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 | Remember, to play in the D14 GNT Finals online the weekend of March 28 and 29 this year, you must qualify at your local club first! So if you have not yet qualified, check with your local club (or the club calendars on this blog) for when a team game is scheduled - and get qualified! (And if you have qualified, by all means, enjoy the team play of these games.) |
      When you need just over 56 masterpoints to hit a major milestone, tournament play is where to get them. But it's hard to see where even the eventual tournament champion this weekend at the Minnesota Winter Tournament can achieve that many masterpoints (when you're looking at mid- to upper-30s in these four-day events for the big winner). A healthy dent in that 56+ points needed is likely, however, and by this time next month - have we mentioned cake? |
 | For starters, there are games that provide "overall awards" and those that do not (regular "club" games). Tournaments provide many more masterpoints for the same tables as a club game would, and the more tables in your game, the more masterpoints are awarded. But just looking at one type of award - the 1st place "overall" award - requires you to know six things. The number of tables, the game's "rating" (according to ACBL codification), the number of sessions in the event, the masterpoint limit, whether it's an open game or limited to a certain group, and the type of game. No, really! It's all on the chart to your left. And that's just for the first place overall award. So please forgive your club director or manager if they stifle an eye-roll when you ask them about this sort of thing - the ACBL has a 36-page booklet on how to figure out masterpoint awards. It's got everything you would need to know about how masterpoints are determined, but let's just say it's not what one would call "a light read". This question almost always comes from an advancing player, and even if you don't want to peruse the ACBL's rulebook on masterpoints, there are two things to know. 1) Games that charge an extra $1 at your club do so because they pay extra masterpoints than regular club games - play in them if you want MPs! And 2) if there is a tournament with an Open section and a 499er section, the awards in the Open section even for 499er players are much higher than in the 499er section itself - frequently higher than 1st place in the 499er section. So don't be afraid to "play up", as you've got a better shot at more points (in addition to learning a few things by playing with the pros). |
  | The increase in tables for this month has slowed a bit over last year's rise, with tables Outstate tables rising a bit more so than in the Metro area. The chart on the lower left would be the "Big Six" clubs in Minnesota and their respective January table counts over the past four years. This is the 4th January in the post-COVID world of bridge tables, and each successive year is showing an overall statewide incease over the year before. . .and that could be more indicative of a trend. |
  | Approved Board minutes are posted on this site on the Minnesota Unit documents page; and remember that both Units 178 and 103 will have all of their published information (when available) posted on this website. 1(Apparently looking at condo renovation in another state, and nothing to do with the police blotter.) |
 | UPDATE (SUN 1/26): If anything, the forecast is improving. Now highs of 41° on Thursday and 42° expected - it's a bit of a "leap into spring" about four weeks early. |
The Plymouth Bridge Club's Tuesday limited masterpoint games have raised the ceiling over at 6000 Lyndale Avenue. Not the actual ceiling of Studio Time Out, where they're holding the games, but the masterpoint ceiling of their game! The previously 749er game is now a 999er game; so all players with under 1,000 masterpoints are welcome to show up at 12:15 for a lesson followed by bridge at 12:45. Minnesota's other Tuesday games are also on the rise, with rising table counts reported over the last 12 months. The Bridge Center of St Paul's Tuesday games (+8.5%), St Cloud's Tuesday game (+0.3%), and Rochester's Tuesday Pro/Am game (+26.9%) all have shown positive table count growth in 2024 compared to 2023. |
 | There's something new this year - Unit 103 is providing FREE GOPHER DAYS to some lucky 499er/NLM player in every session of this tournament. Any and all 499er and/or Flight "C" players will be eligible to get two free sessions of bridge at the upcoming Gopher Regional in May. It's our way of saying "thanks" for playing with us next week and hopefully increasing our NLM players at the big tournament in a few months. Remember - single-session entries will be accomodated as requested at the Winter Tournament next week and lunch is included on Sunday with every Swiss team entry. |
 | This game will be held at the Bridge Center of St Paul's Roseville location, with the festivities beginning at 11:00am (including a light lunch). Following the Awards Presentation will be a game of bridge for everyone there. Mark your calendar for May 4th - and we'll see you at the Awards Presentation. |
