Minnesota Bridge Blog

February 28 2025
LEAP INTO SPRING SECTIONAL: DAY 2

Today in Roseville was the Pair/Team events at the Leap Into Spring Sectional going on this weekend. In the morning session, Gary Knippenberg [Golden Valley] amd Joe Koester [Brooklyn Park] had a 66.11% game to earn 6.88 silver points, coming in 1st overall among 40 pairs of players. There was a tie for the team portion winners of the game, with Amy Dutton [Mendota Heights], Jim Larsen [Mound], Sandy Nelson [Minneapolis], Paul Becka [Minneapolis], Nancy Brunzel [Chisago City], Barry Purrington [Eagan], Jerry Bartlett [Lindstrom], and Mike Cassel [Roseville] all getting the 1st overall award of 5.30 silver points. This afternoon, Carole Miner [Rochester] and Tom Grue [Apple Valley] snared a 71.39% game in the Open Pairs - nice - and they trail the tournament's masterpoint leaders through day 2 of this tournament by about one-third of a masterpoint! All of the scores and results can be found by clicking here.

Through two days of the four, your Top 20 masterpoint leaders are listed to your left. (Remember, with these Pair/Team events, you don't get both masterpoint awards for the pairs AND teams part - only the greater masterpoint award of the two. So what is listed on the ACBL's site for overall masterpoints awarded is not correct.) Tomorrow it's the Charity Pairs (two-sessions, for EXTRA masterpoints), with no winter weather yet in sight.

February 28 2025
SMALLER THAN NORMAL GAMES THIS WEEK?

Seriously - it could have to do with the six tables of players from Minnesota who have traveled to Hilton Head Island SC's Regional this week. You know, they do have enough players there to charter their own private plane back to Minnesota. Anyway - here are some local players who made the trip - and have gotten some gold and red points this week. Now get back home!

February 27 2025
DAY 1 AT THE LEAP INTO SPRING SECTIONAL

Today the silver points started flying at the Leap Into Spring sectional at the Bridge Center of St Paul's Roseville location. The schedule today was two-session pairs, with the "A"s, "B"s, and "C"s all playing in their own events. Masterpoint leaders after day 1 were the winners of the "A" Flight, which ended in a tie after two sessions! Charles Carroll [St Paul], Andrew Caranicas [St Paul], Carole Miner [Rochester], and Tom Grue [Apple Valley] all tied at the top of the leaderboard with 6.92 masterpoints today. The Flight "B" champs today were Tom Knier [Burnsville] and John Miller [Stillwater], with Kristine Verdin [St Paul] coming in 1st in both the morning and afternoon Flight "C" sessions - playing with different partners in the morning and afternoon.

You can check out all of the winners today (and those who didn't make the podium but still had fun) by clicking here. Tomorrow: the popular pair/team events!

February 27 2025
HILTON HEAD ISLAND: THE MINNESOTA CONNECTION

Minnesota continues to be represented well by players at the Lowcountry Classic Regional down in South Carolina - there are now a dozen local players from Minnesota who have scored some red and gold points in this regional. We have yet to hear anything from the police blotter in Hilton Head, so while they're having a great time at the tournament it doesn't sound as though it's out of control. Masterpoint winners are to your left.

February 27 2025
"SHOW YOUR WORK" THEY SAID

Fair enough. On the left is part of the spreadsheet for Minnesota Club table counts; on the right, keeping track of one of our "player[s] of the year". There's more - much, much more - but there's also a limit to bandwith, IYKWIM.

February 26 2025
MINNESOTA GRAND NATIONAL TEAMS WRAPS UP ANOTHER SEASON

The qualifying period for the GNT ends in just a couple of days, but there are no additional GNT club qualifying games scheduled around Minnesota - so your opportunity to qualify at your local club has come to an end for another season. The good news, though, comes in two parts. First, the number of GNT tables this year in the state was 220, that's an increase of +35.8% over last season. Second, the number of qualifying players in Minnesota is 297, which is quite impressive! (Indeed, even the Flight "C" qualifiers this year is up, with 134 "C" players having qualified.) Here is the list of qualifiers.

Remember that players are allowed to "play up" if they qualify for more than one flight; if an advancing player has qualified for both the "B" and "C" flights, they can play up in flight "B" should they choose to - but you cannot play in a lower flight than which you qualify for ("A" players can't play in "B" or "C"). Next up is the D14 GNT Final; this year once again that will be online, on BBO. Instructions on how to sign up for this event will be forthcoming (once they're provided, they'll be posted here on the Bridge Blog). But if you've qualified this year to move on to the next stage of the GNT, you should mark March 29th and 30th on your calendar as you'll be playing online for a chance to represent Minnesota in Philadelphia at the summer NABC.

