03/02/10

Don joined the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL)  on October 23, 1992.  In November 1996 he went to his first National tournament in SF while visiting son David for two days, winning 2 red points.  He had better success at his second National in Toronto in June 2001.

Don became an ACBL “Life Master” in  March 1998 in Reno with Mary as a partner. Although an excellent player, Mary does not share Don’s addiction to the game. He reached 500 master points and became a Bronze Life Master in September 1999 in Whitehall, NY playing with Ray Johnson...  

 He had a great start in January 2000, winning almost 50 points.  In Orlando in January 2000 he reluctantly played in one KO with an 80 plus year old Anna Kuhns and our win made her a Life Master.  Here is our team: Suzanne Reinert, Anna Kuhns, "Lucky" Jim Hansell, and Don.  Don won as many points in 2000 as in 1998 & 1999 combined.  2001 started slowly, but the 50 points in May in Ottawa was great. 

He became a Silver Life Master when he reached 1000 total points in March 2002 playing with Julie Van Stone.  That year he won 50  points in April in Ft Lauderdale, 35 points in June in Saratoga, and 30 points in July in Montreal.

Don played fewer tournaments in 2003, with his best result in October in Kingston, ON winning 34 points.  

In 2004 he won 58 points in February in Reno, 27 points in March in Miami, 34 points in May in Kingston, and 56 points in November in Orlando.

His best results in 2005 were in April in Orlando and in October in Ottawa where he won 31 and 32 points respectively.

In July 2006 at the Chicago NABC Don played with two partners: Scott Hiller and Audrey OConnor to win 43 points.  Here is a winning Knockout Team of Tom Doyle, Ed Lewis, Don, and Scott Hiller. In August 2006 in Montreal he won 21 points  playing with Barb Hastings and Paul Lord. In early October, there was a Regional Tournament in Naples, Florida.  Don played with 8 different partners, 6 of which he had never played with, earning over 30 points. In playing in a  Knock Out event with Greg Goggin, he helped Greg get the points Greg needed to become a Life Master. In mid October he played in Danbury, CT winning only 16 points.

Don started well in January 2007, winning 39 points in Orlando. In April he went to the tournament in Gatlinburg for the first time (instead of  Fort Lauderdale), and collected 83 points. The June issue of Table Talk, a publication of the Vermont Bridge Association, included an article about Don.    Don won over 85 points and became a Gold Life Master playing with Eddie Katten at the National Tournament in Nashville in July.  In August, Cathy Chell and Don won 42 points in Montreal. Then in September 2007 he picked up 65 points in Naples, FL playing with Steve Wallis, an excellent young player from Tampa. Don played with Eddie Katten the last seven days of the National Tournament after Thanksgiving in San Francisco. Only picked up 33 points...most by winning a Knockout.  Here is our team of Don, Carl Brame, Joanna Chau, and Eddie Katten.

In January 2008, picked up 35 points in Orlando in the five days he was there.  Here is Don and various teammates: Bill Wheeler, Cathy Chell, Ed Chajkowski, Scott Hiller, and Steve Wallis.  Don roomed with Scott and played with Steve and Cathy.  In April, he won 37 points with Mike Patel, Ed Katten, and Sam Atabaki in Gatlinburg where he also had dinner with Lars Moquist a fantastic bridge player and disk jockey from Sweden.  Although he only played eighteen days in April at the Naples Bridge Center, he was the top master point winner with over 19 points. In May, Don had an OK tournament in Saratoga Springs, NY winning 25 points with Don Robertson. We played together in a five day tournament in Sturbridge, MA in June and picked up 18 points. In August Don spent 11 days in Las Vegas at a National Tournament.  He played a lot of team games with his roommate Ed Katten.  Carl Gueli and his wife Lydia Betz were the other teammates and Don won 67 points.  Played with Cathy Chell in Montreal for 5 days in August and picked up 22 points. Skipped the tournament in Naples in September, as Mary was recovering from a heart attack.  Don did attend the first week of the National tournament in Boston before Thanksgiving.  A poor result, winning only 19 points.

January 2009 started poorly with only 19 points won in Orlando.  No better in March in Houston with 24 points.  The best part was meeting Wanda King, a blues singer from Big D, in The House of Blues.  Upon returning to Naples, had dinner with part of our team: Scott Hiller, my roommate and Lynne Cook and her husband Jim.  On April 2, 2009 there was a luncheon at the Naples Bridge Center followed by a game to help celebrate Mary Mason 's 98th birthday.  Here she is with Walt Steffen.

Don went to Montreal in August 2009 for 4.5 days and played with Cathy Chell from Ottawa. Sam Tekbas and Suzanne Kingsley were our teammates for the first KO.  We came in second.  Suzanne only needed 11 Gold points to become a Life Master and we won over 13.  Here is Suzanne and her teammates.    Second place was our best result.  Suzanne was not available and a substitute with a lot of points caused us to play in the top bracket in the next two KO,s.  We had our heads handed to us and only won  17 points for the few days we were there.

In late September 2009 Don went to a Regional tournament in Naples, FL and played on a four man team consisting of Steve Wallis, Scott Hiller, Adam Kaplan (a 13 year old wizard*), and Don.  We messed up a few events but picked up over 56 points, and were in the top 3% of over 1000 players.   We came in 4th in the Open Swiss on Sunday, losing only one match, and that by only one International Match Point.  Our team had about 8,500 master points and some professional teams had over 100,000 master points.

*Adam became the youngest Life Master ever in 2006 at age 10 years and 43 days. His record was broken this year by Richard Jeng, age 9 years, 6 months, and 12 days.                                                           See  http://www.clairebridge.com/textes/the_prodigy.pdf

In January 2010 played in the Orlando Regional.  Our team had almost 11,000 points but we were in the bottom of the second Knock Out bracket and lost a number of times in the first round against teams with 20,000 points.  Still picked up about 22 points.

MASTER POINTS WON

Mini-McKenney Awards are made by the ACBL each year for various master point levels for the highest number of master points won in each Unit.  Don is in Unit 175, a small Unit comprising all of Vermont.  The results are no longer available prior to 2002.  Don won the award as a Bronze Life Master in 2002.  As a Silver Life Master, he: was second by 9 points in 2003, won in 2004, was second in 2005, was fourth in 2006, and won in 2007.  However, with Don & Mary's heart attacks, Don played fewer tournaments in 2008 and finished third as a Gold Life Master.

For early background see Actuaries and The Rule of Eleven  and Crossing The Finish Line.

BRIDGE HANDS

How many bridge hands are possible? The number of bridge hands that can be dealt to one player is 635,013,559,600, only 635 billion.

The number of bridge deals that can be dealt to four players is 53,644,737,765,488,792,839,237,440,000 or 53 octillion :

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