As of May of 2024 I had played with 144 partners in at least one complete session of a sanctioned game. After thee reopening in 2021 all of the games that involved new partners were held either at the Hartford Bridge Club (HBC) or at a tournament.
HBC partners: Linda Starr (introduced here) was a director at the HBC. Before the Pandemic, she undertook a program of reserving the Sunday afternoon game as a high-low game, in which at least one of the participants must have less than 750 masterpoints. This was an especially good way for someone with a lot of points to play with the person whom they were mentoring. At some point in the winter of 2022-2023 my wife Sue decided that she wanted to play in the high-low game.
I enjoyed playing with Joanne Amenta, but I don’t remember the result or any of the details of the hands that we played together.
I definitely remember one hand in which she was playing in a team game at the HBC. Her partner was John Calderbank. I don’t remember who my partner was.
On the very first hand of the match I made a terrible bid that kept us from reaching a makeable slam. I immediately started whipping myself with a wet noodle.
Joanne had never played against me before. She expressed surprise that I became upset about one lousy hand. John explained that in team play some hands are much more important than others. Missing a slam would probably cause us to lose the whole match because of the difficulty in making up the difference in the other four hands.
Joanne is still an active player. She has attended both regionals and sectionals since the reopening.
I also played with David Brandwein one Sunday in the high-low game. He was a pretty good player, but the bidding system that was used by him and his regular partner, Bernie Selig, was archaic. I suggested a few things that he could add to modernize it and allow him to play more comfortably with more players.
David was elected vice-president of the HBC in 2023. That meant that he was also the chairman of the club’s long-range planning committee, of which I was a long-time member. The first meeting was scheduled for early in 2024.
For a few weeks in the fall of 2021 the Simsbury Bridge Club. (SBC) was not able to run games on Wednesday evenings at Eno Hall. I signed up to play one Tuesday evening at the HBC. Doug Deacon, who had been a regular on Tuesday evenings when I started playing in 2008, needed a partner. So, we worked on a card and played rather successfully (around 55 percent) for two or three weeks.
Paul formerly played with a man from Ukraine named Igor and then with Paul Tungatt.
At the end of 2023 Doug still was still working and playing regularly on Tuesday evenings at the HBC.
One Sunday afternoon Fred Gagnon (GAN yun, rhymes with canyon) drove down from his house in Springfield to mine in Enfield. He had asked me to play with him in the High-Low game and volunteered to drive both of us to the HBC. I had previously referred to him “Boom Boom”, but he said that he had never heard of Freddy (Boom Boom) Cannon or his biggest hit, “Palisades Park”. So, I had downloaded it to my MP3 player and let him listen to it in his car before we left. He said that the song sounded familiar, but he might have just been placating me.
Fred did not play very well that day. He might have been having health issues. He is still quite active in the bridge community.
Barb Gallagher was from Denver. She was in the Hartford area during the summer of 2023 to visit her daughter. I was lucky enough to hook up with her for a few games at the HBC and SBC. Our lists of conventions had a lot of overlap, and so we were able to piece together a rather sophisticated convention card.
I remember that we had one pretty good round, around 50 percent. I had a really good time playing opposite her. I wish that we could have worked in a few more games.
Barb left at the end of September to return to Denver.
YC Hsu has played with various partners both at the HBC and, occasionally, at the SBC. I played with him once in the open game on Thursday morning. Since he sometimes played with one of my regular partners, John Calderbank, it was easy to agree on a convention card.
We had a pretty good game together, and I felt sure that I would play with him again.
Y.C. is from Taiwan. I have seen him many times at the bridge table, but I do not know much about his background.
I played with Diane Tracy in one Sunday afternoon High-Low game at the HBC. She must have enjoyed it; I overheard her singing my praises one day.
Diane is relatively new to the club, but she became a member of the board in 2022. So I have seen her at board meetings once a month. She has offered a valuable perspective because she spent a lot of time in Naples, FL. She has provided us with insights about how the other half lived.
I only played once with Andrea Yalof in the High-Low game, but I was quite impressed with her approach to the game. She and her husband David, who is also a bridge player, moved to Williamsburg, VA, in 2023. David worked at William & Mary. I have it on good authority that Andrea was still active in bridge in late 2023.
The “good authority” is Fran Gurtman (introduced here), who was Andrea’s regular partner when she lived in the Hartford area. Fran and Andrea still play together online.
On Sunday, May 4, 2024, my wife Sue went to a concert in Willimantic with Maria Van Der Ree. So, I volunteered to play with anyone who needed a partner at the weekly High-Low game. I was matched up with Joan Hultquist, a player who joined the HBC when it reopened after the pandemic. I did not learn too much about her. We had a 51 percent game and finished just out of the money. Joan played a high percentage of the hands, one of which was a somewhat challenging slam. JoAnn Scata, sitting to her left, put her to the test on the third trick by underleading her K♦. The dummy had the ace and queen, but Joan elected to play the ace and ended up going down.
SBC Partners: The game on Wednesday evening at the SBC on August 1, 2024, was plagued by last-minute cancellations. We ended up with only five pairs in attendance. The 2.5 table game is deplored by everyone due to the five-board sitout and the fact that results are only compared with one other table on every hand. I therefore suggested that, if two players agreed to go home, we would play a two-table game with International Matchpoint scoring, something that we had not done since the pandemic. Donna Lyons, who had been scheduled to be my partner and YC Hsu agreed to go home. Howard Schiller, who had been scheduled to play with YC, was my partner. We clobbered the opponents in all three of the matches by 31, 19, and 15 IMPs.
Tournaments: For quite a few years John Farwell had served as the one-man partnership program for sectional tournaments in Connecticut. In that capacity I had interacted with him several times when I was in need of a partner or teammates.
The first sectional in Connecticut after the reopening was held in Orange, CT, in June of 2022. I was unable to find a partner for the Swiss event on Sunday, June 5, but I needed to attend the tournament anyway because of the board meeting before the game. I ended up being paired up with John and a pair of people I had never met before and have never seen since. Somehow we clicked together and we ended up fifth out of seventeen overall and first in the B strat. The details of the tournament have been chronicled here.
In 2023 John was still acting as partnership person at every sectional.
When he was a novice Abhi Dutta played with my wife Sue at least once. Ken Leopold and I had also teamed up with Abhi and a partner at one of the qualifying tournaments for Flight B of the Grand National Teams (GNT). Although that was not a pleasant experience I responded positively when Abhi asked me to play with him at the NABC in Providence in July of 2022. The details of that adventure have been described here.
Our next outing together was our most successful. Playing with Jim Osofsky and Mike Heider we won the Sunday Swiss at the sectional tournament in Great Barrington, MA, in August of 2022. You can read about it here.
I have played with Abhi in several other pairs and team events in both regionals and sectionals. I also played against him in a memorable knockout that was described here.
I was paired up with Phyllis Bloom for the Flight B Swiss event on Sunday, July 17, at the NABC in Providence. Our teammates were Jim Osofsky and Mike Heider, who both came down with Covid-19 a few days later. We finished slightly below average. Phyllis made a couple of very costly mistakes, but I still enjoyed playing with her.
Phyllis was married to Ken Bloom, an expert player. They lived in Sudbury, MA. Ken’s father, Irv, was an expert player. He and his partner, Bob Hoffman, invented the Blooman convention as a defense against 1NT.
I had committed to play with Jim and Mike in the Sunday Swiss event at the sectional tournament in Orange, CT, in April of 2023. I had a very difficult time finding a partner. Eventually Mike suggested that I contact Ros Abel, whom he knew from the Newtown Bridge Club. Rob agreed to play with me in that event and also the pairs event on Friday. We also arranged to play once at the HBC, which was actually closer to her house in Southington than the Newtown club was.