February 26 2025
HILTON HEAD REGIONAL - A BIT OF A SCORING SNAFU

There are now over a dozen Minnesota players at the Hilton Head Island Regional in SC, and a few more of them did well enough today to get some gold points.  Kent Dalzell [Rochester] and partner Connie Dalzell [Rochester] came in 6th out of 80 pairs in the Gold Rush today (for another 3.21 gold points).  And a bit of a scoring error knocked Steve Gaynor [Inver Grove Heights] and partner Jean Boettcher [Inver Grove Heights] out of an overall award from yesterday's results.  After the scoring correction, the two-session 54.72% average for Steve and Jean was just under the 54.74% needed for that overall award.  Talk about close competition!

Speaking of competition, here's eight Minnesota players from the Rochester DBC having a "happy hour" post-session today.  It sure looks like fun at this tournament.

L to R, that's Bob Roediger [Rochester], Harlan Wickre [Rochester], Connie Dalzell [Rochester], Kent Dalzell [Rochester], Jan Morris [Rochester], Earlene Wickre [Rochester], and Greg Caucutt [Rochester].  (The eighth player would be just behind the camera, Sue Greenberg [Byron].)

February 25 2025
LAST CHANCE FOR GNT QUALIFYING

If you're interested in playing in the District 14 Grand National Teams next month, you must be qualified at the club level; that list of qualified players can be found by clicking here.

If you're not on the list - and want to play next month - you've got one more shot at it tonight online. The Minneapolis Grand Slam Club hosts an online (BBO) game at 6:30pm. Details can be found by clicking here. This looks to be the last opportunity to qualify for the GNT, and unlike years past, there is no buy-in at the District level. The MGSC will hook you up with a partner or pair to make a team, and if you've already qualified, team play is always fun.

February 25 2025
THAT DID NOT TAKE LONG

It's just the first day of the Lowcountry Classic Regional in Hilton Head Island SC, and already a half-dozen Minnesota players have gotten some scratch. This is one of those tournaments that's something of a "destination regional", with the great weather (especially this time of year) and party atmosphere that bridge players really enjoy. There are quite a few Minnesota players enroute tonight to this tournament - expect to see more of them "in the money" when we get to tomorrow's results. But here's a tip-of-the-hat to those from the Gopher state that are representing at the Lowcountry Classic already!

February 25 2025
MINNESOTA'S MARCH MADNESS

If you're a bridge player, you've got a lot going on next month. In addition to all of the regular club games you've got coming up over the next four and a half weeks, lots of special opportunities for extra masterpoints abound:

Here is their flyer

ACBL's online BBO Spring Regional at Home

Details found by clicking here

those clubs are listed here

you can find them listed here

The list of players eligible

listed here

And that's in addition to all of the Club Championship games, Unit Games, and other special games at your local club. Not heading to Memphis TN for the big NABC in March? No worries - you've still got plenty of chances to get some extra masterpoints right here at home.

February 24 2025
EDINA BEGINNER BIDDING CLASS

Teri Blu [Bloomington] knows a thing or two about bidding - and she's offering to share some of that knowledge with you. Tuesday afternoons, from 1pm to 3pm, starting on March 18th, Teri will host a Beginning Bridge class at the Edina Senior Center. This 8-week course will focus primarily on declarer play, with an emphasis on the bidding of the hand.

The cost for the course is $100; the details can be found on the flyer to your left. It's a great opportunity to improve your current skills at the bridge table - and maybe bring someone along who is just getting started at the game.

February 24 2025
WHO'S PLAYING WHERE + WHO WAS PLAYING WHERE

The Bridge Center of St Paul's Roseville location continues to solidify its position as the #1 spot to play bridge in Minnesota.  Last year, 2,783 total tables were played at the BCSP (2,750 in person along with 33 online tables) to maintain the #1 spot across the state.

Rochester's DBC is currently the second largest bridge club in Minnesota, with 1,908 tables in play during 2024, followed by the Plymouth DBC games in Edina (1,673 tables) and the St Cloud DBC (1,241 tables).  The list of tables in play for 2024 is the chart above left.

Every duplicate bridge table counts!  And whether you're playing in one of the larger clubs - or one of the many smaller clubs - your games matter.  Don't forget that your Unit is here to help with anything you need to keep bridge going in your neck of the woods, whether it's a sanctioned club or unsanctioned duplicate bridge game or high school/college bridge course or anything else.

And - just because - there's a chart (lower left) that shows the tables in play across Minnesota 30 years ago.  Back in 1994, Cloquet had two bridge clubs, Hopkins had 1,087 tables in play that year, Bemidji 549!  Grand Marais had their own club with 28 tables (guessing this was a seasonal club), with Austin, Willmar, Virginia, Hackensack, and Shakopee also having had active bridge games.  The powerhouse that was the Twin City Bridge Center ran more than 6,800 tables in 1994, keeping the #1 spot in Minnesota for tables in play each year until they closed in 2020.

