March 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 

pat@csa-accounting.com 

REGIONAL DIRECTOR 

Joann Glasson 

joannglasson@msn.com 

As we plow into March, I am thinking the groundhog needs glasses. Two snowstorms within four days is just crazy. There has been so little snow for the past few years that it is no longer in my skill set to deal with this much, this close together.

In the bridge world we had a successful Royal StaC in February and are now gearing up for the four GNT events over first two weekends in March. I hope all of you registered will make 7NT and win all your matches! This is a wonderful opportunity for all members of our District to earn a partially subsidized trip to Toronto this summer! 

There are also Sectionals this spring, and let’s not forget Louisville.

The monthly online games seem to be a big hit with many of our players. The game on March 26 at 7pm will offer four lucky players free plays to use at the April game. Look for District 4 in the title of the virtual game. There will again be two games: 0-750 MP and Open.

The Rehoboth Regional is right around the corner so make your reservations soon! This is a smaller event as far as attendance is concerned, but it offers a wonderful opportunity to be at the beach without the crowds. The local restaurants are wonderful and plentiful. Come enjoy the bridge and the sand.

Check our website or the D4 calendar in this issue for links to all these events and more. I hope all of you have a fun St Patrick’s Day! 

Betsy

betsy2955@gmail.com

From the Regional Director 

The ACBL Board of Directors has been committed to taking online cheating very seriously and has provided a grant to support the development of EDGAR, a non-profit cheating detection tool created by Brian Platnick and Franco Baseggio. 

Additional support has also been given to the Institute for Bridge Arbitration to hear serious cases of cheating.  The IBA is an independent body of arbitrators who are experienced bridge players that have been trained to work as arbitrators to hear cases of collusive cheating.

Prior to implementing EDGAR, many tests have been conducted to evaluate the reliability of EDGAR and although there were a few false negatives, there were no false positives (a situation in which EDGAR decides that an innocent person is cheating), so the reliability of EDGAR’s determinations are sound and there is no concern about wrongly accusing a player of cheating.

EDGAR works by looking at a statistically valid sample of deals played by a player online. It looks at certain markers and compares the percentage of successful outcomes from these markers to the known percentages of non-cheating expert players. The markers involve some defensive actions like opening leads and pinpoint shifts after the opening lead and some bidding situations. When an average online bridge player scores higher in these decision situations than the best expert players in the world, they are known to be cheating.

EDGAR has been put into full use by the ACBL Recorder’s office as of February 1. Some groups of players will regularly be put through EDGAR. This list of players will include anyone associated with the ACBL, employees and members of the Board of Directors and other ACBL committees. Other groups of players will be randomly selected for review.

If EDGAR finds that a player is cheating online, there will be different options employed. In cases of players with fewer than 2,500 masterpoints, they will be subject to Fast Track Discipline. Depending on the level of expertise, they will either receive a warning or an automatic suspension.

Players with more than 2,500 masterpoints will either agree to a Negotiated Resolution or be sent to the IBA for a full hearing. The findings of the arbitration hearing are final and not eligible for appeal.

Contact me with any questions or comments at joannglasson@msn.com

Joann

Regionals

Rehoboth, DE

April 29-May 3

King of Prussia, PA

June 24-30

Sectionals

Camp Hill, PA

March 1-3

Cherry Hill, NJ

April 12-14

Rochester, NY

April 13-14

Allentown, PA

April 26-27

D4 STaC

May 6-12

Allentown, PA NLM

May 12

Boalsburg, PA

May 31-June 1

Rochester, NY I/N

June 14-15

GNTs

A & C March 2-3 Cherry Hill, NJ

Open & B March 9-10 Camp Hill, PA

For the 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

Napoleon and Sun Tzu played bridge? Lots of tasty laws in this intriguing puzzle. Read all about it here.

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

Unit 112 salutes our players who have achieved these new member ranks:

Junior Master

Janet Jones

Club Master

Faith Gray

Sectional Masters

Patricia Gray

Linda McGraw

David Miller

Regional Masters

Meg Matlock

Tonia Thirtle

NABC Master

William Northwood

Advanced NABC Master

Sue Manning 

Bronze Life Master

Jim Baxter

Unit 112 congratulates its 2023 Masterpoint Races winners

Unit 120: Northeastern Pennsylvania 

Doreese Torrey

doreeset@gmail.com

Hello Unit 120!! Let's MARCH right into our monthly recognition.