For a new pair we did quite well in both sessions on Friday, well over 50 percent. We also were doing well in the Swiss until the last round, which was against two players from the HBC whom I knew very well, Peter Katz and Tom Joyce. We had bid to 4♠. Ros then bid 5♥. We had not discussed what kind of control bidding we were using. In the one that almost all good players used that bid would show a first-or-second-round control in hearts, but it would deny controls in the two suits that she had skipped. So, I signed off in 5♠ and made 6, which they bid an made at the other table.
I asked Ros later what her bid meant. She said that she was showing a heart suit. So, I guess that she did not use control-showing cue bids at all.
At the end of 2023 Ros was still playing regularly at the HBC.
I have played against Jim Osofsky a large number of times, especially if you count the team events in which we were both sitting East-West at different tables. Jim and Mike usually teamed up with Ausra Geaski (introduced here) and Bunny Kliman, both regulars at the HBC.
For the 2023 Ocean State Regional in Warwick, RI, Jim’s usual partner, Mike Heider, was visiting the Fatherland with one of his sons. I also needed a partner for the four days that I intended to play. So, Jim and I paired up, intending to play in the Tuesday-Wednesday knockout and the Thursday-Friday knockout.
Abhi Dutta asked if he could team up with us for the event that started on Thursday. Later I learned that his partner would be Paul Johnson, the guy whose behavior upset me so much earlier in the year at Southbridge (documented here).
We used the partnership software to pick up partners from Florida for the first knockout. We had a very successful two days with them. The other two days were less so. The details have been posted here.
The last sectional of 2023 in Connecticut was in late October. Jim and Mike asked me to find a partner and play with them in the Sunday Swiss. I had a difficult time finding someone to play with. Eventually a fellow member of the CBA board, Linda Green, lined me up with Terry Lubman, a veteran player with more points than I had.
Terry Lubman.
Terry and I had a little trouble agreeing on a convention card. She wanted to keep it simple, but I was nervous about not having enough weapons. We got off to a disastrous start, picked up a little in the middle, and lost the last match. We finished a little below average. Terry was very frustrated because it seemed that every decision that she made turned out wrong. Also, we had a rather fundamental and embarrassing miscommunication on one bidding sequence that severely impacted our morale. The details are provided here.
I learned that Terry went to Catholic schools (but never learned about indulgences!),never throws anything away (aaaargh!), and is a bigwig in the gardening club circuit in southwest Connecticut and Westchester County, NY.
For the 2024 edition of the Granite State Getaway I submitted forms for all five days that I planned to be in attendance. Denise Bahosh put me in touch with Steve Banwarth3, who actually lived in Nashua, the site of the tournament. So, he was commuting. We played together for three days, and we had quite good results that have been described in this entry. This was my best experience with a new partner in many years.
Steve’s real first name is Cletus. He asked me about Pope Cletus, and I had to tell him that Pope C. had been removed from recent lists of the popes.
Steve had told me that the bridge club in Nashua had closed because it lost its building. He also stated that it took him fifty minutes to drive to the closest bridge club in Derry. I made an issue of this at the meeting Board of Delegates. After having been challenged on the travel time, I asked Steve about it. He said that he took back roads because he did not like driving on highways. He also said that he did not like hotels, and he did not drive at night. So, it will be difficult to pair up with him again. The best chance might be in Warwick, RI. He might be able to stay with his son in Providence.
In the late summer of 2024 Abhi Dutta asked me to find a partner and join him and a new partner in the Sunday Swiss game in Johnston, RI, on September 22. I asked John Lloyd, with whom I had worked in the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Bridge Association. John lived in Avon. I had interacted with him many times at the HBC. He often played with one of my regular partners, Ken Leopold, at the Sunday High-Low game.
John had a lot less experience than I did. I asked him to send me a convention card. We negotiated one that we could both agree on via email. The details of the tournament itself have been posted here.
1. Jim and Mike were at least as odd a couple as Oscar Madison and Felix Unger. Jim was easily the most talkative person whom I have ever met. One of the bridge players called him Chatty Cathy. Mike, in contrast, had a good sense of humor, but hardly ever talked. While Jim was chatting up Donna Lyons, my partner at the NABC in Providence, Jim confided to me that “Jim seems to be coming out of his shell a little bit.”
2. According to his LinkedIn page Steve was retired from the Navy. When we played against Mike McDonald and Tom Floyd, he disclosed that he had been on nuclear submarines. Both Mike and Tom worked at Electric Boat, where the vessels are designed and fabricated.
This entry describes my partners who participated in the mentoring program of the Hartford Bridge Club (HBC) and the ones with whom I have only played once or twice. The regular partners can be found here. Those I encountered outside of the HBC mentoring program after the pandemic have been posted here.
Mentoring: The HBC’s Board of Trustees established a mentoring program several years after I became a Life Master. I cannot think of a way to set the date. The purpose was to allow newer players to pick up a few tips from more established players by playing together as often as possible over a three-month period. The incentive for the mentors was that one game per month was free. I always participated. I am not certain of the order of my partners, but I have put them in chronological order as closely as possible.
My technique varied little from year to year. I asked my partner what they wanted to focus on. I then asked them to send me a copy of the convention card that they were currently using. I wrote up a series of questions about the card/ After they answered we scheduled our play at mutually convenient times.
I communicated very little during the play. I generally try not to watch my partner’s play very closely because I do not want to make them nervous. If we had time after the round I might fo over anything that I noticed. Afterward I went of
My first partner in the mentoring program was Susan Glasspiegel1, who was already a pretty good player. At the time she played mostly with her husband Bob on holidays, in night games, and occasionally at the SBC. I also encountered them sometimes at nearby tournaments, where they often teamed up with Ru Cole and Silvia Szantos. I remember losing my temper when my team lost to them. I did not mind losing, but Ru was late turning in the score—for no good reason. That meant that both teams received the dreaded red dot. Two red dots would result in a loss of a victory point. My team never got the second dot, but theirs did.
I don’t think that playing with me had much effect on Sue’s bridge game. At the time she was pretty set in her ways. Bidding has always been my favorite aspect of bridge, and she made it clear that she needed to continue bidding the way that she did because Bob was unlikely to change.
I remember that Sue played Standard American rather than 2/1, her sparse set of conventions included the Brozel defense against 1NT openings. She also insisted that if she was responder after a one-level opening in a suit, and her right-hand opponent overcalled, that a 1NT response did not necessarily imply a stopper in the overcaller’s suit.
In later years Sue played at the HBC quite a lot with Lee Wilcox and a few other people. By then I think that her bidding was more sophisticated.
Sue suffered a very bad accident in 2022. However, when she heard that we had two and a half tables in Simsbury, she told Bob that she wanted to play so that we could have a reasonable game. That was very nice of her.
JoSue Coppa: JoSue usually played with her husband, Gene, described below, both in tournaments and at club games. I was a little surprised to learn that she had signed up for the mentoring program.
I cannot remember any memorable occurrences during our partnership. I don’t think that she advanced a lot.
Gene and JoSue moved to Fairfax, VA, during the Pandemic or shortly thereafter.
I also don’t have a lot of memories of playing with Linda Erickson. The main one is that I was scheduling games for her at the time that I had scheduled a game with Linda Starr. It was the first and (so far) last time that I double-booked. The other Linda was very gracious about the situation, although she admitted that she had placed a curse on us. Linda E. and I had a horrendous result.
I remember that Linda said that in her house she was the CEO of the kitchen. She evidently did not appreciate her husband messing around with culinary paraphernalia.
Linda served as vice-president of the HBC for a while. I guess that she was in line to become president, but for some reason she decided not to. My wife Sue, who was on the nominating committee speculated that her reluctance was because of the fact that she and her husband were moving to Charlotte, NC. However, she was still playing locally in 2020, so she must not have moved before the Pandemic.
