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Janice Feye-Stukas [Edina] Diane Henry [Minneapolis] Sharon Jewett [Minnetonka] Elise Kist [Eden Prairie] Pat Mahoney [Golden Valley] Kathy McNulty [Minnetonka] Kristine Mortensen [Minneapolis] Kay Ness [Plymouth] Tom Philipich [Plymouth] Donna Roper [Bloomington] |
Keep in mind, Joe did all this AND played in the Unit 103 Winter Sectional in Roseville, picking up even MORE masterpoints there. But for our list of the King of Clubs, there are no tournament or online points allowed. Only Minnesota's local club play counts here. Will Joe make it 3-for-3 next month? It might seem like he just has to show up - but you can make the effort to try and knock him off the throne! |  |
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Click on the image to your right or you can click here to open the list in a new window for perusing or printing. |  |
Winners along with the top three finishers in each category of each award will have a free entry to Unit 103's Annual Awards Luncheon and Game at the Bridge Center of St Paul on Sunday, May 3. Click on the image to your right or just click here to open the list in a new window for perusing or printing. Tomorrow - your winners from Unit 178. |  |
The 176.5 tables in play this past weekend was off 9.5 tables from last year, or about -4.6%. Having played 8 sessions of bridge, that comes to slightly more than one table of cards per session - which seems like it could be worse, but it can always be better! The next big tournament will be also over in St Paul, which will be the Aquatennial Sectional (having been moved this year from July to March). |  |
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But there might be a red flag out to the southwest, where South Dakota's average of 10.4 tables per week to start 2026 is down -18.1% year-over-year. That's a steep drop, and remember the floor for a bridge game isn't zero tables per session - it's two tables. So if this rather significant drop in Y-O-Y tables keeps up, bridge in South Dakota could be in real trouble. The local impact (here) is that fewer South Dakota players would be available to play in Minnesota tournaments - or maybe a sanctioned game in Pipestone is ready to take over? In any event it's very early in the year; one never knows when someone will step up to open a new club or start teaching to bring in new members, etc. It's happened here in Minnesota, and it could happen in South Dakota. But this is something we'll be watching - and for the sake of bridge everywhere, hoping for the best. |  |
There's also another tournament that's expected to be scheduled in June, to coincide with the opening of Spades & Company (see the post just below), and we'll keep an eye out for that info also. The "tournament circuit" is a busy one in 2026 for Minnesota! Too busy? Maybe - but if the alternative is too few tournaments for Minnesota players, too many to choose from is not the worst thing for local players. |  |
Sectional March 26-28 St Paul  | Sectional Sat April 11 St Cloud  | Sectional April 16-18 Rochester  | Sectional May 20-24 Roseville  | Sectional June 4 Rochester  | Sectional June 11-13 St Cloud  |
Interestingly enough, seven of the eight winners during the tournament are all Non-Life Masters - which is awesome! Here are your winners:  Grant Duffrin [Roseville] Richard Day [Shoreview] Tom Bedford [St Paul] Joan Lossing [Woodbury] Fay Debellis [North Oaks] Maclore Christensen [St Paul] Connie Dalzell [Rochester] Jill Wroblewski [Minneapolis]And the two drawn at the conclusion of the tournament from the total of the almost 200 players that showed up to play cards this weekend: Robert Cyza [Minneapolis] Jerry Rosenblad [Stewartville] |  |
But February is the last month for you to qualify at your local club. Check with your local club director or club manager for when these games are scheduled, and play in them! (Plus, if you've already qualified, it's a terrific way to get tons of red and black points.) Through five months of GNT qualifying, there's no question that Minnesota is the Midwest's leader in participation and qualifiers. Last month (January), Minnesota was the only state in D14 to run any Grand National Team games, and just two clubs (Rochester and Bridge Center of St Paul) ran GNT qualifiers. And since September 1st when qualifying began, Minnesota is responsible for 88.0% of all D14 GNT tables. That's 88.0% of the GNT tables, even though Minnesota's total club tables are only 42.5% of the Midwest's total tables. [Ed.: Insert recommendation for in-person GNT D14 Finals here.] Have you qualified to play in the GNT D14 Finals online in March? Frankly, it matters not, as D14 has made it so anyone can ignore GNT qualifying games and pay a $25 buy-in at the last minute to play if you haven't qualified. But the list of Minnesota D14 qualifiers (by Unit) can be found by clicking here. |
