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76.04% Carole Mataya + Matt Belau, Med City DBC, October 17 71.95% Kristine Verdin + Nancy Brunzel, Woodbury, October 16 71.45% Andrew Caranicas + Jackson Wahl, Bridge Center of St Paul, October 20 71.43% Mark Doucette + Maurice Evans, St Cloud DBC, October 3 71.11% Jackson Wahl + Charles Carroll, Autumn Harvest Sectional, October 24 70.74% Kyra Helmbold + Bob Balderson, Autumn Harvest Sectional, October 25 70.63% Greg Caucutt + Matt Belau, Rochester NABC Online Fundraiser, October 24 CHAT BRIDGE GAMES: 81.67% Liz Haynes + Jim Hall, Bridge Center of St Paul, October 16 70.00% Liz Haynes + Jim Hall, Bridge Center of St Paul, October 2 |
 
| However, both Minnesota units have held lots of GNT games this month - and for October, our local bridge clubs accounted for 61 of 64 D14 GNT tables (or 95.3%) of all D14 GNT tables. The ACBL is compiling their list of GNT qualified players - it should be available and posted here within the next week. |
Come join us! Feel free to dress up in costume as your favorite bridge player (or anything else, I guess). We'll have candy and refreshments, so there'll be lots of treats. And tricks!!! Friday, October 31, 2025 6:30 PM Bridge Center of St Paul 1751 County Rd B West, Ste 220, Roseville, MN 55113 $8/person RSVP to mgscbridgeclub@gmail.com Let us know if you need a partner. -- David |
Less than 14 masterpoints behind the leader and in 3rd place with one tournament to go is Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis]. And after Jackson's big win at the Autumn Harvest Sectional this past week, it's easy to see this is a 3-way race for the title. Everything will come down to the Bridge Center of St Paul's Holiday Sectional in December. On top of everything else in Roseville in December, the holiday cheer, the food bank donations, etc., etc., we won't know who the 2025 Minnesota Tournament Player of the Year will be until that tournament is over. Which is what you want in a race, right? |  |
This year, the ACBL has made Wednesday's Instant Matchpoint game a Royal Instant Matchpoint Game, so that everyone's masterpoint award will be 25% gold/25% silver/25% red/25% black. If you're looking to play in this game, as of tonight (Monday, 6p), there are six Minnesota clubs that have registered to hold this special game. You can check out the clubs that have signed up on the chart to your right or just click here. Then get in on the action Wednesday! |  |
BBO lays the reason for the rise in cost to the ACBL's policy of "minimum advertised price" for online games - even though the ACBL's policy has been in effect for the past four months and only specifies E-Club games (not individually-played instant tournaments). In any event, expect to pay a little more to play online on BBO - perhaps another reason to play face-to-face? |  |
Year-to-date, we've now seen a total of 2,184 tournament tables in play here in Minnesota - that is down 49 tables from the same period in 2024 (or -2.2%). But this still shows there's a strong attraction to tournament play for local players. Could we make up the 49 table difference at the last tournaments of the year in December? The BCSP Holiday Sectional had a record-setting 203 tables last year; if they're going to have 252+ tables over the four-day period, they will have to start taking out walls this week. And 178's NLM tournament in Minnetonka is a first-time event; that will add to the tournament table total but will it be enough? Even if tournament tables don't match 2024's totals, we're right in the ball park. That bodes really well for 2026 (when the counting starts all over again with the Winter Sectional at the end of January). |    |
Sectional December 11-14 Roseville  | Sectional Fri December 19 Minnetonka  | Sectional January 29-Feb 1 Roseville  | Sectional Feb 26-March 1 Roseville  | Sectional April 16-18 Rochester  |
    | Coming into the final day of competition tied in the masterpoint race with Carole Miner [Rochester], Jackson and teammates came in 1st overall in the morning session of the pair/teams game. . .then added another 3.42 silver points via the team portion of the afternoon session. (Details just below.) It was more than enough to secure the top spot in the tournament. Second place in the masterpoint race went to Ethan Lynch [Blaine] with 31.40 masterpoints, and Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie] followed in third with 29.69 MPs. Your top 25 masterpoint winners are listed to your left - along with the list of Autumn Harvest Sectional Champions over the past 20 years. One other note on the tournament champion this year - although he did get some extra bonus points via the team part of the pair/team competition this week, his "pairs only" scores averaged 62.49% for the