[gregh2]

Hi,
My name is Greg Herman. I am an 18 year old junior/senior at the University of Washington, and I live in the Seattle area (generally UTC-8). I've been playing duplicate bridge for two years now and have about 150 ACBL MPs. I don't have as much time to play as I would like due to heavy course loads and work, but normally play 1-2 sessions per week (more for tournaments and when classes are not in session). I would classify myself (despite my low masterpoint holding) as an advanced player; I am comfortable with almost any reasonable bidding system, and declare/defend reasonably well (at least better than the average open club player, though it's kind of difficult to self-gauge).

I am considering attempting to compete in national/international youth/junior events as time permits, or at least making an effort to do so. Unfortunately, there are exactly zero (at least that I know of) other youth/junior players that frequent local tournaments within a ~100 mile radius (I don't even think there are any in the district, though I could certainly be wrong). So I'm looking for someone probably under 21, though under 26 would work too, that is perhaps in a similar situation with a similar interest/commitment level to pair up for these kinds of events. Also, due to constraints from time and distance separation as well as event regulations, ideally anyone interested would also live somewhere in the US. I expect anyone responding to this will live reasonably far away though, so I expect we would play mostly online. Depending on interest, we could play anywhere from occasionally to a 3-4 hours weekly. I am reasonably flexible with times, so if anyone is interested I'm sure we could probably work a time to play.

As for system and carding, I am pretty flexible. With most of my regular partnerships, I play a 2/1 GF with various gadgets with upside-down count & attitude, right-side up suit preference, right-side up smith echo vs. NT, and trump suit preference for carding. I am keen on trying a strong club or strong diamond system if p is willing (or even systems that change based on seat/vulnerability), though certainly 2/1 will work too. Mostly for practical reasons, I would like to play a system that is ACBL GCC legal, or one that can be minorly tweaked to be GCC legal. I'm also pretty open to some more adventurous ideas if p is interested.

Anyways, if any junior players are finding themselves in a similar situation, let me know either by responding in this thread or via e-mail to: greg3@uw.edu.
I don't necessarily expect to find anyone in a similar situation and I also don't know whether it is reasonable to expect to be remotely competitive in these kinds of competitions, but I figure it can't hurt to explore the possibilities.

Thank you for your time.
Best Regards,
Greg Herman

[mrdct]

Greg,

I suggest you get in contact with Joe Stokes who is the USBF youth coordinator (you'll be able to find his details on the USBF website) who might be able to hook you up with someone else in a similar situation.

Good luck.

Dave.

(Australian Bridge Federation Youth Coordinator)