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Even so, digger deeper shows the trend towards more tables isn't universal across the state. The big winners this month are St Cloud (up +48.6%) and Duluth (up +45.8%), with Woodbury (up +9.9%) the only other club that's shown positive growth year-over-year. The Minnetonka club had 18 tables in January vs 0 last year, that's also positive growth (although dividing by zero does make the Y-O-Y comparison impossible). For everyone else, January was a bit of a drag. The two clubs that fell the most from January of 2025 were Northfield (-27.3%) and Mankato (-28.2%), with the remainder of the Metro area clubs off slightly. In terms of nominal tables, St Cloud has passed Edina and is now the 2nd largest bridge club in the state; there's little reason to think that will change in the immediate future, but their 165 tables this past month bettered the Plymouth BC by 31 tables. Last year, they were 27 tables off the Edina crowd, so the net of +58 tables in one month (more than 2 tables a day that the club is open) once again demonstrates the efforts they are making in the Granite City are paying off big. February is here, and we'll see what the shortest month of the year brings to Minnesota clubs. Don't forget this month is your last chance to play in a GNT game and possibly represent Minnesota (and D14) at our NABC in July. |    |
The West Metro Social Duplicate games which have been held at the Marsh in Minnetonka will be moving to their new location in Plymouth next month. You can find directions to the new club by clicking here. Norrie emailed the following:
-- Norrie |    |
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In today's competition, Kurt Schaeffer [Lakeville] and David Collins [Fridley] won the Open Pairs with a 62.82% game in the morning session and a 62.44% game in the afternoon. They picked up 14.00 silver points. The 499ers Pairs was taken by Janice Dunker [Cannon Falls] and Marc Anderson [New Prague], who had a 64.70% game in the morning and a 52.10% game in the afternoon. They picked up 3.28 silver points for the day - not a bad day at the office. Your masterpoint leaders for this tournament are to your right. All of the masterpoint winners and all results from the Winter Sectional Tournament can be found by clicking here. |    |
With all that in mind, your "Top 20" Masterpoint Winners through day 2 of the Winter Sectional are to your right. David Collins [Fridley] is the current leader, with over 24 masterpoints in just two days. Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park] is right on Dave's heels in 2nd place. Among the Non-Life Masters playing at the tournament, Xintao He [Rochester] leads all NLMs with 11.46 masterpoints. . .but Ethan Lynch [Blaine] is not far behind at all with 10.97. Two more days to go! Plenty of time for everyone to get a bit more scratch. |  |
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75.40% Dan Knier + Wendy Hennes, St Cloud DBC, 1/14 72.76% Jackson Wahl + Megan Murphy, BCSP Mentor Game, 1/15 71.83% David Goodrie + Mark Lasoff, Edina, 1/19 71.35% Bill Heyer + Hai-Sheng Wu, Mankato, 1/5 70.27% Jean Boettcher + Steven Gaynor, Metro BC, 1/28 HONORABLE MENTION: 69.65% Larry Uttley + Warren Nelson, Duluth, 1/5 LIMITED MASTERPOINT GAMES: 73.81% Brian Smith + James Polakowski, Bridge Center of St Paul, 1/8 73.61% David Niles + Denice Jasper, West Metro Social Duplicate, 1/16 70.24% David Currie + Liz Haynes, BCSP, 1/20 |
The open crowd on Friday saw David Collins [Fridley] playing with Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park] coming in 1st place in the afternoon; Brian Crossley [Burnsville] and Dennis Cerkvenik [Minnetonka] won the morning session, picking up 7.56 silver points. Twelve players on three teams tied for 1st place in the teams part of the competition Friday afternoon, so you can find out more about this dozen by clicking here. Tomorrow it's a regionally-rated two-session Open Pairs and 499er pairs, which will benefit the Minnesota Education Fund. Then it's bracketed teams coming up on Sunday - so there's a lot more bridge yet to take place this weekend. |     |
The morning session saw Barry Purrington [Eagan] and David Collins [Fridley] come in 1st place overall, scoring 7.79 silver points. The teams portion of the pair/teams game was a tie, with eight players picking up 6.01 silver points! These eight were Teri Blu [Bloomington], Sandy Nelson [Minneapolis], Richard Day [Shoreview] Thomas Kiemen [Cottage Grove], Jack Huie [Minneapolis], Pete Peterson [Osceola WI], David Lui [Roseville], and Mary McIntyre [St Paul]. The 499ers in the morning session (7 tables worth!) found Mary Helen Gill [Long Lake] and Victoria Slomiany [Edina] coming in 1st. They scored 1.95 silver points. In the afternoon session, with another 22 tables in play, Dennis Cerkvenik [Minnetonka] and Bill Voedisch [Marine] won the pairs competition - they earned 7.33 silver points for their effort. The afternoon team competition found Stan Jurgensen [St Louis Park], Nora Walker [Minneapolis], Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park], and Michael Cassel [Roseville] coming in 1st overall for 6.45 silver points. The afternoon 499er champs were Lars Roe [Minneapolis] and dad Andy Roe [St Paul]. They earned 1.72 silver points. There was another FREE PLAY to the NABC courtesy of the tournament sponsor (Unit 103) in the afternoon, this time going to Richard Day. The action (and more NABC free plays) continues tomorrow morning. All of the results of this tournament along with masterpoint winners can be found by clicking here. |
