2004-2010 Members of the Simsbury Bridge Club Part 1

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Who was who at the SBC. Continue reading →

I started playing in the Wednesday evening games at the Simsbury Bridge Club (SBC) in May of 2004. My experiences playing there in the early years and my recollections about the people who were my partner are recounted here. This entry describes other recollection about the club, including lists of the people who participated and my memories of them, if any.

If my recollection is correct, the club charged $5 for a membership in 2004. The membership was for life; there were no annual dues. The table fee each week was also $5 for members. Non-members were charged $6. I bought a membership the first evening. At first the director had access to the kitchen that was adjacent to the Youth Room. So, free tea and instant coffee were available.

I took this and the next four photos shown here with a disposable camera at the Christmas party of 2004 or 2005. Shown here are (I think) Paula and Kathy Colket.

Paula Beauchamp was the owner/director of the club when I joined. I don’t know much about the history of the club before that. At one time there was a plaque honoring someone who had managed the club in the early nineties. I wish that I had taken a photo of it. The plaque was removed at some point before 2019.

Here are some of the people who played in 2004 and were never my partner in SBC games:

  • Louise Alvord mostly played with Carol Schaper (SHAH pur) and Clara Horn. She played once or twice a month for several years. I do not know what happened to her. The Internet (in 2021) seems to think that she might still be living in Tarriffville. She was a former nun, but she did not resemble any of the nus that I knew. She no longer had any use for anything related to the Catholic Church. Carol suggested once that Louise might be interested in my book on the popes, Stupid Pope Tricks (posted here). Louise wanted no part of it. I discovered in December of 2021 that she was still playing in the unsanctioned game at Eno Hall.
  • Carol and I played as partners a couple of times, but not at the SBC. She later played for several years with Maureen Denges. I liked Carol a lot, but she always claimed that she and Maureen were doing very badly whenever we were at the same table. Carol still lives in Simsbury, but she and Maureen stopped coming in 2019 or earlier.
  • In 2004 and for a year or two afterwards Maureen played with Pat Matthew. Pat was an extremely slow player, but they were both pretty good. I nearly lost it one time when Pat started harping on me to play faster on one hand. Pat died. I think that Maureen is still living in Granby.
  • Lila Englehart played a version of Schenken’s Big Club with Kay Hill. They also played at tournaments. I am pretty sure that Sue Rudd and I teamed up with them at least once. Lila was a large lady who drove a very large Buick SUV. She died at some point in the teens. Kay played more than Lila. For a while she partnered with Sue Rudd. She was still playing at the Hartford Bridge Club (HBC) when the pandemic caused it to close in March 2020. Kay was good at playing the cards, but her bidding was very old-school. She sometimes mentioned that she carried a gun. The story of my partnership with Sue is told here.
  • Mel Hirsch sometimes came up from Florida to play with his brother Jerry. More details of the games that I played with Jerry are provided here. Mel was a good player. He and Jerry often finished first.
  • I was surprised to see the names of Patty and Mark Howland. I did not remember them, but I played against Mark when he was assigned to play in an open game at the HBC in December 2021 with Jeanne Striefler. More about Jeanne can be read here.
  • Jerry Hudson (female) played regularly at the SBC with Jeanne Striefler. I think that she died a few years after I started playing. I remember only that she was astounded when I took off my game face and put on my silly tie at the Christmas party. She said, “You’re like a whole different person.”
  • Bob Nuckols‘ wife died the week before I started playing at the SBC. Everyone was talking about it. Bob returned to play with Bill Moody and a few other people including, for one game, me. He then played for a few years on a regular basis with Mary Lou Pech. I don’t remember too much about Bob except that his coffee mug had the black and gold colors of Purdue. He died in 2012. His obituary is here. Mary Lou was not a great player, but she was an awfully nice person. I remember that I made my first actual Endplay against her. She died in 2019. Here obituary is here.
  • I would have liked to get to know Joanna Overbaugh better. She only showed up a few times a year to play with Dorothy Clark. She spent the rest of her time on around-the-world cruises! I played with Dorothy once when Joanna was cruising. I wrote about it here. Dorothy was also one of the judges in the Hartford Courant’s story contest that I entered in 1989. That event is described here.
  • Helen Pawlowski was a very good player. I never played as her partner, but I got to know her pretty well when she took over as owner-director of the SBC. She was also the tournament manager for District 25 of the ACBL. In that role she found sites for our regional tournaments, negotiated the contracts, and dealt with the hotels in which we played. Soon after she took over the club in 2008 she began giving free classes before the games at Eno Hall. They were very popular. I always tried to show up early enough to listen to the lesson.
  • Laurie Robbins played a few times at the SBC, always with Paul Pearson. I don’t recall any occasion on which they finished below first. I never played as her partner, but I often played against her with almost uniformly bad results. In 2021 she is a teacher and director at the HBC. Much more about Paul can be read here.
  • David Rock is another exceptionally good player. He played in tournaments for several years with Sonja Smith. David was also very active in the administration of the district. He was vice-president of the New England Bridge Conference (NEBC) and was instrumental in setting up the smooth operation of the North American Bridge Championships held in Providence in 2014. David teamed up with Sally Kirtley to run the SBC in the teens. That period is described here. David moved to West Brookfield, MA. After that he only attended one game at the SBC.
  • Sonja played with Jean Seale at the SBC for many years. After Jean moved to Colorado Sonja came to only a few games at the SBC, usually playing with her son Steve. Much more about Sonja is posted here.
  • Shirley Schienman often played with her son, John Schienman. I never got to know Shirley—who always reminded me of Shirley Jones in her Partridge Family days—very well, but I had some good conversations with John. After John stopped coming to the SBC Shirley played with a variety of partners. Shirley died in 2017. Her obituary is here.
  • The North-South seats at table #1 at the SBC were usually occupied by Ellen and Tony Tabell. When the subject of Moysian fits came up during one hand, they told me that they had known Sonny Moyse in New York. They moved to Exeter, NH, and, for a time ran a bridge club in the area. Tony died in 2020. His obituary is here.
  • Claire Tanzer played almost every week with a few regular partners. I recall the details of only one conversation with her in December of 2009. It is recounted here.
  • Don Verchick and Nancy Campbell played a strong club system that they called “Precision”. C.C Wei would not have recognized it. They never opened 1NT! Nancy played with various partners at the HBC through 2020.
  • I was surprised to see that Mary Witt played at the SBC at least once with Tom Gerchman. Much more about Tom can be read here. Mary was the tournament coordinator for the Connecticut Bridge Association (CBA), which meant that she found sites, negotiated contracts, and brought the predealt boards to the sectional tournaments. Once she asked me to perform the last task for her. I was very flattered. Mary moved to Cary, NC. I have corresponded with her via email a few times.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2004.
    • Robert and Ruby Cheah played together several times.
    • Roger Evarts played once with Don Verchick.
    • Dick and Joan Harris played together several times.
    • I should remember Clara Horn, who played with a number of partners, but I don’t.
    • I cannot place Maryann Joyce.
    • Jean Marecki played with Lila Englehart.
    • Alice Rowland played with Claire Tanzer.
    • Ruth Schwartz played with Marylou Pech. Ruth played quite a bit, but I cannot picture her. I discovered in December of 2021 that she was still playing in the unsanctioned game at Eno Hall.
    • Marcia and Norman Samuels played together.
    • Martha Stout played with Claire Tanzer: I get Martha and Alice Rowland mixed up.
    • Carl and Dorothy Suhre played together several times.
Russ is at the far right. Paula is by the door. I think that Nancy Campbell is seated near the wall.

Below are listed people who began to play at the SBC in 2005. Paula was still the director.

  • Fred Bird played regularly with Jean Little. They were married. After Fred died in 2011 Jean played at the SBC and the HBC with Max Horton and others. Jean died in 2018. Her obituary is here.
  • Rita Bowlby played at the SBC only once. I don’t remember her. Her partner that evening was Dick Benedict, whom I remember very well. Those recollections are posted here.
  • I am sure that I conversed with Jim McGarr several times, but I don’t remember any details. I can picture him pretty clearly. He died in 2015. His obituary is here.
  • Jay and Luetta Gould owned a residence in Torrington, CT. They rarely came to the SBC, but I remember their visits were in different years. Jay also ran a game in the Berkshires in the summer. In 2021 they appear to live in Delray Beach, FL.
  • Roger Holmes played with Dick Benedict for several weeks. Then they had a falling out. Dick once told me what they argued about, but I don’t remember.
  • I was surprised to see Ausra Geaski’s name on the results sheets. I played as her partner in one pairs event at one tournament in 2014. I have played against her innumerable times. She was president of the New England Bridge Conference (NEBC) when I became the district’s webmaster in 2013, and she chaired the B’s Needs committee that helped revitalize the tournaments.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2005.
    • Frank and Jean Catudal played together several times..
    • I have no recollection of Ray and Sym Gallucci.
    • Jack Gensheimer played with Jim McGarr once;
    • Dick Kronk played with Bill Moody.
    • Barbara Lynyak played with Dorothy Clark.
    • Phyllis Martin also played with Dorothy Clark.
    • Dennis McVickers played with Roger Evarts.
    • Marcia Scarles played with Lila Englehart.
    • Lou Urban played with Bill Moody.
    • Rita Wolak played with Ausra Geaski.
On the left are Dorothy Clark and Shirley Schienman. On the right are Mary Witt and Helen. The other woman at their table might be Margie Garilli.

Below are listed people who began to play at the SBC in 2006. Paula was still the director.

  • Betty Angel played once with Mary Witt. Betty is still an active member of the HBC. I don’t think that she ever played at the SBC again.
  • Sue Gerchman was Tom’s mother. She played off-and-on with her son, who picked her up and drove her to the games. She also played once with her sister, whose first name was, I think, Benvenuta (Beni) Lostocco. I am pretty sure that they played in the same 299er game at the regional in Cromwell in which Dick Benedict and I played. A few years later, when I was playing with Tom, Sue died. I drove out to Avon for the wake. Some of Tom’s golfing friends were there, but I did not see any other bridge players. Beni died in 2014. Her obituary is here.
  • I don’t remember the occasion, but on one evening in 2005 Stan Kerry played with Bob Tellar at the SBC. Their better halves, Sandy Sobel and Carol Tellar also played together. I think that Bob and Carol played together a few times at the SBC. They also played at the HBC, Carol more often than Bob. Stan is best known as the director and owner of the West Hartford Bridge Club, which directly competed with the HBC. I played there a couple of times, but I did not enjoy it much. In 2012 Stan and Sandy went on the same Larry Cohen Regional-at-Sea Cruise that my wife Sue and I took. My journal for that trips is posted here. Sandy died in 2017. Her obituary can be found here.
  • Sally Kirtley made her debut at the SBC (at least to my knowledge) in 2005. We played together a few time, but not at the SBC. Sally became the director of the club in _____. She also directed in 2021, as was documented in considerable detail here.
  • Judy Larkin played fairly regularly with Lisa Audolensky for a number of months. They were both new to the game and eager to learn how to play better. They invited Dick Benedict over to coach them. In exchange they agreed to cook supper for him. Dick readily agreedJudy has been playing again in the reborn SBC of 2021.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2006.
    • Norman Hargett played one night with Ruth Schwartz; I don’t remember him.
    • I have no memory of Matt Perry, who played with Roz Sternberg and Dick Benedict.
    • Robert Wise played with Russ Elmore. Much more about Roz, Dick, and Russ can be read here.
I am not sure of any of these people.

