♣  Greater St. Louis Bridge News  ♣

News from Greater St. Louis Unit 143

Editor:  Debbie Romero    dcromero@sbcglobal.net
 

Unit 143 Tournaments

Unit 143 will hold the St. Louis Spring Sectional on May 19 - 21, 2023 at the St. Louis Bridge Center rather than at Blanchette Memorial Hall in St. Charles. Our new Sectional tournament format now offers single session DAYTIME Open and 499er Pairs games on Friday and Saturday at 10 am & 2:30 pm.  Evening games have been eliminated.  On Sunday, there is a 2-session Open Swiss team event starting at 10 am and single session I/N 499er Pairs games at 10:15 am & 2:30 pm.

The recent St. Louis January 2023 Sectional held at the Bridge Center used this new DAYTIME game schedule. It was a great success with a positive 80% of the turnout of pre-pandemic levels while many tournaments are only getting about 50% turnout. A hearty THANK YOU goes out to all the players who attended and supported the sectional!

Unit 143 is also offering an exciting new tournament format for the St. Louis August Regional scheduled for August 14 - 20, 2023 at the Renaissance Hotel by the airport.  Changes include:

(1) Both 2-session Gold Rush Pairs (for 0-750 players only) and 2-session Open Pairs will be offered EVERYDAY except Sunday. 

(2) Three Mini-Soloway Knockouts (KO) are on the schedule followed by a Bracketed Swiss team event offered on the second day of each KO.  Mini-Soloway KO's use a 2-session Swiss on day 1 of the KO to determine which teams advance.  All teams are therefore guaranteed to play in at least 2 sessions of the KO event.

(3) The separate Bracketed Swiss event offered on day 2 of each KO provides another 2-session team event for teams that are eliminated on the first day of each KO. A WIN-WIN for everyone! 

Please check out the new tournament schedule posted on the ACBL website.  We hope to see you in August.

Unit 143 Board

Unit 143 Officers for 2023 are:

President:  Mark Boswell

Vice President:  Mark Zellmer

Treasurer: Steve Russell

Secretary:  Sandy Bigg

Unit 143 Tournament Coordinator:  Dennis Abeln

There is currently one open director position on the Unit 143 Board.

Game Schedules

Face-to-Face bridge games are available within the St. Louis area for players of all skill levels. Online bridge games have been discontinued except in the case of inclement weather conditions. Please check the table below for game schedules and availability.

Face-to-Face Bridge Games

For the latest schedule of Face-to-Face Bridge games, please visit the various websites as follows:

Unit 143 www.unit143.org

Bridge Haven bridgeatbridgehaven.com

St. Louis Bridge Center stlouisbridge.org

South County jsbridgepad.com