 | This past week was a Silver Linings Week, with the average size of the online BBO game was 29.89 tables per game. That's 4.45 standard deviations above the two-year mean of 13.56 tables per game on BBO. Quite impressive! And on the chart to your left (click to enlarge), you'll see that most of these silver linings weeks do the trick for getting players out there. You may remember when you needed silver points, they were known as "the hardest to get". The ACBL is making sure that's not quite the case anymore - and MUCH larger than normal BBO games during these Silver Linings weeks are the result. |
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Everything is yet to be finalized for this event, but it looks to be a one-day two-session regional event (it sounds like it would be "something special" during the tournament week, run on one day of the tournament rather than run every day). It would be similar to a regular Open pairs event, however instead of three published strats in advance (for example, 750/2000/Unlimited), there would be many more strats, or "brackets". The breaks in the brackets would not be known until the game gets going - but the result is that players would be competing in the same bracket with other pairs within their masterpoint range. The San Diego Regional this spring will be running this event; eventually it is expected to be rolled out to all regionals. For now - they're still working on masterpoint calculations, among other things, and very very few directors know how to run it. So don't look for it in too many places this year - but it's another change to the ACBL tournament schedule, and this is one that is getting a lot of positive buzz. |
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 |  Recruitment of new playersSupports for current players, especially novice/advancingSupports for clubs, primarily for their growthGetting past players back to the table, andOngoing innovation
Unit 103 has set aside $1,000.00 for this Innovation Fund, to be used to help find out what works when promoting bridge and bridge players - and how these things work for everyone. All the details can be found by clicking on the image to your left. |
  Here is another Minnesota player who is about to cross a major milestone when it comes to masterpoints. Get ready for a party to be held - some time this spring. (Spoiler alert: There will be cake.) |
 | That's not just saying something, it's quite the statement! This list covers the ACBL's U-25 members around the globe, and if you know any 20-somethings (that includes grandchildren) you know they're as competitive or more so than the rest of us. Next time you see these two at one of our local clubs, don't forget to give them a "congrats!" and remember that they are among the best in the world. |
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   | Directions to the new location can be found by clicking here. You can find out more information about all of this by checking out the Duluth DBC website (found by clicking here). Not to worry - you'll experience all of the same fun and comraderie of the Duluth DBC experience in their new location - and there's no word yet on whether the move to Hillside United Methodist Church will make the cards any more "forgiving", but here's to a smooth transition as they head to their new location in a couple of weeks. NOTE: Not to jinx anything, but if you're parking on Piedmont Avenue, remember that's a "snow emergency route". |
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 | This week that spring cleaning took place up in St Cloud, where volunteers of the St Cloud DBC took to making sure everything was in proper order (not just for their upcoming games, but upcoming tournaments, too). A special shout-out to the volunteers in the Granite City for making our card-playing experience that much better. |
| This 4-day tournament will feature a bit of something for everyone, with the flyer and schedule just to your left - click on it to enlarge it and open it in a new window for further examination. 499er or Flight "C" games will be available and single-session entries will be accomodated as requested. PLUS lunch is included on Sunday with every Swiss team entry! That's not all! Every 499er or "C" player at each of the Winter Tournament's sessions will have a chance to win a day's FREE PLAY at the upcoming Minnesota Gopher tournament. All Non-life master players in the 499er pairs or Flight "C" pairs will be automatically entered to spend a free day of bridge at the Gopher this May - on Unit 103. This is all happening at the Bridge Center of St Paul, where despite whatever winter weather presents itself at the end of the month, the card-playing area will be nice and toasty. Get your partnerships squared away (or contact Kim Hayward for a partner) soon - and we'll see you on the 30th. |
Patti is hoping to have a fundraiser during this year's Gopher tournament in May to help raise some money for this cause. And she's looking for someone (or someones) to chair the fundraiser this May. If you're interested in helping out, be sure and contact Patti. Any help you can provide is very much appreciated. |
