September 2024

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Contact your District 4 board members.

PRESIDENT 

Betsy Cutler

betsy2955@gmail.com

VICE PRESIDENT 

Ala Hamilton-Day

alabridge@gmail.com

SECRETARY 

Bill Bauer 

william.baueriii@verizon.net

TREASURER

Pat Civale 

patcivale@gmail.com 

REGIONAL DIRECTOR 

Joann Glasson 

joannglasson@msn.com 

The 2025 Summer NABC in Philadelphia is now less than one year away. Moving forward, there will be a series of 4Spot articles from the tournament committee offering ways for all of us to get involved in this event. It is going to be an amazing adventure in Philly next July/August!

As we slip slowly into fall it is with a heavy heart as we mark the passing of Meyer Kotkin. Meyer will always be remembered for his sense of humor and his bridge brilliance. He was one of the hardest workers in our district and created our favorite Dupli-Swiss games at regionals. The “chick magnet” will live on in our memories and hearts.

This was a crazy summer for me, starting with the King of Prussia Regional and ending with the Finger Lakes Regional, not to mention Fairfield and Toronto in between. Toronto was such a lovely city offering some great bridge and, of course, lots of great food. While I did not earn many masterpoints, I got to know a few people so much better and met some amazing people from all over Canada, the US, and the world. I played in three NABC+ events and learned more of what I don’t know – in other words, got clobbered by the pros. It was exciting to play in the Wagar Women’s Pairs in the largest field ever in that event – Girl Power at its best!

Once back in the US, it was off to Rochester for the Finger Lakes Regional. This smaller Regional has a very easy-going atmosphere with truly lovely people. Many came from Canada to join the fun. My partner and I had a little side adventure while driving to dinner one evening. He looked out his side window and saw a deer running alongside his car in the middle of the road. The deer suddenly decided he had had enough of the car race and jumped over the back of the car leaving behind some hair (no scratches or dings, fortunately). It was a little scary to see a tawny body flying over the back of the car. I had some good results in the tournament including two section tops – unfortunately they were not the same day but good enough for gold points both days. This tournament will be moving to June next year and I encourage you all to attend.

Those who know me well will be surprised to learn that I am home until the Lancaster Regional in October, only taking a few day trips between now and then. One of these days I will play in the Flight B NAP district finals. These NAP events are a wonderful way to earn red and gold masterpoints and a stipend toward the NABC event in Memphis in March. Flight A, open to all players, is scheduled for September 14-15 in Cherry Hill, NJ. Flight C, for Non-Life Masters with fewer than 500MP is on September 15 in five locations across the district. Flight B, for players with up to 2500MP, will be contested at three locations on October 6. All flyers and needed forms are on the District 4 website. Remember, all who play in Flight A or C get a free entry to Flight B!

September is full of sectionals around the district - Wilmington, DE, Oswego, NY and Cherry Hill, NJ plus an I/N sectional in Ocean View, DE.  Lots of chances for pigmented points this month: Enjoy the Pumpkin Spice beverage of your choice and see you at the tables!

Betsy

betsy2955@gmail.com

From the Regional Director 

The Summer NABC in Toronto was successful from every perspective. The location was terrific, the playing areas were fabulous, and a great time was enjoyed by all the players. The new Bridge Mania and Beyond Bridge events were well attended and the fun spirit of these events added to the players’ enjoyment.   

The ACBL discussions at the board meetings prior to the NABC focused on two major issues – the future of the online game and EDGAR.

Discussion around the online game focused on the BBO contract which will expire June 30, 2025. Management talks with BBO are not finalized, but it is unlikely that ACBL will be renewing the existing contract. Under the current contract, BBO pays ACBL an annual fee in exchange for masterpoint exclusivity and BBO’s ability to control the table fees ACBL charges BBO for their games. If the contract is not renewed, ACBL will forego that income to allow other platforms to compete for players by awarding ACBL masterpoints, but more important, ACBL will be able to control the pricing of table fees to all platforms awarding masterpoints. What management is most focused on in these ongoing negotiations is providing our members with the best possible product for online play.