Fran Weiner2 was a member of the HBC long before I returned to the world of bridge, but she did not have a lot of masterpoints. We only played together a couple of times. In fact, I ended up owing her
At the time, Fran’s daughter Jennifer, a novelist was involved in some kind of promotional event in California for one of her novels or screenplays or something. So, Fran went out to the West Coast to help her or to babysit or something. I expected Fran to get in touch with me when she returned, but she never did.
Bridge was not a very important part of Fran’s life. She was in the ACBL for twenty-nine years, and she only amassed 282.19 masterpoints. I doubt that she got much out of our association. Nevertheless, I was quite disappointed that she seemed to disappear from the HBC after that. I wanted to learn more about how her daughter managed to break into the world of publishing.
I often say that everyone in bridge has an interesting backstory. Hers certainly qualified.
John Calderbank came to the mentoring program with a specific objective, to learn the 2/1 bidding system. I wrote up a description of the differences between the Standard American that John had always played and 2/1. The differences were not insignificant, but there were not a lot of new things to learn.
John probably got more out of our partnership than any of the other people with whom I worked. When I wrote this entry in 2023 I was still playing with him in the morning game at the HBC nearly every Tuesday. I subsequently have taught John a few new conventions, but he mostly has wanted to take it slowly.
John and Mary Sullivan (below) took over management of the mentoring program in 2022. Their oversight was far superior to the previous coordinator’s.
In 2023 John was still doing a lot for the club behind the scenes. In addition he and his wife Nancy (below) were running an unsanctioned game in their home town of Glastonbury. He also took and passed the ACBL’s directorship test. His first assignment for the club was to direct the Sunday afternoon High-Low game. My wife Sue and I played in it regularly.
Of all of my mentoring partners3, Mary Sullivan was the most conscientious. She always responded to my emails, which she shared with her regular partner, Xenia Coulter, and she usually had additional questions.
Xenia was already a Life Master when I started playing with Mary It did not surprise me at all when Mary achieved the same rank in 2022.
In 2023 Mary was still running the the club’s mentoring program with John Calderbank (above). She also was assisting several of the other programs aimed at helping newer players.
Mary has hearing difficulties and macular pucker, scar tissue in the macula that can distort vision. Through my first seventy-five years I avoided the first of those, but I was still struggling with the latter in my left eye.
In 2022 Nancy Calderbank asked me to be her mentor. Like her husband, John, she had been playing bridge for a long time, but she wanted to learn how to play the 2/1 bidding system. We only got to play together a few times, but I am pretty sure that she had mastered 2/1 by the time that the mentoring period was finished.
I also worked with Nancy for three years on the HBC Board of Trustees. She and John, whom she called a “busy-body”, also ran an unsanctioned bridge game in Glastonbury, CT.
In the summer of 2023 I got to meet and play with Fran Gurtman, who had much less experience than any of the other players whom I had mentored. She was still a practicing physician when we started playing together.
Fran had taken online lessons. The first convention card that we played was very unsophisticated. It had no defense against 1NT openings, and it also lacked Jacoby 2NT, New Minor Forcing, Drury, and other conventions used by most of the mid-level players at the HBC. We only played together, but she felt comfortable adding most of them.
On November 8, 2023, Fran was driving from her home in Avon to play with my wife Sue in the weekly Wednesday evening game at the Simsbury Bridge Club. A deer jumped in front of her car. The collision killed the deer and damaged the auto. She called Sue to ask if she was still needed. Sue told her that we would not be able to have a game if she dropped out.
So, after filing a police report Fran drove the car, which was difficult to steer, to her house and drove a different car to the game. She arrived only a couple of minutes late.
A new mentoring session started in January of 2024 and ran through March of the same year. I was assigned by the mentor program to work with Mike Kaplan, who had even less experience than Fran did. Our convention card contained a lot of blankness. I taught him New Minor Forcing, Fourth Suit Forcing, and the two-suited bids.
Unfortunately, we had to play in the open pairs games at the HBC. Our results were therefore not very good, but I think that Mike learned quite a bit. I wrote up all of the hands on which we did poorly as I always did. I could have played for free in three of the games, but I donated the money to the HBC, which got reimbursed $30 by the CBA.
Playing with Mike on March 7 I was dealt the following hand: ♠A5432 ♥A653 ♦A5 ♣62. This hand had no face cards and only forty-four pips, an incredibly low number. The lowest possible number is twenty-eight. Mike had a very good hand, which got a lot better when blended with my three aces. He took all the tricks, but we only bid 4♥. We got a bad score.
At the same time I served with Mike on the HBC Planning Committee.
One-time partners: For quite some time I have maintained a spreadsheet with one line for each person with whom I have played at least one entire session in a sanctioned game at a club or tournament. Below is a list of the ones with whom I played only one or two games at the HBC. They are listed in alphabetical order, mostly just to make things easier for me to make sure that I did not skip anyone.
A guy whose last name was Balasubrama played on Saturdays a few times one summer at the HBC. He asked everyone to call him Bala, but the spreadsheet also has KC in the First Name column. On at least one of those occasions I played with him. He was pretty good, and he liked to play with me.
I could find no trace of Bala either online or in my database of players. Perhaps he dropped out of the ACBL before I began downloading the rosters in 2013. It is also possible that I have his name wrong. Unfortunately, in 2023 there is no longer a way to look up HBC results on the Internet.
Myrna Butler lived in Southwick, MA. She came down to the HBC to play occasionally. I played with her at least once at the HBC. I am pretty sure that she answered one of my mass emails soliciting partners.
I remember that some time after we played together I found a card filled out by Myrna at the partnership desk at the regional tournament in Cromwell. My team had been eliminated in an early round of a knockout. We planned to play in the next day’s “Loser Swiss”, but one of our team members was not feeling well. Since we had already played together, I assured the remaining members of the team that I would play with Myrna. However, I was unable to get in touch with her. I later learned that she had gone home and had neglected to remove her card from the partnership desk. I don’t recall how the team dealt with the situation.
I played in a Swiss team event at a tournament in (I think) Hyannis, MA, with Myrna and her partner, Connie Dube (introduced here). They were late for the first match. Helen Pawlowski, the tournament manager, and Sally Kirtley, who at the time was learning Helen’s job, sat in for the first match. After she learned whom she was replacing Helen said, “Oh, Myrna’s always late.”
Myrna has played a few times at the HBC since it reopened after Covid-19.
Gary Cohen played bridge for only a little more than a year, but what a year it was! He played mostly at Stan Kerry’s West Hartford Bridge Club (WHBC) game at the temple in West Hartford3. During his first year of play Gary amassed more masterpoints at club games than any other rookie in all of North America. That earned him the national Ace of Clubs award, as well as the district and unit versions. Since I was still playing with Dick Benedict, that must have been in 2008.
I am pretty sure that I played at the temple with Gary once. He made a joke about getting out the big (circumcision) knife. Although we did pretty well, I did not enjoy the experience much. Stan’s laissez faire style of directing was not appreciated by serious players like myself.
I am certain that I played with Gary at the HBC. It was on December 31 of, I think, 2009. Gary asked me to play in hopes of augmenting his chances of winning the award. We did win a fraction of a black point, but, as it turned out, he didn’t need it.
I remember playing on a team with Gary at the Cromwell tournament the next year. We had to play against Y.L. Shiue’s team. Gary did not think that it was fair for us rookies to be matched against “the best card-player” at the club.
Gary, who was a professional photographer, often went on vacations with both his wife and his ex-wife—at the same time! He insisted that he could get away with this because he was “a catch”. His LinkedIn page is here.
