Atlanta Junior Bridge, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation formed to bring bridge to Atlanta’s youth.

What's Inside
Youth NABC 2009 Summer Bridge Camps

New Location for Saturday Morning Games and Classes!

[7/1/09] The Atlanta Duplicate Bridge Club is moving to the Peachtree Renaissance offices located at 6761 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Suite 200, Atlanta Georgia 30360. The club can be reached off of Winters Chapel by turning right on Renaissance Boulevard just past the QT gas station, or you can take the access road which runs alongside Peachtree Industrial between Tilly Mill Road and Winters Chapel and turn right on Renaissance Blvd just past 'Beverage World'. Our classes are unchanged; 9:30 to 11:30 with Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced instruction and a game the first Saturday of every month (unless there is a conflict with a tournament). Join us for our next class on July 11th and our next game on August 1st.

Greenville Regional

[6/25/09] Congratulations to Richard and Andrew Jeng on winning the 0-750 Gold Point Pairs at the Greenville Regional! Their 60.86% game in this two-session event gave them a clear win. Well done.

http://www.mabcbridge.org/RegionalTournaments/Greenville/090608/Results_Sat.htm

The LEAGUE National Awards and Recognition Breakfast

[6/9/09] Congratulations Richard and Andrew Jeng - Winners of the School Bridge League tournament! Richard and Andrew with their parents Wenwei and Sam spent the day in New York courtesy of School Bridge League. They arrived at the Pier Sixty at Chelsea Pier the morning of June 5th for the LEAGUE National Awards and Recognition Breakfast after which all the Youth were divided to 4 groups to know each other and brain storming about how to have a better world and how to bring service back to our community. This was followed by a lovely lunch with the whole event ending around 1:30 pm. Guest speakers at the lunch were Arne Duncan (U.S. Secretary of Education), Josh Lucas (Actor), and Jessica Yellin (CNN Correspondent). The family also had a chance to meet with Mr. Bill Hoogterp (The LEAGUE CEO & Commissioner) his wife Maria. Ms. Maria told Richard and Andrew that she was 'inspired to take up bridge too'. Richard and Andrew will be one of the pairs representing School Bridge League at the Youth NABC in Washington DC. Well done!

Atlanta Bridge Unit AJB Benefit Game

[6/7/09] The Atlanta Bridge Unit (ABU) of the American Bridge Association (ABA) held a covered dish Benefit Game on May 30, 2009. The purpose of the game was to support ABA members Bette Hardin, Queen Jackson and Allean Strickland, who are teaching in the ACBL's Atlanta Junior Bridge program. The proceeds from the game will be divided equally among their AJB students who are going to attend the Summer NABC in Washington, D.C.

The game was held at the Quality Living Senior Center. There were twenty-one tables in play. Three and one half tables consisted of Atlanta Junior Bridge players. Shirley Williams, President of the ABU; Evelyn Gilliard, Area Coordinator; Bette Hardin and Edith Knowlton, Game Directors; Evelyn Cook, Worth Christler and Emma Fountain, Logistic Coordinators; and the membership of the ABU were responsible for the successful event. The ABU thanks Patty Tucker for her visit and support.

Thank you Atlanta Bridge Unit for your support.

Fireworks in Atlanta Supersectional

[6/6/09] Mark your Calendars! The Atlanta Junior Bridge game will be held July 3rd at 10:00 a.m. The Fireworks in Atlanta Supersectional will be held at the Hilton Atlanta Northeast at 5993 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Norcross GA 30092.

We'll offer a Cardrook game for our beginning players, as well as a game for the more experienced amongst you. The drawing for the raffle will be held Sunday July 5th at this tournament, so let's make a big showing and get people behind us for Washington DC!!

2009 Youth Advocate Position

[6/6/09] If you are an ACBL member, 19 or younger, now is your opportunity to vote for the young player you would like to bring your ideas to ACBL.

American Contract Bridge League Voting is Now Open for ACBL's 2009 Youth Advocate Position! Please click here to read the resumes and to submit your vote for one of the five outstanding candidates who are running for the ACBL Youth Advocate position. Don't miss this chance to select the Youth Advocate who will be your voice to the ACBL! Vote now - Deadline to vote ends July 15, 2009!