BBO will continue to host online games, so players will not see any changes, there will just be additional options for play available to our players.

The other hot topic is EDGAR, the computer based cheating detection program that the ACBL is using to detect online cheating. For information about how EDGAR works, read the article in August’s Bridge Bulletin. 17,500 players have been run through EDGAR. There are 83,000 bridge players playing online and it will take about eighteen months to review everyone’s playing records. EDGAR is very effective in weeding out cheaters and also is an effective deterrent.

The full report from the Toronto board meetings is available here.

Congratulations to all Region 3 players who were successful in Toronto:

NATIONAL EVENTS IN TORONTO

NABC Robot Individual: 15 - Zachary Madden, 51 - Jiang Gu 

GNT – Flight B:  5/8 - James Koss, Glenn Fuhrman, Gerald Abelow, Michael Minoff

Life Master Pairs: 5 - Ron Gerard, 16 - Yinghao Liu, 37 - Jeff Aker, 

50 - Daniel Boye, Richard Popper

Bruce LM  6000 Pairs: 4 – Jeff Ruben, Paul Amer, 6 - Randi Adelman

Young 0-2500 Pairs: 5 - Donald Boyce, Stephen Younger, 15 - Steven Siegel, Jason Tokuda, 25 - George Biris

NABC+ Open Pairs: 39 - Will Ehlers, Scotch Plains NJ

Senior Swiss Teams: 17 - Joann Glasson – Bob Glasson, Will Ehlers 

Wehrner Open Pairs: 7 - Richard Oshlag, 28 - Nancy Molesworth, Ron Gerard, 37 – Louis Glasthal, 44 - Himanshu Joshi, Bharat Rao

Spingold: 5/8 - Connie Goldberg

0 – 10,000 Pairs: 7 - Barry Dehlin, Yan Zhang

0-2500 Mini-Spingold: 3/4 - Greg Warden

0-6000 Mini Spingold: 5/8 - Randi Adelman

Oshlag Fast Pairs: 6 - Jiang Gu, 16 - Richard Oshlag, 23 - Louis Glasthal

Bean Red Ribbon Pairs: 6 - Aaron Liebhaber

Roth Open Swiss Teams: 11 - Lynda Nitabach, 23 - Parag Saxena,  

33 - Connie Goldberg

0-10,000 Swiss Teams: 1 - Xiaowen Li

REGIONAL EVENTS IN TORONTO

Educational Foundation Teams Bracket 7:  3 - Robert Davenport Jr., Jane Detra Davenport, Kurt Meyer, Richard McMullin

Friday Open Pairs: 1 - Jiang Gu

Friday Bracketed Teams, Bkt 1: 1 – Connie Goldberg

Friday Bracketed Teams, Bkt 7: 3 Bobbie Goodyear, Raymond Rizzo, Kamrul Khan, William Even

Saturday Open Pairs: 6 - Michael Otte, 10 - Bob Glasson, Joann Glasson

Friday Evening Side Game: 6 - Fred Shubert, Fred Douglis

Saturday Morning Side Game: 6 - Raleigh O Connor, Helen Raleigh

Top Flight Swiss Teams: 6/7 - Connie Goldberg

Sunday Morning Side Game: 7 - Bob Cole, Ala Hamilton-Day

Monday Open Pairs: 4 - Lisa Mita

Sunday Evening Side Game: 7 - Lynn Ackerman, Mary Miller 

Monday Bracketed Teams – Bkt 6: 1- Michael Haas,  Brandon Fong

Top Flight Swiss Teams: 5/6  - Sarik Goyal

Tuesday Bracketed Teams – Bkt 5: 1 - Todd Thorsen, Bobette Thorsen

Tuesday Topflight Pairs: 5 - Jason Ji, 6 - Alex Perlin

Tuesday Morning Side Game:  4 - George Biris

Wednesday Bracketed Teams – Bkt 5:  ¾ - Jane Pelullo, Helen Walker,  Margaret Cooke, Bobette Thorsen

