 | Tables to kick off this tournament compared to last year were up. An apples-to-apples comparison is difficult, as one year ago this tournament was held Wednesday through Friday. This year, the Thursday through Saturday calendar isn't quite the same, but regardless - tables were up no matter how you look at it. Opening day tables of the I/N Sectional in Roseville were up +42.1% compared to day one last year, and if you are looking strictly at Thursday (day 1 here) to Thursday (day 2 in 2025), they're also up, even if only slightly. 27 tables yesterday, compared to 26½ tables on Thursday last year. All of the results of the tournament in Roseville can be found by clicking here; all of the masterpoints that players have scored this week (and those points are silver!) can be found by clicking here. There are two more days of play at this tournament, so if you've got less than 750 masterpoints, get a partner and get playing in Roseville. |
 | This chart doesn't include any online or tournament tables, and the health of those categories is not as sound. With BBO adding a paywall this year, a bit of an uptake with the fractured nature of new and many more online options for ACBL players, and ChatGPT allowing another avenue for online cheating, online ACBL tables are still not what they were even a year ago. And many tournaments, even regionals, are seeing a drop in participation (locally, see: Omaha's and Eau Claire's recent tournaments). The ACBL-wide regional table count is off -2.5% from last year at this point. But it's hard to deny that without your local club, and the efforts to make the local club playing experience successful, online and tournament tables would be in a much more difficult position. It's another reason why it's good to help at the local level when you can, and keep our local club health in good shape. |
  | Having a look at the year-over-year change by flight in Minnesota, the Flight C players eligible to go on have increased from 294 to 298 (or up +1.4%). It's interesting in that Minnesota has a lot of players who have just crossed the 3,000 masterpoint mark this past year - that means that while the eligible Flight B players in our state this year have seen a dip from 224 players last year to 212 this year (or down -5.4%), their transition into the Flight A category (3,000 to 6,000 masterpoints) has resulted in a huge increase in the Flight A and Championship group (up from 51 players to 64 in 2026, or +25.5%). It all spells a good competition when the NAP Finals take place in October. |
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PATTI STUHLMAN [Minneapolis]: It was a huge success from the host city point of view. I heard hundreds of positive comments about home much people enjoyed playing in Minneapolis. They especially mentioned how friendly and helpful everyone was. They loved the Convention Center and they loved Minneapolis. DAVE NEIMAN [Minneapolis]: [It was] so well organized, and then so well operated during the NABC. I never heard a single complaint from anyone. Many of the people I spoke with were very complimentary of both the event and the city. Let's do it again! MARSHA DEVINE [Minneapolis]: People told me that they loved the playing site, the City, how organized the tournament was and how they wish that another National could be scheduled here again! MIKE CASSEL [Roseville]: I don't know what the budget was for treats/snacks but I heard any number of people saying very positive things about them. Thanks to the major sponsors which probably allowed for this and also to them for raising the funds to further reduce entry fees for the volunteers. The kids' comments in the bulletin were priceless! Never have I felt so good about winning so few masterpoints! LOL MATTHEW BRIBITZER-STULL [Bloomington]: From beginning to end, competing, volunteering, getting kids to/from the YNABC, and from every vantage point, it was an unqualified success! ANNIE SCHAEFFER [Lakeville]: As partnership co-chair, I received many emails and text messages. There was one theme among the many partnership requests: "I play better than my points indicate." SUE GREENBERG [Byron]: What a great tournament! On behalf of unit 103, thanks to Patty and all the Minnesota volunteers! CINDY BALDERSON [Eden Prairie]: My experience with players around the world was amazing. Without any prompting, their overall response was “We love Minneapolis!” I never heard any complaints. Everyone seemed proud of who and what we are. It was a lot of work by a lot of people - and a lot of fun for a great deal more. But yes, we should definitely do it again some time. |