Below are listed people who began to play at the SBC in 2007. Paula may have started as the director, but early in the year Helen Pawlowski took control. Helen continued the policy of guaranteeing a partner for everyone. Eventually she quietly abandoned the $5 charge for membership and raised the table fee to $6. Attendance reached ten tables on several occasions.

  • Ida Coulter began playing with various partner, one of which was my wife Sue. Ida has been playing with Judy Larkin in the 2021 version of the club.
  • Trudi Brown usually played with her husband, Lou Brown. I played with Lou in the afternoon Open Pairs game at a CBA sectional in Hamden. His partner from the morning went home at lunch time, and my partner stood me up. We finished roughly in the middle, but we might have done better if Lou had not revoked even after I warned him that he was not following suit. Lou was serving his two-year term as president of the CBA at the time. He treated Trudi brutally whenever she made a mistake at the table. I asked Trudi whether I should say something to him about behavior that violated the ACBL’s zero-tolerance1 guidelines. She asked me not to and indicated that it was like water off of a duck’s back to her. Lou told me in 2010 that he could not attend my Life Master party because he had to call numbers in a bingo game in which his mother played. Trudi made Life Master in 2012 in a knockout at the regional tournament in Cromwell, CT. I played on the opposing team. My description of the match is posted here. Lou and Trudi moved to Delray Beach, FL, shortly thereafter.
  • Dan Finn played with Richard Finn, who was Dan’s brother (or maybe father) in one of the biggest games that we every had at the SBC. Dick and I played against the Finns at a card table that had been set up in the lobby. I also played with Dan at least twice, once at a tournament (described here) and once at the SBC.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2007.
  • Dot Horton played with her husband Max. They were not great players, but they were very nice people. I remember that they took a river cruise in the south of France. They said that they had a great time. Dot once confided that when they started playing at Simsbury she was afraid of me. She died in 2015, but not from fright. Max continued to play with several other people at the SBC and the HBC. I almost got him to go to a tournament to play in a Pro-Am game once. Max died in 2021. I could not find an obituary.
  • Karen Largay played with Sheila Gillin at the SBC pretty often until the Largays moved to the Cape. They also played with their husbands occasionally, but the ladies were more serious about the game. Dick Benedict and I teamed up with them for tournaments a few times. I also played as Karen’s partner once at the Senior Regional on Cape Cod. I warned her before the first hand that if the opponents had bid and raised a major suit that I might bid any weak hand with a five-card suit. She forgot and raised my bid. The opponents doubled and we got a bad score.
  • I don’t know Steve Noble and his wife Chris Noble very well, but I have seen them at the HBC once in a while. I don’t know why they stopped coming to the SBC. I think that my wife Sue played with them in team events.
  • Art and Marylin Noll played together at the SBC at least once. Marylin was a good player and a semi-regular at the HBC, but I have not seen her since the pandemic hit.
  • Susan Pearson played with her husband Paul a few times.
  • Jan Potts played with a few different partners. In the late teens she was a frequent partner for Jan Rosow.
  • I had no recollection of Joan Brault playing at the SBC, but she attended several sessions. Her partner the first time was Beth Rotko, whom I do not remember at all. I played with Joan fairly often at the HBC. Those games are described here.
  • Arline Small played frequently at the HBC. She occasionally played with her husband Stuart at the SBC.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2007.
    • Janice Boyko played with Ida.
    • Lillian Clark finished first out of ten pairs the evening that she played with Maryann Maikowski. They also finished at the top on at least one other occasion, but I don’t remember them.
    • Bill and Lenore Davis played together a few times.
    • Mary Fanette played with Helen once.
    • Art Marglies and Hannah Marglies played at least once, but don’t remember them.
    • Gladys McFetridge played with Dorothy Clark several times.
    • Margaret Milch played with Ida.
    • Rosa Shields played with Roz.
    • It seems like I should remember Donna Summer, but when I try to visualize her, all that I can see is the disco singer.
    • Barbara Steckler and June Rosenblatt don’t ring any bells either.
    • Elena Thompson played once with Carol Soucy.
    • Lisa Woods played once with Ida Coulter.
I think that the couple might be the Catudals. The woman on the right is Jeanne Striefler. Helen and Mary Witt are in the background.

Helen’s second year of directing was 2008. Listed below are some of the new players.

  • Michael Dworetsky played with Dan Finn and then with his wife Ellen. I played at many tournaments with Michael and as often as possible at the HBC. Our exploits together are assembled here.
  • Linda Kessleman played with Margie Garillli. Later Linda played pretty often with Mary Witt, Dick Benedict, and a few other people. I think that she was a real estate agent. Margie ran some games in the area and filled in as a director at the SBC. She played pretty often with Donna Lyons before the pandemic.
  • Sandy Macri played with someone else first, but eventually she teamed up with Karen Sterrett. I liked both of them a lot. I had to like Karen; she was a fellow Wolverine. They are both active members of the HBC.
  • Jeff Morris and Ron Saxon were both doctors. I went to Ron once when I had a build-up of wax in my ears. He was friends with Michael Dworetsky. Jeff sometimes played with his wife, who was very intense.
  • Jeff Oakes played with Sue Rudd. I don’t remember Jeff. Details about my long and continuing relationship with Sue are posted here.
  • Alden Stock played with Michael Dworetsky. He later played at the SBC with his wife Reba.
  • Louise Sunter played with Helen and Donna Lyons. I don’t remember Louise at all, but Donna is one of my favorite people in the world. I played with her a few times at the HBC and in a few tournaments. The details can be read here.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2008.
    • Mark Johnson played once with Helen.
    • Susan Lewis played with Shirley.
    • Howard Mark and Sheila Mark played together, but just once.
This and the following photos were taken at the 2008 Christmas party with my Canon point-and-shoot camera. Shown are (left to right) Helen, Sally, Sheila Gillin, Karen Largay, and Jerry Hirsch.

Helen continued as owner-director in 2009. Listed below are some of the players who first played at the SBC that year.

  • Judy Goff played with Louise Alvord. Judy later became one of my wife Sue’s regular teammates. I think that they were partners at one or two tournaments.
  • I can hardly believe that Len Helfgott played at the SBC one night with Roz. He is a very good player. I played against him on Tuesday nights at the HBC a few times. I also recognized his name from reading a question that he submitted to the column in the Bridge Bulletin written by great Eric Kokish. On one hand that I played against Len I used “restricted choice”2 to determine which way to finesse. It worked, and Len remarked that bridge players know the play, but no one else would believe it.
  • I definitely remember Anne and Paul Melvin, but I don’t have any stories about them.
  • Barbara Perez played with her sister, Donna Lyons, a few times. Barbara lives in Mexico, but she asked me to keep her apprised of developments in bridge in the area.
  • Jan Rosow played with Joan Rusconi in their debut at the SBC. Jan became a Life Master in 2014. In 2021 she came to the club about once per month. Jan is also very active in the CBA. I don’t remember Joan playing at all in subsequent years, but I often saw her at the HBC.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2009.
    • Beverly Lapioli and Sharon Smith played together one evening.
    • Peter Milliken played twice with Helen and once with a few others.
    • Doris Rothe played with Donna Lyons.
    • Mike Schwefel played with Jeff Morris.
    • Helene Wade and Lil Nolan played together.
This is Jerry Harrison.

Helen was still director in 2010. Listed below are some of the players who first played at the SBC that year.

  • Tim Largay played with his wife Karen. I think that he was more interested in golf than bridge.
  • Vivian Leshin played with Nancy Campbell. Vivian was a regular in the Tuesday night game at the HBC. She was the first person who warned me there that “Getting old is not for sissies.” I did not remember her playing in Simsbury. I was in attendance when she earned Silver Life Master at the Senior Regional in Hyannis. Her partner for that event was someone she had just met at the tournament’s partnership desk. I think that that was Vivian’s last tournament.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2010.
    • Tina Cheffer played with Judy Goff.
    • Caroline Collins played with Ruth Schwartz.
    • Connie Fictner played with Louise Lapioli.
    • Kay Yaznac played with Tina Cheffer. I don’t remember them.
  • Bob Tellar & Linda Kesselman
  • Sue Rudd, Ken Leopold, Kay Hill, Jan Rosow, Elisabeth Barnicoat, & Carolyn Newell
  • Elisabeth Barnicoat & Kay Hill

I have lost the records for 2011 and 2012. The lists continue with 2013 here.

  • Tom Gerchman
  • Paul and Sue Pearson
  • Dick Benedict, Helen, & Jerry Hirsch
Photos at my Life Master party in 2010.

1. In 1998 the ACBL instituted a policy designed to make for a friendlier and more pleasant environment at all levels of duplicate play. It is posted here.

2. The principle of restricted choice is explained pretty well in the Wikipedia article that is posted here.

2013-2019 Members of the Simsbury Bridge Club Part 2

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David and Sally run the SBC Continue reading →

This entry describes workings of the Simsbury Bridge Club between 2013 and 2019. It also lists players who first played at the club in those years who were not my partners. The experiences with my partners for that period are enumerated here. The lists are probably incomplete because the results sheets for 2011 and 2012 are apparently lost.

David Rock.

The following people were playing at the SBC in 2013. Some may have begun in 2011 or 2012 or even earlier. Sally Kirtley was the director, and David Rock was the manager.