We have a new Club Master! Congratulations to Cindy Zingher of Damascus, PA. Rousing applause!!!

As you know, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. Here are some little-known facts:  

• The symbol of St. Patrick is a three-leaf shamrock, not a four-leaf clover. However, long before the shamrock became associated with St. Patrick’s Day, the four-leaf clover was regarded by ancient Celts as a charm against evil spirits. In the early 1900s, O. H. Benson, an Iowa school superintendent, came up with the idea of using a clover as the emblem for a newly founded agricultural club for children in his area. In 1911, the four-leaf clover was chosen as the emblem for the national club program, later named 4-H.
• Blue was the color originally associated with St. Patrick, but green is now favored. The significance of the color blue has its origin in Irish mythology where Ireland was represented by a woman in blue robes.
• The first St. Patrick’s Day parade in the American colonies was held in New York City on this day in 1762 with the dramatic increase of Irish immigrants to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, the March 17 celebration became widespread.
• St. Patrick’s Day is the traditional day for planting peas, even in the snow! Itis said to bring luck come harvest time. And it makes sense: Soil is typically thawed and workable, and these veggies prefer to get started in chilly spring weather.
• Cabbage seeds are often planted today, too, and old-time farmers believed that to make them grow well, you needed to plant them while wearing your nightclothes!

Q: Why should you never iron a four-leaf clover?  

A: You don’t want to press your luck!

See you at the virtual and/or face to face bridge tables!

Unit 121: Berks Montgomery 

www.unit121bridge.com

Bill Buskirk

Buskirk944@msn.com

Berks-Montgomery Bridge Unit 121 is now playing every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:15. For the past couple years (after the pandemic) we have been located at Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Tuckerton, PA. This is a modern new facility conveniently located at 170 Tuckerton Road, near the intersection of Route 222 and Route 61 on the north side of Reading.   

For three Tuesdays in March (March 12, 19, and 26) Unit 121 will be offering lessons by Sue Wessner at no cost for newer and intermediate players. Lessons will be at 11:00-11:45, prior to the regular game, and will cover a variety of topics, especially those requested by students. If you can attend only one or two of the lessons that is fine, since each week’s lesson will stand alone. 

Please contact Sue at 610-972-5327 or bridgebysue@gmail.com to let her know which dates you will attend and if you have any questions or topics you would like her to cover. Bring your own lunch if you want lunch before the game.

Hope you all have the luck of the Irish when playing bridge at one of our clubs this month! 

New Rank Advancement

Congratulations!

Silver Life Master 

Mary Jo Stofflet

“Souper” Bowl Sunday a Success!

Even though the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the real winner was our local charity, the Second Harvest Food Bank, in the Lehigh Valley. Our players came together on Super Bowl Sunday, for a game of duplicate bridge to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank. In addition to all proceeds from the game, our players made individual donations. Everyone brought cans of soup or other non-perishable food items for the food bank. We are proud to report we donated 79 lbs of food. Thanks to everyone who played, donated food for the Food Bank, donated a snack for our tailgate party, or helped to make this event a success! 

Winners:

Arup and Bagisa Mukherjee

Closest Prediction of the Winning Score of the Super Bowl Game

Vince Coll

February Royal STaC Game Winners:

Monday Afternoon 

N/S Barbara & Mike Dopera 

Friday Afternoon 

E/W Nancy Trawin & Patty Fosselman 

N/S -Deepak Khanna & Tom Kriz E/W- Peg & Paul Irvine 

Unit 133 Spring Sectional April 26 & April 27

Please join us for our Spring Local Sectional in Allentown at Lehigh Valley Active Life for an opportunity to earn Silver Masterpoints. Enjoy a pleasant atmosphere, friendly people, delicious lunch, and great bridge.

Schedule:

Friday, April 26

10am – Open and 0-750

2:15pm – Open and 0-750

Saturday, April 27

10am – Open and 0-750

2:15pm – Open and 0-750

Games may be combined due to attendance.