 | We've made no seceret of our advocating for in-person NAP and GNT Finals for several years now, as the face-to-face competition can't be beat, and you pretty much know there's no cheating taking place. But it's not just our opinion - there are plenty of Minnesota players who feel the same way. And 19 of the other 24 ACBL districts feel that same way as well, having moved their NAP Finals in-person. That list (and their locations) for the 2026 NAP Season are to your left. Many of the in-person NAP Finals are being held at local tournaments, such as a regional, and there has been a standing offer now for three years running to hold our NAP Finals at the Rochester Regional in September (the timing is perfect and the location not bad for the district's participating players). But it's not happening. Of the 5 other ACBL districts that are holding NAP Finals online, 3 of them are on RealBridge, where you can see the players and interact with them - having a better sense that they are not using ChatGPT to cheat as to how to bid or play the hand. With the vast majority of NAP D14 players made up of Minnesotans, one can only imagine what the turnout would be for an in-person D14 NAP Final. This year, again, one can only imagine. |
 | Periodcally Steve Gaynor [Arden Hills] will take the time from his other couple-of-dozen-or-so bridge duties and issue an updated calendar with tournaments you might be interested in. One of those times was this week, and you can click on the image to your left or just click here to check out what's happening for local bridge players in terms of tournaments. Get your bridge calendar out and fill it in, as there's a tournament for every player (actually, several for every player) on Steve's list this time around. |
  | Your blog editor is the Unit Tournament Coordinator for Minnesota's Unit 103; a wise older woman (who had been the UTC previously) told him "it's okay to make some money, but you don't want to make too much", as that means you're not providing enough to the players. It's a very good thing that the ACBL is not losing money at this point, but if they keep making this kind of dough, maybe a re-visit to that 5-5-5 program business is in order. (Spoiler alert: that re-visit is overdue.) |
[Ed.: The Minnesota Bridge Blog would never post personal information such as anything do with a health issue in such a public forum without first clearing it with the principal involved; in this case, Roger gave us the "ok".] |
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This week you might be in luck. Scott Krupke [Little Falls] has expanded the format of this game to allow for more pairs to play in it - and they do have a few good seats still available. The celebration is this Wednesday, August 26. It starts with a pot luck at 5pm and then the big game follows. If you're interested in participating in this year's Kory Solarz Knockdown Tournament, contact Scott Krupke at krupkebridge-at-gmail-dot-com ASAP! On top of everything else, it's a great time. |
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 | So far, there are 18 teams that have signed up to play in this fall team league, but they have plenty of room if you'd like to get in on the action. And - dare we say - you won't want to miss out. You have until Thursday of next week (August 27) to sign up your foursome to play. And if you only have a pair, an inquiry to finding another pair and making a team couldn't hurt. The details on the Fall Team League can be found here; and you can sign up through next Thursday by clicking here. |
 | We do have a few comments and questions on the new NABC program, and those comments and questions can be found along with the press release itself by clicking here. (The comments and questions that we have are highlighted in yellow.) |
 | The list of all masterpoint winners from this tournament can be found by clicking here, and all of the results from the Eau Claire Regional this week can be found by clicking here. |
  | But sometimes showing up to play is all you can do, really, and Minnesota players did make the trek to western Wisconsin to play this week. Looking at the number of entries purchased over the four days of this tournament, Minnesota bridge players were responsible for 63 entries this past week (with a two-session event counting as two entries). Coincidentally, that's the same number of Minnesota player entries (63) purchased at Eau Claire's Regional last year. On the flip side, local Wisconsin player entries were off sharply (-40.3%) from one year ago, as the number of local Wisconsin players at this regional this year was down by quite a bit. This is another example of the strength and deep bench of Minnesota's bridge community. The game of duplicate bridge can always be doing better, no matter where you are, but when you are able to export support for out-of-state tournaments, that's good for every bridge player everywhere. Here is proof that Minnesota players are exporting that support, doing what one can to help make this out-of-state regional successful. (Or at least successful enough to be back on the calendar next August.) |
Minnesota's only open regional in 2026 is also being held in September, as the Med City Regional in Rochester will get underway. Six days of gold (and red) points will be had from the 14th to the 19th of the month. Here are the latest bridge calendars around Minnesota clubs for September that have been submitted for publication:      |
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 Stronger events will award more Larger events will award more Events will be masterpointed independently* Majority of awards increase or stay the sameThe new formula is below. If you'd like examples of how this would impact masterpoint awards, all those details can be found by clicking here. All of these new formulas and masterpoint award rules will take effect on January 1, 2027, so you'll see these in action at next year's Gopher Regional in May. Masterpoint awards at tournaments will not be going down in any cases - and in the majority of them, they'll be increased under this new math. Masterpoint inflation is real, and it is spectacular.  |
