ACBL District 3 - Stories of Players

Hope Sheehan

Just 3.5 measly gold points lay between my partner and a Life Master status. Surely, we could do something about that. So last July, we headed to Finger lakes for the tournament. Well, we did earn 3 gold points, but it was my status, not hers, that was lifted a level. I can’t remember what level mine is; probably the ‘SMTMM’ grade - ‘Still Making Too Many Mistakes.’
Anyway, I received congratulations from the ACBL as well as an invite from a regional official to “tell my bridge story.”
It is likely evident by now that I am indifferent to my point accumulation. However, surprisingly, my late-in-life bridge learning has turned out to be such a profound transformation to my soul, that in amazement and gratitude I will share my story with you.
Around 2011, my joy at playing racquetball at the advanced level disintegrated. The league was dissolved and after that the men wouldn’t play with me if they didn’t have to. So just like that, poof, a lifelong pleasure vanished.
My competitive spirit yearned for a new challenge. Yet to spare myself the trauma of further loss, I stipulated that in my new venture, I must never hear either of the following phrases; “ You’re too old,” or “You’re a female.”
Enter bridge with its plethora of mature female players.
My story now travels back to my childhood in the 1950's and a pattern of life as you will see that poorly equipped me for learning to play bridge.
When I was a small child, everyday was tense with worry and apprehension. I lived hourly with a clenched stomach and a tight bum, dreading the daily blows; many of these bare-bottom blows delivered for being lazy and stupid. My brain chose to escape this misery. Subsequently, massive distract ability and a poor memory set in. You can understand how this circumstance of feeling fearful and stupid, suffering a poor memory and always being “mentally elsewhere” left me only a precarious basis upon which to learn.
On becoming a adult, I was drawn to playing cards yet continually baffled as to how some people just ‘knew’ where the cards were. I wanted to be one of them. So, when racquetball disappeared, I determined to play bridge.

At the time, I was 58 years old, yet my age didn’t turn out to be the biggest impediment. Instead, even after a lifetime of therapy and recovery my brain and heart were still spiritually scarred, unknown to me. I was completely unprepared then for the soul-healing journey that lay ahead of me.
Who would have guessed that learning to play the game of bridge would finally set my heart free?

August 5, 2026

Kim Gimblette

This achievement was a journey!

I think back to 2016 when I first started taking bridge lessons at the Jersey Bridge Club in West Long Branch. With several classes under my belt, I was encouraged to play in mentored games before playing in limited sanctioned games. When I won my first 0.21 MPs in 2017, I was hooked. However, I do remember joking with my partner at the time that I wouldn’t live long enough to become a Life Master! She and I would often meet for lunch prior to class to discuss what we had learned the week before.

Over the years, I continued taking classes. At times the material was either over my head or I wasn’t able to absorb all the information immediately. Reading bridge books and the Bridge Bulletin were other ways to acquire information. Recommending a slightly more straightforward strategy, my husband, John (who was also a bridge player), encouraged me to “just play.” So, I would bring home hand records and reconstruct the hands, seeing if I could make more sense of how teams bid their contracts.

Then Covid hit! No more face-to-face bridge! I asked my bridge teacher for contact information of suitable partners so I could play online. In this way, I met several wonderful people with whom I still play. I also started playing with my husband (always in separate rooms as per BBO rules), who became my “live-in mentor.” I could ask John a question any day and at any time. Fortunately, he was very patient with me.

After Covid, I started playing within my living community as we had a weekly sanctioned game, but that took a lot of encouragement since it was an open game. I much preferred playing in limited games against players with similar masterpoint totals. I also started traveling to outside bridge clubs and tournaments. Who knew this could be so much fun? I met so many wonderful opponents, some who would eventually become partners in team events.

Advice to newer players: don’t just collect black points. Go for the pigmented points! Play against stronger players who will “up your game.”

My final point requirement for Life Master was 1.5 gold points. I laugh that I traveled to Canada to achieve that goal!

Do I have further goals? I’m less concerned about attaining another rank. I just want to play smart, not make rookie errors, increase my knowledge, recognize when to use different conventions that will communicate best with my partner, and try to win those overtricks.

Many thanks to so many people over the years—Julie Anderson, Lynn Chapin, partners and opponents at JBC, Little Silver, and Spring Lake (you know who you are)—who suffered along with me, encouraged me, and celebrated with me!

The only bittersweet moment is that John didn’t live long enough to see what his encouragement and patience provided.

