 | In Minnesota, clubs in Unit 103 run more Mentor and NLM programs, so it's not a surprise that 103 has seen more Guest Memberships (209 players) than Unit 178 (131 players). But 178's figure is still well above the ACBL-wide average of 52 guest memberships since the program's inception. Of these four-month free-membership players, Unit 103 has converted 37.8% of them into full-time ACBL members; 178 has converted 23.6% of theirs. (The ACBL's average conversion rate is 46.2%.) This program has been successful in introducing new players (and classroom learners of the game) to some longevity in the duplicate bridge world. The Gopher Regional next week will have a spot for signing up non-ACBL memberships to this guest membership program, but it works just as well at your local club. (And it's how they get hooked!) You can invite your family and friends to a free four-month ACBL membership by signing in here. |
 | AFTER you've seen the video - you can click here for the answer key. *(It's a video that's not just for beginners and intermediates. Even players with more than 18,000 masterpoints occasionally laugh at their opponent's play - which happened earlier this month in a Roseville game. Everyone can learn something from watching.) |
       | As of today, there's still a bit more than 80 masterpoints to be acquired before the big party takes place; however this player earned more than 62 masterpoints at last year's Gopher. So with the big regional taking place next week, a lot of this ground could be covered in a very short period of time. PLUS this individual is a regular masterpoint earner at our local clubs each week. Chances are good that you know who this player is - and can't wait for their party to celebrate crossing the line soon. Updates coming. |
  | For almost all of Minnesota's bridge clubs, table counts the first 20 weeks of 2025 are off a bit from the same period just one year ago. The top chart on your left shows the change in average number of tables per week for each of the major bridge clubs from 2024. For the entirety of Minnesota, club tables are off -2.1% from the same 20 pre-Gopher weeks in 2024; the St Cloud DBC stands out as the huge anomaly here with an eye-popping increase in tables of +29.6% per week. The bottom chart on your left shows the number of each club's pre-Gopher tables-per-week relative to the last pre-COVID year of 2019. (Where club tables in 2019=1.00, clubs that have more tables per week than 2019 are above that N=1.00 line; clubs that have fewer are below the line.) Two things stand out on this chart. First, when looking at pre-COVID tables to the current 2025 tables, four of Minnesota's bridge clubs are above the 1.00 line - meaning they have more tables now than they did in 2019. Woodbury, at the top of the chart, was the benefit of two things: they've added a weekly game since 2019, which has helped increase their overall tables. In addition, when the Bridge Center of St Paul moved 12 miles to the west, Woodbury snapped up some of the East Metro's players. The Edina Senior Center game also has more tables than before COVID - but that's because the behemoth which was the Twin City Bridge Center shut down, and Tony Ames swooped up some of those tables. Northfield doubled their games per month, so they're also above the line. Most other clubs show slightly fewer tables than 2019, and for Minnesota as a whole, our tables are at 97.9% from six years ago. The second thing that stands out on this lower chart is that almost every club has improved their table counts since the first 20 weeks of 2022's totals; so since we've been back, there's been some growth across the board. Now we'll see what happens after this year's Gopher. |
  | Generally speaking, North Dakota has some very small games (2-1/2 tables); no doubt they would prefer larger table counts, but you must think they're glad to be able to play duplicate bridge at all. South Dakota has so few games during the week (two or three) that a really well-attended game can spike their weekly average (thus the wild swings on the chart for SD). Nebraska has a few very large games, as do Iowa and Minnesota. Minnesota runs far more games than anyone else, including mentor and limited masterpoints games (which aren't big games and therefore artifically limits our overall tables per game number). But as you can see from the chart, we're in a good place - and all those limited masterpoint games Minnesota runs should really payoff down the road. |
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 | They're trying something new in Rochester this September - Supervised Play (also known as Chat Bridge) on day 1 at the Med City Regional. Players who have less than 20 masterpoints can play duplicate bridge in a tournament atmosphere while mentors roam the room to answer questions, help with the bidding or play, and more. Theoretically, the plan is to try and bring in a few tables of players to the tournament atmosphere that might not normally come. Will it fly? Just one way to find out. The flyer for the tournament is posted on your left. (You'll hear a lot more about it between now and September.) |