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  | Much like D14's Omaha NE Regional one week ago, this D13 Regional is having a bit of a tough start. Day 1 tables at the Eau Claire Regional came to 19½ tables, that's down 9½ tables from last year's day 1 (or -32.8%). It's never easy to report on a tournament whose tables are down significantly year-over-year, but it's especially difficult when it's a tournament so close to Minnesota's playing community. Minnesota's bridge community is pretty strong at the moment, and that's evident even by looking at the tables in Eau Claire this week - at least so far. Of the 58 different players on day 1 last year in Eau Claire, 13 of those players were from Minnesota. That's 22.4%. This year on day 1 in Eau Claire, there again were 13 Minnesota players at the table; but this year, these Minnesota players accounted for 32.5% of all Eau Claire Regional attendees. What does this show? It shows that while the total number of participants is down sharply at this tournament, it's not because Minnesota players are not showing up - they are showing up. It's far more Wisconsin players that are missing on day 1 at the Eau Claire Regional this year. The good news is that there are three more days of tournament action to be had - hopefully more of the locals will make an appearance - as we all share in hoping for a successful tournament on every front. |
  | The Med City Regional in Rochester kicks off four weeks from today; it'll feature team games and pair games each day of the tournament. A couple of upgrades to the tournament this year, including the host facility allowing food to be served, so that's great news for everyone. The flyer is just to your left - click on it to open it in a new window - and get those partnerships going. Player labels have been printed and will be ready for distribution next month - these labels don't get done unless everything is a "go" for the regional, so when you mark it on your calendar, go ahead and use a pen. |
 | Teams are where it's at! Be part of the fun this fall by checking out the rules for the Fall Team League by clicking here; and then you can register your team to play by August 27 by clicking here. If you've got any questions, contact Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis], Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis], or Kimberly Hayward [Bayport]. (They might also be able to help in forming a team if you only have a partner - it never hurts to ask.) |
 | We all know card players who don't know bridge - chances are they'd love the game. Here's a great way to get them a free introduction to the game, with area lessons available to follow. Frankly, the ACBL does have its problems, but this is not one of those - it's a terrific idea, and neither you nor your not-yet-bridge-playing friends have anything to lose. |
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Sectional August 27-29 Roseville | REGIONAL Sep 14-19 Rochester | Sectional Sat October 10 St Cloud  | Sectional October 22-24 St Paul  | Sectional November 4-6 Duluth  | Sectional November 6-7 Plymouth  |
  | In the morning session yesterday, Doris Hertsgaard [Mankato] and Joyce Hoelmer [Mankato] earned 2.65 silver points with their 62.02% outing. Second place went to locals Steve He [Rochester] and Pari Pew [Rochester], who scored 60.52%. After lunch, it was Connie Falkenstein [Rochester] and Gary Falkenstein [Rochester] winning with a sparkling 68.75% game. They were followed by Janet Munson [La Crescent] and John Munson [La Crescent], who earned a 61.22% score. The Top 20 list of masterpoint winners from yesterday's big events in Rochester can be found on the list to your left; all of the masterpoints winners and all the results from the day's fun at the bridge table can be found by clicking here. For non-Life masters that may have missed the one-day tournament in Rochester this week, you won't have to wait long to try and earn some silver points at the next I/N sectional. Unit 103's Bridge Center of St Paul will have their annual three-day I/N tournament in just two weeks. |
 | If this rate of loss in membership were to continue, 40 years from now the ACBL would have ~6,477 members (113,086 x [0.931]^40). All things being equal, the entire state of Minnesota would have only 78 ACBL members in 2066. You might not be playing bridge in 40 years, but there are plenty of bridge players right now who plan to. Do what you can to help save the game! Mentoring, teaching, volunteering, encouragement, every little action helps. |
