August 2024 - 32

CLUB News
The Monday Night Bridge Group
By Stuart Hotchkiss
In 2019, Nancy Feldman, a
Boise ID resident and a member
of the Bridge Cooperative of Boise
(Unit 394), taught a beginning
bridge class at the club. After the
class, students would kibitz the
game that followed the lesson.
Eventually, the class began playing
regularly in the 0-199 game
on Thursday afternoons and continued
to meet Monday evenings
to practice.
After in-person play disapmore
prepared and confident to
upgrade from Monday nights to
competitive, duplicate club play.
DeDe and Nancy realized that
peared in 2020, four players from
the class decided to continue
learning by playing at their own virtual
table on BBO and hooking everyone
in on the telephone so they could
talk through their hands. DeAnna
" DeDe " McMahon, Vicki Flier, Russ
Dodd and Carol Ogburn played that
way for months, occasionally asking
Nancy to join in on the phone call so
she could answer questions.
In 2021, the four started masking
up and playing together on Monday
nights. Since then, this one teacher
and four students have morphed into
more new players than their space
allowed.
DeDe became the organizer and
started inviting other beginners to
the game. By the summer of 2021,
there were two tables regularly, and
by the fall, there were three. By that
time, the Boise club resumed playing
face-to-face duplicate bridge. Monday
Bob Reierson
By Ken Grafton
On May 11, my friend, Bob
Reierson, and his partner, Mary Jo
Simunaci, topped the North-South
field with a score of 58.33% in a 10table
game at the El Dorado Bridge
Club in Green Valley AZ.
What's so special about this game
and the result?
32 | Bridge Bulletin | August 2024
The " Core Five " of Boise's Monday Night Bridge
Group: (from left): Vicki Flier, Carol Ogburn, DeAnna
McMahon, Nancy Feldman and Russ Dodd.
nights became the training ground
for playing in the club games.
In 2022, Nancy began offering lessons
again; at the end of these lessons,
DeDe invited the new players
to join the Monday night group - the
next step in becoming a duplicate
player. She has become the lightning
rod for new bridge players; she adds
them to her email distribution list
and convinced the unit to offer a free
play certificate to the Boise club to
any new player who became an ACBL
member. To date, 12 players have
done so!
During the next two years, more
lessons, speakers and presentations
were added, including a new
method called " Play and Learn. "
Players were introduced to bidding
boxes and boards, and all played
the same boards. Players were far
demand was strong - players'
houses weren't large enough to
host the demand. One of the
Monday night players, Mary Jo
Fuller, offered the use of a warehouse
she jointly owns with her
son, Mason, at no cost and set
aside a room large enough for at
least six full tables and a large
table for refreshments. There
is additional space for lessons.
Equally valuable was Fuller's offer
to store tables, chairs, and requisite
bridge supplies at the " Monday Night
Hall. " Unit 394 supplied the group
with boards, bidding boxes, table
markers, six tables, and 24 chairs.
Nancy is preparing to give beginner
lessons in the fall through the Boise
Parks and Recreation Department to
two distinct audiences: a youth group
(ages 13-17), who will likely play
online after learning the game; and
an adult group that now has a certain
path - the Monday Night Group - to
play competitive club bridge.
When there are dedicated players
like DeDe, Vicki, Carol and Russ,
passionate teachers like Nancy, supportive
club owners and unit board
members, it is possible to grow the
popularity of the game of bridge in a
significant and sustainable way. 2
Bob was born April 8, 1924, making
him at age 100 the oldest active
duplicate player in Green Valley.
He is in great shape mentally and
physically and rides his bicycle to the
bridge game on Saturdays.
Congratulations to Bob from all the
players of the El Dorado Bridge Club. 2
Mary Jo Simunaci and Bob Reierson
August 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2024