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But they're all fake - and an effort to scam you out of money. Don't reply to the email - just delete it. How to notice if an email is legit? Check the return address. Even a slight difference (like the number "1" is substituted for the letter "l") and you're being phished. Here's an example of an email currently going around:  It sure looks like a real email from someone we all know! But by hitting "reply" (and keep in mind, you're not really going to reply to this email, but just by clicking on "reply")-- 
You'll see the return address is not the normal email address for the person allegedly sending the email. A good rule of thumb is anytime anyone is asking you to purchase something (even as a surprise gift) - you're going to be out some money. These types of emails are not just limited to bridge players of course. . .but bridge players are frequently their target. (That is also why on this bridge blog, email addresses are listed in the format "medcitybridge-at-gmail-dot-com" so as to deter auto-harvesters that scan random websites from picking up real bridge player emails and using them.) |
So when Christmas and New Year's both fall on a Monday, that depresses the holiday week table turnout - since clubs generally close for these holidays. This is what took place 12 months ago. But what a difference a day makes! (Or two days, when you're talking about a leap year, of which 2024 was one.) With these major holidays (and Hanukkah, to boot) moving off of Monday during the 2024/2025 holiday calendar, Minnesota's Monday games were in full swing - and swing they did. Looking at the combined two-week table totals around Minnesota for Christmas week and New Year's week, overall tables exploded by +37.3%. It's a nice start to 2025 - maybe we can keep it up?   |
For one thing, the dot matrix printers at the tournament will be replaced with laser printers. The ACBL is planning to run more boards through the dealing machine, so that even Swiss teams matches will have pre-duplicated boards. KO and Swiss match scores will be entered into BridgeMates and scored electronically, so that the days of the "pick-up slip" and confirming your scores with the other team may be numbered. And finally, electronic screens are to be put up throughout the playing area - these will display things like recap sheets, table assignments, even the round timers for various types of games. At the end of the game, these electronic displays may even show results - which means the days of the "printer lice" (players gathering around the printer at the end of the game as if the airplane is about to board) may also be a thing of the past. Assuming all goes well with the introduction of these changes through this year's NABCs, you'll see all of these changes in Minneapolis next summer. Stay tuned. |
Every Tuesday evening in January and February, the MGSC will host a GNT qualifying game on BBO at 6:30pm. This includes tomorrow night, and every Tuesday through February 25th. It's a $5 charge to play each week, and you'll find the game listed under "Virtual Clubs" on BBO just like every other E-club game. In addition to qualifying for the D14 GNT Finals later in March, this is good practice for team game strategy! PLUS there's an online meeting (via Zoom) after each game with Mike Cassel [Roseville], who will provide a recap of the game and analysis. (Seriously, it's good stuff.) Partnerships and teammates may be found at the partnership desk on BBO before the game, but you can also send an email to MGSCbridgeclub-at-gmail-dot-com and they'll do their best to hook you up. This game is open to everyone - and your partner or teammates do NOT have to be from District 14. Plan on playing and qualify! |
It's actually the list of the top 101 players, for reasons which should be obvious. Click on the image to your right to enlarge it and open it in a new window. (NOTE that this is not the definitive list, as players move in and out of Minnesota's Units during the winter months - but it's the best the ACBL can come up with, and it's impractical to try and track down every player around the league who summers with us.) |  |
 | A few changes from last year - for example, the two-day knockout was dropped in favor of single-day team games (a change you'll also see in September down in Rochester this year) - but overall it'll still be the tournament you love to be at in Bloomington. NOTE there will be no Gopher in 2026, with the Summer NABC scheduled in July, so this will be your only chance for a couple of years to "Go-Pher the Gold!" Plans are being finalized for this year's big week at the Gopher, and volunteers are always welcome - be sure to contact Patti if you're interested in helping out. |
It looks as though Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] and Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis] came in 1st overall in the District, with their 61.58% game at the Bridge Center of St Paul. That's good for 10.00 masterpoints (seriously, not bad for a few hours of fun!). Dave Collins [Fridley] and Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park] were a close second in that game, earning 7.50 masterpoints. And over in Edina, it was a 3-way tie for 1st in the game, with those three pairs tying for 4th in the District. Look for the official results when they are issued by clicking here.  |