February 23 2025
IT'S LOOKING AS THOUGH THE TIDE MAY BE TURNING

Efforts being made across the ACBL, including efforts right here in Minnesota, appear to be stemming the tide of player loss in our game. The three years prior to the introduction of COVID, there was a gradual decline in membership averaging about 221 ACBL players per month. With the COVID shutdown of face-to-face clubs, that number accelerated significantly to 1,225 players per month leaving the game. Even after clubs reopened, the potential for health issues with bridge players (as COVID was and is still out there) resulted in about 695 players per month leaving the game of bridge over the next two years - still well above what was the "normal" pre-COVID rate of loss.

But efforts to retain players and introduce new players to the game are starting to see some results; the past 15 months have seen a player loss averaging roughly 253 players per month. That's pretty close to average monthly loss of players for the three years prior to COVID. It's hard to know for sure what's caused this return to the natural decline in membership (whether there aren't any more players leaving due to COVID, they've all left, or whether accelerated efforts to get new players into the game are helping numbers level off, etc.). Make no mistake - players are still leaving the ACBL for one reason or another - but the good news is that the tide appears to have turned for now, and efforts that are being made at every level (including Minnesota clubs) are helping to slow down the rate of player loss.

February 22 2025
COMING DOWN THE HOME STRETCH

Many of us are just getting going on our masterpoint quest, but John Koch [St Cloud] continues to chip away this month at the last masterpoints he needs to top 15,000! Playing online this past week with Carole Miner [Rochester] and Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park], John has whittled his way down to less than 10 masterpoints to go. If it doesn't happen this week - look for him to cross the 15K mark this time next week at the Bridge Center of St Paul's upcoming sectional.

February 22 2025
NEXT MONTH'S MINNESOTA NABC-NAP CONNECTION

The ACBL's Grand National Teams is about to wind down, with District Finals coming up next month (online); but the other big ACBL program for players, the North American Pairs, is coming to a conclusion for many Minnesota players. Going from club qualifying to District qualifying and on to the National Finals are more than a dozen Minnesota players representing D14. Here's an update from Keith Thompson [Bloomington], your D14 NAP Coordinator:

The North American Pairs Finals will be held at the Spring Nationals in Memphis in just a few short weeks. Flight A will start play on March 12 with those above the cutoff finishing the next day. Flights B and C will play a similar format, starting on March 22 and finishing the next day. Should you encounter any of these players before they leave for Memphis wish them luck. And remember to track their progress on those important March dates.

Here is the complete list of NAP representatives for District 14. Flight A: Bob Balderson & Cindy Balderson Michael McNamara & Tom Fox Carol Miner & Kerry Holloway Flight B: John Miller & Tom Knier Bev Meyer & Peter Bock Jerry Burdeski & William Swenson Elliot Eskin & Jenny Peterson Flight C: Jackson Wahl & Sarah Wahl Thorwald Hansen & Jane Schmidt David Nelmark & Mark Feld Dan Ganter & Tom Owens

Congratulations and best of luck to all our District 14 representatives. -- Keith

We will make every effort to track their progress next month - along with all Minnesotans at the NABC - and have your updates here on the Bridge Blog. Regardless of finish, it should be a fun and amazing experience for everyone.

February 21 2025
MARCH CLUB CALENDARS

March is a month that is LOADED with masterpoint opportunities for Minnesota players. To start with, the Leap Into Spring Sectional kicks off the month on Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd. Then there is the NABC in Memphis TN, where quite a few Minnesota players will venture to and hopefully come back with some big wins. The D14 GNT Finals round out the month with the weekend of March 29 and March 30, that GNT event will be held online on BBO. Here's a look at your local club calendars across the state. (Click on any calendar to enlarge it and open in a new window, we'll update the BCSP and 178 calendars when provided.)

February 21 2025
PARTY LIKE IT'S ABOVE ZERO °F

Lots of milestones recently for Minnesota players, and for a few clubs across the state, celebrating these milestones means cake!

Up in St Cloud, a party was held on behalf of new Life Masters Bob Leighton [Foley] and Nancy Balfanz [St Cloud] - along with new Silver Life Master Greg Nastrom [St Cloud]. The honorees, along with the celebratory cake shared with the rest of the club, are shown in the photo to your left. Well done, all, and a shout-out to everyone who helped them achieve their goal this month.

February 20 2025
LEAP INTO SPRING SECTIONAL: ONE WEEK AWAY

You're just one week out from the 2025 Leap Into Spring Sectional tournament at the Bridge Center of St Paul. The flyer for this tournament is to your left; click on it to open in a new window for viewing or printing. The four-day tournament will provide something for everyone (2-session pairs, Pair/Team games, Swiss teams, etc.) and the BCSP's favorite charity of Every Meal will once again benefit from all donations. (If you can't wait for the tournament next week, you're always welcome to donate to Every Meal today by clicking here!)

Still need a partner? Kimberly Hayward [Bayport] will do her best to hook you up. And if you're wondering if it'll be above 0° next week, the current outlook is for some great bridge weather.