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 | Lately, open regional attendance has been up or down, depending on the tournament. Across the ACBL so far in 2026, table counts are off by a few percentage points overall. But when you look at these cities that have hosted a Summer NABC - having taken the year off to do so - and then return to open regional action - table counts are up. Granted, we don't have a lot of data points to look at; anything pre-COVID can't really be counted, and Providence RI did not have a regional prior to their 2022 Summer NABC. But the three data points that are available are all positive. Chicago IL (+7.4%), Toronto ON (+24.7%), and Philadelphia PA (+7.7%) have all seen an increase in table counts the year after they hosted the NABC. It's very possible that having the NABC encouraged tournament play (especially for newer players). We will see when the Gopher is held next May what's what; but what small amount of evidence we have to look at so far shows it might be good news. |
 | The flyer for this event is to your left; click on it to open it in a new window for better viewing (or printing) - and keep tournament play going strong in our neck of the woods! |
 | Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park] played in 16 club games during July, even with the local club closures. Eight in-person games in St Paul, six in-person games in Plymouth, and two in-person games in Edina netted Terry 28.96 points at the club level*, which is tops among Minnesota players for the past four weeks. Over the course of these 16 club games, Terry's score averaged 62.68%. Yikes. Following your King of Clubs this month was a half-dozen Rochester players (whose club remained mostly open during the NABC), but with fewer playing options than in the Metro area, they were quite a distance from this month's leader. Congratulations to Terry as your King of Clubs! Exit question: Is Kathy giving up any of her closet space for all these crowns Terry is amassing? *(Note that these points listed are for in-club play only, and don't include any additional points awarded across larger competitions. In other words, the overall Instant Matchpoint Game awards aren't included here, nor are the overall STaC awards. Only those masterpoints awarded in the local club. And for those keeping track at home, even if these overall awards had been included in the totals, that guy at the top of the heap would still be there.) |
Jim Groskpf [St Paul] Tom Nash [Farmington] Michael Sharpe [North Oaks] Brad Ballinger [St Paul] Kari Hurley [Eagan] Allen Trempe [Roseville] Peggy Denenholz [Eagan] Ellie Lane [Eagan] Julie Joyce [Woodbury] |
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 | In addition to the six new Life Masters (each of them interviewed for the Minnesota Bridge Blog on the July, 2026 blog page), there is pretty much every color of the rainbow to celebrate here. A new emerald LM, sapphire LM, ruby, gold, silver, etc. The only rank achievement missing this month to complete the circuit is no diamond LM. Every other rank is noted here, including twenty-one new Junior Masters, which is terrific. They are on their way, and be sure to encourage them along! Congratulations to these sixty-three players. A previous post queried if treadmills and rowing machines might be needed for all of the celebratory cakes with the new Life Masters coming one after another in July, but if we had sixty-three Costco cakes in 31 days (two a day?), some sort of exercise side-hustle might really be required. Click on the image to your left to expand it and open it in a new window to see the more than five dozen Minnesota players celebrating this month. |
  | The decline in the Fargo DBC attendance might be attributed to a few different factors, but with the Detroit Lakes Bridge Club under new management, and a July table count up +14.7%, there's little question that DL is picking up the slack for some of those in the Fargo-Moorhead area that want to get a game in and don't mind the 40-minute drive. Of all the duplicate bridge tables played in the Fargo-Moorhead-DL market, Detroit Lakes held slightly more than half of those one year ago in July, or about 57% (pie chart on your left). This past month, DL now has more than 4 out of 5 bridge tables in this market. It's quite a shift. There's another six weeks of action at the Detroit Lakes club before they shutter for the season again in mid-September. But if this shift in player's playing habits continues through August, DL organizers might re-think closing up at the lake even that late in the season. |
 | These are matches that will be held in person, and not online - so if you'd like to be part of this team league fun, you'll want to live in or very near the Metro area. With enough teams, this will be a bracketed team event (all of the players under 1,500 masterpoints for example will be in one bracket) - and the whole thing has been sanctioned by Unit 103 as one of their annual extended team games. . .so it will be paying sectionally-rated masterpoints when everything gets tallied up. Each match has a period of two weeks to get the three-hour 24- or 28-boards played, so if someone's out of town there's plenty of time to play the match when everyone can. It's a great idea and should be lots of fun. Get your team together and signed up by August 27th - the details are available on the flyer to your left. Here is the link to their sign-up page. When you've got your team together and are ready to have fun, sign up! |
