| More about the Competitions (Copy) |
UPDATED 12/17/25 I think the competitions are interesting however, I have no idea if anyone is looking at them. For 2026 I will rotate / refresh the Gross Master Points three times: January - April, May--September and October-.December This somewhat tracks our membership "Snowbirding". (Is that even a word??) I plan to leave the 299 Ladder as a year long best percentage games. New for 2026, SLAMS! There will be a new chart showing slams bid and made. 1 point for a small slam, and 3 points for a grand slam will be tallied for the successful pairs. Competition will go all year and include all three games. Thus self handicapping a bit. Play three times a week you have more opportunity to add to your slam total. Play only once?? Well, your slam total may not grow as fast as someone else's total. Is there a prize? WHAT?? Isn't fame enough?
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| Last updated : Jan 9, 2026 09:05 CST |
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| Promoting Local Team Games Part I |
One of my overall objectives is to promote bridge through our club. When starting to promote anything the key is to start "local" where people know you and you know people. But what in the current bridge world defines "local"? Our ACBL Unit 235 has three clubs. Sioux City, Fort Dodge, and Spirit Lake. Sioux City is the biggest and the healthiest thanks to the dedication of all the members, some more than others, but it takes everyone. Sioux Falls (actually closer than Fort Dodge to Sioux City) is another step in "local". First, a brief Diversion:I recently came upon the new Minnesota Statewide Bridge site, MinnesotaBridge.com. It has a great deal to offer including some interesting statistic about the growth or lack there of our game, more coming on this in a future news piece. One observation struck a cord with me which was the growth of team games at the Regional level. Now, statistically, nationally, just over 51% of all Regional tables are team matches. This is an increasing trend. Diversion over back to Local. In my bridge life I have been involved in several different "Team" settings. One was unique. In the 1970's Iowa City held a home to home round robin team event. Officially it was used to qualify one or two teams for GNT competition but it was a lot more. Then, as now, there were many people who played bridge or played "at" bridge but really could not get out of the house on a regular basis for club games. So teams were formed for the house to house round robin. The teams did their own scheduling with other teams. Games were played in standard IMP scoring in two rooms of the hosting home. Club Directors were nominally "On Call" if a dispute would arise but I don't recall ever calling one, nor being called. My thought is winter is coming and you all know some rubber players in Sioux City, some folks that don't get out much, could this format work here? Teams can be 4 to 6 members which really eases scheduling if you have 6 or at least 5 members. Necessary equipment are a set of 8 boards, play 8, then shuffle and re-deal play 8 more after switching opponents. 16 boards in an evening. (This is flexible of course.) I have three sets (1-32) each of metal boards, I would contribute to the effort which would certainly be enough boards to float all the simultaneous games. The key here would be the formation of teams with a broader group than just "The Club." (To be continued in Part II)
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One of my overall objectives is to promote bridge through our club. When starting to promote anything the key is to start "local" where people know you and you know people. But what in the current bridge world defines "local"? Our ACBL Unit 235 has three clubs. ..........
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| Last updated : Jan 1, 2026 07:03 CST |
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| Promoting Team Games Part II |
Continuing the thought of local team play. Team play is different. It is more than two good pairs playing independently and thereby winning. Yes that works especially at BAM but it is not the whole thing. I really think IMP strategy requires more. Teams can develop a strategy so the pairs complement each other. At the basic level one pair commits to solid play, no flights of imaginative bidding. The other does the same with the exception that may divert by "taking a shot" or "taking a view on the hand." These being the swings that may be necessary. Other strategies exist and they take practice. Again with our solid four or five tables some team competitions would be possible. But what if a venue could be located like Vermillion or somewhere else North of here and South of Sioux Falls for a once a month game? A traveling trophy could be involved. Something... I see the biggest problem as finding a site which could support 10 to 12 tables but would not be a wallet buster with only 4 to 6 tables. Feel free to sign in and leave comments here or catch me before one of our club games.
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Continuing the thought of local team play. Team play is different. ..........
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| Last updated : Jan 1, 2026 07:04 CST |
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| Statistics from the D14 Website |
I discovered the District 14 website. (Our District.) Geographically it is the “Ol’ Five State” which a long, long time Siouxland resident may remember was how KVTV (now KCAU) and maybe KTIV referred to their white board and grease pencil weather map. The D14 map shows all the clubs in D14.
Clearly someone has misplaced Ames but otherwise, I believe it is accurate. The website ACBLD14.com has a variety of information. You should certainly explore it all if you are interested. For this piece I thought I would reproduce the Iowa portion of one chart:
I am proud of Siouxland DBC showing growth in table count year over year for the period January through June. Clearly, we are bucking a trend. I think the biggest reasons are the efforts of Leon with the 299 game, educational efforts of both Leon and Diana and finally the consistent dedication and directing by Jean on Mondays and Thursdays.