Location:

Lehigh Valley Active Life

1633 West Elm Street

Allentown PA 18102

Fee: $12 per player per session

Please register at the door using a credit card.

For Questions or to reserve lunch for $10, please contact Tournament Chairperson, Lois Fuini at lafuini@yahoo.com or send your lunch choice and a $10 check payable to LVBA to Lois Fuini, 3944 Shirley Drive, Schnecksville PA.18078. (Due to a lack of nearby restaurants and limited time between sessions, we suggest you buy or bring a lunch.)

At this time, vaccinations are required and masks are optional. 

Please come and help us make this tournament a success! 

A note on how our Unit 141 is financed: historically the ACBL has rebated 11% of membership dues payments to the Units each quarter. These payments were intended to fund efforts by the Units to retain existing members and recruit new members to the ACBL. In practice, there was no oversight by the ACBL and the Units could do whatever they wanted with the money – in the case of our Unit these funds historically were used mostly to subsidize money-losing sectional tournaments.

Beginning in the second calendar quarter of 2024, the ACBL is changing the formula. Each Unit will automatically get only 5% of dues, with a chance to earn up to a total of 15% of dues by meeting certain performance measures. Essentially, we can earn up to another 5% for membership retention and another 5% for recruiting new members.

I have asked new board member Pam Scalamandre to head up the effort to ensure the PCBA gets as much funding as possible. Together with Ellen Berkowitz and April Apfelbaum they have already exceeded our goal for contacting lapsed and “at risk” members in Q1 and I am confident we will continue to meet or exceed our retention goals going forward.

The board is discussing how we as a Unit can help with new member recruitment – in reality, this is mainly driven by the teachers and the clubs. Some ideas being discussed include having the Unit sponsor one or more Learn Bridge in a Day classes – if we do, we will need  local clubs to schedule beginning bridge lessons as a swift follow up to the LBIAD class. If your club is interested, please let us know. The King of Prussia Bridge Club ran an LBIAD event and attracted seventeen tables of students, so we know the concept works – but ONLY if the prospects can be funneled into beginning lessons immediately thereafter.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Joan and Bill Goldstein, who have done a fabulous job heading up our I/N (intermediate and novice) function for the past 8 years.  Kudos for a job well done!  Replacing the Goldsteins will be Ellen Luchette and her husband Mark.

A warm welcome to our newest PCBA members!  

Mary Burke

Alice Dubow

Janice Hudes

Sharon Kaplan

Diane  Kroll

Mary Kay Lack

Janet Levine

Gisela Loepke

Kee Rhee

Patricia Schaffer

David Spilkia

Audrey Timm

Susan Weil

Greg Zappin

Congratulations to our members who achieved a new rank!

Junior Masters

Peter Burgum

Marcie Friedman

Richard Greenstein

Ellen Knight

Jean Ann McCloskey

Pamela Schleif

Jenn Snively

Allan Struzinski

Sol Young

Club Masters

Devika Chakraborty

Jane Hileman

Mary Lingerfeldt

Patricia Walsh

William Warren

Sectional Master

Devin Murphy

Regional Masters

Dick Linden

David McClemens

NABC Masters

Art Ford

Kathy Schlesinger

Jim Thompson

Life Master

Stuart Nemser

Bronze Life Masters

Fred Kurz

Marla Lawson

Stuart Nemser

Silver Life Masters

 Barry Frank

Salvatore Marcello

Robin Siegel

Gold Life Masters

David Dresher

Emerald Life Master

John Dickenson

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 Jordan

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

Shuffles 2

Ocean View Presbyterian Church

Thursday @12:30

Donna Heckscher

215-817-2465

shuffles2023@gmail.com

MOVIN’ ON UP

Sectional Master

Carl Coan

Silver Life Master

Judith Cronin

Ruby Life Master

Spencer Kiernan



Gold Life Master

Susan Derrickson

THE WELCOME MAT

(New to our Unit:  T=transfer, N=new member)

Mary A. Cooper - T

Link to the unit website

Unit 217: Susquehanna 

Jim McKeown

jcm751@comcast.net

It’s a while off, but please plan to join us for our next sectional tournament May 31 – June 2, 2024.

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4Spot | March 2024 | Editor: Susan Morse