DISTRICT 24 Newsletter                    Alvin Levy                              2012.2
published after each NABC

Philadelphia Summer North American Bridge Championship

The Philadelphia NABC had mixed reviews

The tournament was held at the Philadelphia Marriott and the Philadelphia Convention Center.  Philly had much to offer with close by restaurants and some local sites.  On the downside, the playing area was crowded at times and the cards were not new (to be polite).  Table count was 11,913, 1,100 below expectations and 2,000 less than last summer in Toronto. In all likelihood the poor attendance was due to the 10:00 am - 2:30 pm starting times, as may players stayed away or played less.  Also, many activities and meetings were inconvenienced by the early starting times.  The next scheduled NABC with similar starting times was to be Atlanta next summer.  That decision is being reviewed and the starting times will likely be changed.

Alongside the NABC was a youth NABC, held July 19-21.  130 youngsters under 19 played, including a group from China.  With special entertainment and festivities the youth had a great time...and took home a great experience as well as some masterpoints.

Hall of Fame Receptions

Kyle Larsen, the late Grant Baze, recipient of the von Zedwitz award and Jan Martel, recipient of the Blackwood award were inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame Sunday evening.  Honored also was Mike Kamil, recipient of the Sidney H. Lazard Jr. Sportsmanship award.

Also on Sunday evening astronaut Greg Johnson was honored at the Aileen Osofsky Goodwill meeting as the 2011 Honorary Member of the Year.

District 24 Players placing high in NABC+ Events...

Morehead Championship Flight Grand National Teams: Jared Lilienstein - Sam Lev - John Hurd - Michael Polowan - Brian Glubok, 2nd.

Von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs: Alan Sontag, WINNER; Zia Mahmood - Marty Fleisher, 2nd; Jessica Piafsky, 3rd; Steve Weinstein, 11th; Glenn Milgrim - Barry Rigal, 17th; John Fout - Stephannie Russo, 23rd.Bruce Life Master Pairs (0 - 5000): Jane Dillenberg - Roberta Magnus, 23rd.

Bruce 0-5000 Life Master Pairs: Alan Lechner - Thomas Rozinski, 25th.

Young Life Master Pairs (0-1500): Jess Jurkovic - Peter Clark, 14th.

Truscott Senior Swiss Teams: Edith Sacks, 11/12Michael Gore- Bob Gwirtzman, 25th.

Wernher Open Pairs: Erez Hendelman, 5th; Karen Willenken, 12th; Kelley Hwang, 18th.

Wager Women’s KO Teams:  Valerie Westheimer, WINNER; Judi Radin, 3rd; Gail Greenberg, 4th.

Fast Pairs:  Erez Hendelman, 7th; John Hurd, 8th; Adam Wildavsky, 9th; Jeff Hand, 12th; Michael Lipskin - Elliot Sternlicht, 16th; Brian Glubock, 19th; 

Richard Freeman Mixed Board-A-Match Teams: Joel Wooldridge - Gabrielle Sherman, 2nd; Migry Zur Campanile, 4th; Melanie Tucker, 6th; Shane Blanchard, 7th; Winthrop Allegaert - Judith Bianco, 14th; John Solodar, 15th; Barry Rigal - Sue Picas, 25th.

Roth Open Swiss: Martin Fleisher - Zia Mahmood - Chris Willenken, 3rd; Gregers Bjarnarson - Roy Welland, 5th; Jeff Hand - Gail Greenberg, 13th; Bob Blanchard - Shane Blanchard - John Hurd - Joel Wooldridge, 19th; Rob Gordon - Bob Gwirtzman, 23rd; Sheng Li, 25th. 

Mini Spingold I: Igor Milman, 2nd; Bill Begert - Doug Herron, 3/4th; Shelly Dunietz, 9/16th; Barbara McLendon, 9/16th; Ludmila Antonova, 9/16th.

Spingold KO Teams:  Jimmy Cayne,, 3/4th; Martin Fleisher - Chris Willenken - Zia Mahmood, 5/8th; Aaron Silverstein - Bjorn Fallenius, 9/16th; Roy Welland. 9/16th.

Membership and Tournaments

Membership continues to increase and is at 166.650.  Year after year membership has increased over the past seven years.

Tournaments and club table count are flat compared to last year.

Cooperative Advertising Program is not fully utilized.  The District and Units should take more advantage of it!  Check this out at  http://www.acbl.org/marketing/coopAdvertising.html

There will be three Regionals at Sea conducted by the ACBL.  This year there will be a RAS out of NY/NJ port starting on September 9th.

Board Business

One motion that failed was to allow a player to become a Life Master by attaining 1,000 Platinum masterpoints (won at NABC+ events) and one NABC+ win.  The current requirement is 500 pigmented masterpoints, with at least 50 black points won at clubs and 25 silver points won at Sectionals.  Many foreign players cannot play in our clubs or Sectionals so can never attain the rank of LM.

New STaC regulation.  Playing directors in STaC games and their partners are ineligble to receive overall STaC masterpoints (silver points) awards, but are eligble to receive section awards.

A new "Strength of Field" formula to award masterpoints in Regional pair games was defeated.  Currently masterpoints in pair games are based on attendance in the game as well as attendance in certain other (lesser ranked) games taking place at the same time.  At our last Regional, on three different days, the top award was widely different even though the game contained, more or less, the same number of players, and in some cases, the same players.

Grass Roots Fund Games:  December is designated as "Grass Roots Fund Month" and clubs may hold 'special' games under the same rules and regulations as other special game months.  Funds raised shall be used by the District in which the funds are raised to support grass Roots events, namely the Grand National Teams and North American Open Pairs.  The league will collect the funds and returned to the District by March 31 to the District.

16th annual World Computer-Bridge Championships

The 16th annual ACBL/WBF World Computer-Bridge Championship will be held August 17-22, as part of the 2012 World Championships, held in Lille, France.  See past years results at www.computerbridge.com