February 20 2025
NEED A TAX DEDUCTION? START HERE

The Minnesota Bridge Education Fund is a 501(C)(3) that accepts tax-deductible contributions; it was created to benefit new bridge players of all ages through education and instruction - along with the cognitive and social aspects of the fantastic game of bridge that we all love.

Now that we're in the heart of tax season, you might want to claim another deduction for last year - or get started on your tax-deductible donations for this year. Either way, the Minnesota Bridge Education Fund is a great place to park some of those dollars - and as a bridge player, you'll reap the benefit.

You can find out more information on this terrific program by clicking here.

February 19 2025
MINNESOTA GRAND NATIONAL TEAMS QUALIFIERS

Click on the image to your left to open the list of Minnesota GNT Qualifiers for this season so far (the data is from the ACBL's website, posted February 19th). 264 Minnesota players have qualified at the club level, and if you're not on this list - you only have two more opportunities to qualify. There's an open face-to-face game at the Bridge Center of St Paul this Sunday evening at 5pm; and there's an open online BBO VACB game that's put on by the Minn Grand Slam Club next Tuesday evening at 6:30pm.

Of these 264 Minnesota players, the breakdown is as follows: 14 players have qualified for the Championship Flight only; another 16 players are limited to the Championship or Flight "A" part of the D14 competition next month. There are 120 Flight "B" qualifiers and another 114 Flight "C". This should translate into a nice representation of Minnesota in the D14 GNT Finals - and remember that you must qualify at the club level to go on to the D14 GNT Finals, which will be held online on BBO the weekend of March 29th and 30th. Winners there go on to represent D14 at the Summer NABC in Philadelphia. . .and it all starts with qualifying at the club level.

February 19 2025
VISUALIZING MINNESOTA CLUBS OVER THE YEARS

Many bridge clubs come and go, but a few have stood the test of time! Above is a look at sanctioned bridge clubs across Minnesota since 1993. (Not pictured: The Interlachen Country Club DBC, whose 10 tables in all of 2015 has made it the briefest of sanctioned Minnesota clubs that we know of.)

Some of these clubs have consolidated over time; St Cloud had three clubs for many years, but now operate as one - same story with Rochester, who started with two or three clubs some twenty years ago. There are a few that didn't last long (Nisswa, just a few weeks one summer, and whatever the "David Lund" club was in Minneapolis). That consolidation continues today in some form or another - so be sure to support your local bridge club by playing (and volunteering!).

February 18 2025
GNT QUALIFYING COMING DOWN TO THE WIRE

Just a few local opportunities left to qualify for the Grand National Teams - as club-level qualifying ends a week from Friday. Presently, the Bridge Center of St Paul has a couple of GNT qualifiers to go - one this evening at 6:30pm for Flight "B" and "C" players (those under 3,000 masterpoints) - with another GNT team game coming on Sunday evening at 5pm in Roseville. The MGSC is running a couple of online team games, both Open games (no masterpoint restrictions), and both on Tuesday evenings also at 6:30pm. The MGSC games are on BBO, and don't forget all players get a terrific recap of hands, bidding and play from Mike Cassel [Roseville]. Once we get to next Friday - the club-level qualifying stage is over and it's on to the D14 Finals in about a month. (Remember, even if you have already qualified for the GNT, this is great IMPs action!)

February 18 2025
LATEST TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Here is a shout-out to Steve Gaynor [Inver Grove Heights] who has sent his latest update on tournaments scheduled around the Midwest. Click on the image to your left to open this schedule of events for Minnesota bridge players in a new window (for printing and perusing!)

February 17 2025
BUNDLE UP, CAMPERS, (IT'S C-C-C-C-C-COLD OUTSIDE)

February 17 2025
KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR INBOX

Jane Schmidt [St Paul] is sending a blast of emails to Minnesota players with information on the upcoming Gopher Regional in May. Keep an eye on your inbox for this information - it's packed with all kinds of Gopher tournament news and updates.

Just in case you don't get Jane's email - that information can be found by clicking here. Hard to believe we are within three months of the Gopher Regional already!

February 16 2025
BRIDGE PLAYERS CELEBRATE VALENTINE'S WEEK

And why wouldn't they!? That's the Rochester crowd on your left - and the St Cloud crowd on your right. Valentine's vibes are good for your club - and what's good for your club is good for bridge.

(H/T to our two photographers not pictured, Sue Greenberg [Byron] and Connie Nelson [Avon].)

February 16 2025
2025 STARTING OUT AS A BIT OF A MIXED BAG

The first six weeks of the New Year have produced a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to attendance at Minnesota's top bridge games.  The largest six games (in tables per game) did not change from 2024 to 2025.  But the size of these games has changed - some for the worse, some better.

The largest three games all lost tables in the past 12 months; Maple Grove's Wednesday morning open game continues to be the biggest game going in Minnesota, with an average of 12.3 tables per game from January 1st of this year until now.  But last year - it averaged 13.3 tables per game over these same six weeks.  That's a drop of -7.5%.  The Edina Monday morning open game fared even worse, losing -13.2% of its tables and dropping from 12.1 tables per game at the start of last year to 10.5 so far in 2025.

