March 2025 - 22

Playing for Sam
Photos courtesy of the USBF
Juniors off to the world championships
T
he 2024 Sam Amer Junior
U.S. Bridge Championships
were held in late December
in Atlanta. These trials select the
teams who will represent the U.S. at
the 2025 World Youth Bridge Teams
Championships. The competition
is sponsored by the United States
Bridge Federation.
The trials were named after Sam
Amer, who was a bridge professional
in New York City and a beloved member
of the bridge community. He was
a former member of the USBF Junior
program and represented the U.S. in
the 2018 WYBTC. He was known for
his incredible kindness towards others
and his infectious passion for the
game. Sam died in 2023 of an accidental
fentanyl overdose.
" Through collaboration with Sam's
family, we paid homage to Sam by
celebrating ways to 'be like Sam' and
promoted fentanyl awareness, " said
Amber Lin, who coordinates the
Online Junior Training Program.
Almost all the 115 participants
attended the two-day training camp
prior to the trials, organized by Lin
and Kevin Rosenberg and sponsored
by the ACBL Educational Foundation,
including two young players from
the Mexican Bridge Federation and
their mentor/coach, Patricia Herrera.
Several mentors helped during the
training, including some of the parents
who were there with their children.
Presenters during the camp, in
addition to Amber and Kevin, included
Debbie Rosenberg, Patty Tucker,
Kevin Collins, Adam Kaplan and
Anant Rathi.
The camp included lessons, practice
team matches, and fun activities
like " Crazy Bridge, " where the
rules were slightly modified (e.g. one
22 | Bridge Bulletin | March 2025
revoke per hand allowed).
The Under-21 and -26
teams played round robins
and then knockouts. " We did
something new and different
to select the two U16 teams
and the two U26 Women's
teams, " said Joe Stokes, the
USBF Junior Coordinator.
" Although the participants
have been part of the USBF
online training program
organized by Alex Kolesnik
and Lin, with help from dozens
of online mentors, they
did not necessarily know
each other 'in real life.' It
seemed unrealistic to expect
them to form teams for the
competition.
" In each group, the top
three pairs at the end of the
competition were guaranteed
a spot on one of the two
teams. The other three pairs
were chosen via a review
of the hands they bid and
played, using anonymized
data. "
The other three pairs are
Under-26 USA1 (from left): Bruce Zhu, Michael Hu,
Michael Xu, Finn Kolesnik, Harrison Luba and Ethan
Wood
Under-26 USA2 (from left): Olivia Schireson, Brent
Xiao, Cornelius Duffie, Stella Wan, Richard Jeng and
Jacob Freeman
(in no particular order)
U26W: Ava Donnellan, Kyra
Helmbold, Jasmine Bakhshi,
Katie Sullivan, Caroline Zhao
and Jessie Cai.
U16: Kyo Chen, Zinnia Meyer, Alex
Shih, Jayson Lee, Lee Blocher and
Alex Xu.
Here's a deal written up by Kayden
Ge, who is on the U21 USA2 team.
The top three pairs in the Under-26 Women's competition
(from left): Nicole Qiang, Helen Chow, Cecilia
Ehrlichman, Katie Hwang, Sharon Chu and Ella Su
All that for a push
By Kayden Ge
In the fifth round of the U21
round robin, my team faced Team
Silverstein, the two squads that
eventually became USA2 and USA1,
respectively.
On the sixth board of the match, I,
sitting South, picked up:
sK 9 hJ 8 6 4 dK 10 8 5 4 3 c5.
The auction started with West as
dealer, both vulnerable:
March 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2025
