My journey on achieving this milestone of Silver Life Master has given me a sense of self accomplishment and is very rewarding. I have been a member of the Harrisburg Bridge Club for many years and have enjoyed the friendships made. Fellow players have been helpful and supportive while I was working towards this goal. I love the atmosphere of competitive bridge, the welcoming environment and the encouragement of fellow players.
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Walt Woerheide – NABC Master
I learned bridge from my parents in my early teens. I played at a local duplicate studio in high school. One of the regulars at that studio was Oswald Jacoby. A friend told me that when I play him, I should always win the bid, as he was not that good atdefense!! I did not play again for about 15 years, at which time I played for about three or four years between my two marriages.
Although I occasionally played socially over the next 40 years, I did not restart duplicate until I moved to Hershey’s Mill in 2021. At that time, I had about sixty-five masterpoints. I now play socially with my wife here at The Mill, and I play duplicate at Hershey’s Mill, Aronimink, and Waynesboro country clubs, along with an occasional sectional or regional tournament. I earn about fifty points a year. I do not plan to play any more often, as my wife assures me that I am already playing too much.
I have four different regular partners for the four regular weekly games I attend. I gladly play with others when a regular partner is not available and have played with over twenty different people in the last few years. I usually learn something from each different partner with whom I play. Finally, as a retired college professor who published multiple books and articles, I have combined my two passions of technical writing and bridge. I write a bridge column that appears in the monthly magazine that is distributed to over 1700 households here at The Mill.
I am happy with the services provided by District 4.
Judy Cohen – Life Master
Bridge is my number 1 passion in life (after the welfare of my family). I started playing duplicate bridge in a beginner’s game at my local club almost 15 years ago. My first tournament was a regional one in Cherry Hill in a venue that no longer exists. My partner and I were entered in an “under 5 points” category. We won and I still have the glass that was embossed with Winner! District 4 Regional.
We rarely went to tournaments because my partner had no interest in traveling for bridge. I received a sprinkling of red and silver points, mostly through STaC games at our local club. When COVID hit, my partner did not want to play online so I found a partner who was interested in doing so. We clicked, studied our game together, and took a few sets of lessons once COVID was over. We became more serious players, discussing the hands we played each week once they appeared online. We also began traveling to District 4 tournaments and discovered that we enjoy the camaraderie and the competition. In my most recent tournament in Rehoboth Beach, I became a Life Master. Now I would like to help my partner achieve this goal as well.
Mike Spitulnik – Sapphire Life Master
I took up the game while in my 30’s, am self taught and have played almost exclusively in club games for the past 50 years. I have been the Ace of Clubs many times, but have fewer than 45 gold points and have been fortunate in that rankings above Life Master have been “grandfathered.” About 3100 of my 3500 points are black points, and most of the remaining 400 points were also won at club games.
I mentioned that I am self taught and I’ll share with you a story that I still enjoy telling. I learned to play from a book by Charles Goren. The book was structured so that you were given a lesson and at the bottom of the page was a question with multiple choice answers. Each answer required you to go to a different page in the book. If you selected the right answer, the new page gave you the next lesson. If you selected a wrong answer, you were told to go back and retake the lesson. The lesson on page one was, “A bridge deck is 52 cards, 13 cards in each of 4 suits.” The question was, “What is a bridge deck?” and the there were 2 choices for answers, one of them being, “A bridge deck is 52 cards plus 2 Jokers.” This is nonsense, I thought and turned to page 2. There in huge letters was, “YOU DID NOT FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. GO BACK TO PAGE ONE AND RETAKE THE LESSON.” From this, I learned that in bridge, expect to be criticized on occasion, but learn from your mistakes.
Sharon Durr – Silver Life Master
Here’s to the Persistent & Undaunted!To put it succinctly my ACBL accomplishments have been achieved in a round-about manner.
We’ve lived in Houston, TX, Sarasota, FL, and Ithaca, NY, and in all those places I’ve been lucky enough to find kind partners with patience, willingness to learn, and good humor (though have had some tearful moments). I’ve also played at Clubs in Amsterdam, and London, and appreciate the portability of the game.
The love of the game, the willingness to take the bruises of failure, and to indulge my passion for figuring things out are what has gotten me to this point. I do love the challenge, and especially appreciate the camaraderie our Club in Ithaca offers.
I offer my thanks to all with whom I’ve played, particularly Ann, Diane, Betty, Marcia, and Janelle. I’ve learned from them, and with them.
Nancy Steele – Gold Life Master
In the fall of 2002 I was still working full time and was looking for people to play bridge with one evening a week. I learned about a game at Rehoboth Beach Country Club on Thursday nights and when I went there, I had the great fortune of meeting Dini Romito, ambassador extraordinaire for the game of bridge. I had never heard of the ACBL and knew nothing about conventions like transfers, negative doubles and weak two bids. I was a “kitchen table” player, aware of Stayman and Blackwood and little else. But Dini encouraged me, introduced me to serious duplicate play and was a fabulous mentor. I earned a little over 5 masterpoints that year and began taking lessons.
Most importantly, I met a lot of terrific people who also liked bridge and wanted to improve their skills. I also found experienced players who were willing to share their knowledge and expertise. Over the years many players helped me get masterpoints and I want to thank all of them. I’m reluctant to try to name them because I’m sure I will leave someone out–but you know who you are! I do want to give a special shout-out to Jane Myers, the partner I’ve played with the longest and the most and the person with whom I qualified to go to NAP games at Nationals a couple of times when we were in the top 3 pairs in our District 4 flights.
I began playing bridge more frequently in retirement and I must say that during the years of the pandemic BBO online bridge had been a lifeline for me. I got to “socialize” with my various partners and I had something to look forward to on a regular basis. I honestly didn’t think I would ever live long enough to get 2500 masterpoints but it happened and I had a lot of fun along the way!