Pittsburgh Roni Regional

The Pittsburgh Regional hosted 345 tables, and awarded 2,423 masterpoints to 250 players. Many thanks to the directors and the tournament team: Ron Franck, the Tournament Coordinator, June Threlkeld and Robyn Fennell, the Partnership Desk Chairs, and the many volunteers. Please complete the survey to help up plan future Regionals.

Hoover & Sokalski Win Thursday Open Pairs

There were many great performances at the Regional by Pittsburgh Bridge Association players. One of the most impressive was Dustin Hoover and Karl Sokalski's dominating victory in the Thursday Open Pairs.

One of the joys of bridge is seeing your partnership agreements produce great results at the bridge table. Karl and Dustin have crafted their own version of Precision. They are often asked who to defend against a strong club opening. They advise using the Truscott Defense. On Board 12 of Thursday's 2nd session, they used the Truscott Defense over a strong 2♣ opening. After West opened 2♣, Dustin, sitting North, overcalled 2♥ showing the majors. East bid 2NT' and Karl risked advancing the inference to 3♥ at unfavorable vulnerability. When East-West stopped in 3NT, Karl and Dustin won 88% of the matchpoints.

Karl and Dustin won 1st place in A, B, and C. The 29.31 gold point award pushed Karl over 1,000 masterpoints, earning Karl the rank of Silver Life Master. Karl is the Club Manager and Director at Rodef Shalom. Dustin is the Club Manager and Director at the Edgeworth Club. Congratulations to Dustin and Karl on their win, and thanks for all they do for the bridge community.

Saturday Morning 99er Game at Glenshaw

The Glenshaw Duplicate Club is offering a 99er game at 11 AM on the first Saturday of each Month, The game is held at the Glenshaw Valley Presbyterian Church, 1520 Butler Plank Rd.

Just $4 for ACBL Members!

Gus Costanzo will teach a free 15-minute mini lesson before the game starts.
Pre-registration and details are available with: George (412-414-5046) or Jo-Anne Krevy (412-983-0179). They will compile an email list of players to provide timely reminders about the game and notices of special changes.
Partnerships can be arranged through Gus Costanzo (412) 519-8450.

Both players in the partnership must have fewer than 99 masterpoints.

If there is a regular game running at the same time, the 99er field “will not” be merged into that game. The game will consist of 20 or 21 hands being played. So expect to finish between 2 to 2:30 pm.

Free Guest Membership

Teachers Meeting at the Regional

Bill Holt, Unit 142 VP and Education Chair, held a teachers meeting after Thursday's game at the Regional. Bill reviewed the Pittsburgh Bridge Association's Free Play for Students program, and distributed free play tickets for teachers to give students. Bill then reviewed the incentive bonuses which teachers and clubs receive when a student uses all 5 free plays within 90 days. The incentives are designed to encourage clubs to offer a welcoming environment, and to encourage teachers to help their students begin playing at clubs.

David Loeb, co-founder of the Bridge for Brain Health a 501(c)(3) charity which uses bridge to promote cognitive health, gave a presentation on the ACBL's Sapphire program. The ACBL issue Sapphire awards to students to recognize progress and encourage taking the next steps on their bridge journey. David discussed how teachers can use Sapphires to provide timely and appropriate encouragement to their students. David then discussed how critical marketing and lead management are to recruiting new bridge players. Bridge for Brain Health uses their Joy of Bridge DBA to market bridge to new players and uses their Customer Relationship Management system to qualify leads, and funnel students to teachers. David encouraged teachers to take advantage of Bridge for Brain Health's offer to run free social media advertising for their classes and use Customer Relationship Management system to fill up their classes.

Sapphire & Joy of Bridge Presentation

Education

The Pittsburgh area is fortunate to have many excellent bridge teachers. Please visit the Unit's Lessons page for details. Here are some quick links to classes.

Supervised play at Glenshaw [learn more]
Lorraine Hanna's lessons at the Treesdale Community Center [learn more]
Lessons & supervised play in Mt. Lebanon [learn more]
Expert online lessons from Richard Finberg [learn more]
Beginner lessons at LaRoche College [learn more]
Chris Rasmussen offers lessons at the Monroeville Library [learn more]
Free Beginner lessons at the Mt. Lebanon Library starting October 8th. Click here to register. The lessons use Bridge War to get students playing immediately and learning how to take tricks.
David Loeb's 2/1 Game Force lessons on Thursdays beginning October 9th in Bridgeville. Click here for an overview of the lesson series. Click here to register.