MINNESOTA TOURNAMENT INFO
Minnesota has a variety of tournaments during the course of the year; and in almost every part of the State.  There are two types of tournaments when it comes to who is allowed to play:
    LIMITED masterpoint tournaments are limited (!) to a certain masterpoint holding.  Anyone above that masterpoint level is not allowed to play in the tournament.  Most often, you're looking at a Non-Life Master tournament (where no LMs are allowed) or something like a 749er or 499er event (where someone with greater than 749 masterpoints or 499 masterpoints [respectively] is not allowed.

    OPEN tournaments have no masterpoint restrictions and are open to everyone.   These tournaments pay masterpoints at a considerably higher rate than limited-masterpoint tournaments.  NOTE that almost every Open tournament will have a concurrent event with a limited masterpoint section during each session.  In other words, during an Open Sectional, you're going to have an "Open section" and a "499er section" at the same time.  This allows a 499er player the option of playing with other players of their same experience level (the limited, 499er section) - or playing in the Open section to "show 'em up."

      Within each tournament, there will be different strats - or statifications - which will provide everyone the opportunity to earn those masterpoints, regardless of their experience level.  For example, in a 499er game, the strats may be 499/300/100.  Reading these numbers backwards, this would translate to all 99ers in their own "strat" (100); all 299ers would also be in their own strat (300) which would include the aforementioned 99ers; and then the 499er strat would include everyone in the game.

There are also two different types of tournaments when it comes to earning differently pigmented masterpoint colors.  (This is true not just in Minnesota, but ACBL-wide.)  At Regional tournaments (like the Minnesota Gopher or the Rochester Regional), you'll find gold and red points available.  Sectional tournaments provide the opportunity to get some silver points.  NOTE that silver points are not available at regionals, and gold/red points are not available at sectionals. . .it's the ACBL's way of making sure you play in different events.  (They're all fun.)
Here is the general schedule for tournaments across Minnesota:
    Minnesota Winter Sectional - late January or early February
    Leap Into Spring Sectional - late February or early March
    Rochester Spring Sectional - April
    Gopher Regional - late May
    St Cloud Sectional - mid-June
    Aquatennial Sectional - early July
    St Paul Non-Life Master Sectional - August
    Rochester Regional - September after Labor Day
    Mankato Sectional - late September
    Autumn Harvest Sectional - late October
    St Paul Holiday Sectional - second weekend in December
There are also some one-day Non-Life Master Sectional tournaments that are put on by local clubs around the State - St Cloud and Rochester feature them (although they are not always at the same time during the year).

These tournaments usually produce flyers which are sent to Minnesota bridge clubs for you to look at; the flyers are also emailed to players in advance of the tournament.  And of course you'll get lots of early promotion for these events by following the Minnesota Bridge Blog.
Here is a look at how Minnesota tournaments have fared over the past 20 years (table counts for the "majors"):

     
     
Minnesota's total tournament tables over the past twenty years are below with data in purple; there are a few years when we have been fortunate to get a second Open Regional during a 12-month period.  That's only happened three times in the past twenty years, so those three years the extra tables from the extra regional are not included in the chart below.  (They're noted in white next to the year, but not included in the totals on the chart.)