Gene Coppa and his wife JoSue (introduced above) joined the HBC a few years after I did. I played with Gene at least once at the club. We played together at a limited game on Wednesday afternoon that was designated as an NAP qualifier. There were at least ten pairs. Gene and I were the only people in the B strat. All of the other players were in the C strat and had considerably less experience than we did. So, we should have easily been able to qualify; in fact, we should have won.
Instead I got the worst result that I had ever received at the HBC. We finished dead last, and we did not earn our Q.
I was playing East that day; prior to that time I had always sat in North, South, or West. For quite a few years thereafter I refused to sit East in that building. When I began playing with Joan Brault (introduced here), she insisted on playing West when we were assigned to sit East-West, I reluctantly discarded the superstition.
Gene served a term as HBC president. He also served as hospitality manager for Unit 126 before the Pandemic. He and Jo Sue moved to Fairfax, VA, in 2022.
Phyllis Crowley
Phyllis Crowley was a fairly new player when I was paired with her for some reason. She was, in my recollection, somewhat overwhelmed by the event.
I think that she still plays in limited games in 2023. I have not seen her in any open games, but she was still on the email list.
Lucie Fradet.
I remember playing with Lucie Fradet once at the HBC, but I do not remember the circumstances. I remember, too, that Felix Springer and I helped her to win some gold points at a regional while playing in a Swiss event of some sort.
In 2023 she was still a member of the HBC , but she mostly played at the WHBC.
In real life Lucie had been a French teacher, and she still loved to speak in that language.
Marsha.
I am certain that I played with Marsha Futterman only once at the HBC. She was a very good player at one time. She even won the Governor’s Cup at a sectional, but she refused to take the very large trophy home.
Carl.
Marsha often played with Peter Katz. She told me that she thought that she was a better bidder than Peter, but Peter played his cards better. That may have been true then, but Peter’s bidding improved, and Marsha’s play did not.
Marsh directed the Saturday games at the HBC. Her husband, Carl, often came with her, helped set up and clean up, and filled in at the bridge table when necessary. When Marsh played with him (to avoid a sitout), she was constantly frustrated by the way that he played. I suggested that she could play with my partner, Peter, and I would play with Carl, but she did not want to do that.
Marsha gave up bridge after the Pandemic. I don’t know why.
Carl Futterman died on November 12, 2023, while I was composing this entry. His obituary can be read here.
Margie Garilli
Margie Garilli has for year run one or two games in the northeastern suburbs of Hartford. She has played at the SBC quite a few times, mostly with Donna Lyons. She seldom came after the Pandemic because she could not drive at night.
Margie, who is a pretty good player, asked if I would play a game with her at the HBC. I quickly agreed. I don’t know if she got a great deal out of it, but she seemed to have a good time.
Marilyn Goldberg.
Marilyn Goldberg was an exceptionally good player with much more experience than I had. She asked me to play with her very late in her career. I made a mistake—I don’t remember the details—and she remarked that she knew that I would do that. That hurt.
Marilyn died in 2022 at the age of 93. Her obituary can be read here.
Judy Hyde.
I played with Judy Hyde quite a few times before she moved from the Hartford area to Northampton, and I played with her a couple of times at the Northampton Bridge Club before she paired up with Bob Sagor.
On one occasion at a regional tournament in Nashua, NH, my wife Sue and I went out for supper with Judy (my partner at the tournament) and Judy Cavagnaro (Sue’s partner). The unusual aspect was that Judy C. was married to Jud H.’s ex-husband, Tom Hyde. There was not a bit of animosity between the two Judys.
On her eightieth birthday Judy bought herself one lesson and game with a local pro, Doug Doub.
Judy served as the representative of Unit 186 (Western Massachusetts) on the committee that I formed to determine the first winner of the Weiss-Bertoni award. That process was described here.
C.J. Joseph.
C.J. Joseph‘s first name was Carolyn, but absolutely nobody called her anything other than C.J. I only played with her once.
C.J. met her husband, who was (to the best of my recollection) a hospital administrator while they were both attending the University of Michigan. So, most of our conversations were about the Wolverine football team.
She left the Hartford area for a seaside home they built in Englewood, FL She scoffed when joked about her house being washed away. I don’t know; the Ross Ice Shelf is several hundred meters thick and the size of France. Nothing but friction is holding it back.
In 2023 C.J. was still a member of the ACBL, but she did not appear to be playing any more. A lot of that happened during the Pandemic
Joel Krug.
Joel Krug was still a regular at the HBC as I wrote this in late 2023. I only played with him once, but I recognized him on an old photo of an annual meeting, and none of the other members looked familiar.
The only thing that I remember about our game was that he was surprised that I knew how to play the McCabe Adjunct as well as the Brozel 1NT defense.
Joel was one of the best players at the club. He may have lost a step over the years, but he was still formidable.
I played at least one round with Pam Lombardo, when she was just a novice. Maybe it was during one of the first sessions of the Sunday high-low game before Covid-19.
Pam has had significant health issues that seemed to affect her ability to play, but in 2023 she was still an active member of the club.
A friend of hers named Butch Norman was one of two recipients who objected to me using the name Tonto in one of my emails. I discussed this incident in detail in the blog entry that I posted here.
At one time Donna Feir planned to hire Pam as a director, but that plan never came to fruition.
Jim Macomber (MAY cum ber) was a regular player in the Tuesday evening games when I first started playing at the club in 2008. I may have played against him more times than against anyone else.
One of Jim’s regular partners at the HBC morning games was Jeanne Striefler. I asked Jeanne and Jim to team up with Eric Vogel and me for the knockout in the Presidential Regional in Southbridge in February of 2023. We did very well on the first day, but terrible on the second. The saga has been recorded here.
Later in 2023 I finally got to play a round as Jim’s partner. I had long respected him a great deal. Our result was uninspiring, but it left me hoping for a second chance.
When Jim had his cataracts removed in the late summer of 2023 he was left with double vision, something to which I could relate. He was unable to drive until he got a pair of glasses to address the situation.
Partab Makhijani was my regular partner on Tuesday mornings at the HBC before Covid-19 caused the club to close. We played a fairly sophisticated card. I remember that he criticized one of my bids once, but I don’t recall the details.
Partab did not return to the club after it reopened in 2021, and I have not heard any explanation for his absence. His LinkedIn page, which is posted here, in 2023 listed him as part of the adjunct faculty of the University of Hartford.
Lesley Meyers was (and still is in 2023) one of the best players at the club. We only played together once. There must have been something about my style that she did not like. She never responded to any of my emails after that.
Lesley (LEZ lee) notices things about people. She was the only person who noticed the golf-ball-sized lump on my left elbow that was presumably caused by the effort required to extract gallons and gallons of water from the basement of our house in Enfield after Hurricane Ida in September of 2021. That episode is recounted here. I am glad that she noticed the problem. I saw a doctor about it, and he gave me a wrap that eventually reduced it to nothing.
Lesley was also the only person who asked me about the fingernails on my left hand. They apparently got severely bent and bruised when I fell in Budapest in May of 2022. That misadventure has been described in detail here.
When I first started to play at the club, no one intimidated me as much as Lesley. She was not tolerant about novices who took excessive times concocting their bids.
I remember distinctly that Nancy Narwold told me that one day that she would surprise me and respond positively to one of my emails soliciting one-time partners. Her name is on my spreadsheet, and I have a convention card for her. Therefore, it must have happened, but I don’t remember it. It seems strange that I remember the off-hand comment more than the 3.5 hour game that it resulted in.
I do recall that before she became a Life Master Nancy played almost exclusively with another woman whose name has escaped my memory—Karen Somebody, I think. The HBC held a party when the two of them achieved Life Master status. I attended. The other lady told tales about their efforts to attain the rank, including something about answering a knock on the door of their hotel room in a nightgown. I always considered Nancy a much better player than her partner.
After that event I don’t think that they ever played together again. From then until the closing for the Pandemic Nancy played mostly with Joel Krug. She also ran an unsanctioned bridge game at one of the country clubs on the west side of town.
