2008 Summary

The end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 have been a complete blur. Time has flown by. The beginning of March is the first time I have had a chance to sit down and reflect on my first year as a full time bridge professional...

2008 was an amazing year. I played in 17 Regionals, 15 Sectionals, and spent another 8 weeks at special events (NABCs, International/non-ACBL Events, and Teaching.) That's a total 40 weeks of bridge tournaments. This is much more than I expected to do when 2008 started. Amazingly, as 2008 ends and 2009 begins I find myself even more energized and optimistic for future great bridge adventures. (The 2009 outlook will be in another blog post.)

Some 2008 Highlights

• Orlando Regional -- new partnerships with Les and Gloria Bart...
  
• Hilton Head Regional -- First Bracket 1 Regional KO (Thanks Capp, JR!)
• Hilton Head Regional -- Match vs. Meckwell (First of many to come...)
• Detroit NABC -- Finals in all pairs events (Silidor, Mixed, Red Ribbons...)
• Finland Tournament -- Win introductory Pairs at International Event!
• GNT FL District Final --Win Flight B (my team) and Flight C (my students team)
• Palm Beach Gardens Regional -- First Bracket 1 Regional KO win!
• Omaha Regional -- First tournament on a Tournament Bridge Services Team...
• Clearwater Regional -- First win over Meckwell!
  
• Ft. Wayne Regional -- Team won the regional MP race (well done, Anne Dawson!)
• Ft. Wayne Regional -- new partnership with Jim Looby...
  
• Seaside Regional -- First tournament played with Jade
• Chattanooga Regional -- First Full Regional with a student from home (great job Raphael!)

The year was just amazing.

• Won over 1556 Masterpoints (had only about 1500 masterpoints to start the year...)
  
• 18th on the Barry Crane, (list of most masterpoints won each year in ACBL)
• Won the Silver Life Master National Race...
  

I'd like to thank so many people for all their help, but the list could go on forever... Let me just say, thank you to everyone that helped make this amazing year possible -- you know who you are!

I'll hopefully post a few pictures from some of my favorite events of 2008 soon!