six sessions of tournament play. (That was four sessions with Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis] and two sessions with Charles Carroll [St Paul].) Impressive. Recapping the rest of the action on Saturday, there was another 70% game had at the tournament Saturday morning, with Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie] and Kyra Helmbold [Minneapolis] scoring a 70.74% game in the morning; that earned them 10.79 silver points. The teams portion of the morning session saw Ethan Lynch [Blaine] and John Lynch [Blaine] team up with Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] and Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis] to take 1st place, earning 9.50 silver points for their effort. Following lunch, it was Barry Purrington [Eagan] along with David Collins [Fridley] who dominated the pairs portion of the game, coming in with a sparkling 67.21% game. That was enough to earn them 9.63 masterpoints; they were followed up by Roger Anderson [St Paul] and Sharon Anderson [St Paul], although the 2nd place through 8th place finishers in the afternoon pairs were separated by less than one board. That is some tough competition. Barry and David were joined by Ethan Lynch and John Lynch in the team portion of the afternoon session, and this foursome came in 1st overall for the 8.47 masterpoint award. Congratulations to all of the masterpoint award winners (there were ) and to everyone who had some fun this week. All of the masterpoint award winners can be found by clicking here. |
 | Following a couple of close contests Thursday at the Autumn Harvest Sectional, Friday's morning session saw an impressive and rather decisive victory by Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] and Charles Carroll [St Paul]. They finished with a 71.11% game in the tournament to pick up the morning's top prize of 8.25 silver points. Peg Waller [Edina] and Ronald Deharpporte [Edina] came in 2nd in the morning contest, scoring 65.67%. The morning's team competition brought home 7.26 silver points to the foursome of Dennis Schulte [Woodbury], Thomas Knier [Burnsville], Joan Lossing [Woodbury], and Dan Knier [Waite Park]. This was among 26 tables in play Friday morning - and with 23 tables in the afternoon, a two-day table count of 102 (or off -8.7% from last year's first two days). The afternoon crowd found Vern Swing [Minneapolis] and Keith Connolly [St Paul] rising to the top with their 67.43% game and 7.56 silver masterpoint award for 1st overall; the team part of the post-lunch game went to Linda Brammer [Edina], Garry Hoden [Eagan], Dan Ganter [Maple Grove], and Thomas Bedford [St Paul]. One more day of action (and FUN) wraps up this tournament in Roseville starting this morning. |
| Following a couple of close contests Thursday at the Autumn Harvest Sectional, Friday's morning session saw an impressive and rather decisive victory by Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] and Charles Carroll [St Paul]. They finished with a 71.11% game in the tournament to pick up the morning's top prize of 8.25 silver points. Peg Waller [Edina] and Ronald Deharpporte [Edina] came in 2nd in the morning contest, scoring 65.67%. The morning's team competition brought home 7.26 silver points to the foursome of Dennis Schulte [Woodbury], Thomas Knier [Burnsville], Joan Lossing [Woodbury], and Dan Knier [Waite Park]. This was among 26 tables in play Friday morning - and with 23 tables in the afternoon, a two-day table count of 102 (or off -8.7% from last year's first two days). The afternoon crowd found Vern Swing [Minneapolis] and Keith Connolly [St Paul] rising to the top with their 67.43% game and 7.56 silver masterpoint award for 1st overall; the team part of the post-lunch game went to Linda Brammer [Edina], Garry Hoden [Eagan], Dan Ganter [Maple Grove], and Thomas Bedford [St Paul]. One more day of action (and FUN) wraps up this tournament in Roseville starting this morning. |
It's official! The first Non-Life Master tournament in the west Metro in more than 11 years will take place on Friday, December 19th. It's all part of the West Metro Social Duplicate club, which operates their Friday morning games at "The Marsh" in Minnetonka. Their website can be found by clicking here, and the flyer can be found by clicking on the image to your right. NOTE that the WMSD website currently has a different flyer posted for this tournament which says this is a 0-6,000 masterpoint tournament - but we've been assured that is the wrong flyer and the one to your right is correct. From Norrie Thomas [Plymouth], Partnership Chair:
[S]orry for the confusion. --Norrie" | |