July 24, 2026

Bill Levy

I learned to play bridge commuting on the Long Island Railroad. After watching guys play for months, I was asked to fill in when they needed a fourth. The players would pull down the large heavy paper advertisements as "tables" and sit in the facing seats that most people avoided. Occasionally, there was a fifth player, which resulted in rotation of parters and often considerable confusion. For example, a player would bid his opponents' suit and it was not a convention. Or, he might double his partner. Anyway, the stakes were high, a dollar for the hour-long rubber games. Late trains were welcomed as opportunities to play more hands.

Eventually, one of the best players, who played Big Club back in the 70's, brought me to a bridge club. As a result, I joined the ACBL. In the 80's, I moved to Metuchen, NJ and learned that a neighbor, Richard Helfman, played house bridge with friends. We started playing in the Scotch Plains Club, located in the First Presbyterean church. We've been partners for roughly 40 years. Over the years, we've traveled to regionals in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, as well as many in New Jersey. Now home is in Somerset and I have taught the game to groups of residents in my community.

June 18, 2026

Mark Kaplan

I have been playing bridge for a long time - my mom taught me the game in junior high since I was very good at math but a bit impulsive, and she said bridge is a game where you have to stop and think before acting (I don't know if it's helped!). I became active in my bridge club in high school, played occasionally in college and then regularly in graduate school and started earning master points. But then having children and a pesky day job got in the way of my bridge game. Now as an empty nester I have been able to play a little bit more regularly, both at the table and online. There is still that pesky day job, but I look forward to playing a lot more in retirement. If there's one thing that can improve, it's more live weekend and night games for working people.

As bridge is a partnership game, I must thank two of my regular bridge partners from other the years - Mai Zhang and Keith Burdick - as well as my mom, for turning me on to this wonderful game, being my occasional partner (NABC 2025 Philly, attached) and of course being my mom.

June 8, 2026

Steve Berkowitz

I grew up in a family where card games were part of everyday life, and I learned to play bridge at a young age. The game quickly became something I loved, and I continued playing through high school, college, and even competitively in my early twenties. Then, as happens for many of us, life got busy and bridge slowly took a back seat. 😉

About two years ago, after retiring, I found my way back to the game. It didn’t take long to realize that bridge had changed quite a bit in the 40 years since I last played. Concepts like 5-card majors, 15–17 no trump openings, and modern bidding conventions were completely different from what I had learned years ago.

These days, I play socially at two different clubs here in Central New Jersey, usually with random partners. While I’m definitely improving just by playing regularly, I’ve realized that bidding — and truly understanding the logic behind the bidding — is where I need the most help. To keep learning, I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos and working through Audrey Grant books, which have been incredibly helpful.

I also play almost every day on the ACBL Shark Bridge site, and I assume that’s where I’ve accumulated most of my points. Beyond that, I try to join Planet Bridge lessons whenever I can, although the West Coast timing can make it difficult. I also enjoy playing social games online with Play Better Bridge.

Most of all, I simply love the game and hope to continue improving and learning. At the same time, I’ll admit I’m still somewhat clueless about what all the various points and rankings actually mean. I also hear people talking about things like “The Common Game,” and honestly, I have no idea what that is either!

May 12, 2026

Anne Bendell

Although I have been playing for many years, I did not take it seriously until 3-4 yrs ago. I actually thought “Life Master” was IT the top. Now I know it's just the FIRST steppingstone. Pre-Covid id shows up at the club, early, for lavish lunches and bridge conversation. That feels like soo long ago… Now the juniors get bagels, cookies and sometimes a home baked cake (still nice).

I always enjoyed the camaraderie of directors and players despite the fierce competition. I just LOVE the game both online and F2F . I am proud of this achievement.
I encourage young and old alike to take the challenge. It's worth it.

April 24, 2026

Sen-Yuan Wu

I learned to play bridge when I was a college student in Taiwan. I came to U.S. for graduate study in the 1980s. In 1985, a fellow graduate student brought me to an ACBL local club in Long Island, NY. That was the first time I learned about ACBL and the Master Points system.
I am not an avid player of ACBL-sanctioned events and earn most of my Master Points from tournaments that’s why the majority of my MPs are gold, red or silver and it took me 40 years to cumulate 300 MPs. Since I prefer team competitions that is only available at sectional or regional tournaments and such events were held near me infrequently, my opportunities to earn MPs are limited. Besides, to persuade 4 available players to form a team at a specific date was not an easy task.
All my team members are local Chinese American players with few MPs. Yet, we did well in tournaments. We enjoyed the stratified Swiss team events the most while we loath the bracketed round robin team events. In latter events, we can only compete with teams with less or equal MPs and earn scant MPS if we win. In comparison, the Swiss team events provide opportunities for us to challenge teams with higher MPS and win richer awards of MPs if we win.
I had 287 MPs by 2019. I thought I would become a Life Master in 2020 or 2021 at the latest. However, the Covid-19 disrupted my plan. Although the ACBL resumed face-to-face games in 2022, our team members had undergone health issues or life event changes during these years. Finally, I went back to playing in local club in 2025 and accumulated the needed 13 more MPS by March 2026. In addition, I am glad that my team played together again in a sectional tournament in late March, for the first time since 2019!
My advice to new players is that if you have a good partner and teammates and are willing to travel to tournaments, you will accumulate MPS rapidly, much faster than the slow way I did.