The early weather forecast for the Gopher Regional next week is perfect weather for indoor bridge. Not so much tennis, or boating, or golf, but bridge, yes, definitely bridge. A lot can happen between now and next week, but at the moment there's a definite trend towards the springlike - and not the upper 80s we've been enjoying this week. It's expected to be mostly cloudy most of the week, with showers or rain possible (or likely) each day except Thursday. Daytime highs right around 60F until the end of the week, when things warm up once again. Note that if you were hoping to goose your turnout at a bridge tournament, where the only drops that fall are those of declarer's tears, this is the forecast you might hope for. It certainly can't hurt attendance! Stay tuned. |
 | Total tables in Madison this past week came in at 283, or up +4.2% from last year. It shows that Midwest bridge players are still coming to the big tournaments, and for Minnesota there's no bigger tournament than the Gopher Regional next week. (Nearly a dozen Gopher players made the trip to Madison to help with that table count - hopefully they'll return the favor!) You can check out how all the tournaments this year are doing on the ACBL tables page of this website. |
The last of the Gopher Planning Committee meetings was scheduled for this evening, but that has been canceled as everything is going according to plan. So "according to plan" that there just isn't much else to do except show up next week and have fun at the bridge table. It's a testament to Patti's organizational skills and the people with whom she surrounds herself with, and the work they do is not lost on the rest of us. So while tonight's meeting has been canceled for the committee, the great news for everyone is that things finally appear to be on auto-pilot with less than a week to go. Making plans to play next week is a great way to show your appreciation for their hard work! |
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 | The Rochester DBC runs as many extra masterpoint games as possible, and that means top awards of 4.00+ or even 5.00+ in some of their Monday games. Greg Caucutt [Rochester] doesn't like to miss a game, and he earned more than thirty black masterpoints in April at their club - nothing online, no tournament play, etc., just during their local club games - and thus has earned the title of Minnesota's "King of Clubs" for this month. Joe Koester [Brooklyn Park] was right there at 27.84 black club points in April, good for second place this time around (and frankly, first place any other month). The top black club masterpoint winners are listed to your left. |
Tournaments in general - and especially those the size of the Gopher - do not magically come together with the wave of a pass card. They start with terrific organization at the very top - that would be Patti - and the fine people with whom she surrounds herself. Thanks to every member of the Planning Committee for their exceptional volunteer service, and for the fun we're about to have in less than two weeks. |  |
Tony Ames [Minnetonka] partnered up with George Bleskachek [Eau Claire] and their team won the 22-table Swiss teams midweek. The same event saw Fay DeBellis [North Oaks], Kimberly Hayward [Bayport], Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis] and Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] coming in 7th out of the 22 tables. There's more! Full results of the Madison WI Regional can be found by clicking here. |  |
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Rochelle Christensen [Falcon Heights] Elizabeth Kiernat [St Paul] Mary Jo Leighton [St Cloud] Don Stryker [St Paul] |
Participating clubs in Minnesota this week will provide 25% gold (and 75% black) points - without any special travel on your part. You can play in the friendly environment of your own local club! Check with your local club manager to see what games are gold dust games this week, as the Stardust Week started yesterday and runs through Sunday. |  |
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But there's a game tonight! The good people that run the MGSC are offering free Gopher entries to both the winning pair (and a random pair) that play in the game this evening, so there's even more incentive to sign up and get into some trouble from the comfort of your own home. |
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In a race as close as winning any Kentucky Derby by a nose, 20.00 matchpoints was the top available score on each of the 26 boards in this game, and just one-half a matchpoint separated Dave and Terry from Barry Purrington [Eagan] and Paul Gutterman [Eagan] who were your big winners on Sunday - with a 72.31% game. You might be familiar with your local casino's "bad beat" jackpot at the Texas Hold 'Em table, when aces full (or better) gets beat by a better hand. When we say the bad beat jackpot paid out, unfortunately the jackpot here is $0.00. Maybe we should start one going? (Or maybe one pair should buy the other one lunch - but which pair buys?) |
 | This Bulletin will be emailed to everyone who played in the Gopher one year ago, so chances are you'll also get it in your e-mailbox. It makes for great reading and is packed with info on the upcoming event. |
Results of this inter-unit bridgefest can be found by clicking here (the Open game) and for Minnesota's 749ers, their results can be found by clicking here.      