  • Elisabeth Barnicoat played with Carolyn Newell a few times. Carolyn also played with Sue Wavada at least once. I occasionally saw both Elisabeth and Carolyn at the Hartford Bridge Club (HBC) as I left after an open game in the morning. They were entering the building for a limited game in the afternoon.
  • Pat Carey played with Jan Rosow. Over the years she has played at the SBC with Jan and a few others. She did not play at the SBC in 2021, but she sent me an email indicating her intention to return in 2022.
  • Med and Kathy Colket always played together. They only played once a month or so, but they continued to play at the SBC through 2021. They were pretty good players, but their bidding techniques needed a little modernizing. I think that they both went to Cornell at the same time that I was an undergrad at Michigan. Med also has a PhD from Princeton. His LinkedIn page is here. They played together at a few tournaments and did quite well. Med came up with the idea of registering vaccinated players for the reboot of the SBC in 2021, as described here. Kathy has also played pretty often at the HBC.
  • Patty Connolly played with Louise Jackubosky. I remember Louise clearly, but not Patty. I am pretty sure that Louise is the sister of Aldona Siuta, a regular player at the HBC. Louise has not played at the SBC in a few years.
  • Karen Emott played with Margie Garilli quite a few times. I know who Karen is, but I can’t remember much more than her name.
  • Carol Foley and Denyse LeMare paid the SBC a visit one Wednesday evening. They were en route from their homes in New Jersey to a bridge tournament somewhere and stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn in Enfield. They played Precision, but on the hand that we played against them they did not get to use any of the gadgets. I overheard one of them remark that there must be a better way to drive back to Enfield than the way that they came. I assured them that there were several, but they were all rather complicated. I advised them to follow my car back to Enfield, which they did successfully. I have never seen them since.
  • Kammy and Vj Goel played together several times at the SBC. Vj died in 2017. His obituary is here.
  • I think that 2013 is the year that I asked Ken Leopold to play with me, but our longstanding partnership might have begun in 2012. He had previously played with a couple of other people. Much more about the adventures Ken and I shared are provided here.
  • Karen Harrison played at the SBC with Linda Dragat. I don’t remember either of them at the SBC, but I distinctly remember Karen’s cringe-worthy stories at the Life Master party that she shared with Nancy Narwold in 2012. Karen now lives in Florida. I have played against Linda many times at the HBC, where she is still an active member in 2021.
  • James Lee played with Donna Lyons. James had the very peculiar habit of balancing his scoresheet and pencil on his lap. Since he crossed or uncrossed his legs at least once per minute, the scoresheet and pencil were constantly falling from their perch. I found this amusing, but some people were annoyed. He also liked to underlead aces just because no one expected it. I played with him in one pairs event at the regional tournament in Cromwell when my partner had canceled at the last minute. James never seemed to have a steady partner that I remember. He had been to Tanzania and shared some of his photos with me before our Africa trip in 2015. Our trip is documented here. I don’t know where James is in 2021.
  • Debbie Ouellette (ooh LETT) almost always played with David Rock. She got a lot better over the years. She and David ran the partnership desk at the regional tournament in Cromwell for many years. They got married in 2020. Sue and I were invited, but we could not attend because of the pandemic. At the time there was no vaccination, and the treatment modalities were mostly guesswork.
  • Toby Schuman sometimes played with her husband Art both at the SBC and in special events at the HBC. Sue Rudd told me that Toby was an excellent athlete. She was also a much better bridge player than her husband.
  • Lea Selig played at the SBC on one occasion with Sheila Mark. I don’t remember Sheila at all. Lea is a regular at the HBC. She often plays with Jeanne Striefler or Aldona Siuta. Lea is a good bridge player, but I would never play with her. She is very tough on her partners.
  • Mike Winterfield played with my wife Sue. Mike was my first boss back in 1972 at the Hartford Life. Those days are described here. He also participated on our departmental sports teams, the Mean Reserves, as recounted here. I also played with Mike at least once at the Pro-Am event of the regional tournament in Cromwell. We did pretty well. Mike got divorced from his wife Jane at some point. He is a rather active member of the HBC.
  • In her SBC debut Mike’s wife Jane Winterfield played with Clara Horn. She also played with Mike a few times at the SBC and the HBC. Hers is a sad story. She had physical problems that culminated with her death. I could not find an obituary.
  • I have no recollection of the following players:
    • I don’t remember Edie Sherman at all.
    • Robert Van Gorder played once with Jerry Hudson. I recall nothing about him.
    • Phyllis Vignone played with Carolyn Newell. I do not remember Phyllis.
Sally Kirtley and Helen Pawlowski.

The following people began playing at the SBC in 2014.

  • Dan and Becky Koepf played together a few times. I knew Dan pretty well from the years that I played on Tuesday evenings at the HBC. Dan often played in those games with Dave Landsberg. I asked the two of them to play with Jerry Hirsch and me in the Flight C qualifying tournament for the Grand National Teams. We did exceptionally well when one takes into account that neither pair had any experience in the event whatever. My partnership with Dave is documented here.
  • Reba Stock played with Alden. They both played in 2020 as well.
  • Stan Stolarz, a resident of Southwick, MA, is still a fairly active member of the club in 2021.
  • Fred Striefler is a physicist and a very smart guy. He is also Jeanne’s husband. He plays with us at the SBC when we need someone to fill in. Jeanne is much more serious about bridge than Fred.
  • Maureen Walsh mostly played with Jan Rosow. Moe’s Life Master party at the SBC in 2019 set a modern day attendance record. Jan and Moe still come to the SBC about once per month.
  • I have no recollection of the following players.
    • Sue Shipley played with Ida.
    • Andrea Saxon (Ron’s wife) played w/ Ellen Dworetsky.
Med and Kathy Colket.

The following people began playing at the SBC in 2015.

  • Al Carpenter played with a number of people at the SBC. I think that he found our game through an unsanctioned daytime game at Eno Hall. He was a big boisterous guy with a hearing problem that seemed to cause him to talk a bit too loud. I think that he worked for Enterprise Rent-a-Car. His last partner was Rollin Shank. I don’t know why Al stopped coming to our games.
  • Yan Drabek and Allison Ryan came down from Massachusetts to qualify to play in the NAP. I have subsequently had many email exchanges with Yan, who manages the website for Unit 196 (Western Mass). I once arranged for her to meet bridge expert Harold Feldheim at a CBA sectional tournament. She was interested in taking some lessons from Harold. I played with Allison once. I think that it might have been at the SBC.
  • I was surprised to see that Betty Kerber once played at the SBC with Pat Carey. Her regular partner at the HBC and at tournaments was Don Muller, but she has also played with other people.
  • Aaron Leopold is one of Ken’s sons. He has played at the HBC with his dad a few times. He is an officer in the Army. I think that he flies helicopters.
  • Lori Leopold is Ken’s wife. I don’t know why she has let me play with Ken every week for so many years. She was a very important figure in the renaissance of the SBC in 2019, as described here.
  • Everyone was a little shocked when top players Alan Rothenberg and Geof Brod came to the SBC for an NAP qualifying game. To no one’s surprise they finished first and earned their Q’s.
  • Rollin Shank played with Robert Webber in his first appearance at the SBC. I don’t remember Robert, who never returned, but Rollin played fairly regularly, mostly with Al Carpenter, for several years. After that he often teamed up with Tina Yablonski at the HBC and at local tournaments.
  • Ronit Shoham has played fairly regularly at the SBC, mostly with Lori. They still play together pretty often, both at the SBC and the HBC. Ronit is famous for paying her table fees with $2 bills. If she arrived at the game at 6:29, she was early. She insisted that Israelis were always late.
  • I don’t remember the occasion, but Felix Springer first played at the SBC in 2015. I have played with him many time and played on teams with him even more often. Those experiences are described here. In 2021 he is the president of the HBC. So, in a way he is my boss.
I am positive that I did not take this photo of Moe Walsh and Jan Rosow. Do you know why?

The following people began playing at the SBC in 2016.

  • I did not realize that Frankie Brown (a woman) had ever played at the SBC, but she is listed on one of the results sheet in 2016. She has been a member of the HBC for a long time, but I have not seen her in 2021.
  • Nancy Calderbank played at least once with Sue Wavada. In 2021 she still plays often at the HBC and once a month at the SBC with Xenia Coulter.
  • Debbie Katz played with Lori at the SBC. Debbie was a regular at the HBC and at local tournaments before the pandemic, but I have not seen her in 2021.
  • It must have been a special occasion when Dave Landsberg played with Felix at the SBC. He must have had a long drive from and to his house in Higganum. Dave was one of the best people whom I ever met. More details about our relationship are collected here.
  • Joe and Rachel Peled first played together at the SBC in 2016. They came back a few times after that, but mostly they played at the HBC and at tournaments. I have seen Rachel at the HBC in 2021. I heard that Joe had physical difficulties that restricted his play to online.
  • Chuck Pickens played with Diann Wienke fairly often before the pandemic. I even played one night with Chuck when Diann and Ken were not available. I have not seen either of them in 2021.
  • Trevor Reeves made his debut at the SBC with Felix. I have played with him quite a few times at the HBC and at tournaments. The details are here.
  • Norm Rosow played with his wife Jan at the SBC a few times. I have seen him once or twice at the HBC in 2021.
  • I do not remember the following players who played at least once at the SBC in 2016.
    • Betty Friedman played with Ken.
    • Bruce Meade played with Rollin.
Allison Ryan and Richard McClure.

The following people began playing at the SBC in 2017. The list is almost certainly not complete.

  • Richard McClure played with Allison Ryan. I know him from tournaments.
  • Helene and Hank Thompson were regulars at the SBC in the early months of 2017.
  • Kathy Fahey played with Sue Wavada in 2017, and they have kept in touch since then. They have played online at the HBC games in 2021.
  • Ginny Basch played with Sue Wavada in 2017. I don’t think that she came to the SBC again, but they have enjoyed many breakfasts together since then at a “greasy spoon” in Somers, CT.
  • Lesley Myers played with Jeanne Striefler. Lesley is one of the best players at the HBC. I played with her there once. She was the only person who noticed the flesh-covered golf ball on my left elbow, as I recounted here.
  • Brittany Stahely played with Lori Leopold. I don’t remember Brittany.
Tom Joyce.

2018 began with a bang. On January 31 the SBC held a party to celebrate Moe Walsh’s achievement of the rank of Life Master. The Youth Room was wall-to-wall bridge players. We had nine tables, and for the first time in many years we were able to play a Mitchell2. Here are the people who came to our Wednesday evening game for the first time that night.

Marianne Hope.
  • Two top players from the HBC, Tom Joyce and Y.L. Shiue, joined our group for the first time. Before I really knew him I once sat beside Tom on a long Continental flight from Houston.
  • Gay Godfrey played with Ida that night and on quite a few subsequent occasions in 2018.
  • Sue Wavada talked one of her HBC partners, Marianne Hope, into sitting across from her.
  • John Calderbank, with whom I have played quite often, played with his wife Nancy. In 2021 John is very active in the management of the HBC and also, with Nancy, runs a bridge game in Glastonbury.
  • Marie Abate played with Ron Talbot. Marie still plays regularly at the HBC. Ron, a former president of the HBC, has moved to Naples, FL
  • Tina Yablonski played with Rollin Shank that tournaments and at tournaments. Tina and her husband went on a few trips with the Strieflers. Tina was a member of the HBC’s Planning Committee on which I served before the pandemic.
Tina.