April 11, 2026

Robert & Chantal Frantzen

During a very rainy summer vacation in Maine in 1960, with nothing to do, my parents insisted that my sister and I learn the game of bridge, we were 12 & 13 years old. After that, we occasionally were asked to sit in during social games at our house. I played in my first bridge tournament in Heidelberg, Germany, when I was in the Army, 1971. And we played social bridge when I lived in France with my wife’s parents.
We really got into this wonderful game after I retired, when my wife Chantal and I started playing duplicate bridge. My sister, also a bridge player, insisted on playing with us at tournaments, taking bridge cruises, and traveling around the United States to various duplicate bridge games. And we play regularly at Bill’s Bridge in Princeton, NJ.
As you know, the more points you get, the harder it is. I think duplicate bridge is the only game where you can play against the best players in the United States. The competition to get those points certainly got tougher. We were only missing a few silver points but for the longest time. To get them, we really had to work at it. Finally, at a Sectional game in Cherry Hill, we got our points!! And it's been a lot to fun to get them.

April 8, 2026

Peter Stein

Started playing in my 20s in NYC but didn’t really get serious til my 40s when II met so better players from my Unit (Like Rich Ross and Steve Arshan)
Got really serious when I semi-retired at 60.= and started getting 500+ MPs a year w iht a lot of Online play

Mainly a slog so gets my 100 platinum points - 3rd in Flight A GNT in 2017 and 1st in0-10K Swiss in 2018 helped a lot and finally went over 100 in St Louis finishing 19th in Silver Ribbon playing with Carole Weinstein someone I met online!

As o question what Unit/District can do I think we need to try to encourage the Intermediate players to want to play more competitive bridge.

It just seems like people don't want to come to tournaments anymore - I frankly don't know how to this - we somehow need to help people appreciate what a wonderful game this is!

April 8, 2026

Komal Kamat

I want to take a moment to thank the partners, mentors, teachers, and bridge writers who have supported me in reaching this next milestone in my bridge journey. There is truly no substitute for the hours spent studying, working hard, and honestly evaluating my own weaknesses to find ways to improve. I’ve learned that playing against tougher competition is the surest way to expose those gaps, and having a more experienced partner has opened my mind to new layers of the game I hadn't yet realized. I am still a student of the game, and I look forward to achieving many more milestones in the future.

February 10, 2026

John Templin

I was pleased to earn Life Master status at our district regional tournament in Suffern. I had hoped to achieve the rank at the national in Philadelphia but came up short. I went to the regional hoping to earn the last 5.3 gold points needed to advance. I was fortunate that the partnership desk matched me with three excellent partners. By the end of day 2 I met my goal. Over the five days I gathered 15 gold master points.

My bridge journey was somewhat typical. I played a little in college more than 65 years ago. With a wife and six children I did not play as a working adult. I did read the bridge column in the newspaper. My wife passed in 2013 and I began to look for something beyond golf. In early 2106 I was visiting a friend in Williamsburg and saw a copy of the Bridge Bulletin on her coffee table. I leaved through it and saw where I could contact a club director back home. I did so and found a Friday game less than two miles from home. I called the director - Terry Bentley and she invited me to her game. I was hooked and started to play twice a week. Three years later I attended a sectional and won three trophies for under 299. Covid hit and my local game was cancelled. The closest game was now more than 20 miles away so I began playing online.

In 2023 I was asked to become VP of unit 115 Capital District. In 2024 I became unit president. Awarding a special coffee mug to new life masters at our annual awards ceremony made me more interested in becoming a Life Master. Being retired gave me the time to pursue the goal. Success was sweet at the regional.

February 9, 2026

James Keller

It's taken me 11 years to make the new ranking. I moved to the Capital Region in November 2014. I joined Lynn's bridge club in January 2015 and was paired up with Peter Danziger. Our successful partnership evolved into a deep friendship. Tragically, Peter died of cancer after five years. When covid struck I moved on to the internet to play bridge and continue to this day.