| I/N Regional Awards: Up until now, the overall awards at I/N Regionals were 33% Gold and 67% Red. The ACBL has made the change so that starting next year, the awards will be 50% Gold and 50% Red. (Who doesn't like more gold!?) Overall Awards for Team Events: There will be an additional overall award in many team events, including bracketed teams. In a bracketed or Swiss team event where you have six teams, there's currently two overall awards. That's changing to three. With eight teams in a bracketed or Swiss team event, the current three overall awards will go to four. Finally, a twelve-team event is going from four overall places awarded now to five. Local Sectionals: We don't have a lot of Local Sectionals run in Minnesota, but there are a few, and while they used to be allowed to be just one day long, that's no longer the case. They'll be two or three days in length now, with 100% sectionally rated silver points. That's an increase in the silver from the current 80% silver/20% black. |
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 | Among those Minnesotans in on the Cornhusker action (and their masterpoints so far): 33.66 Matthew Bribitzer-Stull [Bloomington] 33.66 Jason Bribitzer-Stull [Bloomington] 20.54 Lynne Castoldi [Minnetonka] 4.02 Bonnie Lervik [Excelsior] 1.26 Kathryn Aliotta [St Paul] 1.18 Kathleen Fortney [St Paul] 1.18 Charles Fortney [St Paul] All of the results from this regional in Omaha NE can be found by clicking here. |
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  | Terry Beckman [Brooklyn Park] played in eight STaC games this week, averaging 61.95% over those eight games and accumulating 31.74 total points (broken down by the four pigmented colors to 7.94 each, none of which he really needs on his way to 20,000). If you're thinking of taking on the king, there's another Royal STaC towards the end of the year - but for now, congratulations to Terry who oversees the Minnesota Bridge Kingdom by occupying the throne. |
  | To your left are the lists through today for both Units 103 and 178. The far left table includes those top three earners of masterpoints at your local club; the near left table is those top three earners of masterpoints in both clubs and tournaments. We should say "top three earners so far", as you still have several months to get going and get in the chase! |
   | The overall rate of cheating players across the ACBL's online community came out to 2.60% during this run; details are on the chart to your left. While EDGAR has gone through everyone that played online during that 2020-2024 period, the program is not being put out to pasture. The ACBL plans to use EDGAR for the following: Start running "new" online players that started playing after February 1, 2024 Revisit previously suspended and warned players who are now off suspension Revisit "yellow" categorized players, who have been heavily flagged for suspicious behavior Continue to run ACBL members who are proposed for high-level committees, such as the Advisory Council, Board of Directors, and Hall of Fame |
  | July provided fewer NAP tables this year, as the total number of NAP tables held in Minnesota bridge clubs (224) was off considerably from last year's July total (288). That's a steep drop of -22.2% from last year. Some of the blame here goes to the STaC that's taken place during the last week of the month, but a bigger chunk of the reason why is, of course, the NABC, which closed several metro area clubs - and disallowed any NAP games at clubs that were open during the big tournament. This isn't to say the season itself is any sort of washout, as NAP tables for the first two months of the three this year are 573 (vs 578 in June and July 2025). That's off just -0.8%, thanks to a robust June this year. And players who have qualified in 2026 so far (511) are several more than in 2025 by this time (503), or up +1.6%. That's great news. The notable shift in player dynamics this year is that the Flight "A" qualifiers are up quite a bit (35 this year vs 21 at this time last year, or +66.7%). Quite a few Flight "B" players from last year went over 3,000 masterpoints in the past 12 months, and this accounts for the big surge in Flight "A" qualifiers now. Will they show up when we get to the D14 NAP Finals? That remains to be seen. There's still one month to go, and plenty of red and black points to be dished out at your local club. Check your local calendars (posted below) for when they're happening and keep earning big masterpoints. |
 | Standing next to Jim in the photo on your left is Rick Trachy [Golden Valley], Marcia Figus [Shoreview], and Grant Duffrin [Roseville]. Upstaging everyone would be Jim's contribution to the party, and without confirmation needed, we're sure there were no leftovers. In any event, if these celebrations do keep up, we are left wondering if the side room at the Roseville club will have treadmills or rowing machines installed for players between rounds of bridge - because - well - they might be needed. |