Day 1 of the Autumn Harvest Sectional held at the Bridge Center of St Paul got underway yesterday; last year saw 57 tables in play on day 1 (29 tables in the morning and 28 in the afternoon). This year, tables came in at 53 on day 1 (down 4 or off -7.0%). 28 tables in the morning and 25 in the afternoon is a great crowd, plus this was 100% pair/team tables, which is what Unit 178 was going for. The morning session found Carole Miner [Rochester] and Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie] coming in 1st overall with a 66.67% game - and earning 8.71 silver points. These two barely edged out Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] and Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis], who scored a 66.12% morning game. Ethan Lynch [Blaine] and Barb Williams [White Bear Lake] placed third overall (and first among the "B" and "C" players). Ethan and Barb teamed up with Jerry Bartlett [Lindstrom] and William Boline [Minneapolis] to take the teams portion of the pair/teams game in the morning for 7.66 silver points. They were followed closely by Teri Blu [Minneapolis], Barb Zipoy [Bloomington], David Gustafson [Stillwater], and Dean Sander [Burnsville]. Really closely. Then in the afternoon on Day 1, it was a tight competition in the pairs, with Teri and Barb coming in 3rd overall with their 63.05% game, barely bested by Carole and Bob and their 64.25% game. But it was Gene Brandl [Apple Valley] and Del Swanson [Bloomington] scoring a 65.24% game to come in 1st overall and grab the 8.02 silver point top prize. The afternoon teams found Rolf Hubmayr [Minneapolis], Jeff Walker [Eagan], Wendy Reiser [Madison WI], and James Skinner [Madison WI] taking the top award of 7.06 silver points. Well done, all! Masterpoint leaders are above right (or just click here) - and remember players do not get points for both pairs and teams in the same session! The ACBL website will have the incorrect masterpoint award totals for players until the tournament is over (and they catch up with the rest of us). All of the results from this tournament can be found by clicking here. |    |
Last year's Autumn Harvest did have 499er pair games (with decent attendance), and looking back at day 1 (Thursday) of last year's Autumn Harvest Sectional, there were 48 individuals that played in at least one of those two Thursday 499er sessions in 2024. Of those 48 players, just 2 of them would be ineligible to play in a 499er game this week. One (from Eau Claire) became a Life Master in the past year, and one (Minneapolis) now has 517.24 masterpoints. . .but the other 46 could all participate in a 499er game had there been one yesterday. So how many of these 46 players from last year showed up to this year's opening day at the Autumn Harvest Sectional? 28 of them played yesterday in the open pair/teams - that's more than half. That's great news in that here are 28 players from last year who were either introduced to the concept of (or reminded of how to play in) the pair/team format. NOTE: This does not take into account any new 499er players this week at the Autumn Harvest; nor does it take a look at any of last year's 499er-eligible players that opted for the pair/team games then. These figures are strictly for last year's 499er players that preferred having their own section (and either showed up or stayed home yesterday). And of course without asking, there's no way to know for sure why the other 4-1/2 tables of last year's 499ers didn't show up to play in the tournament yesterday. |  |
Just to your right is the updated information provided by the ACBL - and you can find the corrected game file online by clicking here. |  |
UPDATE: Thursday added another 476 tables across the BBO platform, along with an additional $1,466.08 (after BBO take) to the NABC Fundraising. It's great news! PREVIOUSLY: All this week, the ACBL's Clubhouse games are being featured as NABC Fundraiser games for our local fundraising drive. We're just three days in to the seven - and already the funds are coming in. Thanks for playing online this week and helping to raise the cash that will help to make our NABC such a success! 325 online tables took place in the fundraising games Monday, with another 366 on Tuesday. Wednesday saw 497 tables in play helping our local fundraising drive. Don't forget you have another four days (through Sunday) to sign on to BBO and look for these ACBL Clubhouse and E-Club fundraising games. Bridge + it's for a good cause = yep. |        
 
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In the NLM section of the Saturday afternoon session, the players had a 4-table Howell movement. But the scores ended up all being in the wrong directions (the players were given guide cards that didn't match the actual movement of the game as scored). To complicate matters further, the files were posted prior to the October 6 masterpoint engine run. Late last week, this was brought to the attention of the Unit 103 Tournament Coordinator [Ed.: That'd also be your blog editor], who was able to rebuild the game and fix the names and scores. The corrected game file has been sent into the ACBL for re-posting, although this late in the game there are a few more hoops to go through before the corrections can be made. From Bruce Mcintyre [ACBL mothership]:
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Table counts for this tournament are expected to be lower than 2024; that forecast is due to no limited masterpoint games offered during this year's three-day tournament. Last year's Autumn Harvest saw 44 tables of 499er tables (or 26.3% of the total tournament turnout), but this year there is no such offering for those 499er players. Of the 225 different players that played in last year's Autumn Harvest, a full 36.0% of them (81 players) played in those 499er games. Hopefully lots of 499er players will get in on the pair/team action this week - it's a great way to play with an "A" pair in the same game (and for a second shot at a masterpoint award!). Plus - you learn the most at the bridge table by playing against the more experienced players in the open games. We will know how bold this year's tournament strategy is by the time we get to Saturday evening (with possibly a good indication of how it's going likely well before then). |   |
All ACBL Clubhouse games will be run as NABC Fundraising Games through Sunday. You can find out more about their schedule and masterpoint breakdowns by clicking here. In addition to those games, D14 E-clubs can run 200% black online games - and there are two locally-run online games, one Friday afternoon at 12:30pm, and another game on Saturday at 7:00pm that will earn you those double black masterpoints. When you go onto BBO, look for these games:
(Saturday): RDBC NABC Fundraiser Pairs 7:00p |  |
Click on your club's calendar below to expand it and open it in a new window - then get out your bridge calendar and schedule those games. It's going to be a great month for cards.        |
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 | With a second of three weeks coming up November 3rd to promote the local NABC fundraising efforts, there was some discussion on how to increase the promotion of the Fundraiser games coming up; right now, it's mostly Minnesota clubs that run these games. More of an effort will be made to highlight the option to run these games top clubs outside of Minnesota, since they may not be fully aware of the benefits of running them. Another email blast was issued this week to players within 500 miles of Minneapolis to highlight naming a game for the NABC, the opportunity to play in the online BBO fundraiser games next week, and how to have special games scheduled for the week of November 3rd in D14 (as a player, if you want triple masterpoints, get your club to schedule these!). PR Chair Warren Nelson also sent out an email to club managers, website managers, and D14 ambassadors - so they are informed about how and why these fundraising games are important. Patti made a field trip, taking the bus from downtown to Convention Center; it's only $1 for seniors, plus, walking back to her car on the same route provided the opportunity to check out many restaurants. Having looked at the Convention Center ballroom, she said "it's huge and it's beautiful"; she feels really good about the Convention Center space. There are players looking into a list of what's happening in Minneapolis that week along with investigating getting a block of Twins tickets for one night during the NABC. One other item that came up - it's been determined that a shuttle bus from the Bridge Center of St Paul to the Convention Center would be too expensive. It sounds as though getting a couple of people to coordinate carpools (either a driver or riding in an Uber) both from St Paul and from Edina Senior Center might be a better option for helping local players to get to downtown without the hassles of parking. Thanks to these hard working volunteers who are working to make the upcoming Summer NABC a great one! They'll meet again in about eight weeks. |
 | Also on the left - the list of Autumn Harvest Sectional Champions for the past 20 years - who will be adding their name to the list of champions for this tournament? It's hard to know for sure, but there's no chance at all for your name to be on the big list unless you're planning to play - so get a partner and get in on the action. We haven't heard if bringing in your local produce is part of this event's harvest, but you know with these bridge players that it would not go to waste! |