Woodbury, Rochester, and the Bridge Center of St Paul each have two games in the Top Ten that saw an increase in average size from 2024 until now.  (The BCSP's Tuesday open game saw an increase of +10.3% compared to last year's first six weeks, that's the largest increase on the table.)

More game offerings during the week could be the result of some of these year-over-year drops in tables, but the drop is not uniformly across all games. And it's too soon to panic - this is simply a snapshot of the past six weeks, and where these games may be headed. But one thing is for sure! Efforts to get people back into the game are making a difference (where it's happening, and where it's not happening) - and there's plenty of time to turn around any negative numbers. Shrinking games tend to keep shrinking, so we want to make every effort not to have negative table counts go on for much longer.

Looking at total tables over the first six weeks of the year, here also, it's a mixed bag as well. St Cloud has been aggressively working to get new players into their club, and it's paying off - their table count is up +31.1% from 2024 so far. Northfield's tables are down considerably (percentage-wise), but only because they've got such a small group of players. Nate Pike [Northfield] is doing some terrific work in Northfield to hold everything together, but even losing just one table a week (from 4 to 3) shows up as a huge percentage loss (-25.0%).

February 15 2025
ST CLOUD'S ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

It's Brian-Paul Crowder [Little Falls]. Were you aware the St Cloud DBC has such a recognition? They do now!

Brian-Paul came in 2nd in the Unit 103 Ace of Clubs, having amassed more than 43 masterpoints last year in the 0-5 Rookie category. (He was edged out by Steve He [Rochester] who earned a bit more than 50.) Congratulations to Brian-Paul, and if we know the crowd in St Cloud (and we do), there's going to be cake.

February 15 2025
MINNESOTA PLAYERS GETTING THE GOLD

We've had a week of 25% gold points at your local Minnesota bridge clubs - so how are Minnesota players doing? Almost 250 players have scored some "gold dust" during the past week. Top among our local players this time around is Joseph Browan [Maplewood], who earned 1.08 gold points during this Stardust week. There's a look at your "Top 20" Minnesota players for gold this time around to your left - and if you'd like to see the complete list of 247 players (and how much gold they scored) just click here.

February 14 2025
THAT DAY IT'S OK SHOULD YOUR PARTNER SEE RED

Whether your bridge partner is your valentine or not, make sure they see some red at the table today.

Also - here are a couple of Valentines we've lost from the game but remember so fondly - we always miss the fun ones! (That's Genny Rice [Rochester] on the left and Alice Ernster [Chatfield] on the right.)

February 13 2025
NEVER TOO EARLY TO THINK ABOUT LEAPING INTO SPRING

Last year, it was the "Leap Year Sectional" held at the Bridge Center of St Paul at the end of February. Although this isn't a leap year in 2025, you can still "Leap Into Spring" (despite what any groundhog may have predicted two weeks ago) - and that translates to a great opportunity for some tournament bridge two weeks from today.

The flyer for this tournament is to your left; click on it to open in a new window for viewing or printing. The four-day tournament will provide something for everyone (2-session pairs, Pair/Team games, Swiss teams, etc.) and the BCSP's favorite charity of Every Meal will once again benefit from all donations. (You're welcome to donate to Every Meal today by clicking here!)

Partners are going fast, so be sure to get your partnerships locked up now - and if you need a partner, Kimberly Hayward [Bayport] will do her best to hook you up.

February 12 2025
CHAT BRIDGE - A GREAT STEPPING STONE TO THE GAME

You can help stem the inevitable tide by introducing your card-playing friends to duplicate bridge. And one of the greatest stepping stones to the game is "Chat Bridge", where mentors circulate the room in a very laid-back setting and help answer questions about bidding and play from newer players.

Here are just a few of the options you have to present to potential ACBL members:

clicking here.

Remember, most of the other Minnesota sanctioned clubs (and some non-sanctioned games as well) have lessons available for advancing players, even if they don't have a chat bridge game - check with your local club manager or director. And theoretically, one could play in all five chat bridge games each week! But realistically, the opportunities are out there - so get your friends involved and let's grow this game.

February 11 2025
THE LONE BRIGHT SPOT IN ONLINE PLAY: TEAMS

In the post-COVID era of duplicate bridge, as bridge clubs reopened and got back to business as normal (or as normal as can be, under the circumstances), online ACBL club games hosted on BBO have declined considerably.  (Chart above left.)  What was once more than 2,200 BBO ACBL Virtual club games per week is now running around 250 per week.

But there's a bright spot to online play, and that is the team games that are hosted.  The percentage of BBO ACBL team tables each week in Virtual ACBL clubs has doubled - from what was less than 1% of all BBO ACBL tables to more than 2% during the past five months.  (Chart above right.)