  | Overall, July tables were down by -5.7% (1,095 vs 1,161 last July). The drop was entirely due to the aforementioned Metro area clubs (down -11.2%), as Outstate clubs in Minnesota saw a small rise in club tables during the past four weeks (up +2.0%). This isn't any real surprise, as the NABC was expected to take a huge bite out of our local clubs. Those clubs that closed during the NABC saw the biggest drops, as expected, but even one-day closures on big game days hurt attendance (see the Rochester DBC, -5.5% for the month, closing on Wednesday of the tournament during "Sue Greenberg Day" at the NABC. Wednesday is now their largest open game of the week). Spades and Company in Plymouth opened up in mid-July last year, so we're finally going to have some table comparisons for the new club going forward (and you'll see real growth there, as was the case here in July). The run-up to the NABC saw record numbers of club tables in the Metro area, so the figures could have been much worse than they are. August tables around Minnesota are once again expected to shoot up into positive territory, but you can help meet expectations by getting out there and getting into trouble at the table. |
 | Here's Miriam Larson [Minneapolis], who is Minnesota's Newest Life Master. Miriam played in the big tourmament in July at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where her 9.34 gold points at the NABC helped get her a lot closer to the finish line; but she still needed 0.82 gold points to make her Life Master. Enter the Royal STaC tournament, which is being held through Sunday evening, where every point that's earned ends up being 25% gold (along with 25% silver, red, and black). She played Tuesday night in Unit 103's Bridge Center of St Paul's 0-3,000 game with Mary McIntyre [St Paul], coming in 1st overall with a 59.38% game. That got her closer, but not over the line. Then there's her Thursday Mentor pairs partner Catherine Wehrman [Shoreview], with whom she played this week in another Royal STaC game. Needing 0.29 gold points heading into that game and coming in 2nd at 57.51% was all that was needed for the party planning to get underway. |
  | This section-top trifecta of the same score with half-matchpoints in a 9-table game apparently happens once in every 2,500 to 3,000 bridge games. Since the great re-opening in 2021, the St Cloud Bridge Club has held 1,168 bridge games as of Monday, so there's that. With 7,755 club games across Minnesota's clubs since 2021, how has this not happened before? (Or has it?) On your left is the barometer scoring for the three pairs in question, all sitting in the same direction, all of them with good rounds and bad. But in the end, all three pairs sitting in the same direction all settled on the same score for first in their direction, and that's something you're not likely to see again for some time. |
 | There are several STaC games across Minnesota yet to take place before the totals are all in, but to your left is a look at the overall masterpoint winners of the week so far. These are the "Top 50" masterpoint earners, where the masterpoints will ultimately be converted to 25% each of Gold, Red, Silver, and Black points. There's still time to get in on the fun, and of course everyone should be congratulated whether you are the masterpoint leader in this state or someone who just had fun getting a sliver of a point. |
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72.69% Jerry Rosenblad + Ed Prosser, Rochester DBC, 7/8 72.47% Sharon Anderson + Roger Anderson, Metro Bridge Club, 7/22 72.22% Terry Beckman + Kathy Beckman, Spades and Company, 7/25 70.83% Bill Anderson + Patricia Heirigs, Mankato DBC, 7/29 70.63% Jack Martin + Jim Brothers, Detroit Lakes BC, 7/21 70.56% Bill Voedisch + Joe Browan, Woodbury Bridge Club, 7/6 70.03% Steve Gaynor + Jean Boettcher, Bridge Center of St Paul, 7/3 HONORABLE MENTION: 69.65% Bev Berg + Roger Melaas, St Cloud Bridge Club, 7/27 LIMITED MASTERPOINT GAMES: HONORABLE MENTION: 69.17% Tara Krupke + Doreen Miller, St Cloud Bridge Club, 7/20 CHAT BRIDGE GAMES: 77.38% Sherry Enzler + Nancy Strom, Bridge Center of St Paul, 7/21 |
  | Roger Anderson [St Paul] and Sharon Anderson [St Paul] brought a cake to Unit 103's Bridge Center of St Paul on Tuesday to honor the big winners from the NABC. In attendance to receive that cake (mmmmmmmm...) was Marcia Figus [St Paul], new Life Master, Charlie Carroll [St Paul], of the GNT Champion Flight A Team, Sarah Wahl [Minneapolis], of the GNT Flight C Runners-up Team, and Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis] and Andy Caranicas [St Paul], members of the GNT Champion Flight A Team. Far be it for these celebrations to end any time soon; our understanding was that there was just enough cake to share on Tuesday. |