I have deduced that in 2023 Nancy teaches business at Manchester Community College. If so, her LinkedIn page is here. She is still winning masterpoints; she probably plays online.
Val Orefice was not as serious about bridge as most of the people on this list. Although she joined the ACBL in 1994 (ten years before I did), she only made Bronze Life Master in 2012, a year after I did. She dropped out in 2018.
I remember only two things about Val. The first was that she did not seem to be familiar with several of the conventions that nearly all the accomplished players used. The other was that she pronounced her last name the same as the common word “orifice”. The Italian word orefice means goldsmith and is pronounced oh RAY fee chay.
I played with Pam Palmer a few times when her main partner, Aldona Siuta, could not play. Pam. They played a much simpler system than I was accustomed to. They very seldom made mistakes, and both of them were very good at playing the cards.
In 2023 Pam was still playing, but at a much reduced rate. She seemed to be very frightened of Covid-19, perhaps on account of her partner.
Both Pam and her partner were quite active in the same church attended by the Calderbanks.
Susan Pflederer, who was (and still is in 2023) one of the best players at the HBC, once told me that she wanted to play with me because she had a hard time playing against me. This astonished me because I did not remember having particularly good results when I played against her.
I know very little about Susan. She had been playing bridge for a long time when I started. I seem to remember that our results were mediocre. I probably made some mistakes that she noticed and I didn’t. We never played again.
After the Pandemic Susan has played less than she did before.
Trevor Reeves has the unique distinction of playing with me without making it onto my spreadsheet. When we were scheduled to play together a second time, he was able to show me the results from our first partnership. I cannot imagine how it could have happened, and I took no notice of it.
Trevor learned to play bridge in England, which explains why his BBO handle is ACOLyte. Trevor is a very good player. Although in late 2023 I still have more masterpoints than he does, the people in the club obviously consider him a better player than I am.
Trevor formerly played as a teammate of mine at many tournaments, and we did quite well. He also played with me in a pairs event at the Summer NABC in Toronto in 2017 (no notes?). We won our section in the evening session.
I would like to play more with Trevor, but he obviously prefers other partners. He asked me to play with him in the sectional in Orange in August of 2023, but I had to turn him down because of a previous commitment to play in the sectional in Great Barrington, MA.
Trevor’s primary partner at tournaments has been Felix Springer. They have a great record together and even made it to the semifinals of Flight B of the Grand National Teams in 2022.
Trevor served as both the president and then treasurer of the HBC. He was responsible for implementing the accounting changes that allowed the club to do accurate budgeting during and after Covid-19.
Joan Salve.
I cannot say that I enjoyed the one time that I played with Joan Salve. Her world view was just too different from mine. I don’t remember any details, but I was happy when the session was over.
Carol Schaper.
I met Carol Schaper at the SBC. She was a regular there when I first started playing. I liked her a lot.
She played with a former nun named Louise Alvord. Carol was interested in my book on the popes (posted here). She especially liked the title, Stupid Pope Tricks: What St. Mary Immaculata Never Revealed About the Papacy. Louise, however, did not want to hear anything about Roman Catholic clergy, good, bad, or just unusual. Carol tried to defend me, but Louise did not want to hear it.
I played with Carol only once at the HBC and never at tournaments or, for that matter, the SBC. I thought that she had the potential to be a pretty good player, but she did not want to put in the effort.
Carol was one of the thousands of people who let their membership in the ACBL lapse during the Pandemic or shortly thereafter. She had enough points for Life Master, but she must have been short some gold and/or silver.
Susan Seckinger has long been a key person at the HBC. She was hired as a director and Donna Feir’s right-hand person. Before that she was a critically important official for Unit 126. She had the formidable responsibilities of being both the treasurer and the tournament manager at the same time. She did a good job in both roles.
Susan’s husband Gary was considered one of the best players in Connecticut. He often played with Deb Noack at sectionals. He died in 2014, just as I was becoming active at the district and unit levels.
I only played with Susan once. I think that we both enjoyed it, but we never played again. She has long had a small group of women with whom she played regularly.
Mike Smith almost always played with his wife Susan. They became a formidable pair during their stay in the Hartford area. They even won a pair of national championships. Mike was a Life Master when they moved to God’s country. I spoke at Susan’s Life Master party and complained that she had never once agreed to play with me and that they had stolen my favorite teammates, Bob and Shirley Derrah.
I never got to play with Susan Smith, but on one occasion Mike asked me to play with him on a Tuesday evening when Susan was busy elsewhere. I jumped at the chance. I really enjoyed it, but he was an intimidating figure (both physically and at the table). I made a mistake that kept us from having a good round. It was embarrassing.
Mike was still working full-time while the couple lived in the area. So, his presence at the HBC was pretty much limited to evenings, weekends, and holidays. Susan, however, became a rather active member. I an pretty sure that she participated in the mentoring program.
In the post-Pandemic period the Smiths moved to Alexandria, VA. I have not encountered them since they did.
Linda Starr.
I first met Linda Starr during the Tuesday evening games. She usually played with Mike Carmiggelt in those days. They—and many other players in those games—were good enough that they intimidated me. Once Mike accused my partner and I of something unethical. When I responded with a one-word interrogative: “Ethical?” Linda immediately responded by saying that Mike was just crabby because he was hungry. I am not sure why, but Linda has not played with Mike for a few years.
I have paired with Linda a few times at the club and at least once at a sectional in Orange. That experience has been recorded here.
Shortly before Covid-19 struck Linda passed the director’s exam and was hired by the HBC. At my suggestion the club bought a subscription to MailChimp to send emails about news of the club. Linda took over the project of maintaining the database and composing emails. Her emails throughout the closure helped maintain a sense of community among club members.
Doug Eitelman.
Linda came up with the idea of the High-Low game on Sunday as a way for experienced players could help the less experienced. She has unofficially mentored Doug Eitelman and greatly improved his game.
Linda and I worked together on the fantastically successful Limited Sectionals that were sponsored by the HBC in 2023. Documentation of those events begins here. At the time she was a member of the board of the Connecticut Bridge Association (CBA). She became very upset at the handling of the notorious “Tonto Scandal” that has been documented here. After a short sting on the CBA board she resigned. At the HBC’s annual meeting in October of 2023 she became the first director ever elect to the Board of Trustees.
Gary Cohen put together a team for a Swiss event at the HBC. I don’t remember the date. I was assigned to play with Merrill Stein, whom I barely knew. I don’t remember any more details. I think that Merrill died in 2018. An obituary for someone with that name has been posted here.
Jeanne Striefler has been an active member of both the HBC and the SBC for longer than I have. We have played on teams together at tournaments quite a few times and we have paired up at least once or twice.
On a few occasions Jeanie (as everyone called her) invited my wife Sue and me to the house in West Simsbury that she shared with her husband Fred4. One of those occasions was when she celebrated making Silver Life Master, and Susan Seckinger celebrated making Gold Life Master. She probably would have invited us more often if we had reciprocated. Fat chance.
Fred Striefler.
Jeanie served as the HBC’s secretary for many years.
Jeanie and Fred went on a Viking cruise in France at the same time that I took the European cruise (described here). She contracted Covid-19 near the end of the cruise and was unable to leave Paris for several days. She reported that she had had a terrible experience. She was surprised that I enjoyed my journey and thought that Viking did well under the circumstances.
I learned when I played with Rowna Sutin at the HBC that she had been a professional opera singer in Pittsburgh. She appeared as Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème. I immediately remarked that she must have sung the show-stopping aria, Quando me’n vo’5. I then asked her if she wore a red dress. She said that her dress was not red, but it did have a very long slit in the skirt.
