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...]
What a Gem!
November 24, 2017 By Leave a Comment
She did it! My partner Christine made Ruby Life Master in the rankings of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), going over the 1,500 MasterPoints mark. She did it at the first Sunday (11/5/2017) game of the winter season at our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center. In Vero, where we have … [Read more...]
Planet of the Bots
September 6, 2017 By 1 Comment
Anyone playing bridge in South Florida beware: The St. Cat’s club in West Palm Beach has a couple of new players named B.B. O’Saint and B.B. O’Catherine who always come in first. They’re not very sociable; they never say anything, never smile or growl, and they don’t even partake of the quite decent … [Read more...]
Bridge and Bacalhau
August 27, 2017 By Leave a Comment
My partner Christine and I like to check out historical and cultural oddities as we travel around the country (and a bit of the world) to attend either bridge tournaments or sporting events. When we were in Boise, Idaho, for a Davis Cup tennis match a few years ago, we discovered that Boise was … [Read more...]
Remember the Alamo
August 6, 2017 By Leave a Comment
T.J. Singer, one of the regular tournament directors in South Florida employed by the American Contract Bridge League, had told us that he was going to the 4th of July Regional in San Antonio, TX, under a new ACBL “directors exchange” program to let them see how things are done in different parts of … [Read more...]
North of the Border
August 6, 2017 By Leave a Comment
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...]
My Blue Suede Shoes
April 27, 2017 By Leave a Comment
My partner Christine and I had just finished touring Graceland and we had not yet been able to clear our heads of all the Elvis songs when it was time to play bridge in the afternoon game of the M.A. Lightman club in Memphis. Elvis recorded over 600 songs, and he never played bridge, but at least … [Read more...]
Peace in the Middle East?
April 13, 2017 By Leave a Comment
The last couple of times my partner Christine and I played bridge in South Florida, we noticed something peculiar. Every time you play in South Florida, the game always has a number of professionals with their clients, who pay them a minimum of $200 per club game – more for Sectional … [Read more...]
Mel’s Rule of 2
February 27, 2017 By 1 Comment
My partner Christine and I have made it something of a priority to try and qualify for the North American Bridge Championships this summer in Toronto, Canada, in the B classification of the Grand National Teams (GNT) competition. This past weekend (2-25-2017) we took the first step toward that goal … [Read more...]
Bring it on, Jeff
January 13, 2017 By 1 Comment
Our palms were getting sweaty, the knees felt a little weak and the butterflies in the stomach were going crazy. Jeff Meckstroth was approaching our table with his wife Sally, and he brought a whole fan club of kibitzers with him following him from table to table. This was the highest-ranked … [Read more...]