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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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