I also discussed with Rowna about the version of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin that was performed on television and is available on YouTube here. Rowna did not like the cuts that were made. I felt that the cuts made it a much better television show and highlighted the talents of the wonderful choir and dancers.
I told Rowna about my favorite Tchaikovsky opera, Cherevichki. She replied “How come I have never heard of it?” I wasn’t sure how to explain why it has not gotten much attention in the U.S. I speculated that it might be because it was difficult to stage. I refused to believe that it had anything to do with the music.
That was the last time that I saw Rowna. For some reason she stopped coming to the HBC. She was still a member of the ACBL in 2023, and she had won a few masterpoints during the year.
Bill Watson.
Bill Watson became the president of the HBC shortly after I joined. As president he arranged for Michael Lawrence, a world champion and highly respected author, to visit the club and give a free presentation on takeout doubles. He even let him stay overnight in his house.
I attended the event. During a break I encountered Mr. Lawrence in the men’s room. He stumped me with a question about whether the faucet’s water ever became hot.
Michael Lawrence.
Bill was also a director at the HBC and with Laurie Robbins ran the club’s education program for new members. For six years he ran the Limited Sectional that the club hosted every October.
I played with Bill a few times before Covid-19 shut down the club in 2020. I remember that he was shocked when I said that a bid at the two-level in the fourth seat should show a minimum opening hand. The club’s experts agreed with me, but later when I played with Barbara Gallagher that the best players in Denver played that the same bid at the one-level was weaker.
Before the Pandemic Bill often was the public address announcer at football games for one of the local high schools in Hartford.
Bill and I have not played together since the club reopened. He mostly has played with Mike Carmiggelt and Larry Bowman.
Bill drove a red Jaguar that gave him a lot of grief in 2023.
John Willoughby started playing at the Tuesday evening games a little after I did. I think that I only played with him once, and I don’t remember any details about the occasion. My wife Sue played with him pretty often online during the Pandemic.
Although he and his wife had moved to North Haven in 2022 John continued as president of the HBC until his sudden and very unexpected death in the summer of 2023. Previously he had lived in Suffield. In his business life he worked as an underwriter for one of the insurance companies. His obituary can be found here.
When John was vice-president of the HBC, he was also the chairman of the Planning Committee, of which I was a member. The committee came up with many good ideas during this period.
The club held a special event as a tribute to John. Many of his family and friends attended. Over $6,000 was raised for the club.
1. In September of 2023 Bob and Sue Glasspiegel moved to Charleston, SC.
2. I was surprised to discover that Fran was still living in West Hartford when she died in 2021. Her obituary is posted here.
3. Stan had just opened his club when Gary began the year of his feat. Stan took advantage of a loophole in the ACBL rules to give extra points by designating every game as a “charity game”. In addition, although all of the games were technically open games, almost no Life Masters ever attended. So, because the games were fully rated—and then some—it was much easier to earn points at the WHBC than at the HBC, where the open games were dominated by experienced players. .
4. Fred was introduced here. His real first name was Manfred, not Frederick.
5. The long version would be “quando me ne vado”, which just means “when I go out”. I don’t know what happened to the “e” in “ne”.
When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez, And it’s Eastertime too, And your gravity fails, And negativity don’t pull you through. Don’t put on any airs When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue. They got some hungry women there, And they really make a mess outta you.
Bob Dylan: Just Like tom thumb’s blues
The weather services predicted heavy rain in Connecticut for Wednesday, September 13, and they were definitely correct. When I left the house a little before 9:00 to play in the morning game at the Hartford Bridge Club, it was just starting to sprinkle. I generally did not let rain interfere in any activity except exercise. Walking swiftly through a shower has never really bothered me. At the time I did not even possess an umbrella. The temperature was in the high sixties. I wore only Levis and a short-sleeved shirt.
By the time that my Honda and I reached I-91 the rain was coming down pretty hard. However, the traffic on the road was lighter than usual, and I had made pretty good time when I reached Exit 32, the intersection with I-84 westbound. The next mile or so was always hectic because it required entrants from I-91 to cross four (!) lanes of traffic to the left in order to exit at Flatbush Ave.
By that point I had the windshield wipers working as fast as they could and the fan for the defogger was blasting away. Nevertheless, the visibility was still poor. I cursed the few drivers who had not bothered to engage their vehicles’ headlights.
The usual.
I drove much more slowly than I had on I-91, but I was still pretty much on schedule when my car approached the long ramp for Exit 45, Flatbush Ave. I coasted down to the stoplight, waited for it to change, and entered the mall that contained McDonald’s, where I customarily stopped for my breakfast sandwich, a sausage biscuit with egg. I was surprised to see that no cars were positioned at either window #1, where drive-through customers paid or window #2, where they received their orders.
When I circled around the building to the two drive-through lines for ordering, I was even more surprised to find them empty as well. I drove up to the station nearer the building. Someone asked me if I wanted to use the mobile app. I declined. She then asked what I wanted, and I replied with the same six words that I always used: “One (slight pause) sausage biscuit with egg, please.” Sometimes I needed to repeat it or deny that I wanted cheese, but on this occasion the correct order quickly popped up on the billboard.
By the time that I reached window #1 it was raining as hard as I had ever experienced in my seventy-five years. The lady taking payments had propped up some clear plastic sheeting at the bottom of the window to minimize the splashing. I pressed the button to lower my window and handed her my Citibank Costco Visa card, the one that paid 3 percent cash back on purchases at restaurants. I saw her grab it, and I let go. The card plummeted to the invisible area between the car and the window, a gap of no more than eighteen inches. This had happened to me before with coins, but never with a card.
I opened my door and felt around with my left hand for the card. Nothing. Noting that no one was behind me, I backed up a few feet and then pulled the car to the right so that it was farther from the window. However, I still could not open the door enough to get out. So, I climbed over the gearshift and exited by the passenger door.
With a good view of the area I felt confident that I would recover the card posthaste. I was wrong. There was no sign of it. A minute or so later someone wearing so much rain gear that I could not determine gender emerged from the store and join the search. Still nothing.
The lady at the window assured me that the card was in my car and that I would find it there. She also told me to drive to window #2. I did not believe her assertion about the card’s whereabouts for a second. That would have required one of two events: either she reached through my car’s window or she whacked my hand and knocked the card back through the window. I was quite sure that neither of those had occurred.
I proceeded to window #2 as directed. The person in the rain coat conducted a quick search before the next customer arrived at window #1.
I had great respect for the employees at this particular McDonald’s. They were always friendly and efficient, and they almost never messed up an order. I rated it the best fast-food establishment anywhere. They cemented that assessment when the person at window #2 gave me my sandwich and told me not to worry about paying for it.
I drove to the club and regaled a few people with the tale of my adventure while I ate my sandwich. Everyone who had registered overcame the downpour—people were advised to stay home—attend, and I was the only one who resembled a wet dog, a description employed by my partner, Eric Vogel. In point of fact, I almost certainly looked worse than any canine even after I dried off my face and arms with paper towels. At the end of the 3.5 hour game I was still wet beneath my shirt.
As soon as I arrived back at my house I checked to see if any strange charges appeared on the card. There were none. I then canceled the card. The website said that a new one would arrive in a few days. It actually took nine.
Denouement: I happened to be scheduled to play the next day with Fran Gurtman, who was rather new to the game. I was serving as her mentor in a program sponsored by the HBC.1
I tried to pay and lost my card at 1. I picked up my sandwich at 2. The card was found at 3.
As usual I stopped at McDonald’s and enunciated as clearly as I could my usual six-word order. The lady taking the order, whom I could not see at all, said “Is this Michael?” I pled guilty. She informed me that they had found my credit card, and I could pick it up at window #1. By the time that I arrived at that station the cashier knew that I was coming. She was the same lady to whom I had handed the card twenty-four hours earlier. She told me that someone had found the card in parking space #3, which was reserved for people who had ordered ahead on the mobile app.
