Newer players practice their Stayman skills during a workshop run by Mike and Mary Wells at Copperopolis. Soon they will play in a newly sanctioned limited masterpoint game to be held once a month at 4 pm on Mondays. Call 209-454-1223 for more information. The mp limit is 50 but anyone is welcome to mentor a new player (but the pair cannot earn masterpoints). 
Mary will be starting a new beginners class in the new year. 

Barbara Smart of Stockton is a new Gold Life Master. Congratulations!

Congratulations to new Gold Life Master Mort Horn.

Sue Vogtlin is also a new Gold Life Master - congratulations too.

This must be a record for our small unit - three new Gold Life Masters in one month.

Mike Wells of Copperopolis is a new Silver Life Master. Congratulations!

The gold country clubs are very sad to say farewell to Christine Vanderliet who is moving to Grants Pass in Oregon. In addition to her inspiring life story and how bridge has helped sustain her, Chris has been a wonderful volunteer and contributor of delicious goodies and treats. We will miss her so much.

Coincidently, at the same time, we are delighted to welcome David McGee of Murphys but formerly of Stockton. David is a Life Master who has not played since the early nineties, but now that he is retired has returned to duplicate bridge. Wishing you happy times at the bridge table, David.

Don Stillwell passed away in San Andreas on September 29, 2024, at the age of 92. Don started, owned and directed the Gold Country Duplicate Bridge Club game for over 25 years. A longtime supporter of the San Andreas Senior Center, Don ran his weekly game there until he was almost 90, and donated all the proceeds to the center. Sharon Ritchie, who he encouraged to become a director and to be his successor, says, “Don was always so welcoming, and never had a harsh word for anyone. He was kind and generous to a fault.”

In January of 2022 a retirement party was held for Don Stillwell,

and he was presented with this token of appreciation, inscribed “Our Bridge Director.”

Debbie Dezarn's Stockton Unit report

in the D21 Diamond in the Ruff October 2024 newsletter

Not one, not even two, but three Stockton Players recently passed the 2500 point mark to become Gold Life Masters! Congratulations to Sue Vogtlin, Barbara Smart, and Mort Horn. They are all regulars who support the Stockton and Oak Park clubs by playing three times a week.

Not to be overlooked but others have had rank advancements as well: Frank Klo became a Sectional Master but is just a few silver shy of the next rank. Michael Wells achieved Silver Life Master. We also celebrate the relative newcomers who have achieved Junior Master: Eric Daegling, Beryl Simkins, and John Oesterle.

David McGee is a former Stockton Life Master who has been away from the game for many years. He now plays in the Mountain clubs so we welcome him back to the Unit!

In a huge surprise to all the Stockton and Oak Park players, (former) Oak Park Director Korey Baumbaugh decided to “retire” from duplicate bridge and pursue other interests. Korey was a dedicated and hard working player, Director, and member of the Unit 510 Board of Directors. He sponsored the only Longest Day fundraiser (knife sharpening) in the valley clubs and taught beginner and private bridge lessons for many years prior to becoming a busy Director.

There have been increases in card fees at both valley clubs to offset the higher ACBL fees and to create an emergency fund in case the dealing machine needs to be replaced. It has been “refurbished” once and still acts up now and then and will have to be replaced eventually at a cost exceeding $5,000. Stockton Bridge Center now charges $10 and Oak Park $3 (plus membership in the Stockton Community Centers). But the good news is that the STaC games in November will not charge the players anything extra.

Wendy Buchanan has been teaching (very) beginning bridge to 24 students since September. None have dropped out yet and at least 3 are people who have never before played any card games at all. Two are current duplicate players (but rarely come) just taking the class as a refresher. The rest are mixed levels of “social bridge” who we hope will join ACBL soon.

I will close with the sad news of 3 deaths of longtime Unit 510 players who will be sorely missed. Don Stillman was a long time Director of the Mountain clubs (see the Unit 510 website for a nice article). Irmgard Owen has played for years and was very tickled to get a Golden Master certificate a few years ago. We will miss her warm and quiet demeanor and generosity. She always arrived with a cake or other German dessert in hand when playing on Thursdays. The most surprising was the sudden passing of Marilyn Minden who was the Unit 510 representative to district 21 ever since I have known her. Many long time players would recognize her as the face of the Hospitality Room at District Regionals until she gave that up about 5 years ago. She frequently bought pizza for the Stockton club games and was the first to recognize the achievements of others.

STOCKTON BRIDGE CLUB

Mondays and Fridays at 11:30 am

Non-Life Masters (NLM) 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 11:30 am

3rd Sunday Potluck and Unit game at 12 noon

OAK PARK BRIDGE CLUB, STOCKTON

Wednesdays at 11:00 am.

MOTHER LODE CLUB, MURPHYS at 12:30 pm

Murphys Diggins Club House alternate Mondays

GOLD COUNTRY CLUB, SAN ANDREAS at 12 noon

Alternate Wednesdays: 12 noon at San Andreas Senior Center.

SONORA CLUB at 11:30 am

 Every Friday at the Sonora Senior Center.

HWY 49ers BBO CLUB at 1:00 pm

These alternating online games fill in the gaps.

For the Schedule of these four Games, click below

Master2024Dates1.pdf

♥  There's lots to see! For your game results click on the date in the green boxed heading under RESULTS on the TOP RIGHT of the screen. Now you should see a list of players and their percentages. Click on your name for a list of your personal scores. Scroll down to the end to see if you were a better declarer than your partner!

   On the right you can see some [PLAY] tabs. Click on one, select the BBO tab, and now you can 1) Replay the hand as you did at the table [NEXT], 2) Replay the hand as you wish you had at the table [PLAY], 3) Let GIB – the super-robot – replay the hand as you should have done at the table [GIB]. Cool stuff!