Unfortunately, the rest of the year did not yield anything like that. No new players came during the rest of the winter or the spring. The summer was disrupted somewhat by remodeling of the basement of Eno Hall. We were able to play, but the game was sometimes moved to rooms that were not nearly as nice for bridge as the Youth Room. A few new players came in the late summer and fall. Here is the list:

  • On August 1 Linda Starr, whom I first met at the Tuesday night games at the HBC ten years earlier, brought Gordon Kreh to play at the SBC. Linda was (and is) a fine player who later became a director and communication specialist for the HBC. Gordon, like so many others, picked up the fundamentals of bridge decades earlier, but he was having difficulty adjusting to the new conventions and the more aggressive approach to bidding. They did pretty well at the SBC for the rest of the year.
  • Three weeks later Joe Brouillard and his wife Linda Ahrens played in the Wednesday evening game and took home all the marbles. I played once with Linda in the Senior Regional in Hyannis, MA. Our game was not that memorable, but I recall that she actually walked to the tournament that day, and Joe brought us both lunch. We also played together once in a club game in Warwick, RI. Joe is also a good friend. Not only has he served for years as the District 25’s treasurer—in which role he was instrumental in rescuing the NEBC from years of dwindling assets, but he also served as chairman of both the 2014 and 2022 NABC tournaments in Providence. I have also played against both of them many times at regional and sectional tournaments.
  • On October 3 Jessica Koob played with Jeanne. She did not return, and I don’t remember her at all.

By the spring of 2019 the club was a shadow of its former self. We often seemed to face the prospect of the dreaded two-and-a half-table game with the five-board sitout. I remember several two-table games that we scored using IMPs1, a format that I actually enjoyed. At least once I drove out to Simsbury, and there were not enough people for even that kind of play, and once we were locked out of the building. Some games were canceled because of lack of interest just before Wednesday.

As far as I can tell, only one new player appeared at the SBC during the first part of 2019. On May 1, 2019 Mike Carmiggelt played with Jeanne. Mike played with Linda Starr for years on Tuesday nights at the HBC. During the pandemic he contacted me by telephone (!) to suggest that we have an informal game in Eno Hall, which was still closed at the time. In 2021 his is still a familiar face at the tables at the HBC, but I have not seen him at Eno.

The club was on life support by May of 2019. Dave Rock had moved to West Brookfield, MA, which was more than an hour away from Eno Hall. He and his partner Debbie Ouelette were obviously not willing to make that drive for a two-table game. Sally Kirtley wanted to keep the club going, but she now had weighty responsibilities in her new position as the district’s tournament manager. The SBC was badly in need of new blood and resuscitation.

Fortunately, that is exactly what happened, as is described here.

1. IMP is an acronym for International Match Point, a way of scoring commonly used in team games. It is described in some detail here.

2. In a Mitchell movement each pair is assigned a permanent designation as East-West or North-South. The latter stay at the same table throughout the session, and the East-West pairs move. It requires a certain number of tables for a reasonable game. The other common movement at club games is a Howell. Most pairs in a Howell play North-South in some rounds and East-West in others. Almost everyone moves after each round. The objective is to allow each pair to play against as many pairs as possible.

2010-2019 Partners at the Simsbury Bridge Club Part 2

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Further adventures in and out of the SBC. Continue reading →

My adventures playing with members of the Simsbury Bridge Club (SBC) before I became a Life Master at the end of 2009 are recounted here.

I met Jeanne Striefler at the SBC in my first few weeks there, but I don’t think that we ever played as partners there until much later. She seldom played with anyone besides Jerry Harrison during that period. We did play together at the Hartford Bridge Club (HBC) a few times, mostly when her regular partner and my regular partner were not available. I have no vivid memories of any details of those occasions.

I definitely do recall the holiday parties that she and her husband Fred held at their house in West Simsbury. Since we had played together seldom, if at all, I was flattered and surprised when she invited Sue and me to join the celebration. I particularly remember the one that celebrated her achievement of Silver Life Master (1,000 masterpoints), a party that she shared with Susan Seckinger, who had recently become a Gold Life Master (2,500 masterpoints). Susan remarked that it was not a big deal; it just meant that you had been playing a long time. That is not precisely accurate. In most cases it meant that you had played a lot in tournaments—and done fairly well. It has always been very difficult to amass thousands of points in club games, even if you usually finish at the top of the list.

Jerry, Jeanne, CJ, and me. In the photos that I took at tournaments I NEVER cut off a head.

I have a pretty strong recollection that the biggest thrill that Jeanne and I had experienced was as teammates in a Swiss Teams game at the regional tournament in Cromwell. However, I was unable to locate such a result. On the other hand, I did discover that we won a Compact Knockout in 2011. I played with Jerry Hirsch, and Jeanne played with CJ Joseph. Someone even took our photo1.

I have also played with CJ once or twice at the HBC. She attended the University of Michigan; I think that she graduated two years before I did. She does not live in New England any more. In 2021 she has a house in Florida. I seem to remember that she also had one in the Chicago area.

Jeanne is my age, and she grew up in the state that is just north of where I did. She met her husband Fred at the University of Nebraska. Fred was a professor at the University of Hartford.

I am not sure that I ever played opposite Donna Lyons at the SBC, but I have included her in this section because she has played there for a long time, and she still supports the club. In December, 2021, in fact, she was driving up from her winter home in Florida with the intention of playing in a few games in December at Eno Hall. I am sure that this was not the only reason that she was making the trip, but I like to think that our little game was the focal point.

I was disappointed to receive the following email from her on December 11:

Had to turn back after 6 hours, little dog not doing well. Sorry, won’t be there till May games, happy holidays, Mike!

I learned some time ago that Donna formerly taught Latin at Enfield High School. She actually knew my Italian teacher, Mary Trichilo (TREE key low), as well as one of the other continuing ed students who also formerly taught languages in Enfield. How big of a coincidence is that?

I can’t remember the first game in which Donna was my partner. Before that she had been playing with Michele Raviele, among others. I do remember playing with Donna in both games of a Connecticut sectional. We did not do very well, but I remember that one of our opponents, a guy from the Worcester area, later asked me about her. She must have made a strong impression.

Donna made a great impression on me because she obviously read—or at least looked at the photos there—one of my travel journals. I wrote about the star-crossed tour that Sue and I took in 2011 of South Italy that began with a few days in Rome2. Donna liked a couple of the photos that I took in Rome and Paestum. She asked me if she could use them for a project that she was doing for an association that promotes the study of classical periods. I enthusiastically agreed. She later gave me a SWAG bag that contained the resulting notebook and cards and a few other things. I still have all of these.

Donna was not a great player when she started. I have the feeling that she did not spend enough time in college at the bridge table. For some reason she seemed to consider me something of a guru. Over the years she sent me questions about various aspects of the game, mostly bidding. I always answered them, and she seemed very appreciative.

We got Sue to take this photo.

Whenever I could not find partners for tournaments, I sent out emails to people whom I enjoyed playing with. I had an opening in my schedule for the 2019 Ocean State Regional in Warwick, RI. Donna volunteered to drive all that way just to play with me for one day, August 28, in the Mid-Flight Pairs.

We had a pretty good session in the morning. We were definitely among the leaders. We also got off to a good start in the afternoon session. With only a couple of rounds to go we faced a husband-and-wife team from Vermont, Steve and Karen Hewitt Randle. We all took out our cards from the first board and started to bid the first hand. Before we got very far Karen announced that she did not feel well and needed to be excused. She left the room, and Steve went with her. When the round was almost over, and they had not yet returned, we called the director, who gave us a “No Play” on all three hands.

Not long after that the Randles returned. Not only did they finish the round, but they also had the best score of all the pairs and vaulted up among the leaders.

When we finished playing the last hand, I checked our score on the Bridgemate. Our percentage was about the same as what we had scored in the first round. I told Donna that that should be good enough to finish first or second.

I was stunned by her reaction: “I don’t want to be second. I’ve never been first at anything. Since I made Life Master playing with Margie, I haven’t even won any gold points.”

Donna got her wish. We won by a very narrow margin. I wondered how we would have fared if we had actually played the three hands against the Randles. Their score in the second round was considerably better than ours.

The Ocean State Regionals in 2020 and 2021 were canceled. If Donna wants to defend her title in this event in September 2022, she will need to find another partner. I now have too many points to play in Mid-Flight games.

In the summer of 2021 I played in one face-to-face game at the HBC with Donna as my partner. We did pretty well, but Donna told me that she preferred to play online. One reason was that it was safer, but she also disclosed another one that might have been nearly as important to her. “I don’t have to put on lipstick.”

After Dick Benedict told me in 2010 that he did not want to play at Simsbury any more, I looked around for a new partner. I decided to ask Sue Rudd. Sue was ten years older than I was and had played a lot more bridge than I had, but she was not yet a Life Master. So, I resolved to help her get the gold and silver points that she needed. We went to quite a few tournaments together. We had some success, but we never won an event together, at least not that I can remember. Come to think of it, I think that those years that I played with Sue were the only ones in which I failed to win at least one flight or strat in an event at a tournament.

I learned that Sue formerly worked for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. She had two sons. One lived in Boston, the other in Minnesota. Sue lived in an apartment in West Springfield that was not far from the house occupied by my sister Jamie’s family. Later Sue moved to a condo complex that was only about two miles from our house in Enfield.

Sue was in good shape. She was an avid tennis player and cyclist. She told me that she had skied all over the US and Europe when she was younger. She also took several international vacations.

Sue insisted on driving half of the time. I agreed, but I never felt comfortable when she was driving. If there was snow, I drove. On one occasion the trip began with a light drizzle. It got heavier, and the visibility was not too good. She was driving at first, but when it began to get a little difficult, she agreed to let me finish the drive.

It is strange to say, but I cannot remember ever eating supper with Sue. I know that we went to at least a few overnight tournaments, but I cannot remember going to a restaurant together. Sue usually stayed with Helen Pawlowski, who by then was the Tournament Manager for the district. Maybe they ate together. I was still working. So, we must have gone to regional tournaments—the only ones that pay gold points—on weekends. Therefore, there would have only been one supper per tournament.

There was almost always ice or snow on the sidewalk and parking lot in Cromwell.

I remember only a few specific incidents. We were in Cromwell playing in a compact knockout event. that required us to play twelve hands against the same pair. One of the opponents on the other team was a little bit rude, especially to Sue. Sue got flustered and played badly. We lost the match.

I mentioned this to Helen. She immediately knew whom I was talking about. She said that she wished that she had heard about it earlier. She also said that I needed to protect Sue from people like her. This gave me pause. I wasn’t ready for that role. At that point of my life I had pretty much abandoned the tactic of arguing with anyone about anything. I would make my case, but if they could not accept my point of view, I almost never pressed the point. The reason was that my voice had a tendency to get much louder than I realized in situations like this, and the scene quickly became uncomfortable for everyone.

Harold Feldheim.

I remember encountering Harold Feldheim3 in the men’s room at a tournament. He asked me how I was doing, and I frankly replied that I was frustrated with my partner. He said that in his years of experience he had concluded that whenever someone felt that way, he should look for a new partner.