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 |  Tournament tables (Open and I/N combined) are up +5.0% from 2024 (480 tables vs 457 last year through April 30) Online BBO VACB tables are down -14.3% from 2024 (198 vs 231 last year, no surprise as e-Club participation has fallen off the cliff everywhere; the new ACBL Clubhouse, which directs funds back to local clubs, hasn't helped with this) Face-to-face club tables are up +0.9% from 2024 (2,872/2,845; the ACBL as a whole has witnessed a jump of +2.6% for these first 16 weeks of the year [335,856 vs 327,278]) All Minnesota tables (in person, tournaments, and online) are up +0.5% from 2024 (3,550/3,533)
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Every face-to-face bridge game at your local club this month can be a Grass Roots FUNd game, which pays extra masterpoints - AND supports D14's Grass Roots program which supports our Grand National Teams and North American Pairs events. Check with your local club manager about running these special games (or your club's calendar of games for then they are being held). More on the ACBL's designation of this month can be found by clicking here. There's a "Stardust" week next week thanks to the ACBL, and the big Awards Game at the Bridge Center of St Paul on Sunday. Of course one cannot forget the Gopher Regional in a few weeks! More on all of these big May games as they get closer. |
 | 76.54% Jackson + Sarah Wahl, 4/4, BCSP 75.00% Joe Browan and Bill Voedisch, 4/7, Woodbury 74.81% Scott + Shirley Richardson, 4/25, St Cloud 72.92% Joe Koester and Keith Connolly, 4/27, BCSP 71.25% John Utermoehl and Tim Runbeck, 4/3, Woodbury
70.83% John Utermoehl and Tim Runbeck, 4/28, Woodbury
70.83% Warren Nelson and Claude Williams, 4/28, Duluth
70.65% Dann Finn and Roger Melaas, 4/29, St Cloud
70.44% Jim Schnepf and Connie Nelson, 4/4, St Cloud
70.37% Layne Vinje and Bob Roediger, 4/23, Rochester
70.37% Linda + Barry Purrington, 4/1, BCSP 70.27% Joe Koester and John Schlundt, 4/23, Maple Grove APRIL'S LIMITED MASTERPOINT 70% GAMES: 73.61% Elizabeth Hassleman and Pamela Burkley, 4/1, 999er game, Edina 72.62% Liz Haynes and David Currie, CHAT Bridge, 4/17, BCSP 72.50% Rochelle Christensen and Bob Gosselin, 499ers, 4/7, BCSP
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Total tables last year in Gatlinburg were 3,423 (or about 5 times the size of last year's Gopher). In addition, Gatlinburg held an online BBO regional session with another 80 online tables from their District. This year's Gatlinburg tournament saw just 2,459 tables, that's down -28.2% from just a year ago. They held the online BBO regional session again in 2025, but this year saw only 12 tables in play (vs 80 last year, or down -85.0%!) It doesn't necessarily bode badly for next month's tournaments (see: Gopher), but it's not a good sign for sure. This is easily the largest drop in year-over-year tables for any of the 21 Open Regionals held so far in 2025 - both in nominal tables and comparative percentage to the same event held one year ago. Minnesota players certainly did their part in attending this big tournament! If nothing else, it's another reason not to get complacent when we have our tournament in a few weeks, as every effort counts. You can get a look at the ACBL tables and how they're doing compared to one year ago by clicking here. |