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| Last updated : Dec 28, 2025 13:46 CST |
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| Nobody Knows the Troubles .. |
Louis Armstrong's song goes: "Nobody knows the troubles I've seen / Nobody but Jesus." This is true in writing these pages as well. Really, and quite honestly, I enjoy writing things about bridge, about our club, about the Laws. Call it a labor of love and until it stops being fun I am just going forward. The other thing and take this week's Poser number XII . It involved a lot of time just learning how to present material with blocks of hidden text and pop out "More" "Less" blocks. Years and years ago (actually before Facebook became a thing) I had a nest of social websites surrounding my law practice, family, church and Community. I did a lot of "hard coding" because presentation systems now taken for granted just were not available. That said, HTML CSS is hard unless you are using it all the time. But I found a solution, MS AI "Copilot" which I call Mike (anyone who knows why, in addition to being short for Mycroft??) In any case the AI will build HTML / CSS structures after being prodded with desired out come. Then reviewing and fine tuning the actual outcomes because the Bridgewebs Editor "helps" and sometimes filters certain structures which violates its own protective skins. BW has done a lot of heavy lifting to protect its sites and that is good. In any case please do look at this week's Poser on score adjustments and while I have not kept track I suspect I have close to 10 - 15 hours into it. I intended it be informative, but as a webpiece its structure was fun to build as well.
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| Last updated : Dec 28, 2025 13:45 CST |
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| STaC Alert: Jean and Wayne 4th OVERALL |
The Siouxland Bridge Club hosted a Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) game on Monday, September 29, as part of a Districts 12 and 14 competition. The STaC drew six tables in Sioux City and 67 tables across both Districts In total134 pairs participated on Monday afternoon and (Drum Roll) Jean and Wayne placed FOURTH OVER ALL. Congratulations!! Full Results Link Here First, Second, and Third places overall went to pairs from the Quad Cities, Kalamazoo MI, and Omaha respectively. In all, 14 Siouxland players raked in Silver Master Points in the STaC. The weeklong event involved 35 Clubs in the combined districts. Locally those clubs included Sioux Falls, Omaha, and Fort Dodge. For the week long event, 1424.2 Silver Master points were awarded to 813 out of 1906 participants. It was fun to participate in such a broad event, Thank you to Kurt and Pat for the extra effort required for us to participate.
An interesting aside, here is a link to the Quad Cities' results.. They played a 13 table Mitchell movement. You may look at each board and see how the crowd there bid each board 13 times. Kind of interesting actually. Q C Slammer Results
🧮 How STaC Awards Work
STaC games are scored locally, but masterpoints are awarded across the entire field. That means:
- Local winners earn silver points based on their section.
- Overall winners—those with top scores across all participating clubs—receive additional silver points.
- Stratification is based on average masterpoints per pair,
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The Siouxland Bridge Club hosted a Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) game on Monday, September 29, as part of a Districts 12 and 14 competition. The STaC drew six tables in Sioux City and 67 tables across both Districts In total134 pairs participated on Monday afternoon and (Drum Roll) Jean and Wayne placed FOURTH OVER ALL. Congratulations!! Full Results Link Here First, Second, and Third places overall went to pairs from the Quad Cities, Kalamazoo MI, and Omaha respectively. ..........
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| Last updated : Nov 28, 2025 05:59 CST |
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| Council Bluffs N/I Reg & Open Sectional |
Council Bluffs hosts N/I Regional Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Jonie Rizk and Patricia Riemer strike Gold Wednesday morning with a 1st place finish overall in the opening sesion. Jane Pollard and Arlene Rodeen raked in Red points in the same section.. Jonie and Pat added a solid afternoon session in the play through event for a fourth overall finish.. Congratulations!
Thurday Morning and more Gold and Red coming home to Siouxland. Rob Davis and Arlene Milbrodt land Gold with a 3rd place finish overall (1st in their Flight!) and Molly Twohig and Karen Fry raking in the Red Points. Great showing for SDBC. Thursday afternoon it was time to talk Red Points! Cathy Vellinga, Patricia Riemer, Molly Twohig and Karen Fry all bringing home Red points. Molly and Karen double dipping the Reds for the day.
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| Last updated : Nov 28, 2025 05:58 CST |
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| Fort Dodge Unit Charity Game |
Fort Dodge DBC hosted the Unit Charity Game held August 24th in Aurelia. They select the SALT project as their Charity. SALT stands for Shining a Light Together. It started as a warming / cooling shelter last year but now, a year later, it’s turned into a resource for people who need help with a wide range of things, including housing assistance, food assistance, substance abuse treatment, and yes, still a place for anyone that needs to take refuge from extreme heat or cold. The SALT Center offers a variety of services to help people get back on their feet. Those services include assistance in applying for housing, Medicaid, food benefits, or job applications. The Center also helps with making mental health and physical health appointments, and assistance with I.Ds, birth certificates and Social Security cards. The game was attended by members from Spirit Lake, Fort Dodge and our club. Siouxland bridge players should be proud to have helped with such a worthy project.
Full results with hand records for the two session event are available on ACBL Live under the Fort Dodge Club.
The Afternoon Session ran out like this:
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Fort Dodge DBC hosted the Unit Charity Game held August 24th in Aurelia. They select the SALT project as their Charity. SALT stands for Shining a Light Together. It started as a warming / cooling shelter last year but now, a year later, it’s turned into a resource for people who need help with a wide range of things, including housing assistance, food assistance, substance abuse treatment, and yes, still a place for anyone that needs to take refuge from extreme heat or cold. The SALT Center offers a variety of services to help people get back on their feet. Those services include assistance in applying for housing, Medicaid, food benefits, or job applications. The Center also helps with making mental health and physical health appointments, and assistance with I.Ds, birth certificates and Social Security cards. The game was attended by members from Spirit Lake, Fort Dodge and our club. Siouxland bridge players should be proud to have helped with such a worthy project.
Full results with hand records for the two session event are available on ACBL Live under the Fort Dodge Club. ..........
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| Last updated : Nov 28, 2025 06:00 CST |
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