Thanks for your letter, I forwarded it to my several regular partners and to the directors of the three duplicate Bridge clubs who host the games for about 30 to 50 players here in Atlantic and Cape May counties. They brought me into the ACBL in March 2017 after years of playing Bridge during childhood (in my family, then as a college student, all pre-duplicate games) and as a Spades addict in the Army in Vietnam in my twenties. It was a whole new experience both for the challenge of learning to play better and for the pleasure of making friends with so many people with their breadth of life experiences.

I was working up through COVID (Martin de Bruin kept us busy online) and until I retired at the end of’23. I had squeezed in several tournaments and slowly helped my regular partner Larry Gash get his Life and Bronze Life Master on the same day with the few gold points that we finally won at Rehoboth in’24.

Dozens of people partnered with me (Vinny Freaney mainly in the summer when he came north). My opponents in the games as well as my partners were all helping each to up our game. All our clubs have a positive culture as led by the directors: Martin, Karen Sylvester, and Mike Bruno and by our expert players.

Since retirement I’ve been free to play face-to-face from 3 to 5 times a week. Attaining this new rank is a reflection on the pleasure these games with these players have given me.

I would never have reached the goal of Sectional Master w/o your patience.  Thank you for your guidance.    Without bridge I would be like a boat without a rudder.  In my journey though life I’ve finally reached the challenge of the ‘golden years’.  Age and  physical maladies have caught up with me and removed my ability to be independent and physically active.  Bridge has been my rock, providing me with something ‘competitive’ to keep my mind functioning.

I am recently retired from my Federal Service government job of 45 years in April 2025.  In May of 2025 I started playing bridge at Game Friendzy in Cherry Hill. What a great decision that was to begin playing at Game Friendzy! I have attended several entry level training classes in bidding, playing, defending, carding and scoring of the hands.

The willingness to teach and train of the directors Bernadette Hennessy, Cliff Sokolic, Bruce Pedretti and all the club members has been awesome for my bridge advancement.  With so much to learn.

I have played at several District 4 locations along with NABC Tournament in Philadelphia this past summer.  Always with a challenging, learning and humbling experience.

My Masterpoint accumulation has always been secondary to my learning priority.  I have accumulated this milestone with many different partners, who always give instruction and accolades where warranted.

This has been the best decision to involve myself with ACBL District 4 Game Friendzy Bridge Club.  What a great experience this has been socially and mentally for me!