C’s Aaron Krieser and James Voelz, also with 60+% games both in afternoon and evening, took first with a final of 64.09%.
See the story in this issue for winner photos and more details.
Cure cold weather “blues” by attending the St. Louis Winter Sectional which will take place at Blanchette Park, St. Charles, MO from Friday January 15, 2016 through Sunday, January 17.
Open Pairs events are scheduled for Friday and Saturday. In addition to the two-session open Swiss on Sunday, there will be one-session open Swiss events on Friday evening and 9:00 AM Saturday morning. For the 0-299 players, Pairs events are scheduled for Friday and Saturday afternoon and evening, and a 0-300 Swiss Team event for Sunday. Click here for the full schedule.
Congratulations to these Unit 143 members:
Life Master: Bill Davis, Mike Kelley
Silver Life Master: Susan Rosenthal
Gold Life Master: Michael Pitonak
St. Louis Bridge Center jumped from 15th to 9th in the ACBL list of Top 50 Clubs. In 2014, The Center reported 10,112.5 tables, a 13% increase over the previous year’s 8,942.5 tables. Congratulations to founders Bill Canfield and Keith Graves, to the board members, and to the hard-working directors, staff, and volunteers.
Membership
Stats At left is a grid of Unit 143’s membership by rank.
As you see, 75% (1052) of our members are below Life Master status and 25% (351) are Life Masters or above. Members are always surprised when seeing these numbers for the first time. Most, if asked before seeing the above, would give more weight to the Life Master and Silver ranks.
In the non-life master group (1052), a startling 76% of these players have less than 100 masterpoints.
Directors and
bridge teachers at Unit 143 clubs should be commended for recruiting new
players, offering a competitive, supportive and fun playing environment, and
providing an array of training opportunities for beginning bridge players, for
players new to duplicate, and for players at all levels who want to improve
their game. These efforts are paying off.
Fall
Sectional Results It may have had a little to do with our beloved Cardinals being eliminated in the playoffs earlier that week. For whatever reason, attendance was good, and bridge players were able to give their full attention to competing in the St. Louis Fall Sectional. Terrific hospitality and friendly competition made up for being indoors on a weather-perfect weekend.
Players earned 1625.08 masterpoints at 376 tables. Here are the top 25 winners.
52.81 Alan Popkin, Saint Louis MO
43.03 Tom Oppenheimer, Clayton MO
38.07 En Xie, Saint Louis MO
37.34 Jack Bryant, Saint Louis MO
37.23 Nancy Popkin, Saint Louis MO
36.09 Debra Romero, Clarkson Valley MO
27.86 Milton Zlatic, Saint Louis MO
27.46 Tom Kniest, Brentwood MO
24.97 George Markus, Clayton MO
23.90 Clay Cuthbertson, Quincy IL
23.14 Michael Pitonak, Valley Park MO
20.43 Tod Moses, Saint Louis MO
20.43 James Ward, Champaign IL
19.20 Mark Boswell, Clarkson Valley MO
18.32 Bob Bainter, Saint Louis MO
17.03 Mark Kessler, Springfield IL
16.60 Susan Perez, Maryland Hgts MO
15.36 Marvin Shapiro, Saint Louis MO
15.36 Anthony Astrologes, Bridgeton MO
14.91 Cookie Arneson, Saint Louis MO
14.20 Fritz Gebhard, Saint Louis MO
14.20 Diana Votaw, Chesterfield MO
14.12 Dianne Glick, Saint Louis MO
13.61 Dennis Spencer, Saint Louis MO
12.72 Norman Goldman, Chesterfield MO