Where have they gone?

What’s happening to tournaments? Doesn’t anyone want to go anymore? Tired of seeing the same faces from across the state and the country all the time (most of whom are not very sociable anyway)? Apart from a few die-hard pros intent on beating each other’s brains out in knockouts and the souls … [Read more...]

Mr. Ping’s Thing

Last week my partner Christine and I closely followed the Daily Bulletins from the Florida Southeasterns Regional bridge tournament in Coral Springs. Due to her teaching and my directing commitments, we’d be able to play there only one day, Saturday [4-13-2019] Bracketed Swiss Teams with our South … [Read more...]

In Praise of Pre-empts

Personally I hate moving – I’ve done way too much of it during my life and don’t plan on ever moving again – but it must be said that a change of venue is good for some things. Take the Jacksonville bridge tournament, traditionally held just before or around the 4th of July holiday and the smallest … [Read more...]

2-Day Monkey Business

Our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center, this past weekend experimented with a two-day Sectional tournament, instead of the usual three-day format. According to the club’s managers, they made just as much money off a two-day Sectional on Saturday and Sunday only as they used to earn off a … [Read more...]

North of the Border

There are two major impressions my partner Christine and I took away from spending almost a week at the 2017 summer North American Bridge Championships in Toronto, Canada. On one hand, it was great to see so many friends from Florida, Canada, as well as from our former haunts in the … [Read more...]

Silver…at last

Well, I finally did it. I went over the 1,000-point mark and I am now officially a Silver Life Master. It seems like only yesterday that I had just 100 or so points and I looked up to people who had around 800 points as if that was an impossible mountain to climb. I thought I’d never get there, … [Read more...]

The Burglar’s brother steals the bid

My oldest brother Johan taught me how to play bridge some 60 years ago, but we had never played duplicate together as a pair. So naturally, when he and his wife visited me and Christine in Vero Beach – they were the first of what we hope will be many visitors – we had to play duplicate at least … [Read more...]

Tampa pre-empt doesn’t scare Eagles fan

TAMPA, FL - The people of Tampa Bay proved to be very congenial hosts when Christine Matus and I decided to spend a weekend there around the Buccaneers’ NFL home game against our former home team, the Philadelphia Eagles, on Sunday (10-13-2013). Walking the streets of Ybor City the night before … [Read more...]

A rowdy weekend of director’s calls

BALA CYNWYD, PA - My partner Christine Matus and I had an up-and-down weekend at this year’s second winter Sectional at the Bala Golf Club (Feb. 8-10, 2013), but we ended on an up note on Sunday winning six head-to-head matches in the four-person Swiss tournament finale with our friends and … [Read more...]

Atlanta turkey: No master points, but a gutsy ‘steal’

ATLANTA - Over the Thanksgiving Day weekend while visiting my grandchildren, I dropped in on the tough Atlanta Duplicate Bridge Center for the second time in my lifetime and once again came away without any points, although I got some points for niceness. “You are very pleasant to play with,” … [Read more...]