Wednesday Morning Side Game: 2 - Robert Gray, Rusty Vilk, 6 - Cynthia Martin

Thursday Morning Cardrook Pairs: 3 Rian Souffrant – Kiarra Jeffries,

 4 - Kyra Smartt – Asani Sanford-Green

Thursday Afternoon Cardrook Pairs: 1 - Kiarra Jeffries – Rian Souffrant, 2 - Faith Mathis – Sahara Hafiz-Kendall, 2 Kyra Smartt – Asani Sanford-Green

Thursday Bracketed Teams – Bkt 2:  2 - William Golush

Thursday Topflight Pairs: 3 - Jeff Aker

Thursday Evening Side Pairs: 5 - Yan Zhang

Friday Morning Cardrook Pairs: 1 - Faith Mathis – Sahara Hafiz-Kendall, 4 - Arianna Shivers, Mackyse Duverge

Friday Afternoon Cardrook Pairs: 3 - Kyra Smartt, Asani Sanford-Green

Friday Collegiate Pairs: 1 - Tianyang Chen 

Friday Bracketed Teams – Bkt 1: 1/2 Chaim Kozlovsky, Joseph Rich

Friday Bracketed Teams – Bkt 10: Marla Lawson

Friday Evening Side Pairs:  1 - Jiang Gu, 2 - Yan Zhang

Tuesday-Friday Evening Side Series: 5/6 - Yan Zhang

Saturday Afternoon Youth Pairs: 3 - Rian Souffrant – Kiarra Jeffries, 

4 - James Fu

Collegiate Pairs Championship: 3 - Ziheng Yun

Saturday Gold Rush Pairs: 7 - Steven Stark, Marian Stark

Sunday Fast Pairs: 10 - Lisa Mita

Sunday A/X/Y Swiss Teams: 6/7 - Alex Perlin, Igor Savchenko 

Regionals

Manheim, PA

October 28-November 3

Sectionals

Wilmington, DE

September 6-8

Ocean View, DE NLM

September 20-21

Oswego, NY

September 21-22

Cherry Hill, NJ

September 27-29

King of Prussia, PA I/N

October 14

Rochester, NY

October 19-20

Wilkes-Barre, PA

October 19-20

Allentown, PA

October 25-27

Lyons, NY

November 9-10

D4 STaC

November 11-17

Camp Hill, PA I/N

November 22-24

Wilmington, DE

December 13-15

Camp Hill, PA I/N

December 27

District 4 NAP Finals

Flight A: September 14-15

Cherry Hill, NJ

Flight C: September 15

at various clubs

Flight B: October 6

North Wales, PA, Camp Hill PA, and West Elmira, NY

For the complete 2024 D4 calendar, click here.

The 4Spot features fantastic contributors on a regular rotation:

February, May, August, November:

For Novices Only

Schwaidelson's Fractured Four-Hand Tales

Moderator: Nick Straguzzi

This one looks simple and is, but it's also a super duper geek-stimulator. Geek away, then check out the solution here.

Insider tip: Find out where Nick's closest Wawa is and hang out there when you make your submission next month.

Visit the MSC website to read next month's problem and submit your answers online here.

Get Ready for Philly - Summer 2025 NABC News

Name that Game!

(Creights, No Ideer, and Naming Rights)

“What do you call a deer with no eyes?  No ideer?  What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs?  Still no ideer?”  

That is how Rick Rowland started out his tribute to Dave Treadwell, who was a very punny person, with a dad joke for every occasion. A superb bridge player, Dave was the first Delawarean to earn the rank of Grand Life Master.  Even though Dave died on 1/15/10, before online bridge came into its prime, with 25,729 masterpoints his name is currently on top of the leaderboard as the top masterpoint holder in Unit 190. In addition to all his bridge achievements, Dave had several administrative roles and always gave back to this great game of ours. 

In the year or two before he died, if anyone needed a partner, this Grand Life Master was sometimes available to coach, mentor, and partner the newer player.  At the 2018 Spring Nationals in Philadelphia, Unit 190 honored this grand statesman of Delaware bridge by purchasing naming rights to an entire Dave Treadwell Day. There were Life is a Beach Pairs, Creights KO Teams, D’ Avetre Adwell Pairs and Dave’s Bad Jokes 99er Pairs. 