Although the City of Minneapolis has decided to cancel their Aquatennial celebration, held since 1940, this has nothing to do with the Aquatennial Sectional held by Unit 178 each summer. It's true that the Summer NABC in Minneapolis in July will be taking place instead of the Aquatennial next year, but Keith Thompson [Bloomington] tells us the plan is to shift 178's popular sectional tournament a bit earlier in the year in 2026. Once it's on the calendar, we'll have a flyer for your bridge planning. For now, newspaper headlines citing the end of the Aquatennial refers only to the city's big summer celebration - which did not have any duplicate bridge involved. Coincidence? |  |
  | ACBL membership as of September 30th was 120,464, which is a -6.4% drop from one year ago. To your left is a chart of the membership figures plotted by month and year, and you'll see that while 2023 and 2024 the slope of the downward trend trimmed a bit - that slope has started to accelerate again here in 2025. Locally, the 12-month membership figures are mixed, with Unit 103's membership beating the overall ACBL number (but still declining, off -3.5% compared to last September), and Unit 178 suffering a slightly greater September-over-September decline than the ACBL's average, with their membership down -7.9%. Among all of the ACBL, there are some success stories out there - even if few and far between - and the more work we put in to recruiting the better it is overall (but more importantly, locally!). Your help is needed in saving this great game for all of us. Talk to your local club or unit board member and ask what you can do to help - the future of (y)our game depends on it. |
The Minneapolis Grand Slam Club is holding their first post-pandemic F2F game coming up on Friday at 6:30pm at the Bridge Center of St Paul's Roseville location. Anyone that opts to play in the game this week will get two free plays for future MGSC games on Friday nights. A 3-for-1 deal is tough to beat, plus, there's all the fun and excitement of the game this Friday! It's great to see the MGSC putting together the effort to return to face-to-face games, and the 3-for-1 deal is just the icing on that cake. If you're a fan of cake (and who isn't?), then stop by in Roseville on Friday evening and get in on the action. |
 | NOTE that this does not affect their regular Wednesday game, held at the American Legion in NE St Paul; but all the other classes, chat bridge, etc., will be moved - for now - to their temporary location. The map is just to your left. |
 | In addition to the double black points you can earn online, the extra money that is raised goes to our local NABC fundraising efforts helmed by Patti Stuhlman [Minneapolis]. So it's for a great cause, in addition to the bonus points for you. Be sure to check the online schedule for next week - and do yourself (and your local fundraising team) some good. |
 | Regardless of how familiar you are with this program, the method of reimbursing ACBL units should be of interest to you; units have two sources of income by which to operate (tournament income, along with the ACBL's partial reimbursment of player dues). All of the things that your ACBL unit does in supporting clubs (and players) requires money - and without the funds available to support clubs (and players), the decline of this great game will only accelerate. That's true across the ACBL as well as right here in Minnesota. Which brings us back to the new 5-5-5 program, instituted 18 months ago by the ACBL. Previously, the ACBL provided units with 11% of their membership dues with no questions asked. But the ACBL changed all this in the spring of 2024, only providing 5% of membership dues to each unit. Units could earn an additional 5% of the dues through recruitment, and another 5% through retaining new members and bringing back members who stopped playing for whatever reason. (Thus the "5-5-5" moniker for the new program.) Again - it was designed to reward active clubs in getting players into the game (whether new or formerly active players) - which is a smart way to drum up unit activity in encouraging more participants in the game of bridge. So how is this program faring after being in place? The chart to your left (click on it to expand it, but alerting [!] it's a big chart) shows every ACBL unit (all 287) from the past six months and their respective reimbursement amount from the ACBL compared to the old 11% reimbursement figures. The data comes from the good people at BridgeFinesse, who post the progress of this program quarterly. Here are the headlines:  Over this six-month period, the ACBL's units are $75,672.40 poorer compared to the old reimbursement scheme. Locally, Unit 103 is poorer by $453.71 during this period, and Unit 178 is poorer by $548.11. That's money that your Minnesota unit could use to better your bridge-playing experience.And it's not as though your units aren't making an effort. Supporting growing clubs and education foundations is taking place in both our units - 178's expansion into the West Metro with the Social Duplicate club and 103's recent material support of their clubs (including Minnesota's two fastest growing clubs in St Cloud and Woodbury) are examples. But it's not enough - and the fact that it's not enough is not limited to our units or our state. 