Sue and I won a few gold points together. She was getting very close to what she needed for Life Master. I am not sure which tournament it was, but we were playing in the last round of a bracketed Swiss teams event. We were in contention to finish first or second in our group. The bidding on the last hand of the last match had convinced me that my spade support and runnable club suit provided a good chance for a slam in spades that I did not think that most people would bid. It was risky, but I decided to bid 6♠. It turned out to be a good contract. The only problem was that Sue had to play it.

She had to begin by drawing trump, which she did. Then she had to take her ♣K, which she did. Then she needed to lead a low club to the board and take the ace and queen. She made both of those plays. I could see that the clubs split 3-2, which made the three remaining clubs good, guaranteeing the needed twelve tricks. At this point she could have tabled her cards and claimed. The opponents would have conceded without an objection.

But she didn’t claim. She thought about the situation for what seemed like a very long time. Then she started leading red cards and fell short of the contract.

As I suspected would happen, our counterparts at the other table had only bid 4♠, but they made six. So, instead of getting a positive swing that would assure us of winning gold points, we suffered a double negative swing that dropped us out of contention—all because she could not count the clubs.

This was not a mistake of inexperience. There were no distractions; it was early in the play of the hand. There were only two possible explanations. Either she did not count the clubs, or she forgot that every suit had thirteen cards. I was completely exasperated. The situation was so perfect, and I had analyzed it correctly! I could not hold back my frustration, and my reaction was so intense that even the opponents castigated me for it.

After the long mostly silent drive home I sent her an email in which I apologized for the way that I acted and stated that we should not play together any more. It was just too frustrating for me. Years later she told me that she was very tired that afternoon because she did not sleep well the night before. Fine; that is why coffee is always available at tournaments.

Sue did not give up. Some months later she won enough gold points for her Life Master playing with Sally Kirtley. I don’t think that they ever won anything in the “overalls”, but they did finish first in their section a couple of times. Those two awards were enough to push her over the threshold. I don’t think that she ever won any gold points4 at all after that.

Since then I have driven Sue to games in Simsbury almost every Wednesday before the pandemic and after the club reopened in the fall of 2021. I have even played with her a few times at the HBC. I also gave a little speech at here LM party there. Here is the text.

Sue sometimes rides with me to bridge games at local clubs, and almost always I have remembered to bring her home. During one those rides some years ago she confided to me that her goal was to have “Life Master” in her obituary. So I looked in the Hartford Courant’s Future Archives for her obituary. It took quite a while, but I found it.

Susan F. Rudd–I’ll skip the dates–worked in the Collections Section of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, where she was known as Rudd the Ruthless. After retirement she divided her time between her family and her many hobbies. She is survived by her sons Paul and David, eight grandchildren, twenty-seven great-grandchildren, forty-two great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great grandson.

Susan is best known as being the only woman to win the American women’s super-senior tennis championship as an octogenarian, a nonagenarian, and a centenarian. However, her proudest accomplishment was to become a Life Master in bridge, a game without electronics that was popular in the twentieth century.

My wife Sue and I attended her eightieth birthday party in 2018. She asked me to reprise the LM speech, and I was ready to do so. However, Sue’s daughter-in-law, who organized and ran the fete, put the kibosh on the idea without telling anyone.

Sue left her car in this parking lot.

By the way, it was true that on one occasion I drove Sue Rudd to the HBC for a Tuesday evening game. I had a bad game playing with a different partner and left in a foul mood. Just as I reached the bridge over the Connecticut River on I-91, I realized that I had left Sue back at the club. I turned around at exit 44 and returned to the club. It was all dark and obviously empty.

I learned the next day that Sally Kirtley had driven Sue to TSI’s office in East Windsor, which is where she had left her car.

I had no difficult whatever in deciding whom I should ask to play with me at the SBC. By then Ken Leopold had been attending somewhat regularly, and he seemed like he knew what he was doing. The good thing was that he was younger than I was—his memory still functioned. The only drawback was that he wasted a lot of time on his family and his job. He and his wife Lori had six kids, a couple of whom were still living at home. He also had an unhealthy commitment to the idea of helping his patients beat cancer. He was a doctor, you see. He worked (and still does in 2021) at Hartford Hospital in the field of radiation oncology.

Ken wore a blue shirt to the Christmas party at the HBC in 2013. The two ladies at the table are Sue Rudd and Kay Hill.

So, Ken and I mostly played together just on Wednesday evenings at the SBC. I attended almost every tournament within driving range, and i always asked him to play, but I usually had to settle for his participation in the Sunday Swiss events.

On most of these occasions our team consisted of Ken, me, Dave Landsberg, and Felix Springer. Much more about Dave and Felix can be read here. Sometimes I played with Dave, and Ken played with Felix. Often we had to rearrange things to accommodate a different fourth.

We did amazingly well, and our results formed a pattern. We were almost in the lowest group, the C strat. I was on the board of the Connecticut Bridge Association (CBA), which always met before the Sunday Swiss. I would generally emerge from the meeting five or ten minutes before game time and frantically scan the playing area for the rest of “the band”. When I found them I fished some bills out of my wallet and reimbursed whoever had paid my entry fee. Then I had only a few seconds to peruse the convention card to refresh my memory about what conventions we were playing.

I almost always made mistakes in the first round, which we usually lost. We then almost always won our next two matches, which forced us to face a pretty good team in the fourth round. I am not sure that we ever won a fourth round. So, we would invariably go into the pizza break in the middle of the pack. We then almost always won two of the last three rounds to finish in the top half, which, for a C team, was good enough to win quite a few silver points5. It was truly remarkable how often we did this. Here is an example from the Swiss held in Hamden on March 1, 2015:

I just loved playing with these guys. Earlier in the tournament Felix had played in pairs games with both Dave and me. I am not even sure who played with whom in the Swiss. I don’t think that Ken ever played with Dave, but any other combination was possible.

My fondest memory of the four of us is from the North American Bridge Championships held in Providence in November and December of 2014. On both Sundays at the tournament some or all of us played together in the bracketed Swiss events.

The band: me, Felix, Ken, and Dave.

I am disappointed and embarrassed to report that I can find very little documentation of those two events. I am absolutely certain that I posted detailed write-ups of them on the NEBridge.org website as part of my “View from B Low” series. Unfortunately, all of the web pages posted between January 24, 2014, and July 22, 2015, were lost during the catastrophic system failure of July 2015.

I thought that perhaps a draft copy of this work was on my desktop computer, but I could find no trace. I then looked for the photos that I took on those two weekends. I found about forty of them, but I am pretty certain that I took more than that if only to add more atmosphere to the “View” article. I suspect that I moved the best of those photos somewhere to facilitate uploading them to the NEBridge.org website. The uploaded copies are gone for good, but the originals should still be on my computer. I just can’t locate them.

Ginny Farber.

So, I must rely on my fading memories and the results that I found on the ACBL website. My partner for the first weekend, November 29-30, was Ginny Farber6, whose last name at the time was Iannini (eye ah KNEE knee). She lived on the Cape. We had played against each other at tournaments a few times. After her husband died shortly after the Cromwell tournament of 2014, we began playing as partners at tournaments.

Ginny and I played in pairs games on Saturday, but we did not do too well. For the bracketed Swiss on Sunday we were joined by Dave Landsberg and Pat Fliakos, both of whom I had met in the Tuesday evening games at the Hartford Bridge Club.

Pat Fliakos.

We played well through the first six matches. We won them all. However, we could not rest on our laurels. In the last round we faced a foursome from Montreal that was only four points behind us in the standings. I don’t remember the situation precisely, but I do recall that there was one critical hand in which Ginny had reversed, a bidding sequence of two different suits showing a strong hand in which the first suit is longer than the second. An example would be 1♦ followed by 2♥ after partner has responded 1♠ or 1NT.

Somehow we ended up in an impossible slam, and the contract failed. I was certain that our counterparts at the other table probably did not bid the slam, which would provide them with a big swing. Ginny and I were extremely nervous at the end of the match when we went to the other table to compare scores. Fortunately, Dave and Pat had had a good round. We lost the match, but only by two points

Imagine our shock when the opponents came over to get us to agree that they had won the match by ten points, not two. It turned out that they had recorded a 0 on one hand in which both of our pairs had actually won three points. When we pointed this out to them, they were, of course, bitterly disappointed, and our relief was palpable.

As the results clearly show, the third-place teams were not even close. In the second weekend our team was Felix, Dave, Ken, and me. I cannot remember who played with whom on Saturday when we lost in the semifinals of a compact knockout. On Sunday we played in another bracketed Swiss. I played with Dave, and Ken played with Felix.

This time a very weird thing happened in an early round. There were repeated director calls on one hand. Then the same thing happened on a subsequent hand. Dave and I finished long before Ken and Felix. After we compared the scores they explained that the director had twice ruled against them, and they had appealed both rulings. Evidently neither appeal was successful. I don’t remember the specifics. Ken and Felix weren’t exactly angry about it, but they weren’t satisfied with the ruling either.

It hardly mattered. This time I knew that we were doing well, but I never checked the scoreboard. After the last round Ken checked the scores. He reported that “We lapped the field.”

So, the tournament had the best possible ending for “the band”, and it left us hungry for more. After that we played together whenever we could.

Ken made Life Master in July of 2015. The HBC sponsored a party for him and Felix, who achieved the rank a little earlier. It was a five-round team game using the Swiss format. Dave and I were their teammates. Ken and Felix sat North-South at table 1 in the A section. We sat East-West at table 1 in the B section. We won our first three matches, but we did not have any big victories.

Then there was a break for food and speeches. Dave said to me sotto voce, “Did you see their résumés? Why do they play with us?”

Of course, what I thought was, “What do you mean ‘us’, Paleface?”, but I didn’t say any thing. A little later I took the floor to give my little speech. I began with a trivia question:

What do the following three famous people have in common?

  • Champion golfer, Phil Mickelson, who can consistently hit a golf ball 300 yards.
  • Four-time Pro Bowl quarterback, Michael Vick, who can throw a football 80 yards.
  • World-class physician and Life Master bridge player Ken Leopold.

I told them to think about it. I would come back to it at the end. Meanwhile, I had a survey that Mark Aquino, the District Director, asked me to conduct:

“Are you aware of the procedure at a regional or national tournament for appealing a director’s ruling?” Most people were.

“Have you ever appealed a director’s ruling?” About half the players raised a hand to indicate that they had. I pretended to count and record the result.

“Have you ever appealed more than one director’s ruling in the same tournament?” Only Felix and Ken still had their hands raised.

“In one very short eight-board match of a bracketed Swiss event, commonly known as a Round Robin, have you ever appealed more than one director’s ruling?” Still only Ken and Felix.

“Have you ever won such an appeal?” They both sheepishly lowered their hands.

I then asked if anyone knew the answer to the trivia question. Dave, of all people, piped up, “They are all left-handed.”

