Stories – Page 40 – ACBL District 4

Debbie Schenkel – Life Master

I felt like the day would never arrive because I had difficulty with Covid and no F2F bridge to obtain my red points. I had amassed all my silver and gold and over 670 master points but the red points eluded me until my partner and I played in the latest ACBL regional event.

I have been incredibly fortunate! I never wanted to learn the game — my son started playing in middle school because he took intermittent lessons with my aunt, the bridge teacher. He played throughout high school with my mom and any willing senior citizen in the Lehigh Valley (I lived there until 2015 when I moved back to DE to help my mom).

I started beginner bridge lessons in September 2015 at the request of my mom and fell in love with the game! I took my bridge notes wherever I went and studied them repeatedly. I had only finished my first basic beginner bridge lessons when my mom’s partner fell and broke her hip. She needed me to partner her in the Bridge Studio open game, and I had to dive into the deep end of the pool! It was a terrifying, and the top players loved doubling my contracts.

I would email Alexis Ciconte (my teacher) hands after every game and she would email back how I should have bid the hand. On the rare days when I didn’t email her, she would inquire why I didn’t have questions!!

The Bridge Studio had a fabulous mentoring program in the summers and I took advantage of that as well. Wow! How terrific was that?

I played online (like everyone else) throughout Covid, and tried to support both my local club, The Bridge Studio, as well as Valley Forge Bridge Club where I also played F2F pre-pandemic. Dave LeGrow has been another incredible mentor.

So now my focus is trying to support The Bridge Studio (and Valley Forge) as they struggle to keep their doors open. I am frankly nonplussed by the lackluster response by my fellow bridge players. I expected a stampede of players, newly vaccinated, to return to play in person. I’m very disappointed and worried about the future because if our local clubs have to close, who will host the sectionals and regionals? Do people realize they will have no other form of bridge other than online?

Edward Kung – Gold Life Master

During World War II, I was in Chungking, China. A family friend lived with us. He had a guitar and a bridge book by Eli Culbertson. I learned Stephen Foster’s songs and how to play bridge the Culbertson way. I was about ten years old.

In the sixties I worked in the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation’s Research Laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and joined its bridge team competing in the Industrial League. I was fortunate to have the director of the game as my partner. He bid Goren’s way. So I memorized Goren’s book and shied away from Kaplan Sheinwold.

I resumed playing bridge about ten years ago in Philadelphia. I learned from David Rose of the Bridge Club of Center City. After I started playing steadily with Bill Schlaepfer and Janet Johnson, we took lessons from Corey Krantz. I have read a lot of bridge books and am still taking lessons from Corey.

Wayne Rosenberger has been another partner. He converted to Precision a couple of years ago. I learned to play Precision with him. That has been fun.

Needless to say, I have made a lot of friends playing bridge and have enjoyed it immensely. Above is a photo of me with my partners (Janet, Bill, Wayne), enjoying Chinese dim sum.

Joan Goldstein – Ruby Life Master

I’m very grateful to the ACBL and BBO for the organized online games they were able to provide to the bridge playing community. It was an enormous software achievement and a real sanity saver! The retired techie in me marvels at the number of games and players simultaneously on line at any given time, and at the efficiency and accuracy of the systems.

The virtual clubs with their chat boxes were a delight. “One spade, how is your hip replacement? Two hearts, did you get Pfizer or Moderna?” filled many an afternoon.

During the pandemic lockdowns, I often found that I was unable to concentrate on a book or movie, but always enjoyed playing bridge online. Whether some of my results indicated the ability to concentrate on the bridge is an open question, but eventually the late-night fractions (while yelling at the robot) totaled enough to reach Ruby status.

Looking forward to the return of face-to-face tournaments!

Lyn Widmyer – Life Master

I began my quest for Life Master in October 1987. That is the date on my Junior Master certificate from ACBL congratulating me on earning my first master point.

It has taken 34 years but I have finally achieved the lofty status of Life Master. Marriage, children and commuting to work 3 hours a day all interfered with bridge. Retirement in 2013 allowed me to restart my pursuit in earnest.

Here is my advice for anyone seeking to become a Life Master.

Be patient. Ignore stories about wonder kids who become Life Masters before they start kindergarten. I think it’s more amazing that people my age (73) become life masters. Sometimes I forget how many trump are out. I forget conventions mid-play. The key is not to get discouraged when you go down 3 and other declarers make overtricks. Just keep on playing.

Spend money. Playing on line has been the silver lining to the covid cloud. Over the past 18 months I have spent hundreds of dollars to play in virtual games. Based on the number of master points I earned, I calculate each point cost me roughly $8.00. This is less than the price of two large coffee lattes at Starbucks so I think it’s a bargain.

Make friends with Life Masters. I have found the willingness of Life Masters to play with me in my quest very touching. I am not that expert a player, quite honestly, as the price I am paying for master points clearly indicates. I rely on partners far better than me to earn points. Before covid, Life Masters at the Martinsburg WV Club helped me earn gold and silver (Jeff Stead, Frank Doub, Ellen and Lew Maddock and Betsy Faith). The Martinsburg Club did not host virtual games during the covid era. That is when I discovered the Dick Bowers Club in Winchester and some very supportive Life Masters. Claudia Reppert, Brian Leonard and Bill Grewe all partnered with me and took me to the finish line.

I would have to live to be 110 and come into a lot of money to become a Bronze Life Master. No problem. I am more than happy to play for fun rather than points.

Dennis Wick – Emerald Life Master

I want to thank the over 400 partners that I have played with over the 20 years of playing bridge. A special thanks to the pros with their seminars. Eric, Jeff, Chris, the late Bruce Reeves, Jerry, Chuck and Jade. A thank you to Curtis, Kevin and Pepsi. Also Charity Sack giving me her mother’s 2 pages on bidding. She said that I needed help. I handed those 2 pages out to over 400 people. They were a great resource.

I went to my first tournament with 105 points and no partners. I got lucky and was on 3 winning knockout teams. What’s so difficult about bridge?

It’s been a beautiful and memorable ride for a poor Michigan farm boy. My education for 6 years was in a 1 room country school. We rode a bicycle 1 1/2 miles to school every day.

My mentors at Central Michigan University helped me get where I am today. Just be happy, play bridge, dance a lot and live life to the fullest.

I retired in 1997 after 30 years of teaching and am a military veteran. I was the first on both sides of my family to go to college.

Thank you every one.

Jacqualyn James – Ruby Life Master

Duplicate Bridge has been a challenging, rewarding, and interesting journey. I live in the part of the country where duplicate players are few and most games are small. Nevertheless I studied and traveled to acquire the colored points needed. Then one of my favorite partners moved to another state; two of my regular partners passed away. As I tried to moved along the ranks it seemed hopeless to consider a new status.

I had decided to just stop playing bridge about the time the the Pandemic invaded our world. Games were over. A friend in Florida tried to persuade me to join Bridge Base Online. Many years ago I had ventured into that strange world, but found it to be very unfriendly so declined. My Florida friend continued to pester me and said we could partner even though we were miles apart. I finally gave BBO a try. I told my friends that I would never be able to reach the next level.

As I wandered through the steps of learning how to deal with this new concept, I found it very interesting to play with new partners!! Partners far away! I even played with my cousin in California who is a beginner. I am amazed how ACBL and BBO have worked diligently to make our bridge games work. I now have two very good partners (friends?) I’ve never seen. As I became more comfortable with this new scenario, I began to gather a few points. A new partner and I played in the recent week long tournament and we found the points I needed to be a a Ruby Life Master.

Life is good.

4 THE LOVE OF BRIDGE

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