Naming rights are now available for regional games at the 2025 Summer NABCs, and Unit 190 is again considering its options. Perhaps for this upcoming NABC, on a Dave Treadwell Day, we can honor friends we have recently lost in Unit 190, in addition to present-day friends. I’ve been thinking about who I would name. To quote Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado: "I've got a little list."

What special mentor, teacher, partner or friend would you like to thank?  This flyer has all the details you need to recognize your favorite bridge achiever at the 2025 Summer Nationals in Philadelphia. 

Ala Hamilton-Day, Summer 2025 NABC Co-Chair

Unit 112: Central New York

www.acblunit112.org 

Betty Youmans

readsausten@yahoo.com

The Finger Lakes Regional was held in Rochester August 5-9 plus an online game on August 10. Although the attendance lagged behind last year’s event, those who were there enjoyed the fellowship of meeting other bridge players and earning gold and red points! Many thanks to the tournament committee:  Betty Youmans, Chair; Jim Patton, Business Manager; Mary Miller, Intermediate-Newcomer Coordinator; Dan Boye, Partnership Chair; and Joann Glasson, Daily Bulletin Editor; plus the many volunteers who helped with set-up and tear-down, welcome desk staff and photographers. The directors and caddies did a great job!

The Oswego County Bridge Association will hold a local sectional on September 21 and 22. This will be the first tournament held in Oswego in many years and we applaud their willingness to host this event.  Please plan to attend!

The Mohawk Valley Bridge Association recently honored its active players who are at least 90 years old. Pictured are Joe Grimaldi (on left) and Paul Ohlbaum (who celebrated his 90^th birthday at the bridge game and came in first that day with his wife, Billie).  

Unit 112 Congratulates its Advancing Players

Sectional Master

Richard Feldman

Lawrence Robinson

Michael Wade

Regional Master

Anita Weiss

Jane Iannello

Michael Kirschen

Marina Nudo, Victor

Elizabeth Whitehouse

Life Master

Stephen Younger, Ithaca

Ruby Life Master

Ronald Olsen

Gold Life Master

Lynn Ackerman

Diamond Life Master

Betty Youmans

Platinum Life Master

Lois Sanders

Unit 120: Northeastern Pennsylvania 

Doreese Torrey

doreeset@gmail.com

Check next month for Unit 120 news.

Unit 121: Berks Montgomery 

www.unit121bridge.com

Bill Buskirk

Buskirk944@msn.com

Check next month for Unit 121 news.

Happy Fall!

New Rank Advancements Congratulations!

New Junior Masters 

Jerry Noll

Lynn Noll

New Ruby Life Master

Arup Mukherjee

New Gold Life Master 

Thomas Kriz

Annual Over/Under 500 Point Swiss Team Winners

1st place

Sue Boericke & Mimi Lengel

Dorothy Cockrell & William Licht

Tied for 1st place

Rene Rodriguez & Grace Sutherland

Nate Kolo & Lee Stanley

3rd place

Patty Fosselman & Michael Dopera

Barbara Dopera & Beth Dimler

Thanks to everyone who played in the game and the volunteers who organized the game. It was a big success that we will definitely repeat next year.

Evening Games 

September marks the return of the Wednesday evening games. The first game will be September 11 at 7pm at Betsy’s home in Allentown, then at Arup and Bagisa’s in Bethlehem, September 25 at 7pm. Partners are guaranteed for these games. The games will continue into October. Join us for some fun bridge! Thanks to Betsy, Arup, and Bagisa. 

Team Game 

A game is scheduled for Friday, September 13. This will be a handicapped event, so come as a team or a pair looking for teammates and we will help you find a team. This event requires pre-registration for handicapping purposes which will be done by the computer. Please send the names and ACBL numbers for all teammates by noon on September 11 to Betsy Cutler at betsy2955@gmail.com.

