March 2024 - 15

BARRY CRANE Top 500
Winning Routine
Itabashi wins fourth Barry Crane Top 500 race 'playing normal schedule'
By Chip Dombrowski
W
inning the Barry Crane
Top 500 race is becoming
old hat for Mark Itabashi
of Newport Beach CA, who took the
title in 2023 for the fourth time and
third straight.
" This was a rather uneventful
year, " Itabashi said. " I was playing my
normal schedule. I wasn't trying to go
all out. It was a relaxed year. "
In case you missed the articles on
his previous wins, he said the same
thing of those years as well. But a
relaxed year for Itabashi adds up to a
lot of points. His 2023 total, 2888.56,
was about 680 points more than Jeff
Meckstroth, who finished second,
and a thousand points ahead of Joe
Grue in third place. In recent years,
if everybody just " plays their normal
schedule, " Itabashi has no competition
in this race.
Itabashi got more than half of his
points from regionals. He attended
17 in 2023 - the same number as the
previous year and two fewer than
2019. That might sound like a lot to
most of us, but by the historic standards
of the Barry Crane Top 500
race, it's not that many. When Chris
Compton won the race five times in
the 2010s, he was attending 36 regionals
per year. Coasting to victory
while playing half as much truly
makes it look easy.
Itabashi's four best regionals were
the Oregon Trail in Vancouver WA in
February (137.79), Scottsdale AZ and
the All-Western Regional in Santa
Clara CA back-to-back in August and
September (128.75 and 129.30) and
the Palm Springs Regional in Rancho
Mirage CA in December (138.46). He
also earned more than 100 points at
each of the next four.
generosity of masterpoints available
in online games. " They did a good job
reducing it, but they still pay a little
too much. Barry (Crane) didn't have
online bridge. "
Itabashi had four top-five finishes
in national events in 2023, taking
second place in both the Rockwell
Mixed Pairs and the Senior Mixed
Pairs playing with client Laura Brill.
He also placed third in the Truscott/USPC
Senior Swiss Teams and
fourth in the Nail Life Master Pairs.
Itabashi isn't making any predictions
about a fifth win in 2024,
but unless something changes and
someone else decides to start playing
more, it's hard to see anything else
happening.
" I keep saying I'm going to cut
Mark Itabashi
While Itabashi is a professional
player who mostly plays with clients,
he sometimes gets his best results
playing with fellow experts Mitch
Dunitz, Ifti Baqai and Ross Grabel.
Unlike past Top 500 winners, club
games have been a significant source
of points for Itabashi in each of his
past three wins, since virtual clubs
came into being. Itabashi won points
in 176 club games in 2023, especially
in the months of February, April,
June and August when he played
about two dozen games each, when
there was less tournament travel on
his schedule.
Though those club points pad
his lead, he remains critical of the
back and play more golf, " Itabashi
said. " But I end up playing the same
amount every year. I love the game. To
me, it's not work, it's fun. It's a beautiful
game. I haven't gotten burned out.
There's always challenges within the
game. It's very satisfying. " 2
Regionals
NABCs
Where Itabashi earned his
masterponts in 2023
Attended Points
17
3
Club games
STaCs
Sectionals
USBCs
D22 NAP
Online regionals
Total
176
6
4
2
1
2
1626.60
536.83
421.01
110.38
77.28
57.75
32.00
26.71
2888.56
March 2024 | Bridge Bulletin |
15
March 2024

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