I was unable to find a regular partner. The last 5 years have been challenging as I tried to make it to the next ACBL level which I achieved last month. I'm 77 years old now and I don't think I will make it to the next level given the difficulty of needing substantial gold and silver points which are only offered infrequently. I really can't drive to tournaments of any distance. But, I will try my best online to get to
the next level.

Bridge has been a wonderful experience for me and I encourage others to continue to play or take up the game.

January 15, 2026

Alex Hallenstein

I guess my bridge journey began some 75 plus years ago when I would watch my parents play living room "auction" bridge on
Saturday evenings with friends. I was less than 10 but had an eye for cards and quickly understood the game. In high school I would read the weekly Sports Illustrated magazine and first read Charles Goren's weekly article as I decided that Bridge was a sport not a game!!! In college I would watch others play contract bridge during class breaks and soon learned enough to sit in and was
playing late into the night learning all the wrong things!

During my 4 years of undergraduate study, I had learned enough to begin to become competitive in local sanctioned duplicate games and occasional sectionals in the Western New England area. This area was the hotbed for a system called Kushner NT which I learned with several other newbies with one of the founders. Unfortunately, the system became quickly antiquated as canape bids were not allowed so Americans could deal with the Italians. I continued playing sanctioned duplicate during 2 years of Graduate School while earning my MSW. During the following year, I met the woman who would become my wife a year later through mutual friends at a social bridge game. She never really got the bridge bug and other than an occasional social game, bridge never became part of our 58 year marriage.

As my professional career began in Jewish Community Centers and my family life began to mature, my bridge life went on vacation. Other than an occasional social bridge game or as a fill -in at a JCC sanctioned or non sanctioed game, my bridge activity was limited to the ACBL monthly magazine, daily newspaper bridge columns and some kibutzing. After about 40 years I was able to create enough time to begin playing in sanctioned games on a regular basis with several partners and periodic sectional and regional excursions. I began accumulating enough MP's to look forward to earning new bridge levels of achievement. I tried to become more active in our local Shelley Studio of Bridge and Games in Schenectady NY and was asked to help with running this wonderful bridge facility.

Since retiring in 2009, I played regularly both in our NY sectional area, and in the southern Palm Beach FL area where my wife and I wintered until the Pandemic in 2020. I finally learned to play in the BBO games which are easy to get used to but do not offer the same social and learning experience of FTF bridge. I am now back to playing 4 or so times per week in person along with 4 or 5 BBO games weekly.

While I doubt whether I will reach the next level of bridge achievement, The three or so ftf games and the three or so online games weekly are so important to my total life experience.

I feel that Bridge has been a major component of my life, aided my mental acuity, helped me make many new friends and given me goals which are crucial as we grow older.

I sincerely hope that more folks return to FTF games and that more younger folds move from computer challenges to bridge.

December 28, 2025

Christopher Jobin

I learned bridge as a 12-year-old in 1980 kibitzing my family playing rubber bridge until 2 am in Mount Vernon and Yonkers (even on weeknights).

Family members included dad, ACBL member Dennis Jobin, and my late Aunt ACBL member Pamela Humbert, and my uncle Richard Wang (also of the ACBL).

I played in my first sanctionioned game at the Bridge Deck when I was fifteen and got my first master points there and throughout high school (1984-1986).

After college I played in Chicago for a year (1990-1) where I partnered with a man who taught me precision and learned every convention in the book. It was a lot of fun.

A ten-year hiatus and I found myself working a shift job 3 days a week in the city in Technology. Having two weekdays off a week led me back to the bridge deck and playing in weekday afternoon games for 2 years. (2001-2)

Then about a 20-year break. I had my son and was a single parent and changed my career to Teaching which meant a lot of temp jobs, late night classes, and general child rearing.

A fellow math tutor overheard me saying I used to play a lot of bridge and my life had started to even out again so about 5 years ago he found an afternoon game at the Hartes Club in Westchester.

Another team which included David Lewis (Recent life master earlier this year) invited us to play in Swiss teams. We agreed and played a few times. Covid hit and my partner didn't have a partner and David invited me to play on BBO and the occasional tournament. He was on a track to become a life master. I had no such aspirations.

However, the online bridge was great, and I found myself playing a lot of Robot tournaments. David and I traveled to a series of regional and sectional events. I caught up to David in Black points by playing a lot and we earned a lot of Silver and Gold by having strong showings in the tournaments. And now here I am.

Shocked, delighted and somewhat unsure of what it means. I am afraid of doing dumb things at the table now...lol. Life masters don't make stupid mistakes right?

December 8, 2025

James Morrison

I very much enjoy the pursuit of getting better every day, at this game. It is so very complex and subtle. I truly love the game.

December 8, 2025