86.4% of all ACBL units during this six-month period left money on the table. They'd have been better off financially under the old reimbursement program. Of the 248 ACBL units that received less under this program, Unit 166 (they're in District 2 and cover the Toronto ON area) has suffered the greatest loss during this six months of -$4,310.25. The average loss to ACBL units is -$319.22 during the six months.The greatest reimbursement excess during this six month period (to Unit 538 in Southern California) was $373.33. Of the 39 ACBL units that achieved better than the old 11% reimbursement figure, they averaged an additional $89.60.So what is to be done? Locally and across ACBL-land? There aren't any easy answers, of course, but one thing you can do is to get involved with your local club - teaching, encouraging new players, getting pre-COVID players that haven't come back to return to the table, making this game FUN and available to everyone. It's possible the ACBL will make more changes to this program (or scrap it entirely) if things don't change, but don't plan on it. Plus, even if the ACBL goes back to getting their units more money through the old reimbursement program, anything you can do to help will still be a huge bonus to supporting the game that you love. |
 | The West Metro Social Duplicate club has put together a website which has everything you'd want to know about the games there (including their schedule, lessons, and a winter tournament in the works, too). That website can be found by clicking here, and once you land on their page be sure to bookmark it for the latest. |
  | There were 18 tables in the morning session with Arlyce Anderson [North Mankato] and Joyce Hoelmer [Mankato] taking the top prize with their 64.29% game. They were awarded 3.09 silver points for their effort - well done! In the afternoon session, it was locals Liz Hammer [St Cloud] along with the aforementioned Wendy Hennes who came in 1st overall among the 16 tables in play with their impressive 68.04% game. Total tables for the day exceeded last year by +6.3%, which is also a great result. And that is not all - five players were in attendance with fewer than 10 masterpoints! Congratulations to the entire St Cloud DBC for putting on such a terrific tournament (read: party). You can get all of the results from this tournament by clicking here, and there's much more on the St Cloud DBC website which you can visit by clicking here. |
  | This is the first monthly title for Mark, who played in sixteen in-person games this past month - and scratched in every single game he played. In addition, Mark accomplished this feat by playing with eight different partners during the month of September. Fourteen of the sixteen games Mark played in last month were matchpoint games, where he averaged 56.49% during that stretch - and two of the games were team games, where Mark came in 1st and 4th. Here is a shout-out to the King of Clubs for this month, along with his many, many partners (and even more opponents) who helped him take the crown for October. |
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Games start at 10:00 and 2:30. Need a partner? Contact Sue Sanger at suesanger@comcast.net. See you there! --Steve Gaynor |
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There were 2,152.0 tables of face-to-face bridge in District 14 last month; of all those tables, only 55.0 tables were Grand National Teams qualifying game tables. And every single one of those 55 District 14 GNT qualifying tables that was held in September took place in Minnesota. All of them. The biggest bridge club in the Midwest, the Omaha Bridge Studio, doesn't run any GNT games. They haven't for four years. Thanks to the buy-in option, there's no need for them to do so. If a player in Nebraska wants to play in the D14 GNT Finals this March, they can just buy their way in - but in the meantime, nobody in Omaha is getting either exposure or experience to the International Match Point method of play. If you're wondering how this expands the Grand National Team program in either the short- or long-term, well, welcome to the club. And this isn't just a bad result for players in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area, although it's certainly that - it means smaller team games down the road for everybody, including Minnesota players when we get to the District level of competition. NOTE: In the last four years of post-pandemic D14 GNT Finals, Nebraska players have made up less than 1% of those involved - even though Nebraska is home to 17.6% of active D14 players. One reason why nobody in Nebraska plays in the GNT Finals might be because they have no exposure to team games at their local clubs. (Everyone knows they can just buy their way in - and yet they never do.) Thankfully, some of our local clubs do run some GNT qualifying games, and we're fortunate to be qualifying Minnesota players to continue with the GNT. Shortly the ACBL will have a list of qualified players from D14 and we'll post it when available. |    |