IMPs play is fun!  And you can be part of the online teams action on Tuesday nights, with the Minnesota Grand Slam Club's Tuesday 6:30pm online game.  This month they are all GNT qualifiers (for extra masterpoints and 1/2 red points) - and they will help you find another pair to make a team (or even a partner with which to play).  On top of that, Mike Cassel [Roseville] provides a terrific recap of the evening's boards and play - with commentary and plenty of opportunities to learn more about bidding and IMP play.

February 10 2025
YOUR KING OF MINNESOTA CLUBS FOR FEBRUARY

Who earned the most black points in Minnesota face-to-face clubs last month? That would be Charles Carroll [St Paul], who led the pack of Minnesota players with 26.80 black points. The list to your left is the top dozen players who scored in in-person club games. There are no Sectional points here, no online BBO points, nothing but good ol' fashioned face-to-face games at local Minnesota clubs. Congratulations to Charles! He was followed this month by Andrew Caranicas [St Paul] and Greg Caucutt [Rochester].

(DISCLAIMER: There are a couple of Minnesota players who earned more in-person club masterpoints than Charles did last month - but they are snowbirds that are out-of-state right now. . .and afforded many more opportunities than those of us here at home. This list is strictly for those playing locally, supporting our local clubs.)

February 10 2025
THOSE WERE THE DAYS, MY FRIEND

. . .guessing that most of us "thought they'd never end."  Or at least that would be the optimistic take.

Prior to the introduction of COVID to the bridge world, sanctioned Minnesota club tables were running at an average of 16,355 tables per year over a 26-year period (1994 to 2019).  The most recent year (2024) saw 10,407 face-to-face tables in Minnesota clubs. . .that's 63.6% of what they used to be.  That's actually slightly better than the overall ACBL average (57.0% of pre-COVID tables), but there's always room for improvement.

Clubs do seem to come and go (Austin? Edina Women's Club? MacGregor? Hackensack??), but tables at our local clubs are slowly coming back.  With the many players that left the game during the COVID outbreak, it'll be near impossible to get back to 16,000+ tables a year.  And yet if even half the active 1,400 or so bridge players in Minnesota played just two extra games a month - you'd be in the ballpark.

February 9 2025
ONLINE AWARD DUMP

It's John Koch [St Cloud]. Rapidly approaching the 15,000 masterpoint mark, John played online quite a bit the past couple of weeks - and now is within 13.47 masterpoints of achieving this masterpoint milestone. Cake and celebratory atmosphere are imminent.

February 9 2025
A TERRIFIC TEXAS TRIUMPH

That's Kimberly Hayward [Bayport] and Fay Debellis [North Oaks] in the front - along with Linus Bendel-Stenzel [Edina] and Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] in the back (above left).  This fearless foursome played in the Houston Lone Star Regional this week, having really a nice couple of days of bridge.

Friday, they played in "Bracket 10" of the Bracketed Teams event, and they came out in 1st place (81 VPs, with 77 VPs for the 2nd place team) and 7.26 gold points!  Then today, another 1st place finish in their bracketed teams (83 VPs vs 74 VPs for 2nd place) resulted in an additional 6.87 gold points to bring home.

If you know any of these four, you know they are not just great ambassadors of bridge in general, but they are fantastic representatives of Minnesota. . .and clearly they had a lot of fun this week.  Flying home with 14.13 gold points should make that flight go pretty quickly.

NOTE: They weren't the only Minnesota players to do well in Houston this week - George Schnepf [Sartell] and Nancy Schnepf [Sartell] (below left) teamed up with a pair from Georgetown, Texas, to win their bracket today (and 5.08 gold points!).  We'll update with a photo of these two just as soon as we get it.  UPDATE:  The Schenpfs are still celebrating in Texas but here's a photo of the happy winners (H/T: Connie).  UPDATE #2:  Although they did not win their bracket, another team at this tournament included Jane Schmidt [St Paul] (and her sister from Louisiana) came in 2nd in their bracket twice in Houston - good for 15.10 gold points!  And Lou Tesler [Eden Prairie] along with Jeff Walker [Eagan] also needed an extra checked bag on the flight home, for their 17.69 gold points.  You can check out for more Minnesota players that escaped Texas authorities with some of their gold by clicking here.

February 9 2025
LAST CHANCES FOR GNT QUALIFICATION

Qualifying for the Grand National Teams runs through this month - and then that is it until the next season of GNT games starts all over in September. If you have not yet qualified for this year's D14 GNT competition, here are the remaining games that are available to you across Minnesota this month (and if you have already qualified, here's more opportunities to play teams!):

February 8 2025
MAKING PLAYING AND LEARNING TEAM PLAY FUN

From Mike Cassel [Roseville]:

"The Minneapolis Grand Slam Club, nearing its 90th year of continual play has gravitated, since Covid, to a mostly online format. The club is running a weekly Swiss Team GNT qualifying game online in the BBO VACB area on Tuesdays at 6:30pm through the rest of February.

[T]he MGSC can offer advancing players tools and feedback to grow their game. Rather than reminiscing about how great and tough the game used to be, we can help our players gain confidence and competence. It would sure be nice to see more of the 120+ players who have played online come back and join in the experience."

