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73.61% Joe Lisbon + Mark Stiegel, St Cloud DBC, September 25 73.15% Saudy Fedor + Scott Krupke, St Cloud DBC, September 9 71.43% Gregg Van Dyke + Tom Grue, Bridge Center of St Paul, September 23 71.25% Roger + Sharon Anderson, Metro Bridge Club, September 10 71.06% Joe Lisbon + Maurice Evans, St Cloud DBC, September 9 70.31% Roger + Sharon Anderson, Metro Bridge Club, September 25 LIMITED MASTERPOINT GAMES: 72.76% Thomas Bedford + Dan Ganter, Plymouth, September 9 72.24% Thomas Bedford + Dan Ganter, Plymouth, September 2 CHAT BRIDGE NEWCOMER GAMES: 71.67% John Jacobs + Vern Plant, Bridge Center of St Paul, September 25 |
The size of these games (in tables per game) also varied quite a bit across the state. The Bridge Center of St Paul didn't see a huge jump in its overall table count during September (up +4.2%), but the increase was done with fewer games during the month. So their tables per game were up a whopping +17.6%. More clubs saw some sort of increase in tables per game than not - with Mankato (-16.5%), Northfield (-6.9%), Maple Grove (-1.2%), and Edina (-0.8%) having smaller games than in 2024 - and everyone else seeing an increase in the size of their games on average. |   |
Atop the local player leaderboard is Patti Stuhlman [Minneapolis], whose 5.13 masterpoints in the overalls is our leader with a couple of days yet to go. Remember, nothing is official until the ACBL says it is, but the overall awards for this week's STaC are listed to your right. Click on it to open it in a new window - and note these are just the cumulative overall awards; you may have earned some sectional awards at your local club game but are not listed to the right. You're still getting the multi-colored masterpoints. |  |
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 | Carole Miner's big win at the Rochester Med City Regional has her in 1st place, ahead of frequent teammate Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie] by 7.50 masterpoints. Terry has dropped to 3rd in this race, 22.14 points behind Carole (and not "out of it" in any sense of the word just yet). Click on the list to your left to open it up in a new window - and perhaps find your name on it. Three more Open Sectionals remain this year, so you can still get some big masterpoint payouts. . .of course, you'll have to plan on playing in these tournaments to get them. Next up is the Ramblin' River Sectional in Mankato the weekend of October 4th and 5th. |
 | The problem is that this wasn't good enough to come in 1st that day. Saundy Fedor [Waite Park] and Scott Krupke [Little Falls] had a 73.15% game in the same event to come in 1st - and relegate Joe and Maurice's 71.06% game to a 2nd place finish. Any time a pair does well enough to score a 70% game - and lose - deserves the Bad Beat Jackpot - and we're hoping St Cloud has such a thing going. |
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  | Don't forget that you can help promote the future of your club (and bridge in general) by being part of your local bridge club board (or Unit board, for that matter!). |
Next up it's the Rambling River Sectional in Mankato; this is a locally-directed tournament that pays 80% silver masterpoints. Then it's a one-day NLM tourmament in St Cloud, and the Autumn Harvest rounds out the sectional action in October. You do have your bridge calendar for 2026 already set for filling out, right? (Because it's never too early to start filling in those bridge dates.) |
Sectional October 4-5 Mankato | Sectional Sat October 11 St Cloud  | Sectional October 23-25 Roseville  | Sectional December 11-14 Roseville  | Sectional January 29-Feb 1 Roseville  | Sectional Feb 26-March 1 Roseville  |
   | But here's the thing: Carole started the last day of the Med City Regional with 57.61 tournament masterpoints, far behind a pair of professionals (Michael Gamble [Shawnigan Lake BC] and Sveinn Eiriksson [Delray Beach FL]) who led the pack with 71.38 masterpoints. How could she make up the difference of 13.77 masterpoints in one day when these two professionals were playing in the open pairs on the same day she was? She and her teammates would have to come in 1st in the teams; the payout would have to be at least 13.77 more than the pros would earn in the Open Pairs; and the pros had already won the Open Pairs twice this week, so it seemed unlikely they would forget how to play cards. Somehow, everything aligned perfectly for Carole and the result was a 78.31 to 78.27 victory. Just 0.04 masterpoints over the whole week separated the top players in Rochester. On the Non-Life Master side, Xintao He [Rochester] picked up 24.73 masterpoints this week - which is tops among our NLMs. He earned the trophy as the Tournament Champion in the Non-Life Master category. All of the masterpoint winners from this tournament can be found by clicking here. |