AJB Players Do Well at the Covington Sectional

[6/1/09] Congratulations to Zandy Rizzo and Murphy Greene of Alpharetta and Richard Jeng and Andrew Jeng of Johns Creek for their great game at the Sunday Swiss Teams in Covington. They played in the open Swiss Teams and came in 5th in Flight B. Well done guys!

http://www.mabcbridge.org/SectionalTournaments/GreensboroGA/090529/Info.htm

Friday July 10th - Save the Date!

Jerry Helms Seminar 2009

[5/12/09] Nationally famous writer, teacher and player Jerry Helms returned to Atlanta donating his time for the second annual Atlanta Junior Bridge fundraiser. A rousing success, Jerry raised over $7,000 for AJB’s youth efforts. Our sincere thanks go to Penelope Smith, Gene Manion and Jackie Key of Charlotte for giving their energy and time in duplicating many, many sets of boards and organizing all of the seminar material. Gailyn Thornton, Dick & Jenny Cannon, Jackie Henry, Allison Spears, Julia Stewart, Betty Hall, Cathy Totis, Julie Gregory, Marty Nathan and Sam Marks handled the Atlanta end of the organizing effort with style and class. They have the gift of making a difficult and demanding job appear easy.

Grand National Teams

[5/4/09] Our Atlanta Junior Bridge students played well in the Grand National Teams last weekend in Morganton NC. Congratulations to the team of Zandy Rizzo, Murphy Green, Angie Green, Arjun Dhir, Andrew Jeng and Richard Jeng for placing third Saturday which qualified them for the flight C semifinals Sunday in the Grand National Teams. The Dhir team finished 3/4.

The team of Ricoh Das, Karan Vohra, William Dang and Jimmy Fordham placed fifth on Saturday. Coming from behind at the half, they barely missed qualifying. Another 3 VP's would have won them a place in the playoffs also.

Well done and congratulations to everyone. Not only did you play well, but your behavior, skill and demeanor was commented on throughout the tournament, earning good marks for young bridge players everywhere.

Zandy, Murphy, Angie, Arjun, Ricoh, Karan and William are all from Alpharetta and currently attend classes taught by Carolyn and Lee Eckert. Andrew and Richard are from Johns Creek and are taught by Marty Nathan at the ADBC and by Lola Sliom. Many of the players are graduates of AJB's Summer Camps taught by Nancy Watkins and Patty Tucker, all still attend summer camps on a regular basis. Jenni and Tom Carmichael have been working on precision with Zandy, Murphy, Andrew, Richard and Arjun at Alpharetta Bridge Club. Thank you to all of the teachers, assistants and subs that share a part in their success.

See also http://www2.morganton.com/content/2009/may/02/day-well-suited-bridge/.

Bridge Makes a Comeback

[3/24/09] Channel 13 news in Houston did a great segment about bridge that aired Friday, March 20th in Houston. The segment is currently up on the Channel 13 web site at the following link, if you'd like to view it.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=6721496

2009 Georgia State Youth Team Championship — A Great Success and Great Fun

[3/5/09] Even before the tournament started ...the fun started. The new spring AJB t-shirts designed and created by Diana Hughes were a great success and the kids were delighted with the bright tie-dyed shirts. Thank you Diana for a terrific job! Thanks also to Richard Starr who also tie-dyed a considerable amount of the shirts to get ready for the tournament.

We also announced the winner of the contest to create a new design for the Washington Youth NABC tournament. Krishna Shah was the winner of a $50 gift card for her cool geometrical design which our AJB members voted on as their choice for the shirts.

As we got down to the 'real' business of Saturday, 13 tables of young players participated in the tournament held during the Roswell 'Almost Spring' Sectional . Four tables of youngsters played in the Card Rook game for beginning players and the remainder in the Georgia State Youth Team Championship. The results for our State Team Championship? A tie for 1st and 2nd place! After two rounds, the DHIR team was ahead of the GREEN team by 2 VP’s. Not to be outdone, the 3rd round found the GREEN team had flip-flopped the score and they were ahead by 2 VP’s. As the fourth round was completed and the final scores were submitted to the Director, Nancy Watkins, the captains of each team ‘did the math’ and even before the rest of us knew the answer, both the DHIR and the GREEN team were aware that a tie of 68 VP’s was the final score!