Lehigh Valley Fall Tournament 

Our fall sectional is coming up quickly - October 25-27 at Lehigh Valley Active Life . There will be pair events on Friday and Saturday and team events on Sunday. New this year is a 0-20 MP free event on Saturday morning at 10:30am. 

Schedule: 

Friday & Saturday 

Open & 0-750 pairs 10am & 2:30pm Saturday 

0-20 Masterpoints Free Game 10:30am

Sunday Swiss Teams 

10 am: Two-session Swiss Teams Play through/ lunch break

Open and 0-750

Must play both sessions 

No player may exceed the top mp limit for any game. 

Fee $12.00 per person per session

DOES NOT INCLUDE LUNCH

Please check our website for complete information including lunch choices and payment or email Lois @ lafuini@yahoo.com. 

Educational Committee Initiatives

Chairman, Mike Kohler

1) Lehigh University’s first official bridge club for all students was established by the education committee under the guidance of several board members: Mike Kohler, Lee Stanley, and Paul Irvine. They hope to recruit new younger members for our games while teaching the students our beloved game of bridge

2) Lehigh Valley Active Life’s 0-200 players receive a free mini-lesson twice a month preceding their game. A 0-200 game is offered weekly. This initiative is under the 

supervision of ACBL certified teacher and member Gwen Ritter, who hopes 

encouraging the newer players will retain them.

3) Lessons are provided several days a week at the home of board member and 

ACBL certified teacher, Betsy Cutler. The lessons meet the wants and needs of all level students. Betsy feels these lessons will help the students move forward in their bridge careers and keep them playing.

4) First Presbyterian Church of Allentown has invited Unit 133 to their social bridge group to provide information about duplicate bridge games and improve their bridge skills. Mike Kohler and Betsy Cutler each meet with the group once a month for a lesson. Hopefully, this initiative will recruit new members to join our unit.

5) Our Mentor/Mentees meet and play whenever it is convenient for them. In addition, they are scheduled to play together the first Friday of the month at Lehigh Valley Active Life. Our board members and our members work with the Mentees to ensure they’re doing all they can to improve their skills and their game. Mike Kohler organizes this initiative. 

Thanks to Mike Kohler and his committee members for all their hard work to accomplish these successful initiatives to recruit new members and retain our current members. 

Don’t miss our fall sectional – it will be held September 27-29 in Cherry Hill, NJ at Bridge Friendzy. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of playing in this facility, please give it a try! Terrific spacious venue, plenty of free parking, and Bernadette Hennessy May is a wonderful hostess. It is around an hour drive from most of suburban Philly in PA, less from center city.

ACBL has historically rebated 11% of member dues to units to fund recruiting and retention efforts. They have moved to a new system called 5-5-5 that is performance based, where top performing units can earn 15% and all earn a minimum of 5%. I am proud to share that Unit 141 received the highest monetary award for recruiting out of 288 units in the ACBL! We are plowing that money back into recruiting more members, with our first effort being a Learn Bridge In a Day program at Game Friendzy on Saturday 9/21 – thank you John Nothdurft for organizing and thank you to Pam Scalamandre and her team that contacts lapsed members and our teaching clubs for bringing in new players.

A warm welcome to our newest PCBA members!

Libby Bernick

Scott Brandt

Cecelia Colgan

Howard Feldman

Kathryn Kluge

Jodie Lehman

Barbara Norwitz

Jonathan Orwitz

Lee Walsh

Congratulations to our members who achieved a new rank!