“No!” I said. “Actually, they are all right-handed. Mickelson swings left-handed and Vick throws left-handed, but they both do everything else with their right hand. Similarly, Ken plays bridge left-handed, but his right hand is dominant.”

We won the fourth match, but our margin of victory left us a couple of points behind the first place team. We faced them in the last round. Our opponents were Laurie Robbins and Tom Lorch. The hands were not very exciting. The match came down to a hand in which the West player had to decide whether to accept a game try. I passed, and my counterpart at the other table bid the game. Since the tricks for game were not actually available, we won the match and the event. As I have often said, most of my best calls are green.

Donna Feir, the manager of the HBC, announced that never before in the history of the club had the players being honored ever won a team event, and never had they won all five matches..

A few years later Ken thought that we should play a weak 1NT opening. I think that he got this idea from Doug Doub, a pro who gives lessons at the HBC. I went along with the idea, mostly because I already played a different version of that approach with Peter Katz7 on Saturdays at the HBC. Ken sent me the link to a detailed write-up of how it worked. We have been playing that weak 1NT system ever since, and I review the manuscript before each game. Even so, I sometimes forget that we are playing it.

Ken also insisted on playing the Wolsey defense against strong 1NT openings because that was what he played with Lori, and he alleged that he could not remember two different defenses. I much prefer a more disruptive approach, especially in the balancing seat, but I have agreed to grit my teeth and play Wolsey.

Ken was one of the driving forces behind the resuscitation of the SBC in 2019. That story is told here.

The spreadsheet that contains my list of partners includes a line for Helen Pawlowski, and so I must have paired with her at least once, either when she was running the club or when she dropped in to play after she no longer did. It is also possible that I might have played with her at a tournament or at the HBC.

I find it remarkable that I have no recollection of the occasion. Helen was a very good player, and playing with her would have been a big deal at any point in my career.

In 2023 Helen lived in Bluffton, SC.

On at least one occasion before the Pandemic, when Ken could not play, I played opposite Al Carpenter. Al was not a great player, but he was very enthusiastic and gregarious. He had a hearing problem, and so he often was speaking too loudly for the size of our room.

At the time that I played with him Al was working for Enterprise Rent-a-Car. I seem to remember hearing from someone that Al died, but I could not find an obituary or any other reference on the Internet. .

Chuck Pickens.

Chuck Pickens played at the SBC occasionally before the Pandemic. I played with him once when Ken was not available.

Chuck died in 2022. His obituary is posted here.

Al Gee began playing regularly at the SBC after the Pandemic. His usual partner was Kathie Ferguson. On one evening Kathie had another commitment, and so did Ken. So, I played with Al.

I learned that he had taken up bridge after his wife died, and he credited the game with getting him through that crisis. He originally played at the Newtown Bridge Club, but he found the SBC after moving to the area. Al was retired from a career at 3M.

We played Al’s convention card, which was not very sophisticated. We finished last.

Al was still playing pretty consistently at the SBC in late 2023.

Shown at left is a photo of Al that I took at the Limited Sectional at the HBC on March 26, 2023. Al and his old partner from Newtown won their section in the morning session of the 199er Flight. The fellow behind Al is Howard Howard Schiller, another regular at the post-Pandemic SBC.

Allison Ryan came down from her home in Northampton, MA, to play at the SBC on an evening on which I happened to be available. This occurred before Covid-19. She was a new player at the time, but she obviously had a lot of potential. I don’t recall how we did, but I don’t think that we were last.

In 2023 Allison was retired or at least mostly retired from her career as a neurologist. I have seen her a few times at tournaments. My wife Sue and I had a very pleasant supper with her and her bridge partner at the tournament in Nashua, NH, that has been described here.

On many occasions I drove Maria Van der Ree from her apartment in Enfield to the games at the SBC on Wednesday evenings. On almost every occasion she played with either Sue Rodd or my wife. Once, however, she got stuck playing with me. Line most new partnerships we had a few misunderstandings in the bidding.

In 2023 Maria turned 93. She had difficulty with new bidding concepts, but she was still quite good at playing the cards. Sue Wavada saw her often at the non-sanctioned games in Somers and East Longmeadow.

1. I found this photo in the bag that contained the ones that I shot in my disposable-camera days. However, by this time I had been using my Canon point-and-shoot camera for six years, and I was too cheap to have prints made. So, someone probably took the photo with Jerry’s camera, and he gave me a print.

2. The journal is posted here.

3. Harold Feldheim died in 2019. Much better than his obituary are the comments from fellow bridge players that are posted here. After I had been working for District 25 for a few years Harold paid me one of the nicest compliments that I have ever received: “If more bridge players were like you, everyone would enjoy the game a lot more.”

4. To put this in perspective, as of the end of 2021 I had 697.41 gold points.

5. Through the end of 2021 I have amassed 548.03 silver points, almost all of which were won at sectional tournaments, and the bulk of those in the Sunday Swiss games.

6. Much more about my partnership with Ginny can be read here.

7. Details about my adventures with Peter Katz are posted here.

2004-2009 Partners at the Simsbury Bridge Club Part 1

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Partners at Eno Hall. Continue reading →

I vividly remember my first night at the Simsbury Bridge Club. Paul Pearson had given me contact information for the director of the club, Paula Beauchamp (pronounced BOW shahmp). I told her that I would like to play on the following Wednesday, which was, I think, May 19 or perhaps May 12, 2004. She told me that the games were held at Eno Hall, located on the main street in Simsbury (Hopmeadow Street better know as Route 10/202). Parking was in the back, and the game, which was in the basement, could easily be reached from the parking lot via a handicap ramp. She told me to arrive a few minutes before the 6:30 starting time, and she would pair me up with someone.

I consulted MapQuest to try to figure out the best way to get there. I think that I may have driven on Route 20 all the way to the intersection with Route 202. There are three or four better routes, but I allowed plenty of time.

Roz Sternberg.

I located Paula, and she assigned me to play with Roz Sternberg. I had only played a few hands of bridge in the previous twenty-four years, and I remembered very little. I had relearned Stayman and Blackwood, and the course that Paul had taught at Fermi had familiarized me with five-card major openings, transfers, and negative doubles. Roz was accustomed to playing with rookies. She told me that jumps were weak, and everything else was mostly natural.

I also did not know how to keep score on the travelers. So, Roz had to sit North. We were assigned to table #3, which was right in front of the air conditioner that blasted away all evening. My South seat was directly before the fans. Cold air blew on my neck all evening as I sat there shivering. The opponents at the first table had to show me how to use the bidding box. I remember nothing about the hands; I was concentrating all my attention on following suit and bidding or leading only when it was my turn. I was proud that I had successfully avoided any director calls. I was unable to turn up a copy of the results, but I seem to remember that Roz reported that we finished about in the middle.

After that I played with Roz a few times and against her countless times. I don’t have any great stories about her play. For some reason she never came to Eno with a partner. That was a little strange because after she retired she mostly played at the Hartford Bridge Club (HBC) with a few steady partners.

Roz was employed as the IT director for the New Britain Public School System, which had one or two AS/400’s. Nobody there really knew too much about them. Several years after our initial game she found out that I had a lot of experience with AS/400’s. She asked me to come to her data center to see if I could help her with a problem. I can’t remember exactly what it entailed, but it was something rather tricky that I had previously encountered. Furthermore, I had documented my work-around. So, I went there, implemented the fix, and explained what I had done.

Actually she sent a check.

Roz then had me look at a few connectivity issues. I was less certain of my abilities in these areas, but when I left, everything seemed to be working the way that they wanted it. I considered this just a favor for a friend, but she insisted that TSI send her an invoice for my time. So, we did. It was for $100 or maybe $150. She probably had a budget for this sort of thing.

I was afraid that Roz would start calling me for technical support whenever they encountered a problem, but, in fact, she never asked again. My recollection is that within a year after my visit the school system replace the AS/400’s with a different system.

Peg Corbett1 also never came to Eno with a partner. On the second or third Wednesday that I attended at the SBC I played with Peg, and we actually won a fraction of a masterpoint from the ACBL. Here is the published scoresheet:

Open Pairs Wednesday Eve Session May 26, 2004
 Scores after 24 boards  Average:   48.0      Section  A  North-South
 Pair    Pct   Score  Rank   MPs     
   4   57.81   55.50   1    0.60     Jean Seale - Sonja Smith
   3   56.77   54.50   2    0.42     Peg Corbett - Mike Wavada
   1   49.48   47.50                 Ellen Tabell - Tony Tabell
   2   46.88   45.00                 Don Verchick - Nancy Campbell
   5   39.06   37.50                 Carl Suhre - Dorothy Suhre
 Open Pairs Wednesday Eve Session May 26, 2004
 Scores after 24 boards  Average:   48.0      Section  A  East-West
 Pair    Pct   Score  Rank   MPs     
   2   55.00   52.80  1/2   0.51     Claire Tanzer - Alice Rowland
   5   55.00   52.80  1/2   0.51     Dorothy Clark - Roz Sternberg
   1   51.25   49.20                 Jerry Hirsch - Mel Hirsch
   4   50.63   48.60                 Maureen Denges - Pat Matthew
   6   50.63   48.60                 Marylou Pech - Russell Elmore
   3   37.50   36.00                 Louise Alvord - Carol Schaper

I am pretty sure that I played with Peg a handful of times. Most of them were not memorable, but on one occasion she seemed to be on another planet. She explained to me that she had taken her prescription allergy medication, and it made her a little loopy. Both her bidding and her play of the cards were abominable. We finished last.

Winning points with Peg was exciting. However, it was nothing compared to the thrill that I ever felt came a month or so later after I had been assigned by Paula to play with Russ Elmore a couple of times. He asked me to be his regular partner!

My first game with Russ was a unique experience. He handed me a one-page typed sheet—not a convention card—and informed me that this is what we would be playing. It was close to Standard American, the system popularized by Charles Goren, but there were a few significant differences. I remember that we did not open 1NT if we had a worthless doubleton in one of the suits.

I did not complain about the eccentricities. Russ had played much more bridge experience than I had. Maybe his approach was outdated, but at least we would agree on what we were doing. Besides, Russ was cool. He was much older than my fifty-six years, but he often came to the bridge games on his motorcycle!

I realized that the primary motive for Russ wanting me as a regular partner was to avoid being assigned to play with Roz or Peg, who would argue with him about using his sheet of paper as the basis for bidding and playing agreements. Ordinarily these are negotiated with both sides willing to give in on some things. Even so, I was ecstatic that someone actually agreed to play with me on a regular basis.

At the Christmas party in December of 2004 or 2005 Russ confided to me that he intended to open every hand with a bid of 1♠. Yes, this was a party, but no one was drunk. I, for one, still took the games at the SBC very seriously. Those Wednesday evening games were the only time that I got to play all week, and I was very conscious of how many masterpoints I had accumulated. So, I asked Russ to just bid his hand as usual, and he respected my request.