 | Another encouraging sign for this tournament is the Gold Rush pairs; there were 91 tables of Gold Rush players in 2024, with 114 tables this year. That's a nice pop of +25.3% year-over-year, and the Gold Rush is another good sign of a growing tournament. |
In the Gold Rush pairs, Henry Mauer [Madison WI] and Deb Petersen [Lincoln NE] came in 1st overall Saturday. They had a 53.65% game in the morning followed by a 60.94% game in the afternoon. And the teams - well, you read those results above in this post. Nine teams in contention on Saturday, that's a decent turnout of card players. |
As was expected, the table counts for this event that were lagging somewhat the past couple of days have caught up and in terms of player attendance, it's a huge success. A special thanks to everyone from the Rochester DBC who helped to put on this party. SPOILER ALERT: The rooms have been booked again already for 2026. We'll do it again in 12 months. In the Gold Rush today, Tom Grigoleit [Rochester] and Earlene Wickre [Rochester] took the top spot, winning another 4.59 gold points - well done! Today's Open Pairs saw Roark Johnson [Edina] and Chuck Cummins [Bloomington] taking the top spot earning 16.19 gold points for their effort. There were 15 teams in play among two different brackets this afternoon, and the top bracket of Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie], Cindy Balderson [Eden Prairie], Carole Miner [Rochester], and Kurt Schaeffer [Lakeville] took the top honors, winning 18.40 gold points. It was determined that this foursome could probably start their own coffee shop, given the number of winners mugs they have accumulated this week. Then it was Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis], Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis], James Lair [St Paul], and David Klevan [St Paul] who took the Bracket 2 teams, earning 8.62 gold points among them. All of the results from the tournament can be found by clicking here. |     |
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 | We'll update with the results from Minnesota players as the week goes on. |
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   | Thursday's Gold Rush saw Dan Ganter [Maple Grove] and Tom Owens [Woodbury] coming in 1st overall - with no scoring issues today. Well done! In the bracketed teams on Thursday, it was Mitch Dunitz [Sherman Oaks CA], Michael Gamble [Shwanigan Lake BC], Joe Grue [New York NY], Cian Moss [Denver], Brad Moss [Denver], and Sveinn Eiriksson [Delray Beach FL] winning the top bracket of teams, with Jerry Rosenblad [Stewartville], Michael Salscheider [Rochester], Xintao He [Rochester], and John Jentzer [St George UT] taking bracket number two. |
Remember to report any scoring corrections to one of your directors at the tournament - big or small, they all make a difference. |  |
In the bracketed teams on Wednesday, it was Charles Carroll [St Paul], Tom Grue [Apple Valley], Carole Miner [Rochester], and Kurt Schaeffer [Lakeville] who came in 1st overall, beating a couple of Rochester teams for the big win. |
 | The entire list of the 180 masterpoint winners from this tournament can be found by clicking here. |
 | Through the first three days, tables are off 11 year-over-year or -5.7%; but because of the staggered start on these two Rochester Regionals (one ending on a Sunday, this one ending on a Saturday), we're still expected to catch up (or surpass) last year's table count. Full results from this tournament can be found by clicking here. |
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   | The Open Pairs on Tuesday was picked up by Mark Itabashi [Newport Beach CA] and Carole Liss [Laguna Woods CA]. The Gold Rush winners were announced as Tom Owens [Woodbury] and Dan Ganter [Maple Grove] - but we suspect a scoring change will take place tomorrow and knock them down to second place. They still get to keep the coffee cups tho! |
 | Full results from this tournament can be found by clicking here. |
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So what's wrong with the buy-in option? Proponents claim that it allows anyone in D14 to play in the GNT Finals next March, which is true. They also say that you'll get your best competition with more teams playing in the D14 GNT Finals as a result of the buy-in option. And what about people who live in far-off parts of the District that can't get to a club? This allows them to play. But it isn't as simple as all that. Our objection to the buy-in option, and preference to requiring players to actually have to qualify in a GNT club-level game, is as follows:
Second, the good people at the Minneapolis Grand Slam Club ran online GNT qualifying games more than a dozen times last GNT season. So anyone who lives in a "far-off" part of the District could have qualified in one of their online games - or in any other D14 online GNT game. Again, the need for a buy-in doesn't add up here. Third, the idea that more teams play with a buy-in is a fantasy. The number of players that did not qualify at the club level last year in the D14 GNT Finals but used the buy-in option was two. Two players. Not two teams. Two players on the Championship Flight team. |
Another topic in this month's Meet And Greet: Microsoft is moving everyone to Windows 11, and they instituted a patch for Windows 11 that interferes with BridgeMate scoring. Club managers and directors that use BridgeMates are asked to download a fix from the ACBL, which can be found by clicking here. On the topic of BridgeMates, when can they be used for team games with ACBLscore? Bronia indicated the ACBL's target timeline for that integration would be at least three years from now. And "Centennial Games" are coming in the next three months. The ACBL is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of duplicate bridge as we know it, and they will offer 100% "glitter" games (where points are all Gold/Red/Silver). Full details are forthcoming, but we have been told there will be "commemorative artwork" and "exclusive merchandise" available for you to purchase to help celebrate the 100 years. |
As with most bridge games, it came down to the final round of the night. Daniel and Thomas were just a couple of matchpoints ahead of Stephen Jackson [St Paul] and Susan Jackson [St Paul], 63.49% to 62.17% with three boards left. The final round went to the eventual winners of the night as they took two tops out of three. PREVIOUSLY: The Annual Dinner and Bridge Game at the Bridge Center of St Paul's Roseville club is happening tonight at 6:00pm. That's dinner and business, with a bridge game taking place at 6:30pm for those ready to deal with the business of cards. Reservations are requested for the dinner (make a reservation here) and all are welcome to get into trouble at the table. We're hoping for a few photos of the fun - and of course we'll post the big winners for this annual event. |
 | The ACBL NABC Committee met with Patti at the Convention Center this week; Patti stated that the National events will be in the ballroom at the main level. The playing space for 299er games, Gold Rush, and all team games, would be on the "lower level" which could be accessed by escalators or an elevator. There will be no need for a separate information desk, as the Convention center has a counter of information for Minneapolis (where are the restaurants, how to take the free bus up Nicollet Avenue, etc.). Patti explained that the meeting went "very well" and that the NABC schedule would be set in stone some time in December. There is still the opportunity to "Name A Game" for the NABC (the form to fill out can be found by clicking here), but those must be sent to the ACBL by January 15th so that they go into the April Bridge Bulletin. Some BBO games that will help with fundraising for the NABC will be online during the week of October 20-26. Everything continues to be on track with the PR Committee's work and they'll meet again in mid-October. |
 | In Duluth this year, there are still three months to go before a Player of the Year is named - but right now it is a horse race. The top 5 players at the Duluth DBC are all within 2.00% of each other when it comes to their average game score for the year. Just 2.00%! That means there's a lot of jostling still to go before we reach the finish line. Another thing that clearly isn't a runaway in this Duluth horse race is the "2025 Attendance Award", where three players are all knotted up with a few months to go. Bragging rights are on the line! We don't want to give anything away yet - so no names published here for now - but we want every player to keep working hard for these past few months as we are coming down the final stretch. Here are the standings for the top 3 Duluth favorites as of August 31st. First, the average score across all Duluth games this year:
56.52% - PLACE 55.78% - SHOW
33 of 36 games - PLACE 32 of 36 games - SHOW |
Is Often A Question Of Learning As You Go." |