103 Twin Cities players played at least 10 sessions of Wednesday morning games in 2024, and their handicaps are listed to your right. How are these calculated - and what are they used for? The calculation is simple; it's the average percentage game of a player over the year compared to what gets them to 50.00% - and then divided by two. In other words, if a player averages 54.50% over the year, -4.50 gets them to 50.00% and their handicap would be half the -4.50 or -2.25. Similarly, a player averaging 47.24% would need +2.76 to get to 50.00%, and half that would give them a handicap of +1.38. They're used for handicapped games - and the reason the number is divided in half for the handicap is because in a partnership, each player's handicap gets added (or subtracted) to the pair's percentage at the end of the handicap game. So two players who have handicaps of -3.10 and -2.40 would have 5.50% taken off their score at the end of the game. It really levels the playing field for everyone in the room - giving everyone the chance for some masterpoints as long as they do better than they normally do. |  |
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 | There were even a few more that could have been on the list but did not meet the minimum 40% of all open games requirement to be eligible. Duluth held 48 open Monday games (well, 47 Monday games and a special Wednesday Instant-Matchpoint Game in October) - you had to show up to at least 19 open games in 2024 to be eligible for the list. And as for the attendance award this year, four Duluth players showed up to play in 40 of the 48 open games - these four all tied for showing up the most (or as club owners like to say, "having spent the most money to play") - they are:
Gary Schneider [Duluth] Dianne Carr [Duluth] Jan Stone [Duluth] |
The obvious choice might be the 80.19% game that Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] and Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis] scored while playing in an Open Sectional at the end of October. 80%+ games do not come easy, and they don't show up on the scoreboard often. . .especially at this level of competition. Smaller games (and sometimes a less experienced field) tend to skew scores, but this was anything but that. The last 80.00%+ game at the Sectional level in Minnesota was on a Saturday evening up in Duluth - eight years ago. This is a game that's hard to beat for the title. Here's a completely different option for you as an alternative. We've written before about how Donna Nesser [Minneapolis] should have her own named chair in the Wednesday Open Maple Grove game. That's just based on her attendance alone, where in 2024 she showed up to play 45 out of the 46 Wednesday Open games that Scott Smith [Bloomington] holds. This past year, Donna had a tougher time at the bridge table, with more scores below 40% than above. But on August 28th, Donna and her partner of 14.75 masterpoints, Linda Faust [Edina], came in 2nd in their direction of a 15-table Open game. . .with a 60.04% score! How impressive is that? Especially when you consider that this score is 2.77 standard deviations above Donna and Linda's typical 2024 Wednesday morning result. (This is a once-in-every 357 games result for Donna and Linda, or once in almost every eight years of Wednesday morning games.) Here's to Donna Nesser and Linda Faust for coming in with (at the very least) the surprise game of the year, and hopefully they had a really great celebratory lunch afterwards. If you don't know Donna, look for her at the Wednesday morning game and say "howdy" - there's a 97.8% chance (45/46) she'll be there. |  
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Here's a look at Units 103 and 178 for 2024, and how they compare to the ACBLwide average for the 288 ACBL units involved; Unit 103 is doing slightly better than average, Unit 178 is doing slightly worse, but in the 4th quarter of 2024, only 69 of the 288 ACBL Units earned more than the old 11% figure. (There has been some discussion about retooling the program so that it is a bit more to each Unit's advantage - we will see.) Getting as many people as possible to the table helps all of us - so if you know someone who's been away for awhile, be sure to give them a call!   |
| Rochester held 102 open games in 2024, with 3,066 scores - but once all entered, the 57.35% average for Greg held up for another year as Rochester's top player. (Actually, the 1-2 positions remained the same, with Matt Belau [Rochester] placing second, within 0.26% of Greg this year.) The "Baker's Dozen" in Rochester is listed to your left, with players having had to play in at least 40% of the open games last year to qualify. This year's "2025 Carole Mataya Attendance Award" (so named for the person who won it last year) goes to Layne Vinje [Rochester], who showed up to play in 95 of the 102 open games held. And this year's "2025 Most Improved Player" in Rochester was none other than the incoming RDBC Board President, Connie Dalzell [Rochester], whose average score in these open games went up by a whopping +5.07% over her 2023 average - best year-over-year increase among the crowd. [ED: Note to self: learning more about the game and "playing up" with better players really improves your game.] There might be a "Volunteer of the Year" in the works down in Rochester, but like so many bridge clubs in Minnesota there's something like a 10-way tie for 1st. Same for the "Sportsmanship Award" (just impossible to determine a winner with so many candidates). On to 2025! |