When I played with Russ I got in the habit of analyzing every hand afterwards. Since we did not have hand records (sheets of paper that shows the location of all fifty-two cards on deal), I could only go by how well we did when I played a hand vs. when Russ was declarer. We did much better when Russ played. I told this to Russ, and he laughed.

I bought a book called How to Play a Bridge Hand by William S. Root. It had hundreds of examples with quizzes at the end of each chapter. I converted these quiz question into 4×6″ cards—problem on the front and answer on the back—that I could study during lunch breaks at work. It did help; I got a little better.

I later made an interactive web page that included all of these problems for declarer play and included other interesting ones that I encountered over the years. I posted a link to it on the web site that I designed for the SBC. The problem page is located here.

If an odd number of people showed up on a Wednesday, Paula Beauchamp3 played with one of the players who came without a partner. Since she was a very skilled and experienced player, everyone who came without a partner—usually three to five of us—hoped to get to play with her. She had many chances to play with me, but she only picked me once.

I made few obvious mistakes, maybe even none. No, that was not likely. Let’s just say that I did not notice any errors. If Paula did, she did not mention it. We finished first with a very good score, and after I played one hand she said, “You played that like a surgeon!” My buttons were busting.

I once was surprised to see Paula in the terminal at Bradley International Airport. She had apparently just returned from a vacation, and I was on my way to visit a client. I don’t remember the date, and it is hard for me to place the time, too. I generally left very early in the morning, before any flights had arrived. I do remember that she was wearing a pair of those rubbery shoes with holes in them, Crocs.

Paula’s favorite movie was Life is Beautiful (La Vita è Bella) with Roberto Begnini. I had also seen this film. I sometimes called Paula Principessa, the term of endearment used by Begnini’s character for his wife. She liked the way that I pronounced it.

I persuaded my friend Tom Corcoran to play with me at the SBC five or six times. He worked in Simsbury at the time, and so it was not much of an inconvenience for him. He had not played at all since he graduated from Brown in 1972.

I was surprised to find when researching this entry that we actually finished first at least twice. However, those occasions are not the ones that stand out in my memory. Once Tom opened 2♣, which showed a very powerful hand with more than half of the aces and face cards. In contrast, an opening bid at the two-level in any of the other suits show a weak hand with six cards in the bid suit. Tom had intended to show a weak hand with clubs. Unfortunately, I had a pretty good hand, and I did not give up on the possibility of bidding a slam (committing to win twelve or thirteen tricks) until he passed my 5NT bid. We ended up five or six tricks short for a big penalty.

Tom, who was only two years younger than I, stopped playing after a few months. The only remark he made was “Those people are sure old.”

When Russ moved away I had to find a new partner. I had noticed that in 2015 two guys, Roger Holmes and Dick Benedict, began playing and did pretty well. After a month or two Roger seemed to stop attending, and Dick played much less frequently and with different partners. I sent Dick an email that explained my situation and asked him if he would consider playing with me. I told him that I knew all of the conventions on the Yellow Card4, and I was willing to learn new ones. He responded enthusiastically.

June 9, 1953 could have been Dick’s last day.

Dick and I played together for several years at the SBC, at the HBC whenever I got a chance on a weekday, and at tournaments that were within driving distance. We got to be pretty close. I learned about his two ex-wives, one dead and one divorced, his two daughters, and the father with whom he had played cribbage. I learned a lot about the tornado in Worcester from which Dick’s father rescued him. I also learned from Dick that New Hampshire was the best place to buy liquor. Dick stocked up on The Famous Grouse whenever we drove up to Nashua for a tournament.

Dick and I played on many teams together. In team games5 four people form a team. One pair plays East-West and the other plays North-South. You play a match against another team. Your East-West pair plays a set of hands against their North-South pair and your North-South plays the same hands against their East-West. Two types of team games were bracketed. Between eight and sixteen teams with similar masterpoint totals played against one another in either a knockout or Swiss format. Our foursome concentrated on these bracketed games so that we did not encounter the really good players.

Usually Dick and I played together. He was good at convincing people to play with us at tournaments. Our best results came when playing with Robert Klopp6, who lived at the Duncan Hotel in New Haven, and Brenda Harvey7 from Orange, CT. I remember sending email to my dad in Kansas City from the Panera Bread in Nashua, NH, when we had won two knockouts in a row. I think that Robert Klopp may have already been a Life Master when we started, but both Dick and Brenda Harvey achieved that rank at tournaments in which our foursome played as a team.

Some of our results were spectacular. I remember that in one Bracketed Swiss at a regional tournament we won our first six rounds by such lopsided margins that we had built up an insuperable margin. We actually could have gone home without playing the final round, which we also won. However, we did not always do so well. At an Open Swiss at a sectional in Auburn, MA, we finished dead last out of twenty-five or thirty teams. Neither Robert nor Brenda played with us on either of these occasions.

Helen Pawlowski.

Dick was not sitting across from me when I made Life Master. At the time the requirement for that rank was 300 total masterpoints that had to include some number of silver and gold points that could only be won at tournaments. In late December of 2009 I had enough silver and gold, but I was a small fraction of a point short of 300. I informed Helen Pawlowski (pahv LOFF skee), the director of the SBC game at the time, about my status before the game on December 23. She immediately declared the game a “club championship”, which meant that extra points would be rewarded.

Unfortunately, both Dick and I played poorly; he was bad, but I was worse. I made a really stupid bid when playing against Claire Tanzer, who never said a bad word about anyone. She remarked that if I played like that I did not deserve to make Life Master. She was right.

However, deservedly or not, I was awarded the necessary points at the last Saturday game in December at the HBC after playing with Tom Gerchman. In those days it took the director a few minutes to enter all the scores in the computer. Everyone else had already left by the time the results were posted, and it was confirmed that Tom and I had scored well enough to earn the needed points. There was no one to celebrate with.

There was a game scheduled for that Sunday at the HBC, and, because I had set a goal of making Life Master before the end of the year, I was scheduled to play. However, the Sunday game got snowed out. So, I achieved my goal at the last possible game of the year.

Dick was, however, my partner for my Life Master parties at both the SBC and the HBC. At the SBC he gave a little speech in which he announced that I had called him up and told him something—I don’t remember what. I Immediately denounced that as a damnable lie, and asked the group whether I had ever called any of them on the phone. No one spoke up. Of course, I probably did say whatever it was that he claimed that I had said, but I never talked with Dick on a telephone. Dick and I corresponded only by email and in person. In fact, I have almost never called anyone about bridge.

My LM party at the HBC was a unique occasion for at least three reasons. In the first place it was held on a Friday evening in March 2010. I know of no other Friday evening game ever held there. Although I sat North across from Dick in the “throne” reserved for the honoree, he was only there for three hands. The format used that night involved individual scoring. Everyone played with seven or eight different partners. Only the Norths stayed at the same table. I know of no other occasion in which that format was used at the HBC.

There was one other odd thing about it. I won! Well, officially I tied with Cecilia Vasel, but I discovered later that on one hand I had made a mistake in scoring8 in the opponents’ favor. The honoree almost never does well in this game; there are too many distractions. Perhaps on that evening everyone was distracted by the weird format.

Dick and I stopped playing together later in 2010. I made a sarcastic comment when he passed what was—-to my way of thinking—clearly a control-showing cue bid. He took offense, which was not unreasonable. There was no great rancor. In fact, we did play together occasionally after that. He moved to Bradenton, FL, at some point in the teens. When he came back to Connecticut to visit we usually paired up at least once.

Inge Schuele.

Dick introduced me to tournament bridge. Four of us went to the District 3 tournament in Danbury, CT. I played with Dick, and Inge Schuele played with Virginia Labbadia. The team that we played in the first round had more than ten times as many points as we did. The guys we played against used the Mini-Roman convention. I had never heard of it, but using the 2♦ opening bid to describe a hand with three four-card suits and 11-15 points seemed to me like a great idea at the time. In fact, however, it is one of the few well-known conventions that I have never played.

I thought that Dick and I had performed reasonably well against the guys, but we lost the match by a lot. So, we needed either to drive back home or find another event for the afternoon session.

On the schedule we found a 199er game in the afternoon. Inge and I qualified to play in it, but Dick and Virginia had too many points. They played together in some kind of unlimited game.

Things went very well for Inge and me. We ended up in first place, and it was not even close. Our photos were printed in the tournament’s Daily Bulletin, and we each got a small trophy, the first bridge trophy that I ever won, and the only one that they let me keep.

I have a couple of other very vivid memory of playing with Dick. I remember that I earned my final gold points in one of the first Gold Rush Pairs events ever held in New England. In the afternoon session we bid and made 7NT on the first hand and held on to win our section.

The other memory is literally painful. We were playing in a pairs game in Danbury, and something was wrong with my neck. Every five or ten minutes I would—without any warning—experience a sharp pang there. I took some Advil for it, but it did not seem to help much. I found it very difficult to concentrate. We finished the event, but we did not do well.

The plan had been for me to stay overnight at Dick’s house in Avon and ride back with him to Danbury for another event on Sunday. I told him that I did not want to play again until the neck pain ceased. He agreed that that was a good idea. I rested the next day, and the pain disappeared, never to return.

Folded traveler in board and traveler with scores.

Over the years I have often told people that the most important thing that I learned from playing with Dick Benedict was the preferred method of folding the “travelers”, the score sheets that traveled with the boards that contained the cards from one table to the next. The only really important thing was for the board numbers (and almost nothing else) to be visible, but Dick’s method was definitely the easiest, most reliable, and most esthetically pleasing.

Mass Mutual in Springfield.

In 2009 I teamed up with a young guy named Steve Smith. I knew his mother Sonja, who was a fine tournament player and the best regular player at the SBC. Steve worked at Mass Mutual as an actuary. He was an FSA, but his main interest was finance, not insurance. Steve and I were a good match. I learned that he had been a successful debater in high school, but he did not participate in the rigorous type of policy debate that I did.

Steve lived in the area just north and west of the park.

Steve owned a house in the Forest Park section of Springfield. He rented out two of the bedrooms to other guys. It was not quite the Animal House, but I never knew what to expect when I picked him up to go to a tournament. He often forgot to bring cash, which was the only form of payment most tournaments accepted.

Playing with Steve was nothing like playing with Dick. Dick was the model of stability; Steve was up for anything.

Steve and I played together on a regular basis at the SBC and also in tournaments quite a few times. Considering how little experience we had, we had an extraordinary record . The highlight was the afternoon-evening of Saturday October 10 at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, MA. Steve and I were playing in the qualifying tournament for Flight C of the North American Pairs, a national championship with three separate divisions, called “flights”. Three teams would qualify from our C Flight to represent New England in the national finals in Reno in March of 2010.