The final results:

In the Card Rook game Jamal Strickland and Drake Jones of Atlanta had a huge 76% game to carry them to a win.  Finals here were:

Congratulations to everyone.  What a great time we had!

2008 Masterpoint Races

[2/4/09] Congratulations to several of our Atlanta Junior Bridge students on doing well in the Unit and District 2008 Masterpoint Races! The Mini-McKenney Masterpoint Race is for points won in any ACBL sanctioned event in the past year. The Ace of Clubs Masterpoint Race considers only those points won in club games. Each player is ranked from the number of masterpoints they held when the year started.

Arjun Dhir (Alpharetta) led the way winning the Unit 114 5-to-20 Mini-McKenney Masterpoint Race (95.64) and the 5-to-20 Ace of Clubs Masterpoint Race (53.40). Arjun also placed in District 7 taking 2nd place in the Mini-McKenney and 5th in the Ace of Clubs Race.

Richard and Andrew Jeng (Johns Creek) finished tied for 2nd and 3rd in the Unit 114 Mini-McKenney (72.91) and 10th and 11th in the 5-to-20 Ace of Clubs (29.51). Richard and Andrew also finished tied for 7th and 8th in the District 7 5-to-20 Mini-McKenney.

In the 20-to-50 Mini-McKenney, Zandy Rizzo (Alpharetta), with 78.94 masterpoints, finished 5th in Unit 114 and 23rd in District 7.

Congratulations also go to Sean Gannon in the 50-to-100 Unit 114 Mini-McKenney. Sean finished 4th with 103.48 masterpoints.

On the national level we also had many students place in the top 50 in the Youth Masterpoint Race category:

Well done to all! We’re proud of you.

For a full listing of the masterpoint races go to http://www.acbl.org/about/mpraces.html.

AJB Pot Luck Dinner

[1/25/09] What a great time we had at the pot luck dinner last Sunday! Thank you to everyone who came, brought a dish to share (and helped clean up!). Good food, wonderful conversation and lots of games. We had Hearts, Spades, Scrabble, Monopoly, Speed Scrabble ...and even a few hands of bridge. It was wonderful to meet the parents of so many of the AJB students, I hope to make this an annual event to give everyone a chance to meet their AJB friends and neighbors.

New Class Series in Norcross

[1/9/09] A new junior bridge class is beginning February 7, 2009 at the ADBC, Saturdays, 10:00-11:30 a.m.  All levels are welcome; new players will start at the beginner level and progress at their own speed.  The cost is free.

Tell your friends!

U.S. News: Learn To Play Bridge

[1/2/09] In a December 18 U.S. News and World Report article, columnist Mike Salmon touts bridge as a way to improve one's life.

Did you know that….

[12/18/08]

• We taught 66 classes in 2008!  32 of those were for Beginners, 20 for Advancing Beginners and 14 for Intermediate players.
   
• We had over 800 students enrolled in classes during the Winter-Summer-Fall classes. 358 were beginners, and 444 were existing AJB students.
   
• AJB has taught 1371 young people the rudiments of bridge. Over 200 of our existing students take classes and play bridge on a continual basis. We teach an average of 120 students in beginning classes each trimester. Our roster is now over 600 students!
   
• The youngest AJB student is 6, the oldest is 17.
   
• AJB hosted the first Youth NABC – 198 players from 21 states and 3 Canadian provinces attended.
   
• ‘AJB Goes to Washington’ is a fund raising effort to give our students a way to raise money for their trip to Washington DC to compete in the 2nd Youth NABC July 30th through August 1st 2009. We are raffling off a Flat screen HDTV and Wii which can be shipped anywhere in the continental US. Find an AJB student or teacher, buy a ticket and help support their efforts.
   
• Atlanta Junior Bridge made its national debut on CBS Sunday Morning when Bill Gates and Warren Buffet were interviewed. The footage of players, students and teachers was taken from AJB games and classes.
   
• In addition to classes, 39 AJB competitive games were held in 2008. One each month at Ruff & Sluff, Alpharetta Duplicate Club and the Atlanta Duplicate Bridge Center AND a game at every Atlanta Sectional and Regional tournament.
   
• The winners of the 2007 Georgia Youth Pair State Championship held December 7, 2007 were brothers Andrew (10) and Richard (8) Jeng.
   
