The NABC Summer Nationals – Life Master Pairs

BRIAN GLUBOK

Brian is a highly accomplished American bridge player hailing from New York City. Glubok, an alumnus of Amherst College, has consistently excelled in North American Bridge Championships, securing numerous titles, including wins in the Jacoby Open Swiss Teams, Reisinger, and Spingold events. In addition to his domestic success, Glubok came close to victory in the World Mixed Pairs Championship in 2010, finishing as the runner-up.

Brian will be writing for IMP about the Summer NABC in Minneapolis. This is the third of the series.

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For details about the Summer NABC in Minneapolis, look here.

MINNEAPOLIS, July 10

Living the dream.

This 88th (?) Summer NABC is now underway, and in a world where a lot goes wrong – a lot of things here in Bridge Land are going right.

In the Grand National Teams, an original field of 25 teams representing 21 Districts (four didn’t send teams) has been reduced to 8. Strong squads representing Southern California, New York City, and Florida compete today along with five others for four semi-final births on Saturday.

The Life Master Pairs begins today – this is a wildly popular event, typically attracting well over 300 pairs. A three-day pairs competition, scored by match-points, the LM’s is a great combination of accessible (around 1/4 of the League’s 110,000 members are Life Masters) and elite (Win the LM’s and you join the pantheon of bridge greats with an accomplishment certain to be mentioned in your bridge obituary – probably your general obituary, too).

*****

I arrived early at this NABC, I’ve been trying to make a practice of that for some time. It pays off in many, many ways, I recommend it highly to all aspiring bridge professionals (and others too). By arriving early, you achieve many small goals:

1) You’re better rested and prepared to play when you do begin

2) You have a chance to visit and chat with others, network towards future work and future pairings (both at and away from the table)

3) You get acquainted with your immediate surroundings, may do some shopping for whatever you’re missing

4) You provide peace of mind for your partners and teammates, and have a margin for error should something go wrong with your travel plans (at least one, probably more, bridge players will miss out on the Life Masters today, when a flight from LaGuardia Airport to Minnesota last night was canceled).

In my case, arriving early allowed me to play in the “Warm-up Swiss” – one of two regionally-rated events held on the Thursday before the championship events begin the following day. We might have done way better if a pair of slam deals had gone differently – we went down in one on a finesse and another after an opening lead ruff.

Here’s a deal where we collected a huge penalty (1700):

Opposite my 1 opening, Paulo held: x, x, J10xxx, AKJxxx – He jumped to 3, invitational, and – things got ugly for them from there – somehow they wound up in a 3-2 diamond fit at the four level – I held 97xxx, KQ98x, AQx, void – they needed ten tricks to make 4 – we took ten tricks on defense instead.

*****

The annual Hall of Fame banquet is held on the first Thursday of the Summer nationals – the 2026 rendition honored four of our most accomplished bridge players – Fred Gitelman, Roger Bates, Jeff Rubens, and Barbara Seagram. I’d like to provide bios of each of those four, but I’m pretty well out of space. 

I’ve only got room to add here, that if you find yourself at one of our Summer Nationals, with a chance to attend this banquet the night before serious play begins on the Friday – do yourself a favor and attend if you can. Bronia Jenkins and her core aides make this event better and better every year – last night’s version was especially fine – the audience wants the speeches to be short and sweet, and they were – it was a great night for Canadians, with two (Barbara Seagram, and US transplant Fred Gitelman) among the four stars honored.

So in conclusion: Bridge offers a ton to all of us – participate if you can.

Signed,

IMP’s Man in America,

Glubok