Atlanta Club

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This page contains information about the Atlanta Club.

I played bridge for a couple of months as a teenager and restarted in February 2002 and joined the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). I became a Life Master on July 1, 2004 when I won the last required silver points (I also became a Bronze Life Master as I had almost 600 points). The black points were also the hardest for me to get as I did not play much at the club (reached the required 50 black point in June 2004). I am currently a Silver Life Master, certified director, accredited teacher and have won masterpoint restricted national events in both pairs and teams.

Atlanta Club

I have developed my own bidding system called Atlanta Club. This is a strong club system with first-round transfers. It is named after the city I live in. Click on the link for more details on the Atlanta Club system.

Using this system, my regular partner (Ed Foran) and I won the Sally Young Life Master Open Pairs at the Atlanta National tournament in July 2005. Our team also finished second in the Mini-Spingold II (0-1500) at the same tournament losing in the final by 32 IMPs. The following year in Chicago we finished 3rd in the Young Life Master Open Pairs and won the Mini-Spingold II (0-1500).

In 2006, we finished second in the Victor Daly KO, this was the main team event in the 2006 ABA Summer National in Atlanta.

I have also had good success with this system with other partners. Unfortunately, with relatively few masterpoints, it is hard to get into Bracket 1 of the Knock-Outs and play against the "big boys". The only opportunity is at National events and some regionals. Fortunately, Atlanta's regional has the Lou Bluhm KO event - this is unbracketed. The last couple of years, I have reached the semi-final playing the Atlanta Club with Delysia Ashwood. We have been the only people living in Georgia to reach the semi-finals. We lost both times. First time to Berkowitz/Cohen and the second time to Meckstroth/Rodwell. I think Bridge is the only sport where you have a realistic chance of playing against the best in the world. In order to reach the semi-finals we had to beat teams with players that had over 20,000+ masterpoints.

Chicago Mini-Spingold (0-1500) Final 28 Boards

This is my first hand account of the final 28 boards of the Mini-Spingold (aka "Micro-Spingold") from Chicago in 2006.

Directing

I am an ACBL certified director.

Teacher

I am an ACBL accredited teacher. I used to teach bridge as part of an after-school program at a local school. My students were typically 8-11 years old. After 8-12 lessons (varies depending on the time of year I teach), we take on the staff in a tournament. Apparently kids this young should not be picking up the game this quickly... Some of the kids have then played in ACBL events.

I also teach adult lessons in the Atlanta area.

Masterpoints

I now track these on a separate page.

Last updated: June 9, 2019