Junior Masters

Patricia Disesa

Sophia Geyfetsman

Marilyn Goldman

Wendy Kane

Rene Leimberg

Veena Malhotra

Diana Mason

Michael McLelland

Jacqueline Swartz

Eileen Winter

Club Masters

Peter Burgum

Beverly Cutler

Deborah Farkas

Ellen Hanway

Patricia Rogowski

Mark Stout

Dan Walters

Sectional Master

Nancy Adelman

Regional Masters

Victoria Grant

Pat Kennedy

Bruce Neff

Marilyn Stewart

NABC Masters

Roger Coleman

Sandra Gillette

Thomas Hare

Marie-Louise Ingersoll

Judith Lyons

Diane Pennett

Kathryn Warhol

Shelley Weismer

Advanced NABC Masters

Madhu Goyal

James Eldred Pascoe

William Tannery

Paul Van Vreede

Life Masters

Stephen Elinsky

Sharon Goldman

Emily Losciuto

Bronze Life Masters

Christina Carter

Stephen Elinsky

Sharon Goldman

Philip Lebovitz

Silver Life Masters

Becky Levinson

Sherry Scena

Ruby Life Masters

Alene Alper

Stephen Levine

Pamela Scalamandre

Gold Life Master

Gay Simpson

Diamond Life Master

Alvaro Ronderos

Unit 168: Central Pennsylvania 

Ben Hawn 

bwhawn@bellsouth.net

Unit 190: Delaware 

www.unit190.org

Paula Varrassi

pvarrassi@gmail.com

Delaware Clubs

The Bridge Studio of Delaware, Wilmington

Harold Jordon

302-479-5431

club@bridge-studio.org

MOT, Middletown

Cheryl Shields

302-602-1638

c.shields@mehrs.com

Monday Morning Bridge Club

Friday Nooners

Dover

Clare O’Brien

410-310-0549

Clare758@outlook.com

Shore Bridge

Lewes

Monday @ 12:30

Wednesday @ 9:30

Anna DeLapo

302-236-0346

Anna7nt@gmail.com

Shuffles2

Ocean View Presbyterian Church

Thursday @ 12:30

Donna Heckscher

215-817-2465

Shuffles2023@gmail.com

TWO EXCITING EVENTS IN SEPTEMBER

The Diamond State Sectional

And

A New Sectional for Non-Life Master Intermediate and New Players

The 2024 Diamond State Sectional Tournament

September 6-8, 2024 at the Bridge Studio in Wilmington.

Line up your partner(s) and save the dates!

This will be a cashless tournament. Pay by card at the door. Pre-registration is not required. There will be no vaccination requirements and masks will not be required unless requested by opponents at your table. The Annual Meeting of the DSBA will be held between sessions Saturday. If you are a member of Unit 190 please plan to attend.

For questions, contact sectional@unit190.org or see the tournament flyer here. 

Bridge In View NLM 0-500 Sectional Tournament

September 20-21, 2024 in Ocean View, DE

This silver point tournament is open only to players with 500 or fewer masterpoints. It will feature sessions for players with 0-20, 0-100, and 0-500 masterpoints, spread over the mornings and afternoons of two days. Play once, play twice, or play all four sessions; the choice is yours.  Prizes will be awarded for session winners. Lunch is complimentary. If you register ahead of time and need a partner, we guarantee to find you one!

More details are available on the event flyer, or contact one of the Tournament Co-Chairs, Paula Varrassi (pvarrassi @ gmail.com) and Trina Williams (trinasw47 @ icloud.com).

Walk-ins are welcome but space is limited. Register early to guarantee your place.  Click here for the pre-registration form.

If you've never played in a tournament, that's OK. We'll have folks available to explain how it works and help you get comfortable before play begins.

HELP WANTED:  Volunteers needed who are ready, willing, and able to assist the wonderful hospitality committees at our tournaments.  Please help us to provide the attractive environment we all expect and enjoy. Join in our cleanup efforts at these events. See Carol Bason in Ocean View and Sally Humphrey in Wilmington.  Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Welcome Mat

New Members:  Fran Appler, Bea Goldstein, Heather McGhie

Transfer in Member:  Hope Campbell

MOVING ON UP

Advanced NABC Master

Phyllis Lochiatto

Life Master

Joyce Cosby

Silver Life Master

Richard Weissmann

Link to the unit website

Unit 217: Susquehanna 

Jim McKeown

jcm751@comcast.net

Congratulations to these members for their new ranks:  Joy Proctor and Joyce Wilson to NABC Master and Elaine Fuller to Silver Life Master.

Please keep sectional in Boalsburg May 30 to June 1, 2025 in mind.

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4Spot |September 2024 | Editor: Susan Morse