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Locally, it's even better news. The first four weeks of 2026 at Minnesota's bridge clubs wound up with 783.5 face-to-face tables in play; that's an increase of 52.5 tables over the same period in 2025 or +7.2%. A much nicer increase than that of the ACBL as a whole for the period, that would mean we are definitely ahead of the game. A look at table counts for all of the Midwestern states, compared to the same four-week period starting 2025, shows that Minnesota's gain both in nominal tables and in percentage increase from last year tops all six Midwest states. So what's happening here? An annual decline in ACBL membership of more than 6.7% would indicate a smaller pool of players available to play at the club. That would suggest fewer tables across the ACBL as a whole, not more tables. And it's not tables per game that we're talking about here, so consolidation of games is not the answer, although that wouldn't have much effect on overall tables anyway. Existing ACBL players appear to be playing more often - and while it may be hard to pin down why this week-to-week trend is moving so positively (and consistently in a positive direction), we're really happy to see it. |    |
This week, the Hilton Head Island Regional is underway. Last year, it nearly overtook Gatlinburg TN in table counts, but this year it's not looking like much of a competitor for American's Favorite Regional. Only two days in, and already Hilton Head's table counts are down -23.7% compared to the first two days of 2025. Coincidence? Or the start of a pattern? It's something to keep an eye on. There's a lot of the year ahead of us, but for these two tournaments to stumble out of the gate like this, we're hoping it's not anything contagious. |   |
| Sometimes there is just no escaping winter weather! And yet kudos to Minnesota players who enjoy bridge in a somewhat warmer climate this time of year. The Lone Star Regional is frequented each year by Jane Schmidt [St Paul], who plays with her sister Jean Kiesel [Layfayette LA]. Jane made the trip to Houston last week and scored 30.67 gold points by helping her sister and their team to win one KO and come in 3rd in another KO. Jane was not the only Minnesota player to make an effort to escape the winter weather here at home. The team of Jeffrey Walker [Eagan], Rolf Hubmayr [Minneapolis], Marc Ashton [Excelsior], and Lou Tesler [Eden Prairie] also were in Houston to bring home 7.56 gold/red points playing in the Bracketed Teams among a couple of KOs as well. It would appear that all these Minnesota players had fun playing in this tournament down in Texas even though it was abbreviated for the weather. And if we know United Airlines, they should be home just in time for the NABC. |
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The Plymouth Bridge Club and Metro DBC run several games a week in the West Metro; we looked at 131 players in these games (more than 33 tables worth). To your right are the results of those that played, along with their average score for the year and the total number of times they played in one of these Unit 178 club games over the past 12 months. You won't find any tournament results here; nor any online game results. If a player played half their 2025 games at the Duncan Bridge Club or in a Mesa AZ game while there during the winter, those aren't included either. Even their Bridge Center of St Paul games have been filtered out of these results - only games played in Edina and Maple Grove were used to determine these scores. Gary Knippenberg [Golden Valley] played in 44 games between the two clubs and averaged a 58.98% game in 2025 - that's tops among players. Joe Koester [Brooklyn Park] was a very close second at 58.74% for the year, and Joe accomplished this playing in almost three times as many games as Gary (112 games). (Several players played in less than ten games during 2025 at these clubs, which doesn't allow for a statistically significant comparable result.) These aren't all the players who played in the West Metro last year - we're working on that - so our apologies if we've missed someone. When it comes to 178's "Most Valuable Player" (that's the important-sounding-title given to the person who pretty much just spent the most money in table fees, almost single-handedly keeping the club afloat), Teri Blu [Bloomington] should have her own table at these clubs if she does not already. She played in 184 games (of 231 possible for Teri, that's an 80% attendance rate) and was followed by Gary Sack [Minneapolis] who played in 178 games in 2025. NOTE that whether you played in 100 games in the West Metro last year or only in 2 games, you're still a very valued player. |  |
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| Two Minnesota tournaments are scheduled for the month of June, and those flyers were just approved by the ACBL for distribution. On your left, the top flyer is for a one-day NLM tournament down in Rochester on Thursday, June 4th. A week and a half later is the Granite City Sectional, the open tournament that's held each June up in Greater Minnesota. Once again this year it's being held at the Sauk Rapids Government Center, and promises three days of fun (three days of trouble?) at the table - it's also your last chance to earn some tournament experience before the big NABC tournament takes place a month later in July. |