Not only was this parking space across the driveway from the side of the building. It was also at least thirty feet farther down—almost directly across from window #2. I later noticed that the driveway between the restaurant and the parking spaces had a significant “crown” on it—the center is at least a couple of inch higher than either side.
So, how did the card get over there? It must have swum, but how it got past the driveway is totally inexplicable to me. Moreover, if it was near the building when I and the person in the rain gear looked for it, why did neither of us see it. The card itself was a very dark grey, but the writing on it was bright white.
Can a credit card even float? I did a simple experiment to test the hypotheses. This card in particular can definitely float. In fact, no matter what I did it popped up to the surface.
I later met the lady who found the card. She said that she was astonished that it had traveled as far as it did. By the way, it survived the voyage in perfect condition.
I wonder if anyone has ever written a murder mystery that was solved by the detective’s familiarity with the buoyancy of credit cards.
Telemachus and Mentor.
1. I cannot get myself to use the word “mentee”. Mentor was a trusted friend of Odysseus and his son Telemachus. Athena took his form to give advice to the latter. So, the word “mentor” should only be used as a noun to preserve the metaphor. Like many nouns it became a rather common verb. That does not bother me too much, but changing it to “mentee” grates on my nerves because it ruins the metaphor. I suppose that it would be too much to call a person being mentored as a telemachus.
By August of 2023 I had been playing bridge seriously for over nineteen years. In pairs games I had once or twice recorded scores of a little over 70 percent1, but I had never come close to achieving 75 percent, which was the standard set by The Bridge Bulletin for a “big game”.2
The Hartford Bridge Club had put its Saturday afternoon game on hiatus early in the summer. My partner, Peter Katz, and I were regulars at that game, but by late August we had not played together for more than two months. During the weeks before the hiatus the game had been lucky to draw as many as six pairs, the minimum required for a reasonable game.
The HBC decided to sponsor a special game on August 26, 2023, to see if there was any interest in resuming the Saturday afternoon game. It was a STaC game, which meant that extra points were rewarded, the points were silver (as required for advancements in rank), and the results of our game would be combined with the results of other clubs in District 25 (New England) to determine the “overall” points rewarded.
The event was an unqualified success. A total of fifteen pairs—seven and a half tables—participated. We played a Howell movement that involved fourteen rounds of two boards each using. Most pairs played only thirteen because with an odd number of pairs one pair has a bye each round. In a Howell movement most pairs play North-South on some hands and East-West on others. I played South and West. As it happened, Peter and I had a bye in the very last round.
I drove to the club with my wife Sue. She was playing for the first time with Cecilia Vasel. Because Sue was always late, I spent nearly an hour before we left going over the list of conventions that I had written on a “cheat sheet” that I kept in the yellow convention card holder that contained the card that Peter and I played. It was quite different from what I played with other partners. I suspected that I probably would forget something; I just had to hope that it would not be too damaging.
Quite a few pairs who did not ordinarily play in open games were in attendance. So, the competition was not quite as good as I had come to expect at the Saturday open games.
Peter and I got off to a good start. On our first board, #11, we were sitting North-South. Our opponents stopped in 2NT when almost all of the other pairs with their cards bid 3NT. We can actually take the five tricks needed to hold them to 2NT, but to do so 1) Peter would have needed to lead a heart, and 2) I would have needed to take my ace and then continue with a low heart, and 3) Peter would have needed to save his last heart, and 4) I would have needed to save all of my remaining hearts. No one found that defense.
So we started with five points out of a possible six, which translated to 83.33 percent. If we had found the right combination, it would not have helped us much. In fact, the pair that finished second with a 69.55 percent game, Y.L. Shiue and Tom Joyce, was even luckier than we were in the first round. Their opponents stopped in 3♦ , which gave Y.L. and Tom the top score on the hand.
On Saturday Peter and I were the only pair who played a Weak 1NT system, which meant that we would open any flat3 hand with between 11 and 14 high-card points with a 1NT bid. A good predictor of our likely success in a game was the number of times that we opened 1NT. Sometimes we get no such hands. In this game we got several such opportunities.
On hand #15 I opened 1NT with the West hand after South, the dealer had passed. At the other tables West passed, and North, playing the standard 15-17 point no-trump system, bid 1NT.
The East-West teams that tried to interfere at the two- or three-level in spades or hearts did not do well, but allowing the opponents to play in 1NT was not a winning strategy either.
At our table, North was in a quandary. I would have doubled with her hand, but she elected to pass. Here only good lead was a diamond, but it was tempting lead the ♥A. In the end I scrambled for eight tricks—four spades, a heart, a diamond, and two clubs. We scored 120 matchpoints, which was just enough to edge out Y.L. and Tom, whose opponents (N-S) somehow stumbled into a 2♥ contract.
On hand #18 we were sitting North-South. After two passes I opened my flat eleven-count hand with 1NT, and everyone passed.
At two of the other tables the hand was passed out. Two of the other North-South pairs played 1NT, but North was declarer. One N-S pair played in 2♣. One E-W team was in an insane spade contract that went down by two tricks, but it was not doubled.
The two Norths playing 2NT took the expected eight tricks. I can’t remember how I did it, but I scored nine tricks. The opponents must have helped me, but it is difficult to see how any strategy would have led to such an outcome. I remember feeling stunned at the conclusion.
At any rate the 150 points gave us another top board.
I made a bidding mistake on hand #6. It could have been costly, but it actually worked out very well for us.
We were sitting N-S. After East passed I opened 1♣. I would have overcalled 2♦ with West’s hand, but I think that she passed. Peter bid 1♥.
I should have rebid 2NT (or 1NT if I downgraded my hand to 17 points), but I confused this situation with another. I jumped to 3NT, which ended the bidding. If I had rebid 2NT, Peter would have had the opportunity to show his heart suit,3 and we would have played in the theoretical best contract of 4♥. If I had rebid only 1NT, Peter would have had a difficult time justifying a second bid.
Our actual contract became the best possible when West led the ♦J. This gave me an extra diamond trick to offset the diamond ruff that the players in 4♥ were able to score. So, our 430 was ten points better than two of the pairs that bid 4♥, and one pair somehow went down in that contract.
As Dylan sang in “Idiot Wind”, “I can’t help it if I’m lucky.”
My largely illegible scorecard.
We also won the overalls for the district, which gave us 6.19 silver masterpoints.
1. In the “matchpoint” scoring that was used in pairs games, the same hand was played by several sets of players. Your score was based on the number of pairs sitting the same direction that you did better than. You get one point for each pair that you beat and 1/2 point for each pair that you tied. Suppose the hand was played by eleven sets of pairs, and you had a better score than two and the same score as four of the other ten pairs. You would get four points (2 x 1 + 4 x 1/2), which would be 40 percent of the total available points (the other ten teams playing in your direction). It should be easy to see that it was quite difficult to score better than 3/4 of the other pairs over the course of at least twenty hands at an open sanctioned game with at least five tables, all of which were required for a “big game”.
2. Unfortunately, our names never appeared in the Bridge Bulletin and asked them why, the response was, “ST@C games are not eligible for Big Games.” When I asked why not, I got back, “I really don’t know! That’s just what the rules say.” Here are the rules as posted in the Bulletin:
Evidently the STaC games are considered sectionals. It is true that they are sectionally rated as far as masterpoints are concerned, and the points are silver, but they are played in regular old clubs with regular old directors, and nobody considers them as equivalent to sectionals in any way.
3.. “Flat” or “balanced” hands have roughly even distributions. Peter and I restricted it to 5-3-3-2, 4-4-3-2, and 4-3-3-3 hands. We never opened 1NT with five spades or hearts.