  | The membership data they've released compares membership numbers from this quarter to last quarter; but there's a problem with looking at that comparison. At the end of March, there are lots of snowbirds that are still at their winter homes playing bridge as part of warmer climate districts. At the beginning of July, those snowbirds are all back in their northern climate districts. So looking at this quarter's player numbers to last quarter's skews the membership numbers quite a bit (Florida, for example, in District 9, sees a huge drop in quarterly numbers this time of year.) A better comparison might be year-over-year figures, where you can at least see how each district is doing at the same point in the year and with the same players. That chart is on your left. It looks at each of the ACBL's 25 districts, and their year-over-year membership for the end of the second quarter in 2026 compared to one year earlier. As it turns out, the membership in our five-state D14 area has fallen -3.4% since last year at this time; but that is the second-best performing ACBL district of all 25 districts. Only District 1 (Eastern Canada) has better membership numbers than we do (at -2.0% Y-O-Y). With the entire ACBL membership down -6.0%, and D14's off -3.4%, bridge in the upper Midwest is doing ok. It would be great to have that be a positive number, of course! But the membership figures could be so much worse, and it's great to see that it's not just Minnesota's bridge that is doing well right now - but some of our neighboring states, too. |
 | Overall awards for the first two days of the STaC this week (that would be Monday + yesterday) were posted this morning, and already dozens of Minnesota players are getting sectionally-rated masterpoint awards at 25%G/25%R/25%S/25%B. Your Top 50 players players across the state are listed on the table to your left. A reminder that nothing's official until the ACBL says it is (there may be some late games reported, and if so these numbers will change) - also that you have all week to get in on the action. Check with your local club manager or director to see when they're running these STaC games through Sunday, and get playing! |
 | This dropoff in club tables hasn't taken place in outstate Minnesota clubs, but that might be expected as metro area players are a bit more. . .competitive. Plus, they're so local to the NABC, it's to be expected that more metro players played in the NABC than outstate - and might be looking to have taken a break this past week. It's not expected to be anything to carry on into the month of August, but it's an interesting after-effect of having the big tournament. If you play in the metro area and have noticed smaller games recently, it's not you. There's a good chance they are smaller, at least right now, and with reason. But don't expect these smaller games to last, especially with STaC week this week. |
 | If your club wants to run a game like this, you're in luck! The ACBL holds two of these each year, and there's a second one in 2026 coming up on October 21st. That's another Wednesday. Get your club director or manager to sign up to play the game, and then plan to attend and ka-CHING your way to masterpoints. Maybe even a gold point at your local club! |
| For those making hotel reservations, while there is a hotel rate for MEDCITY at the Best Western in Rochester, you can get a cheaper rate either by being a Best Western member (and getting the "member rate") or by getting their "long term rate". We're not sure why the hotel rate for the tournament itself is more expensive than other rates available to players, but that has also been the case with the hotel at the Minnesota Gopher tournament for the past few years. So "it's a thing." In any event - you've got seven weeks to go before the excitement unfolds. Partnerships for this tournament are being handled by John Ryder for the Open crowd (jhkeryder@yahoo.com) and by Connie Dalzell for the NLMs and 499ers (connie.partnership@gmail.com). |
 | It takes the ACBL a couple of days to get all of the results in before they issue the big money awards, so look for the official results for each day somewhere between 48 and 72 hours after the game. Oh - and have fun! |
When a foursome of non-life master players mid-week thought they were done for lunch - and got called back to be late to an eight-board Swiss teams match, they were penalized 12 IMPs (as is the rule). What they did not expect was one of their opponents sitting at their table berate them for being late until they were crying, belittling them as to "how stupid" they were, among other toxic claims. Bringing players to tears through bullying and insults is a horrible experience to have happen, at any time and any place in the game of bridge. That it happened at an NABC and to a team of non-Life Masters just made it that much worse. The ACBL is aware of the incident; confidentiality concerns will kick in now that the ACBL will be doing an investigation, so updates as to what happens next may not be available for publication. But this serves as a reminder that players everywhere should remember to be an advocate for bridge, especially when it comes to advancing players. One really bad experience, especially one as horrible and unwarranted as this one was, will drive players out of the game in a most unnecessary and especially negative fashion (especially for newer players). Thankfully most Minnesota players know better than to exhibit such behavior, but that the offender was a former Minnesotan makes the tournament hosts look bad, in addition to everything else. |