  | Parter plays the ♥J and declarer wins the ♥K. LESSON ONE: It appears that partner is a balanced hand with 3 or 4 spades and 2 or 3 hearts. Declarer has the ♥AK and perhaps the ♥Q as well. Since partner did not open with 1NT, partner is between 12-14 HCP which leaves a range of 16-18 for declarer. Declarer leads the ♣9. Second hand low? Partner is sure to return a heart if allowed to win the trick but we can deter him by rising with the ♣A. Seeing the Jxx of diamonds in dummy, we need to redirect the defense. LESSON TWO: By placing declarer with ♥AK(Q) and attacking our entry, we are unlikely to be able to get the hearts going unless partner has specifically the QJ9. However, by making a surrounding play against the ♦J in dummy (by leading the ♦10), we can develop diamond tricks whether partner has the King or Ace of that suit. Leading the ♦10, declarer will do best by covering with the Jack and winning partner’s ♦K with the ♦A. If declarer now clears the club suit by playing King and another club, partner can continue diamonds to set up the setting tricks while he still has a spade entry – either the ♠A or the ♠KQ. If partner has poor diamonds and the ♦J holds in dummy, partner will have good spades and the ♥Q9 and switch back to that suit upon winning the third club. Finally, if declarer has the ♥AKQ and the ♦AK, we can be sure that partner will cash 3 or 4 rounds of spades upon winning the third round of clubs. | |
 | The ♦10 switch makes declarer's task too difficult. He can make a terrific blocking play by covering with the Jack and either winning the ♦A or ducking one round before winning. However, upon winning the third club, partner can clear diamonds and win the first spade, scoring 4 diamonds, 2 clubs and a spade for down one. (Alternatively, declarer can lead a spade immediately after winning the ♣K in dummy, but even an accurate guess of winning the ♠J cannot prevent going down one after the smart diamond shift.) |
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In time to be printed and available for the upcoming Med City Regional next week, you've got quite a bit of time before thinking about who you'll be playing with in Rochester next April. . .but anytime there's a flyer submitted for the Bridge Blog, we're happy to post it "hot off the presses." |  |
 | It's all held at the Empire Event Center, and you can find directions to the Empire Event Center by clicking here. |
| Your "Top 20" in the local club masterpoint race for this past month are listed to your left. Congratulations to everyone on the list (and those who aren't and yet still had fun at the table). (This list does not include any tournament or online masterpoints, only those won in Minnesota clubs. There are a couple of Minnesota players who are playing out-of-state; they're not included here as they are afforded opportunities for big points that the rest of our residents are not.) |
First in the room on Saturday was the combo of Roger Anderson [St Paul] and Sharon Anderson [St Paul], picking up 6.75 masterpoints for their effort. Overall awards for the room (and for both flights) are listed below:
6.75 (5.40red/1.35gold) Roger Anderson [St Paul] Sharon Anderson [St Paul] 5.06 (4.05red/1.05gold) David Collins [Fridley] Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park] 3.80 (3.04red/0.76gold) David Neiman [Minneapolis] Mark Lasoff [Minneapolis] 2.85 (2.28red/0.57gold) Thomas Knier [Burnsville] John Miller [Stillwater] 2.25 (1.80red/0.45gold) Susan Jackson [Roseville] Stephen Jackson [Roseville] 1.98 (1.98red/0.00gold) Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie] Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis] 1.90 (1.52red/0.38gold) Norrie Thomas [Plymouth] Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] 1.86 (1.72red/0.14gold) Gerry Keith [North Oaks] Stephen Graham [St Paul] 1.72 (1.72red/0.00gold) Paul Wehrman [St Paul] Catherine Wehrman [St Paul] FLIGHT C 2.21 (2.10red/0.11gold) Steve He [Rochester] Pari Pew [Rochester] 1.66 (1.58red/0.08gold) Ethan Lynch [Blaine] John Lynch [Blaine] 1.24 (1.18red/0.06gold) Kristine Verdin [St Paul] Nancy Brunzel [Chisago City] 0.93 (0.88red/0.05gold) Dennis Hoidal [Columbus] Weston Cutter [Mendota Heights] |
 | Not to worry - they should be back of course! But it's the diehard Minnesota bridge players that will be coming to play for the next six months. And that's a clear majority of the Minnesota bridge players in general. |
 | Red (and gold) points will be dished out in Roseville during the two-session bridge game (10am and 2pm). They'll wheel in some pizzas at lunch and wheel out the masterpoints all day - along with cake, of course - it's a party, after all. And Unit 103 is sponsoring the whole thing, so you know there will be free sodas for players in every flight. We'll look forward to seeing you get into some trouble at the bridge table tomorrow. And napkins will be provided, natch. |
Tom Montgomery [Woodbury] |