If you click on the MGSC flyer on your above left, that will open in a new window Mike's terrific commentary on bidding and play from last week - and this is something he puts together every week. This past Tuesday, Vern Swing [Minneapolis], Deb Weiss [Minneapolis], Keith Connolly [St Paul], and Eric Hendrickson [Minneapolis] nearly got 90% of the available victory points in the online team game; in Mike's informative recap of the game he highlights one of the deals where this winning team had a nice slam swing.

February 8 2025
MINNESOTA MASTERPOINT MILESTONES IN FEBRUARY

The ACBL's masterpoint update on the 6th of the month showed that 27 different players in Minnesota reached a new goal during the month of January! The list this month includes two new Sapphire Life Masters (that's 3,500 masterpoints!): Larry Uttley [Duluth] and Rowen Bell [Woodbury] both crossed the 3,500 mark this month. Click on the image to your left to open the list of local achievers in a new browser - and be sure to give them a hearty congratulations when you see them at the table!

February 7 2025
UNIT 178 PLAYERS JOIN THE PARTY

The combined 103/178 Awards Party on May 4th at the Bridge Center of St Paul, that is!

With the latest ACBL masterpoint engine update on February 6th, the 2024 Award winners for Unit 178 have been issued - including the Ace of Clubs (those that won the most masterpoints in 2024 playing in local clubs), the Mini-McKenney (those that won the most in clubs and tournaments), and the Virtual Ace of Clubs (those that spent the most time online!).

Are you on our list? Click on the images below to open the file in a new window and whether you're on the list and playing for free on May 4th - or even if you didn't make the list this year - we hope to see you at the Awards Luncheon and Bridge game in May.

Unit 178
Ace of Clubs
2024

Unit 178
Mini-McKenney
2024

Unit 178
Virtual Ace of Clubs
2024

February 7 2025
UNIT UNIFICATION EFFORT TAKES FLIGHT

Here's a special shoutout to our two Sues (Sue Greenberg [Byron], Unit 103 President, and Sue Sanger [Bloomington], Unit 178 President) along with the sub-committee members of Todd Flowerday [Coon Rapids], Keith Thompson [Bloomington], Warren Nelson [Cloquet], and Matt Belau [Rochester]. They're the volunteers that are making the effort to try and find the path forward to re-unify Minnesota's two bridge units.

Their first get-together over the interweb was this week; details of the meeting's topics of discussion are not available for dissemination at this time. . .but these volunteers are working to try and find out whether or not reunification can happen - and how.

February 6 2025
TOURNAMENT MASTERPOINT CLARIFICATION

An eagle-eyed Lakeville player noticed that the ACBL's masterpoint winners for last weekend's tournament (Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie] and Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis]) are not the tournament champion posted on this blog (Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park]).  What's the deal?

The ACBL posts all of the masterpoints won at the tournament, then displays all of those won and who won them.  That's not the same thing as the masterpoints awarded to the players at the tournament.  Here's the explanation for the discrepancy:

In a pair/team game, an individual has two chances to get masterpoints - the pairs part of the game and the team part of the game.  Frequently, a player will win some masterpoints in each part of that pair/team game - but they only get the bigger award of the two.  So if a player comes in 4th in the pairs (earning 1.55 masterpoints) but 1st in the teams (earning 7.00 masterpoints), they are awarded the 7.00 masterpoints.  The ACBL, on the other hand, counts them as getting 8.55 in this example - which is not correct - but that is what they post on their website.  That is why the masterpoint totals listed on the ACBL's website are different than they are here.  It's also why if you're expecting the masterpoint total listed on the ACBL site next to your name - and it's not what you got - this is the reason.

February 6 2025
GOPHER COMMITTEE GETS TOGETHER

The volunteers that help Gopher Regional Chair Patti Stuhlman [Minneapolis] put that big tournament on met via Zoom this week. In attendance was Warren Nelson [Cloquet], Steve Gaynor [Inver Grove Heights], Jean Boettcher [Inver Grove Heights], Sue Sanger [Bloomington], Matt Belau [Rochester], Annie Schaeffer [Lakeville], Kurt Schaeffer [Lakeville], and Keith Thompson [Bloomington].

Warren provided an update on the Public Relations Committee work; Matt indicated the flyer and ad were done and up on the ACBL's website; Patti said the Gopher Ad in the Bridge Bulletin would be in the April issue; and Steve and Jean thought more emphasis on hand discussion for I/N players would be prudent. Patti also provided the latest hotel update, where we will have better lighting for the lounge area, among other player enhancements. Annie and Kurt Schaeffer are in charge of the partnership desk this year, adn are looking for standby players - especially for the I/N and Gold Rush events. Everyone (on the committee and reading this website) is encouraged to get people to come to the tournament and get the word out! It's a great group of people who are helping to put forth this tournament, helmed by Patti who is (of course) the glue for the whole thing.