Here are a few ways to continue to support the 2026 Summer Nationals: The week of November 3rd through the 9th will be another opportunity for clubs to hold NABC fundraiser games. These games pay TRIPLE masterpoints to participating players. The extra cost is $4 per table. Please ask club managers in your area to designate club games during the week for this purpose. To sign up a club game, select GAME SETUP: In the "Select event rating" Screen, select "Fund" (option 3), then "NABC Promotional Game" (option 7). Once the game is complete, upload to ACBL Live for Clubs as normal and remit your check to Barry Purrington for the game fees. Later this month (October 20th-26th), everyone can play in NABC fundraiser games on BBO. These games offer enhanced masterpoints, so please encourage Club members in your area to participate. There is still time to Name a Game at the Summer Nationals. The cost to name a one-session side game or 299 game is $100; the cost to name a two-session Open Pairs or Team game is $200. Personally, I am very excited for the opportunity to see world-class players in action, and perhaps to play against them. This tournament gives everyone opportunities to play in events that are not normally offered at Sectional or Regional tournaments. Once again, thank you for your efforts to support and promote the 2026 Summer NABC tournament. Let’s not wait another 30 years to host our next NABC! --Warren Nelson |
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Jim Bier [Oronoco] Liz Haynes [Little Canada] Honora Kennedy [West Lakeland] Mike Leidal [Austin] David Tilstra [Sartell] Janet Tilstra [Sartell] Jean Dovenberg [Wayzata] Bonnie Shwalbe [Wayzata] |
Sectional Sat October 11 Sauk Rapids  | Sectional October 23-25 Roseville  | Sectional December 11-14 Roseville | Sectional January 29-Feb 1 Roseville | Sectional Feb 26-March 1 Roseville | Sectional April 16-18 Rochester |
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You can get all of the results from the tournament by clicking here. |
Please join us on this and future Friday nights for a congenial game with both established and up-and-coming players. We'll have refreshments, extra masterpoints whenever possible, stratified awards, and a post-game hand analysis session, all for $8/person. The Club will cover the upcharge for special games. We will have a partnership desk so a partner is always guaranteed. Please RSVP by replying to mgscbridgeclub@gmail.com so we can plan accordingly. Game info: Friday, 10/17, 6:30 pm Bridge Center of St Paul 1751 County Rd B West, Ste 220, Roseville, MN 55113 $8/person |
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The morning session saw Gregg Van Dyke [Key Largo FL] and Paula DeSantos [Minneapolis] take the top honors with their 66.11% game; in the afternoon it was Richard Towner [Surprise AZ] along with Hai-Sheng Wu [Mankato] coming in 1st. On the 749ers side, local players Doris Hertsgaard [Mankato] and Carol Ann Frederick [Mankato] scored a 62.69% game to take first, with Marilyn Krieger [Blue Earth] and partner Bridget Gallagher [Blue Earth] winning the afternoon session. Masterpoint leaders for day 1 are just to your left. |
 | Chip Dombrowski [ACBL Mothership], who does everything for the ACBL that is related to The Longest Day, explains:
-- Chip |
  | These four traveled to L'Hexagone this week and played in a twenty-table bridge game at the Maison du Bridge in Mont-Saint-Aignan, Normandy (about two hours northwest of Paris). In addition to what was likely trop de plaisir for this quartet of players, Barb and Ann walked out of the building having had a 54.49% game. Pas mal! Linda and Jane's 44.71% game was hopefully just as fun (it was certainly just as French). Besides bridge, we're hoping there's some wine and cheese to be had, along with some good french cuisine - but there should be at least a few good stories upon their return to Minnesota. (They are coming back, aren't they?) |