  | Bridge tournaments this week in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, along with the Carolinas, well, they are not so fortunate. |
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We will be following their progress (along with all local players) once the Spring NABC gets going next month; between now and then there will be plenty of opportunities for warm-up games for these players. |
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  | The full roster of the 103 Board is to your left; Unit Meeting minutes can always be found by clicking here (but only as they are approved and then provided by the respective unit secretaries). |
    
| One of the underrated bridge movements in duplicate is the individual winner movement - where everyone plays with everyone. This week, St Cloud club manager Scott Krupke [Little Falls] set up an individual movement game with 7 tables of players for their monthly Wednesday game. There was also some fundraising involved, as the occasion for this month's special event had to do with supporting one of St Cloud's players who couldn't make it this time around: Nancy Balfanz [St Cloud], who is working very hard to recover from Guillian-Barré syndrome. Nancy was afflicted and hospitalized on Christmas Day; originally paralyzed from the neck down and unable to speak, Nancy is now able to speak - but is currently still paralyzed from the waist down and unable to fully use her hands. The good news is that she is making progress [Ed.: If you've ever met this woman, you know there is no keeping her down], and the good people at the St Cloud club got together Wednesday to raise some money for her meals and show their support for this incredibly well-loved player. If you know Nancy or are otherwise just inclined to help with her meal situation, the link to her Meal Train page can be found by clicking here. Winners from this wild Wednesday at the bridge table can be found by clicking here. PLEASE NOTE we would not post such private information about an individual in such a public forum as this without their consent to do so and without first running the copy by them for editorial control. Connie Nelson [Avon] was kind enough to provide photos of the St Cloud game. |
Find us at VACB101691 for a pairs game. Game time will be 6:30 pm CT, $6/person. --Dave
--Dave PREVIOUSLY: The frigid Friday weather has claimed its first bridge game, the West Metro Social Duplicate game Friday in Minnetonka. Norrie Thomas [Plymouth] sent us this:
Please stay warm!! --Best, Norrie |
 | Warren Nelson [Cloquet], Patti Stuhlman [Minneapolis], Sherry Cyza [Minneapolis], Bob Balderson [Eden Prairie], and Matt Belau [Rochester] met online to plan the way forward heading into the final stretch. This month, the focus was on newer players (those with under 750 masterpoints). During this month's meeting the committee was joined by Keith Thompson [St Paul], who talked with the group regarding outreach to teachers, unsanctioned clubs, and newer players (0-5 masterpoints) - and how the committee could help promote the NABC to these newer players. The committee also stressed letting advancing players know that there are free lessons the first weekend of the NABC for them; a free reception and lunch on Saturday July 11; and on Friday July 10th there's are games that are open to 0-5 masterpoint players where they play at no cost. It sounds like a really great deal! Finally, reservations for the hotels opened this week. Although you can send an email to the ConferenceDirect Housing Bureau to set up a hotel reservation, Patti explained her experience with the Spring NABC was that you're much better off either calling or making the reservation online yourself (rather than email them). Everything will get sent to Jane Schmidt [St Paul] for her monthly blast to players and of course, you'll see it here on the Bridge Blog. One question the committee couldn't quite answer - will Minnesota's ice be gone by July? Stay tuned. |
| NOTE that the ACBL has a non-refundable deposit cancellation policy on hotel reservations:
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 | Temperatures this week will plunge below zero - and stay there - for at least 48 hours. As cold snaps go, this won't be particularly long; just a couple of days. But what it lacks in staying power, it's making up in its swing of the pendulum. High temperatures this Friday - high temps - could be in the teens below zero across all of Minnesota. So if you were thinking about playing in a Friday game of bridge, you'll want to make sure your car will start after the game. . .and that there is plenty of cocoa or coffee at the game to keep everyone warm. Here's a list of Friday games across the state and the game time temperature that's expected:
Minn Grand Slam Club 6:30p Open Pairs (Roseville): -17F St Cloud DBC 12:30pm Open Pairs: -14F Edina 12:45pm Open Pairs: -11F Rochester DBC 12:30pm Online Open Pairs: 71F |
