Bridge At Its Best ....
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Districts 9 and 16 to vie for GNT prizeTeams captained by Jim Mahaffey District (9) and Malcolm Brachman (16) will face each other in the final of the Grand National Teams, Championship Flight. Brachman on a close contest against a District 19 squad in a match not settled until an appeals committee became involved. Mahaffey is playing with Gary Cohler, Michael Seamon, Eric Rodwell, Jeff Meckstroth and Barnet Shenkin. Their opponents on Friday withdrew after three quarters. Brachman’s squad is Bart Bramley, Sidney Lazard, Mike Passell and Eddie Wold. GNT finals today in Flights A, B, CIt will be District 6 (Washington DC area) against District 12 (Michigan) in Flight A of the Grand National Teams today. Playing for District 6 are Marshall Kuschner, Sumner Steinfeldt, Hal Hindman and Mark Chen. District 12 will be represented by Mark Leonard, Thomas Rozinski, Barry Lippitt and Richard Mydloski. Districts 14 (Minnesota) and 21 (San Francisco area) made it to the final in Flight B. On the District 14 team are Jonathan Cohen, Charles Nauen, Mark Krusemeyer and Patti Stuhlman. Jim Leuker, Bruce Tuttle, Shelley Lapkoff, Sathya Bettadapura and Tanakorn Lavanakul will play for District 21. District 12 (Michigan) will have another chance at a title in Flight C. They will take on District 24 (New York City area). Playing for District 12 will be Amy Kiefer, David Harty, Hans Peters and Grigoriy Blekherman. On the District 24 team are Ryan Connors, Mark Dean, Daniel Wilderman and Helena McGahagan. College team contest in semifinal stageTeams from Stanford, UCLA, MIT and Dartmouth earned spots in the North American College Team Championship semifinal round. The event is scheduled to conclude tonight. The matchups for the round of four are Stanford versus Dartmouth and UCLA against MIT.  Larry Cohen played in the Thursday Night pair game with Patron Member John Dockray. |
Week-long party for Junior playersIt’s a big week for Junior players. There’s something doing every day throughout the tournament – and beyond. That’s right – the World Junior Bridge Camp will take place for the week starting July 17. The North American College Bridge Team Championship started yesterday and will conclude today. The competing teams are: University of California at Los Angeles
(UCLA) – Lan Li, Chang Luo, Blake Haas and
Bradley Hass; They didn’t want it if they didn’t earn itOn Thursday evening, the Grand National Teams Flight A squad from District 8 left the playing area thinking about the pair games on Friday. They had gone over the card in their match with District 21 a couple of times and just couldn’t find enough IMPs to overcome the 10-IMP deficit. Well after midnight, District 8 team captain Michael Halvorsen was perplexed to learn that his team had advanced to the semifinal round of the event. He couldn’t figure it out. It all came clear Friday morning. It turned out that the key was board 7 (both vulnerable). When the teams compared, it appeared board 7 was a push because the score was plus 620 at both tables. It didn’t dawn on anyone that the plus 620s were for North-South and East-West, respectively. Halvorsen had opened 4H on eight hearts to the AKJ10 and scored 10 tricks. At the other table, the player holding that hand had also opened 4H, but the next player made a takeout double and his partner bid 4S, also making. The double game swing was 14 IMPs instead of a push, giving the District 8 team the win. What is noteworthy is that Halvorsen’s team did not realize what happened on board 7. It was the other team – captained by Michael Katz – that had made the discovery, well after the game was over, and saw to it that their opponents played the next match in the event. The Illinois team was lucky to have honest
opponents, but their good fortune did not extend to
the next round as they lost to a team from District
6.
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Florida pair leads Life Master PairsDavid Kent of Lake Mary FL and Jeffrey Hand of Casselberry FL had two huge games to take a 32- point lead after the two qualifying sessions of the Life Master Pairs yesterday. Since top on a board was 25, this represents a lead of well over a full board. The qualifiers will play a two-session semifinal today. The survivors will compete in a two-session final tomorrow. In second place were Troy Horton of Clatskanie OR and Eric Stoltz of Portland OR. Close behind were Stephen Earl of Avon CT and Allan Rothenberg of West Hartford CT. New Yorkers lead Bruce LM PairsJane Dillenberg of New York City and Jerry Goldberg of Yonkers took the lead at the halfway point of the Bruce Life Master Pairs, for players with up to 5000 masterpoints. With 1594.5 matchpoints, they were 8 ahead of two Brooklyn players: Anna Bromberg and Paul Klarreich. The event concludes today. New York-New Jersey pair lead Young LMSandy Johnson of Ho Ho Kus NJ and Benjamin Rottman of White Plains NY had a lead of 35 matchpoints after two qualifying sessions of the Young Life Master Pairs, for players with up to 1500 masterpoints. Margaret and James Cooke of Painted Post NY were in second place with two final sessions to be played. Patron Member, Cohen score well in pair gameWhen Patron Member John Dockray on the drawing to play with Larry Cohen in the Educational Foundation Stratified pen Pairs at the Summer NABC, he knew he was in for a pleasant game. It was also worth a section top, one of the better games Cohen has had in the opening-night pair game. Dockray, of Villanova (suburban Philadelphia), is retired from the pipe distribution business. He learned bridge while living in Houston TX, playing with the legendary Bobby Nail during the Sixties. When he moved to the Philadelphia area in 1966, he pretty much gave up the game. In the early Nineties, he started in again. Now he and his wife, Edie, are regulars at their local bridge clubs. Both are certified bridge teachers, and John has taught a women’s team in a bridge league at the Overlook Golf Club. He and Edie play together once a week and with others another couple of times. Dockray ended the evening with a good feeling. “Larry is just a joy to play with,” he said. Edie, Dockray said, kibitzed the game with Cohen and had a lot of questions during the session. Said Dockray: “He answered them all.” |