We played fairly well in the first session. I think that our score was a little above 50 percent. We ate supper at the Oxhead Tavern, which is adjacent to the hotel, with Steve’s mother Sonja, her partner David Rock, and two guys from New Hampshire, Bruce Downing and Mark Conner. Sonja, David, and the NH guys were playing in the B or A flight.

We needed to make up quite a bit of ground in the evening session to have any chance of qualifying. Fortunately, we caught fire in the second session. We actually turned in the best score of any pair.

In those days the directors still tabulated the results from scores recorded on pieces of paper. Therefore, it took them a fairly long time to enter and check the results. When they finally posted them, we had finished third. We were qualified for the North American Bridge Championships (NABC) in Reno!

Actually there was still one hurdle. Mark Aquino, who was the district’s NAP/GNT coordinator, called me and asked if Steve had qualified at a club game. I told him that he had done so at the HBC; I even provided him with the date and time. He said that it did not appear that Steve had won any points. I agreed that he had not, but he did earn a “Q” on the results page. I knew where to find it on the Internet and sent Mark a copy.

As it turned, out the team with the best score in our flight in Sturbridge—a couple of guys whom I had never seen at a tournament—participated even though they had not qualified at a club game. They were disqualified, and we moved up to second place. As I recall, the district paid us $100 each to play in the tournament in Reno.

Not the best bridge book ever.

Steve and I both were still working. In fact, he had been in college at the University of South Carolina just a few years earlier. So, we could only play one or two sessions per week to try to get better by the time that we played in Reno. I thought that it would be a good idea if we played a system that was somewhat different from what most people played. I bought two books on playing systems based on weak 1NT opening bids. We settled on an approach outlined in one of them. In those days my memory still worked, and Steve, as I mentioned, was very adaptable.

Steve and I had a great time in Reno. On Wednesday March 17 we boarded our Southwest flight to Las Vegas and changed planes. On the last leg—the short flight from Las Vegas to Reno—-I sat in the window seat and studied (or at least pretended to study) my Russian flash cards9, and Steve sat on the aisle. The middle seat was not occupied until the plane was almost ready to take off. A woman of about Steve’s age (or even younger) with enormous gazoingies settled there. Steve chatted her up a bit. I must admit that I listened; her answers to most of his queries were completely off the chart. Steve was remarkably adept at keeping a straight face during the interview.

The tournament was at a resort hotel/casino a few miles south of downtown Reno. We planned to play in three events—the NAP and Red Ribbon Pairs, both of which were scheduled for afternoon-evenings, and a compact knockout that was scheduled for two mornings. The Red Ribbon Pairs were held on Thursday and Friday March 18-19. The NAP was on Saturday and Sunday. Here are a few of my most vivid memories of the tournament:

  • The first night that we were there we were invited to a social gathering sponsored by District 25 (New England) and hosted by Helen Pawlowski and Steve’s mom. This was the first time that I ever met Rich and Sandy DeMartino. Rich was the District Director, and Sandy was (maybe not yet in 2010) chairman of the national Goodwill Committee. We told Rich which events we intended to play in. He opined that our schedule might be too difficult for first-timers. We didn’t care.
  • The Red Ribbon Pairs was the first time that I ever seen a Bridgemate, the hand-held battery-powered electronic scoring device. Tournaments in New England did not use them yet. I sat North and had to figure out how to operate it. It made me very nervous. I feel certain that it affected my play. I should have just switched positions with Steve. He was much more familiar with learning how to use new electronic equipment. We were well below 50 percent in the afternoon session. We did a little better in the evening, but we missed the cut for the second day. We did make friends with a few people in our sections, however. People thought that we were a father-son team.
  • We played in a compact knockout in morning sessions on Friday and Saturday. Our teammates were a father-daughter pair from Michigan who had only played together online. They lived in the same state, but they decided to go to Nevada to play face-to-face. Our team won both of its matches in the morning. So, we qualified to play the second half on Saturday.
  • At some point I remember going for a fairly long run in the area. There was not much to see.
  • I think that on Friday Steve and I ran into Ron Briggs and Andre Wiejacki (vee YAH skee), the other pair representing New England. Ron was a little bristly, but Andre and I became pretty good friends.
  • We played in a pairs game, I think, on Friday. I seem to remember that a woman criticized me for not explaining one of our conventions properly.
  • On Saturday morning we easily won the semi-final match of the compact knockout. In the finals we faced a husband-wife team from Texas. I made a serious mistake early in the match, and I was afraid that I had blown it for our teammates. However, we ended up winning by just a few International Match Points. We each won a clear coffee mug with the ACBL logo on one side and the tournament’s logo on the other. I still have mine. In 2021 I drink tea out of it almost every day.
  • It was really exciting to play in the NAP. The directors made everyone who had a cell phone or other electronic device turn it in before play started. The competition was not as tough as in the Red Ribbon Pairs, and once again we did better in the evening, but we did not make it to the second day of this event either.
  • We decided to play in the huge B/C/D Swiss on Sunday morning. Our teammates were a pair of guys from the DC area whom we had met in the NAP. Our team got off to a strong start, which is not necessarily a good idea for a team in the lowest strat of a Swiss. Steve and I were very tired. We both made stupid mistakes for which we had to apologize to our teammates. Steve started to set his hand down as dummy twice when he was actually the declarer. My mistakes were more subtle but also more costly.
  • Helen, who had a rental car, took us into town one evening for supper at an Armenian restaurant. I can’t say that I thought too much of it.

Our flight back also went through Las Vegas. Steve and I sat a couple of rows behind superstars Jeff Meckstroth and Mark Lair. Meckstroth boarded first and sat in the aisle seat looking ferocious. Lair boarded much later and quickly settled into the adjacent seat that Meckstroth had been guarding.

The Crowne Plaza calls it “The Garden Pavilion”.

I remember one other great experience playing with Steve. It was on Sunday at the first tournament held at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, RI. We were in the big tent playing in the bracketed Swiss with Marcia West and Paula Najarian. In the last round we played against Ron Briggs’ team, which was in first place. We found ourselves in second, but we were within striking distance. On the last hand Steve had bid an impossible 4♥ contract. I was dummy watching Steve futilely play the last five or six cards. I observed that Ron had absentmindedly discarded a club on one of Steve’s hearts and then followed suit on the next round of hearts. The dummy is not allowed to speak until the last card has been played. So, I unobtrusively moved that trick out of alignment by a fraction of an inch. When the hand was over, I drew attention to the revoke, and we ended up winning both the match and the event by the narrowest of margins.

I have not seen Steve since he accepted a job in New York City working for Goldman Sachs. I seem to recall that Sonja said that he got married. He and I follow each other on Twitter, but his account is not very active. I could find no photos of him on the Internet.

Photo of the 2004 Xmas party: Dorothy Clark is on the left; Shirley Schienman is in the seat in which I sat on the first night.

I played with at least five other people in those early years at the SBC. I played exactly once with Bob Nuckols, Dorothy Clark, and Sonja Smith. I don’t remember anything about the games with Bob and Sonja. I remember one hand in which Dorothy and I were on defense. I led a very low card in a suit that I knew that she could ruff. The fact that my card was low should have told her to lead the lower of the two side suits back to me, but she led the other side suit. When I mentioned it to her, she admitted that she was not good at noticing suit-preference signals.

I played several times with Sonja at the HBC and once or twice in tournaments. On one occasion I was scheduled to play with her at the HBC, but I had to cancel because of a severely upset stomach probably due to food poisoning of some sort. By lunch time I felt fine. This was one of the very few times that I missed a game because of illness.

I played two or three times with Paul Pearson. He and his wife came to my Life Master party at the SBC. Much more about my relationship with Paul is detailed here.

Jerry Hirsch started playing at the SBC in 2009 a few weeks before I did. We were partners a few times at the SBC, a few times at the HBC, and also at a few tournaments. I probably played against Jerry more often than any other bridge player. At the SBC Christmas party one year Jerry took a photo of me wearing a gigantic red Christmas bow as a tie. He had the photo blown up to poster size, and he gave it to me as a present. In 2021 it still is prominently displayed in our living room.

Jerry Hirsch.

Jerry and I played together in at least one qualifier for the NAP and the Grand National Teams (GNT). We never made it to either national event, but one year we finished third in the GNT qualifier, and in the last round of the Swiss we defeated the team that won the event. Our teammates were Dave Landsberg10 and Dan Koepf.

Jerry kept a small piece of paper in his convention card holder with one word written on it: “FUN!”. I occasionally needed to be reminded of the primary reason for which we all played at such a frustrating game for so many years.

Every holiday season Jerry took on the responsibility of taking up a collection for a gift for the directors. As far as I know, no one asked him to do it.

1. Peg Corbett, who was a regular attendee at the club, stopped playing suddenly. Tom Gerchman, who started each day by reading the obituary page in the Courant, informed me she had died.

2. Russ Elmore and I stopped playing together when he moved to New Hampshire. However, he must have moved back to the Berkshires a few years later. I saw him playing at a sectional tournament in Great Barrington, MA. This really surprised me because Russ never showed any interest in tournaments while I was playing with him. I approached him and reintroduced myself. He said that he remembered me, but at the time he did not seem to.

3. At some point Paula Beauchamp and Larry Wallowitz, a teacher and director at the HBC, moved to Bradenton, FL. I think that this occurred in the early teens. This raised a lot of eyebrows at the HBC. Most people, myself included, did not even know that they were “an item”. Larry died after they had been there a few years. I did not have many dealings with Larry, but I remember attending a talk that he gave to novices about opening leads. One thing that he said really hit home: “It’s OK to finesse your partner, but it is not OK to finesse yourself.” For example, if you have a king of a suit, and you suspect that the declarer (on your right) has the queen, it is a terrible idea to lead that suit. Paula remained in Florida, but she returned to Connecticut and played at the HBC a few times.

4. The Yellow Card is a piece of paper that was designed by the ACBL to provide a set of conventions that could be used in casual partnerships, new partnerships, or specific events such as individual tournaments. It is also used by a fairly large number of pairs who just do not like to memorize conventions.

5. Details about the mechanics of team games have been explained here.

6. Robert Klopp died in, I think 2014, not too long after the four of us stopped playing together at tournaments. He did not drive a car, and he brought his own food to tournaments to save money.

7. I played with Brenda Harvey at a sectional tournament in Connecticut at least once. She moved to Saint Augustine, FL. She remains an active bridge player in 2021.

8. In duplicate bridge North traditionally keeps score. Tradition at the HBC insisted that the new LM sat North at table #1. At the time I had almost never sat North.

9. In August of 2010 Sue and I accompanied Tom and Patti Corcoran on a river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow. It is described in some detail here. I studied the language pretty diligently for several months, but I was seldom able to communicate with Russians outside of the tourist industry, and all of them spoke—and preferred—English.

10. My partnership with Dave Landsberg is described here.