    | Over the past three months, the ACBL's average reimbursement to their 285 units across North America clocked in at 78.1% of the old 11% reimbursement they used to provide. That figure is down from the 80.5% average of the previous five quarters of the 5-5-5 program. That might suggest that while the effort to get units more involved in recruiting to get their previous funding is a great idea, the ACBL's units overall are having a difficult time in accomplishing the ACBL's stated goals. Here in Minnesota, Unit 103 received 81.8% of their previous funding target, that's above the ACBL average - but Unit 178 received only 68.2% of what they previously got before the program got started (well below the ACBL's average). For the 18 months that the 5-5-5 program has been in effect, Unit 103 has missed out on 11.9% of their previous funding (or leaving $920.70 on the table), with Unit 178 missing out on 25.8% of the money they used to get (leaving $1,556.23 on the table). As replacing players continues to be a struggle, Unit 103's change in active membership decreased slightly this time around, from -2.8% to -3.5%. Their percentage of active membership lost in the past 12 months increased from -8.4% to -10.6%. The numbers for Unit 178 are slightly worse, but they are an improvement over the last quarter ending June 30th. For 178, the change in active membership went from -9.9% to -7.9%, and their lost membership tightened up from -15.0% last quarter to -13.7% this quarter. (178's recent outreach to the West Metro can only be helping with these results, and those efforts should be applauded.) And in terms of new Unit members, 103 and 178 continue to lead District 14. If you love this game of bridge (and if you're reading this, you do), be sure to help stem the tide that is sweeping across all of the ACBL. Volunteer to reach out to former club members, or help with teaching new members, get involved at the club and unit level, do something to keep out game going. There are plenty of bridge players that do nothing but show up, expecting their weekly game to be held - and although we certainly want their games to keep going, we can't afford any more players like that. |
When it was clear that Peg would be not writing the bridge blog any more, this editor had asked Typepad if it was possible to download all of Peg's blog information; she wrote and posted some really terrific stuff. Typepad indicated at the time that there was no way to download any of that information unless Peg did it herself, and by that time she was no longer able to do so. They did say that this original blog would be online for good, so we linked to it from the Bridge Blog Archive page, where it was accessible to everyone. Fast forward to four days ago, and Typepad went belly-up, closing for good. They announced that they had purged all of their data - including Peg's original bridge blog. Somewhere, we've got some of that information stored (for safekeeping) - not all of it by any means, but the point of this post is that if you're looking for Peg's bridge blog online, you're not going to find it anymore. We're very sorry to see it go. |
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 | The 55 tables of Grand National Teams this month matches the most GNT tables for September in the post-pandemic era; it's a nice increase of 34.1% over last September. Keep an eye out for these GNT games in October, and by all means, play in them! In addition to qualifying for the D14 GNT Finals, they pay 1/2 red points and are mega-masterpoint games. . .so lots of reasons to look for them on your club's schedule. |
The full name, and we should be using it, is "Jane Johnson Club Appreciation Month". Jane Johnson was the ACBL's longtime Club Department Manager until her death in 2001. When she passed away, the ACBL began what was known as the Star Club program, which asked clubs to apply for recognition based on specific criteria - and earn one, two, or three stars. Club members were asked to nominate their clubs for the annual Jane Johnson Club of the Year award. Unfortunately, the Star Club program never really took off, with less than 130 of the ACBL's 3,200 clubs participating in the early 2000s. In 2006, the criteria for recognition was simplified, but still this program was not working. So the ACBL elected to kill the Star Club program and honor Jane by renaming Club Appreciation Month each October as Jane Johnson Club Appreciation Month (the games carry this name as well). |
This is the second month of the GNT qualifying period, and there will be teams games scheduled at most local Minnesota clubs again here in October. Get a partner (and another pair) to play in one of these - and you'll find teams play is really fun. Steve Gaynor [Arden Hills] has been kind enough to put together a few pointers for the different strategy in playing teams - you can click on his list of "dos" (and a lot of "don'ts") to the right or just click here. It's good stuff. |  |