Jon Udell of Wilsonville OR is District 20’s Rookie of the Year, owning the 0–5 Mini-McKenney masterpoint race locally and finishing an ACBL-wide 10th with 93 masterpoints in 2022. Here is his story:

I’ve been playing all my life, mostly only when with my parents, and some with my sons (but mostly two- or three-handed variations). I remember how I used to enjoy it when my parents let me fill in for a missing guest when they hosted rubber bridge parties at our house. I used to read the newspaper bridge columns even when not playing, but never really had more than a rudimentary knowledge of initial bids (Goren), along with Stayman and Blackwood, until I decided to attend a class starting in Sept. 2021, at the Wilsonville Senior Center. The classes were taught by Rollie Seibert and his daughter, Dana Terhune. They introduced me to the Audrey Grant website which I have kept up with since then, and they also use Shark Bridge in their classes. I also like to use the BBO Practice hands.

Rollie could not make the January 2022 sectional and suggested that I play in it with Dana, since we could play the 199er and be in the C stratification. So, we started playing together online in early January to prepare for that. We did well, even winning a couple of games, then won the Friday morning Sectional 199er handily and took third in the afternoon 0–750 game. (We would have tied for first if I hadn’t messed up the play of a makable slam we stumbled into.) Just the morning session was more bridge than I’d ever played in a single sitting before, and as we played on Saturday as well, I realized how draining it could be and how I needed to be more careful to get enough nutrition during the day. (I should have known that from having played in chess tournaments when I was in college!)

I continued to play online with Dana, then started playing with Rollie – taking third in a Vancouver Regional Gold Rush the first time I played with him, earning my first (only so far) red ribbon qualifier for being first in B and C. Then I played my first team game that Sunday (0– 2500), again partnering with Rollie. In that game I used Gambling 3NT for the first (and only so far) time successfully against the top-ranked team in the competition. Rollie and I had just discussed whether or not we would use it in the car on the way to the tournament and had never discussed the possibility of responding to it, as he ended up doing in order to get me out of notrump. We managed a 10-IMP swing after the opponents ended up in the wrong suit, losing the match by 1 IMP (which I could trace back to a bad discard at the end of the first board). As has often been the case since then, we were easily the lowest-ranked team in the competition.

I added Henry (Chris) Hamaker as a partner in late May, with an online game to prepare, then at the Eugene Sectional. We tried to enter the 199er, but there were not enough participants, so we ended up playing in the Open game instead. Chris is a friend of Rollie’s who (I believe) took his class several years ago. His only prior ACBL experience was playing in a Regional in the ’70s. I know we were easily the lowest-ranked pair in the afternoon session (average under 20) – probably the morning too. We thought we played poorly in the morning and improved ~4% in the afternoon playing against what seemed like tougher competition, though still below 50%. They carved out a D stratification for us wannabe 199ers, and I think we were second each session, ironically earning more points in the morning, which seemed very strange to me. Chris has done quite well since then too, playing in several tournaments with me including in team competitions. He also did well in the 0–5 Mini-McKenney race despite his late start and I believe most of the points he earned were pigmented.

I continued playing mostly with those three partners until I started also playing in the (Portland Bridge Club’s) Friday night mentor games with Will Houston in the fall. I have also started playing a few Open games online, mostly with Rollie. It’s been fun going up against higher-level players at times, once I realized who I had lost to, not winning was a lot more fun. Of course, there have been humbling times as well, such as the time Dana and I faced Rich Carle and Robert Law and scored zero matchpoints over four boards as part of a string of eight zeros (and a 100) in nine boards (though there were only three tables).

I appreciate the efforts of my teachers, especially Rollie. He has really been a student of the game over the years and has taught a lot of people. He isn’t afraid to ask questions of the experts and even questions them when he disagrees. He recently showed us an email reply he got from Larry Cohen acknowledging that his quiz answer wasn’t the best – Larry actually responded to him within five minutes of Rollie sending him the email.