Another meeting of the Gopher Committee is expected in mid- to late-March, before things really start heating up for the 2025 Gopher in May.

February 5 2025
LOCAL GNT QUALIFIERS UP TO 245. . .AND COUNTING

146 players in Unit 103 and 99 players in Unit 178 have qualified to move on to the D14 GNT competition next month - are you on our list? Click on the image to your left to see your name - and the flights for which you can compete - to open the list of Minnesota players in a new window. Remember, there are lots of games yet to be played in Minnesota clubs to qualify for the GNT, so you're not "out of the money" just yet. (But seriously, why wait?)

February 4 2025
WHEN LESS MIGHT BE MORE

The ACBL-sanctioned clubs across Minnesota are certainly doing their part to encourage more play, with an additional 14 club games added during the first five weeks of this year. That's an average of about an additional three face-to-face games each week, or an increase of +9.8% over the same period last year.

However, the number of players seated during these first five weeks of the year has only gone up +1.1%, from 3,529 to 3,567. That means that the tables per F2F game in Minnesota has averaged 5.68 tables per game to kick off 2025, or a drop of -7.9% over the same period last year. So if you're under the impression that your local club game has gotten a bit smaller of late - apparently it has. It's possible that players are being stretched a little thinner with the added games, but in time, everything should shake out (whether that's ultimately bigger games or whether that's fewer F2F games offered). Options are always welcome! But this could be a case of "less is more". Stay tuned.

February 3 2025
A DENT, IF NOTHING ELSE

Playing in just one day of the Minnesota Winter Tournament, it was just a dent in the masterpoints needed for this major milestone coming shortly. But the 11.70 masterpoints earned over the long tournament weekend has made that milestone just that much closer.

February 2 2025
THAT IS A WRAP FROM THE WINTER TOURNAMENT

The four-day bridgefest in Roseville at the Bridge Center of St Paul wrapped up today with the Swiss Teams; over the tournament 181 players earned some silver points, with the final Top 100 player masterpoint results to your left. It was very close through yesterday, but Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park] (along with teammates David Collins [Fridley], Barry Purrington [Eagan], and John Koch [St Cloud]) overtook the leading masterpoint winners yesterday to come out 1st and as Tournament Champion!

This is the first Winter Tournament in more than twenty years to extend to a 4th day of bridge; the previous tournaments this time of year have all been three days in length. As a result, the 18 teams today helped push the paid table count to 184.5, with a 23.3 tables per session average that is just 2.5 tables off the 20-year average for the tournament. (It's probably not fair to compare as apples-to-apples since none of the previous ones had a fourth day.) Still - to be down just a couple of tables per session given the bridge-playing environment of the past 20 years, that could be much worse.

Next up - the Leap Into Spring Sectional, coming up in less than four weeks.

February 2 2025
IT'S BEEN A WEEKEND OF TOUGH COMPETITION

Just one day to go at the Winter Sectional, and it's a day for teams - Swiss teams. Through the first three days of bridge, there are six players with less than one-quarter of a masterpoint separating them from 1st place to 6th!

Everything gets decided later today at the Bridge Center of St Paul's Roseville location, and we'll have a Tournament Champion by later tonight.

February 1 2025
SATURDAY'S BATTLE OF THE SEXES

Saturday saw 48 pairs in the Open Pairs event - and after 54 boards, the top two spots came down to a "battle of the sexes". Cindy Balderson [Eden Prairie] and Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis] edged out their spouses Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie] and Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] for the top honors on Saturday - but it wasn't by much.

With a top on a board going for 17 matchpoints, the ladies outscored the gents by a whole 4.15 matchpoints (606.44 to 602.29). That is some pretty close competition. Over the course of the two sessions, Cindy and Sarah averaged 62.39%, with Bob and Jackson scoring 61.96%. This time around, it was all about "Girl Power!!" (as was shouted across the room by the scorer and Director of the game).

The good news is they won't be competing against one another tomorrow, but the bad news for the rest of us is that they're combining to make a team for Sunday's Swiss. Congratulations to both these pairs for a hard fought battle royale today.

February 1 2025
HERE ARE A COUPLE OF UP-AND-COMERS

That's Everett Erpelding [Minnetonka] and brother Nolan Erpelding [Minnetonka] who played at the Minnesota Winter Tournament in the Saturday Flight "C" pairs. How great is it to see a pair whose combined HCPs on a hand might actually exceed their combined ages!?

Terrific to see them both at the bridge table today, and with Dad in tow, no less!

February 1 2025
FEBRUARY IS EDUCATION FOUNDATION MONTH

This month you'll find your local club sponsoring the ACBL Education Foundation by holding extra-masterpoint games the next four weeks. The ACBL's Education Foundation is a non-profit organized in 1987 that "provides grants for programs and projects that recruit new bridge players and build community". You can find out more about the Education Fund (including how to donate or apply for a grant) on the ACBL's website.

Looking for more? Click here to check out the Bridge Blog Archive!