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      | There were five local players who became new Life Masters at the 2026 Summer NABC. The top row of photos, from left to right, are Rick Trachy [Golden Valley], Michael Wilson [Minneapolis], Lynn Schnettler [St Cloud], Marcia Figus [Shoreview], and Megan Murphy [Minneapolis]. Pretty exciting for these five, as it's great to have acheived this milestone, but even better at a tournament (and at an NABC in your hometown!). The bottom photo is the D14 Grand Nationals Team for Flight A that took the national title in the event. Left to right, that's Paul Gutterman [Eagan], Andy Caranicas [St Paul], Richard Lawson [Plymouth], Jackson Wahl [Minneapolis], and Charlie Carroll [St Paul]. Quite the wild ride for this five as they were never seriously threatened through most of the GNT competition - and had some great stories about the finals match to share (see post below). Among all of the NABC coverage on this blog during the 12-day event, we wanted to recognize one more time these players who won't forget the great time they had at the NABC held in Minneapolis. |
 | There are 285 players in Unit 103 that have qualified, with 208 players in Unit 178. And remember, although you only need to qualify once, these games provide mega-masterpoints at ½ red points - so they're not just fun to play in, but profitable (IYKWWM). Are you on the list of NAP Qualified players? You probably already know, but if you don't (or even if you do and would like to see your name in print), click here. |
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Sectional Thur August 13 Rochester | Sectional August 27-29 Roseville | REGIONAL Sep 14-19 Rochester | Sectional Sat October 10 St Cloud | Sectional October 22-24 St Paul | Sectional November 4-6 Duluth |
Here's the background: Your bridge unit is funded by two sources - tournament income and reimbursment from the ACBL of player dues. What (up until 2024) was 11% of player dues reimbursed to the units each quarter was dropped to 5%. There were additional sweeteners for recruiting and retaining players, including money for Units that cold-called players who have dropped out of the game. This was well intended, but the results have been disappointing (to say the least). Since the program was instituted two years ago, more than $370,000 has been "retained" by the ACBL that normally would have gone to individual bridge units (like Minnesota's Unit 103 and 178). Here is what has changed this year: the ACBL has dropped the cold-calling requirements by individual units of former players - and has re-configured their formula for getting money back to Units. Now, instead of 2.5% reimbursement for cold-calling and 2.5% reimbursment for retention performance, units are getting 5% for retention performance alone. In addition, the comparative figures the ACBL had been using were the 2019 Unit membership figures as a baseline. Those pre-COVID numbers won't likely be back, so the other change the ACBL has made is that retention numbers now are relative to the unit's current size. Is it helping? We don't know. They stopped publishing their quarterly data publicly, making it more difficult to compare units and performances. Not only that, the ACBL is now sending out an email to Unit Presidents with a link to "compare how you're doing with other Units." Click on the link in the email they send, and here's what you get: 
So now it's impossible to see how the various ACBL units are doing, and it's hard to make comparisons and look at hard figures when they're not available. We sent a note to the ACBL's I T Department on the bad link they provided, but they haven't responded in more than two weeks (if you're familiar with the ACBL's I T Department, you know this is not unusual). In any event, the change in how they're reimbursing units is something, and hopefully it is something that will work better. We'll see if and when they get around to publishing some information on it - and when they do (if they do), you'll see that information posted here. |
 | To your left is the final masterpoint award list for the locals; the top 100 are listed there. Whether you got a fraction of a point or a fraction of a thousand points, hopefully you had a good time while at the NABC. Congratulations to everyone on and off the list to your left. |
  | Twelve years later, she became the first female ACBL Life Master in Rochester, number #11345, and our guess is there was less and less time spent at the bowling alley. Below left is a series of photos of Carole at the bridge table in 1969.
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Our monthly deadline to get these calendars posted online is the 20th of the preceding month, but this month with the NABC we're a couple of days late. Hopefully not too late for you to schedule your bridge dates. Here are the latest bridge calendars around Minnesota clubs for August:        |
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 | The ACBL expected this to be a smaller affair; they told the Minnesota Bridge Blog back in May that they were expecting around 7,400 tables at our NABC. Beating this number by +7.2% isn't just a great result for our bridge community, but it shows that the strength of bridge in Minnesota isn't limited to our local clubs and tournaments. It's pretty universal. Not everyone has that sort of support, but we do here, and it's great to see that it was on display during this NABC. Here is hoping that the ACBL has taken notice. |