In 2013 I was still working full-time at TSI. My bridge was mostly limited to evenings and weekends. My involvement with District 25 (New England) was mostly limited to maintaining the NEBridge.org website, but I did accept an appointment to be one of the people who represented Unit 126 (Connecticut) at the twice-yearly meetings of the Board of Delegates. The big attraction was the free breakfast.
The Larry Weiss award was about eighteen inches in diameter.
The Larry Weiss Award was actually instituted in 1982. Its history is recorded here. The first presentation that I witnessed was at a Board of Delegates (BoD) meeting in 2013. The winner that year was Frank Hacker1, an expert player from Vermont whom I had contacted about contributing materials to the district’s website. The presenter was the previous winner, Jim Rasmussen. Frank seemed shocked and a little embarrassed to receive it.
I read about the award on NEBridge.org. It was named after an expert player who had a national reputation for being very congenial at the table. The evident purpose was to recognize a good bridge player from New England who had similar comportment. In those days2 an accomplished player who was also friendly was rare.
Jim Rasmussen.
I was fascinated by the award, which was the only physical trophy given out by the district. I examined the list of previous winners. Most of the names were not familiar to me.
Not long after receiving the award Frank moved to Florida. No award was presented in 2014 or 2015. In 2016 someone retrieved the tray from Frank, and Jim Rasmussen was pressed into service to find a suitable recipient. I posted a notice on the website for him asking people to submit nominations to Jim’s email address. I submitted two names, mainly because I was afraid that no one else had bothered to respond.
Luke Gillespie.
A few months later I was taken aback when Jim called me aside at a tournament and asked me if I would be amenable to him just selecting the person to receive the award. I said that I certainly had no objection. The award that year was given to Luke Gillespie, whom I had played against a couple of times. I was a little surprised that he won. I had only seen him at a few tournaments. I had also encountered him at no meetings or in any of my undertakings as webmaster. Luke was very surprised when his name was announced. That was the only time that I ever saw him at a BoD meeting.
Both of Jim’s presentation speeches were brief. He described the award, but he never went into any details about the process used to determine the winner.
In 2017 I was again asked by someone on the Executive Committee to post an item on the website soliciting nominations for the award. This time I did not nominate anyone. The award was presented at the BoD meeting in Nashua NH in June. Earlier in the week Jack Mahoney had greeted me in an elevator with “Congrats on the Weiss!” I don’t remember what I responded. However, this revelation game me a day or two to think about what I would do if they actually gave me the award.
At the end of the meeting Luke Gillespie presented me with the Larry Weiss award. When he introduced me, he admitted that he did not actually know me. In fact, I had only played against him once or twice. The memorable occasion was in Johnston, RI, at a sectional. I distinctly remember one hand. He was playing with Sheila Gabay. My partner, Steve Smith (introduced here), had opened 3♦. Sheila had bid 4♣. I raised to 4♦. Luke ventured 5♣, and Steve said 5♦, which was doubled.
Sheila Gabay.
As I lay down the dummy, I remember my exact words: “I don’t know; I don’t think that they are making 5♣. Afterwards, Luke and Sheila gently chided Steve for usurping my captaincy.
I was well aware of the criteria for this prestigious award, at least one of which I did not in any way meet. I gave a little speech in which I argued that if they were going to lower the standards to consider a Bracket 4 player, they should have chosen my friend and frequent teammate, Bob Derrah, who had established successful youth bridge programs at two middle schools in Springfield. His devotion of time, energy, and his own money for this and other projects was truly “superior behavior.” His wife (and bridge partner) Shirley had also been a great help, but Bob had been the driving force.
Shirley and Bob Derrah.
At the very end I emphasized that I felt honored, but Bob would have been a better choice. I spelled Bob’s last name so that the fill-in secretary, Beth Bertoni, would be certain to get it right in the minutes. Sandy DeMartino said that I made a good point in that players should be encouraged to nominate people that they thought were deserving of the award.
Early in 2018 I followed the instructions that were posted on the NEBridge.org website. I organized a committee of nine players that had representatives each of the eight units in Di25. My first choice was Luke Gillespie. The text describing the award indicated that preference should be given to former winners. Luke agreed. The other members were Susan Smith, Shirley Wagner, Jack Mahoney, Wayne Burt, Linda Ahrens, Karen Hewitt Randall, and Bob Sagor.
Ausra Geaski.
I once again posted a notice for the submission of nominations. This time I asked people to reply to my email address.3 Only nine people responded; seven nominated one person, and Carolyn Weiser nominated Wayne Burt, Dick Budd, and David Rock. The other nominees were Paul Harris, Sabrina Miles, Joe Brouillard, Bob Derrah, Don Caplin, Pat McDevitt, Felix Springer, and Frank Merblum. I nominated Bob Bertoni and Ausra Geaski. No one was nominated by more than one person.
I created a pdf file of all of the nominations, included the arguments provided by the nominators and sent it with the following email to the members of the committee.
I received thirteen nominations for the Larry Weiss Award. I have enclosed them in a pdf file and a Word doc file. To some of them I have appended comments when I had personal knowledge of the recipient.
I think that the next step is to gather comments from committee members. No one can know everyone, and so in some cases we must rely on the judgments of others. Please read the documents and send me whatever comments you might have this week. During the week of April 9 I will assemble a new package that includes them. Then we can start the balloting.
One note: The last ten winners have been men. No woman has won the award since Jane Smith in 2003. This seems peculiar to me, since there seems to be nothing in the criteria that would predict such a bent.
Thanks for your participation.
There were only a few comments, but one person was very upset that one of the nominees was even under consideration and asked that I include that comment without attribution. Since I had said that I would allow anonymous comments, I did. The subject of that comment, who was also a voting member of the nominating committee, offered the opinion that only positive comments should be accepted. I did not remove the comment.
In the first round of voting I allowed all members to name up to three nominees who best, in their opinion, met the criteria. Only three people were named by more than one person: Joe Brouillard, Ausra Geaski, and Bob Bertoni. Bob and Ausra were named more often than Joe.
So, the final ballot was between Bob and Ausra. Ausra got four votes; Bob get five. I would have been happy with either result. In retrospect it seems remarkable to me that if I had not been on the committee, they would not have even been considered.
I announced on the website that the award for 2018 would be given out at the meeting of the Board of Delegates at the Granite State Getaway ( a regional tournament held in Nashua, NH) on Sunday, June 24, 2018. I did not disclose the winner’s name to anyone—not even my wife Sue.
I brought the award with me to the Senior Regional in North Falmouth, MA. When I gave the trophy to Carolyn Weiser to be engraved, I had to tell her who had won. A big smile appeared on her face.
My presentation of the award to Bob has already been chronicled here (search for “Weiss”), but that account did not include my actual description of the winner: “My friend, my boss, my guru, my hero, Bob Bertoni.”
This was the last presentation of the Larry Weiss award. Bob died in 2021. No one seemed to know where the silver-plated tray ended up.
My relationship to the award that replaced it has been described here.
1. I also played against Frank in a sectional in New Hampshire. He told me that he was an actuary. He also asked me if I knew Joel Wolfe. I did know him from the Tuesday evening games at the Hartford Bridge Club, but I was terrified of him. I never told Joel about the encounter in New Hampshire.
2. Behavior was apparently much less friendly in the eighties. In 1988 the ACBL instituted a set of laws governing behavior at the bridge table called the Zero Tolerance policy. Over the next three decades bridge gradually became a much more friendly game as it became “bad form” to be rude or abusive to the others at the table.
3. I am not sure why I did not send a district-wide email asking for nominations. The district certainly had its MailChimp account by that time, and I had been maintaining the database for many years. The description of the award says that the website should be used to ask for nominations, but when that admonition was written the district had no way to send a large set of emails. Perhaps I was worried about the cost, which would have been about $7.50.