• If you ‘Go Krogering’, consider purchasing Kroger Gift Cards through the AJB website or from an AJB fundraising member. You receive the full value of the gift card and Kroger donates 5% to AJB!
   
• Carolyn Eckert retired as Secretary in order to spend more time teaching and Mary Jo Van Winkle is AJB’s new Secretary!
   
• AJB now has 35 teachers on call; 22 teach or assist with classes on a regular basis.
   
• Back by popular demand! Jerry Helms will be offering another seminar – last year’s was a smashing success – on April 22nd and 23rd 2009; this time on defense. All profits will benefit AJB’s programs and classes. Watch this website for additional details.
   
• AJB’s President, Patty Tucker, accepted a position as the ACBL Youth Coordinator for 2008/2009.
   
• Arjun Dhir (12), Zandy Rizzo (13), Andrew Jeng (10) and Richard Jeng (8) won the 2008 Georgia Youth Team State Championship played on March 29. Fourteen tables of competitors participated.

We need your help to continue. AJB has been funded solely by donations and grants from bridge players, bridge organizations and parents of students over the last three years. Over 70% of all funding we receive goes directly towards continuing our classes, camps and playing opportunities for our young players. Together we have created an organization to show young people the fascinating world of Bridge. Thank you for your support.

Georgia Youth Open Pairs State Championship 2008

[12/09/08] At the Georgia Youth Pairs State Championship this Saturday we had 19 tables of our Georgia youth testing their skills.  Richard and Andrew Jeng of Johns Creek came out on top, snagging the 1^st -place trophy in a closely-run race against Murphy Greene and Ashish Shah of Alpharetta who finished 2^nd .   With one round to play, there was approximately a 3-matchpoint difference between the pairs.

Third place went to Zandy Rizzo and Arjun Dhir, with Ricoh Das and Sean Gannon finishing fourth.  Mili Raina and Kenneth Yang (5^th) were followed by Surabhi Ghai and Hunter Smith (6^th). 

In the Card Rookie pairs (the newcomer event) Sahil and Nikita Raina finished 1^st , followed by Bob Wiley and Ally Wardlow in 2^nd place.

Click here to see the session recap listings.

At one point in the Card Rookie game, the director was called to the table to clarify who was supposed to be dummy.  The auction had gone:

AJB Goes to Washington!

[09/26/08] The 2009 Youth NABC will be held in Washington DC July 30-August 1, 2009 in conjunction with ACBL's Summer North American Bridge Championship.

All the details are still being finalized, but we'll keep you updated as the ACBL Youth NABC website takes form. We know that while we have many players who would like to attend, this will be a relatively expensive site to visit.

In recognition of this the AJB fundraising committee has organized a raffle to help you raise money for your child to attend. AJB will be raffling off a 32" Toshiba TV (or equivalent) and Nintendo Wii. The cost of each ticket will be $5.00. The raffle will run October 1, 2008 through July 4, 2009 and the drawing will be held July 5, 2009. You do not have to be present to win and the prize can be shipped anywhere in the continental U.S.

Your child and family can earn money to defray your expenses by selling raffle tickets. You can help sell at booths during tournaments and as individuals. Ticket sales from tournaments will be split 50/50 between the represented families and AJB. Individual ticket sales will be split 95% to the individual child/family and 5% to AJB. All money collected from sales either at tournaments or individually will be returned to and held by AJB and distributed to you upon arrival in Washington DC. No AJB parent or child is required to participate in this raffle.

The proceeds of any tickets sold by teachers or friends of AJB, will go 100% to AJB to cover the expenses of the raffle. Any extra funds will be used to provide special activities to be determined later for any AJB kids attending the Youth NABC.

There must be parental permission for any child to participate in selling these tickets. The tickets are being ordered and will be available soon. If you are interested in obtaining tickets for your family to sell, please contact Patty Tucker at patty@atlantajuniorbridge.org or Laurie Wexel at lwexel@bellsouth.net.

If you are interested in taking part in manning a booth for a few hours at any or all of the tournaments in either December, March or July, please contact Annie Rizzo at annierizzo@comcast.net.

Kroger Gift Cards

[09/25/08] When you purchase a Kroger gift card from Atlanta Junior Bridge, you get the full face value of the gift card.  Kroger will donate matching funds equal to 5% of all gift card sales to AJB.  Click here for details.

See also the News Archive