On Friday, there's an ACBL-wide Junior Fund game, which something else entirely. Although the cost to run the game is the same as your typical club Junior Fund game, Friday's games will be scored across everyone in North America. The top award in District 14 will be 10 masterpoints - and 20 masterpoints if you come in 1st in the ACBL overall! There are just two local clubs running a Friday game that would be eligible for this huge masterpoint payout - the Edina Senior Center's Friday morning game and the Bridge Center of St Paul's Friday afternoon game. (You can't play in both of them at the same time, which we did ask about.) But get a partner and show up Friday to benefit both Junior bridge and possibly also your own masterpoint holding. |
The first tournament of 2025 is coming at the end of the month - get your partnerships squared away and let's make an effort to keep improving on 2024's total tables. Big bridge games benefit everyone.   |
| It might seem pretty easy to see Joe coming in 1st in 2024 with his usual placement each week, but as is typically the case with the game of bridge, there is a twist to this story. (That's coming up.) First things first. The Wednesday morning Metro DBC game is one of the largest in the Twin Cities, averaging 14.05 tables each week. There were 2,588 scores in the 46 Wednesday games in 2024. When you score each of these 46 games, and average each player's scores over the year, Joe Koester's 59.29% is tops among all Wednesday morning players. Congratulations to Joe! The "Top 20" players in this Wednesday game are listed on the chart to your left (click on it to open it in a new window). To be eligible to be on this list, you had to play in at least 40% of the Wednesday morning games during 2024. Here's the twist for the taking of the #1 spot. Joe's regular partner John Schlundt [Eden Prairie] came in second over the course of last year - with a 59.27% average. Just 0.02% separated these two. They played as a partnership 41 of 42 Wednesdays - but it was that 42nd Wednesday! Teri Blu [Bloomington] played a role in this whole thing, as she partnered with Joe in the one single game of 2024 when Joe played with someone else on a Wednesday morning. This was way back on February 21, 2024, when Teri and Joe scored a 60.17% game, good enough to lift his average over the year by just 0.02% to take the crown. If Joe and Teri had even a 59.00% game, it would be Joe's partner John coming in 1st place by the squeaker. Who knew a game set up in February would have such an impact? It sure seems like Joe could buy Teri lunch. |
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It's the first big tournament of 2025 for Minnesota players, and this four-day event will have a little something for everyone. Two-session pairs games, Swiss teams, Pair/Team games, it's all there, and of course something for the 499ers every day of the tournament. Kim Hayward [Bayport] has graciously offered to do partnerships this year. This is our first opportunity to get a gain on 2024's tournament tables, so do your part and we'll see you at the end of the month. What will the weather bring? It's always a gamble in mid-winter in Minnesota, but inside at the BCSP only the contracts will be cold. (Ok, sodas, too. Sodas and contracts.) |
"What a great year for bridge in Minnesota - successful tournaments, increase[s] in local games, incentives to provide assistance to local clubs, achievements made by individual players! As we move into 2025, Unit 103 and 178 are still exploring ways to become one state unit. A sub-committee has been established to identify pertinent issues, ways to resolve those issues, and how to move forward. Stay tuned - keep your eye on the blog for further information - probably in February as Sue Sanger (Unit 178 president) is in California for January. As Unit 103 president, I want to thank everyone that helps at the local and state (and even the national) level. As I recently told my local board, one person does not make a village - we all contribute, great or small, to what makes bridge thrive in Minnesota. Happy New Year!" - Sue Greenberg |
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One such set of lessons in the western Metro Area will be taught by Teri Blu [Bloomington] this month. She's offering a class that meets Tuesdays at the Edina Senior Center starting January 14th. There's a flyer she's put out - that is just on your left. Click on the flyer to expand it in a new window for more information. Then sign up! Even if you're keeping just one New Year's resolution, you could do a lot worse than letting it be learning more about bridge by taking a bridge class (or two). Oh! And bring a friend. |
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And now we do. Be sure to bookmark this new page for all things bridge in Minnesota, and the homepage along with everything else you'll want to know regarding Minnesota bridge is located by clicking here. (Again, save it in your favorites for easy access!) www.minnesotabridge.com is the new homepage for Minnesota bridge, and www.minnesotabridge.com/bridgeblog.html is the URL to bookmark for this page. |