But is the year-over-year increase in Minnesota F2F (face-to-face) bridge tables limited to just the summer weeks? At the moment, no, it is not. Presently, there doesn't seem to be any sign of stopping this train that's coming down the Minnesota tracks at your local bridge table. Below is a chart of the weekly rolling 52-week Minnesota total F2F bridge tables. In other words, each data point on the chart shows all of the club and tournament tables held in Minnesota for the previous 52-week period. The chart starts when Minnesota clubs were just reopening following the introduction of COVID to the bridge world in 2021 and goes up to today. What you may notice (and go ahead, click to enlarge) is that each week's 52-week cumulative table count here in Minnesota continues to go up - the preferred direction of course. This past week ending August 31, 2025, saw 12,783.5 Minnesota F2F tables during the previous 52-week period. That is the highest rolling 52-week total since clubs reopened in mid-2021. SPOILER ALERT: What goes up must come down, and at some point our trend will be for shrinking table counts around here. . .it's something that is inevitable, and frankly, it's already taking place elsewhere in the world of duplicate bridge. It's just not taking place in Minnesota - yet. For now - keep doing what you are doing - playing, scheduling, partnering, mentoring, hit a tournament, donate to a club (time or money), everything you're doing for bridge in this state is helping the Minnesota bridge community thrive. It really shows. |
And the Grand Prize winner, who plays for FREE in every Unit 178 game through December 31st - is Ann House [Minneapolis]. Congratulations to everyone involved and to Unit 178 for the successful fundraiser idea! |
| Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (December 11th to 13th) feature pair/team games each day - and there's a two-session Swiss Teams on Sunday the 14th. NOTE we have contacted the Minnesota Vikings and gotten them to agree to play their game against the Chicago Bears Sunday December 14th at 7:20pm. . .so you will not miss a good football game by playing in the Swiss Teams the Sunday of this tournament. You'll hear more about this tournament down the road - but for now you can click on the flyer to your left to open it in a new window for printing or perusing. (Also: we really have no pull with the NFL - they don't even take our calls. But sometimes their schedule just works out great for bridge, and we're big believers you should take advantage of that.) |
 | But there's more! The $640 is just the additional table fees which count towards the fundraising. There's also the West Metro's raffle ("play with a pro!"), silent fundraisers, personal donations, etc. We have a request in to Patti Stuhlman [Minneapolis], head of the fundraising arm of the NABC volunteers, for a final figure for the week. But every dollar helps. 90.9% of all D14 NABC Fundraising tables came from right here in Minnesota; we held 160 of the 176 tables in D14. On the other hand, there were 0 NABC Fundraising tables in Nebraska. The second of three of these fundraising weeks at your local club will be November 3-9.  |
 | This year, Minnesota held 866.0 NAP tables among its local clubs. That's 41 tables more than last summer's NAP competition (or +5.0%). The number of Minnesota players that qualified this summer wound up at 569, which is 2 more players than 2024. Let's keep that momentum going. On your left is a breakdown of Minnesota NAP qualified players by flight; overall, the 2 additional players compared to last year is a change of +0.4%. There has been a huge surge in Flight "C" players qualifying in both Minnesota units - with 38 more flight "C" players here in 2025 eligible to go on. But it is the top tier players that have qualified (and not qualified) that have sounded the alarm; last year, 76 players above 3,000 masterpoints qualified to go on in the NAP. This year, it's only 51 Minnesota players. This is not something that is unique to Minnesota - as D14's total Championship Flight and Flight "A" NAP players are also down sharply (off -28.9%). But the drop in interest in the NAP by Minnesota's top-tier players will likely make for a smaller game at the D14 level. (Last year's D14 Flight "A" NAP competition had only six tables - chances are you'll see an even smaller group in November.) |
The headline is that it's generally good news. In an environment where our game has slowly headed back to a downward participation trend, Minnesota's tables this summer at your local club were up. Overall, by +8.8%. Both Outstate Minnesota (+9.8%) and the Metro Area (+8.1%) saw an increase in tables since Memorial Day; as did both Unit 103 (+9.0%) and Unit 178 (+8.1%). The only Minnesota club that lost tables compared to the same period in 2024 was up in Detroit Lakes. Their tables were down -3.1%, with their average tables per game over the 14-week period down from 7.34 to 6.85. Other than DL, the state was led by clubs in Woodbury and St Cloud (as has been the trend for the past year now) - can they keep it up heading into fall? Stay tuned - but for now, the news across our state could be much, much worse. |   |
