Greater St. Louis Bridge News

News from Greater St. Louis Unit 143

Editor:  Sheryl Finkenstadt, St. Louis MO    sheryl@finkenstadt.com
 

“Heaven's latest neophyte, signaled left, then turned right."

Burma Shave road signs, 1958, along U.S. Route 66

Signals in bridge are suggestions, not commands. Pretend partner has A Good Reason to ignore your signal and go cheerfully along with it.

Congratulations and kudos

Tom Kniest, two-timer winner of the Rockwell Mixed Pairs, passed 10,000 masterpoints at the 2011 Fall NABC in Seattle to become a Grand Life Master. The rank requires the masterpoints plus at least one win in a nationally rated championship with no upper masterpoint restrictions.

Tom gives a lot of credit to his longtime partner, Karen Walker, of Champaign IL. Walker was Kniest’s partner in two (yes, TWO!) Mixed Pairs wins. They have played together for 27 years. “I owe a lot of my success to that partnership,” he said.

Tom actually has thirty top-10 finishes in North American championships, including second in the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs in 1986 playing with Walker. In Seattle, Tom topped 10,000 masterpoints playing in the Wednesday-Thursday Knockout Teams, Bracket 1.

Recently retired after 30 years in private practice as a CPA, Tom and his wife, Donna, have three daughters: Rebecca, Jessica and Katrina.

Dealing in the New Year

A New Year's Eve Party doing what we love most: playing bridge and enjoying scrumptious snacks! And home before midnight! Yay! Janet Vontz is directing a special game on Saturday, December 31, 2011. The party is at Bridge Haven. Gather at 6:00 to mingle and snack. (For that matter, play in the afternoon game at 12:30 pm and just stick around!)  Janet will bring a semi-nutritious non-alcoholic fruit punch; you are welcome to add your own lightning if you want to spice it up. Everyone is asked to bring his or her favorite snack to share, either savory or sweet. The evening game will start at 7:00 or so. It will be more fun than a barrel of monkeys ringing in the New Year!  

You are welcome to drop in at the last minute. No reservations are required, but several pairs have signed up already, as well as several “orphans.”  If you do not have a partner, let Janet know (636-561-8808, or email janetvontz@gmail.com) . She will have a list of players who do not have partners for the evening. Let's face it; many spouses do not play bridge, so their bridge-playing spouses will celebrate the New Year doing something else. If your regular partner can’t play, call Janet and she will match you with another player in a similar situation. Or, maybe your spouse is a casual bridge player. Bring him or her along for an evening of bridge. It would be FUN! 

Entry fee will be $10 and the game will be a charity game, so it will pay extra masterpoints. If you still need a tax deduction for 2011, please consider making an additional donation to the Backstoppers, the charity chosen by Unit 143. It would be nice to round out the total contribution by Bridge Haven in 2011 to an even $5,000. OH!  And if you’re looking for a New Year’s Day bridge game, there’s a New Year’s Day party at 1 pm at Bridge Haven.

Board of Directors

Unit 143 Board of Directors has five new members (left to right above): Scott Davis, Jo Ann Moore, George Hawley, Jay Shah, and Peggy Wald.

Much appreciation and thanks go to outgoing directors: Jackie Baker, Carole Benkelman, Carl Clyne, Jane Ettelman and Bobby Riggs. The Board of Directors is responsible for the operation of Unit 143, including the winter, spring and fall sectionals, as well as the summer regional tournament and the 199er Championships. One of the first acts of the new Board was to elect officers.

Congratulations to the newly elected Executive Board.  At the first Board of Directors meeting in November, new officers were elected for the Unit, and will serve until November 2012. They are (above, left to right):

President - Steve Zenk

Vice President - Debbie Romero

Secretary - Linda Siebert

Treasurer - Jeff Kopolow

New attendance record at the October sectional

There were 394 tables in the three-day event. More than 1580 masterpoints were won by 441 players.

Standing #1 in masterpoint winners was Tom Oppenheimer (left), who won more than 40 points. 

The top ten  Unit members were Tom Oppenheimer, Alan Popkin, Tom Kniest, Rod Beery, Nancy Popkin, Mic Weiss, John Samsel, Mike Giacaman, Norman Athy, and Jack Bryant.

Silver Point winners

The District 8 Sectional-at-Clubs Week found many Unit 143 players winning in the overall awards. Rod Berry was first overall in the District, gaining the most silver points. Rod had 30.90 points for the week. Sheldon Margulis was a close second with 30.59 MPs. For peaks of glory -- why we play, right? -- the following pairs were first overall sometime in the District’s weeklong silver events:

Flight A:

Sheldon Margulis and John Samsel (70.24%)

John and Shirley Dicks

Carol Hamilton and Jerome Shen

Sheldon Margulis and Gary Kessler ( 70.00%)

Carolyn Finke and Earl Sindecuse (70.45%)

Flight B:

Donald Chase and Scott Statland

Michael Mitra and James Nunn

Flight C:

Mopsi Hanley and Beth Meteer

Henry Stern Jr and George1 Markus

Swiss Team:

Susan Perez, Thomas O'Reilly-Pol, Debra Romero, and John Antognoli (Flt A)

Dorothy Sealy, Karla Hahn, Margaret Taylor, and Roseann Stice (Flt B)

North American Pair winners

The North American Pairs (NAP)  District 8 Finals gave area players a chance to shine! In Flight A, Lee Hastings and Mark Boswell won third place. They actually won TWICE: once to tie for third/fourth, and then winning a second time in the board-a-match re-scoring of the hands, where the directors compared all their boards to those of other tied pair’s results. Think of their feelings as they waited for this painstaking process to be concluded!  

Flight C found St Louis pairs in the two top positions: Bill Maack and Ralph Britton (left photo) were first. Ralph, whose job has him consulting in Canada, actually flew back home to play with Bill in this event. In second place in Flight C were Mopsi Hanley and Beth Meteer (right). This is the second time they earned the right to represent District 8 in the NABC Finals; last year they were in third place.

All three pairs have won the privilege of competing in their respective flights in the Memphis NABC Finals this spring. Well done!

Rank advancements

Unit 143 currently has 1170 members, as of 12-01-11. Thanks to a vigorous I/N program and members’ enthusiasm for the game, the Unit has more than half its membership with fewer than 100 MPs; the national 50 percentile is 200 MPs. Our members continue to advance in rank. Congratulations to the eleven players who have gained new stature since October 1, 2011.

Upcoming Tournaments

January 13-15, 2011 -- Winter Sectional, Blanchette Park, St. Charles MO

March 31, 2012 -- Spring 199er Championship, Maryland Height, MO

May 18-20, 2012 -- Spring Sectional, Blanchette Park, St. Charle, MO

August 6-12, 2011 -- August Summer Regional, St Louis MO