In addition to the double card, you might see some red around the 14th (Valentine's Day) - but lots of opportunities to get into some trouble abound. February is Education Foundation Fund month across the ACBL, so you'll see some big masterpoint games on the schedule - including the next ACBL-wide game on Saturday, February 7th. The top prize in D14 is 15.00 masterpoints - which was won by a pair right here in Minnesota during last month's ACBL-wide game. Here are the latest bridge calendars around Minnesota clubs for February (updated as they are issued):        |
 | A previous post on this blog documented the year-over-year drop in Minnesota's players (-6.31% for the October-December period) which is actually slightly better than the ACBL-wide drop from last month. There's not too much Minnesotans can do about what's happening across all of the ACBL (with the exception of putting on a good show at the NABC this July) - but locally, you won't hear it often enough - get involved, help mentor, encourage new players, volunteer when you can at your club or at a tournament. All of these things help with our membership and with our games, and they'll help keep Minnesota's player losses to a minimum. |
Now, Keith Thompson [St Paul] is putting together a list of non-sanctioned games so that he can contact players and invite them to participate in the upcoming NABC. The plan is to have players attend the NABC that might not normally either know about it or think they'd have fun at it. (Because let's face it, of course they'd have fun.) Players who would be new to the ACBL with less than 5 masterpoints will play for free on the first Friday, and there are free lessons and a free reception with lunch the first weekend for advancing and newcomer players. It's a great opportunity to allow non-sanctioned game players to experience a tournament atmosphere - and expand Minnesota's player base, as some of these players will no doubt take to playing in sanctioned games. If you know of a church, or a community center, a senior center, any neighborhood non-sanctioned bridge game, let Keith know about it (along with the appropriate contact information). Even if you know someone that does some teaching of bridge! It's not as if Keith doesn't have enough to do already - but he'll compile all the information and reach out to these players in the next few months. Hopefully the result will be the achievement of our goal to see more players in regular club games as well as providing newer players with a terrific tournament experience. |
   | Will it always be good news here? Not likely. But for now - we are holding our own. And remember that every club game you support, every advancing player you mentor, every time you volunteer to help at a tournament, all of these things add up. Heading into 2026 (and the hosting of the Summer NABC), this is news of which all Minnesota bridge players can be proud. |
 | The Prairie Room is on the second floor, just off the elevator at the front of the building; this is where the cards happen. Their Wednesday games will continue to be played in North St Paul at the American Legion, and everything else is now back at Central Park. The Woodbury BC website is located here; and the Prairie Room (pictured, left) has a capacity for 18 tables of players - so you're invited to play in a Woodbury game and see if we can max the new space out. |
Following the sub-committee's agreement, all that remained was for the larger 178 board to approve the plan and get everything in motion. But this week the 178 board decided the decision to approve the plan (and become one unit) was "too major for the board to decide". Instead, they plan to put the decision to their membership, and that is not scheduled until the end of this year. As a result, the issue of unit unification is back off the table. It's not all bad news, of course - operating as two units and behaving as if we are one has worked pretty well to date. Having worked so well in the past, the mutual cooperation between 103 and 178 won't change heading into the upcoming NABC (or beyond). (And let's face it, Minnesota's bridge community would be doing great even if we had TEN units in the state.) A huge shout-out goes out to Todd Flowerday [Coon Rapids], Matt Belau [Rochester], Sue Sanger [Bloomington], Warren Nelson [Cloquet], Susie Greenberg [Byron], and Keith Thompson [St Paul] for their efforts of the past 14 months to even get this far (considerably farther than any past efforts at unit unification). They did everything that they could. With the topic of unit unification behind us for now, we can all concentrate on the other gazillion bridge-related things going on, and there are a gazillion, and we're lucky to have that much happening with bridge in Minnesota. |
 | This is all being set up by Norrie Thomas [Plymouth], whose flyer with all of the details is just to your left. (You can click on it to open it in a new window, or just click here.) The cost for each lesson is $17; partners are guaranteed; Norrie asks that you RSVP for each Monday you'd like to attend; and you can sign up for one or all of the lessons individually. Steve knows a few things about bridge and we're glad he's willing to share some of that knowledge - here's your chance to let Norrie know you're coming and learn a few tips for tricks. |
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