Mourning Sam Amer

The bridge world was saddened to lose one of our brightest young players on April 2nd. His many friends have written eloquently of his life on BridgeWinners. His friends have also asked the USBF to do something in his honor, and we definitely will, although we don't know what yet. Sam was a member of the USBF Junior program until he "aged out" and represented the USBF in the Under-26 event at the 2018 World Youth Bridge Team Championship in Wijiang China in Sam's last year as a Junior, where his team made it to the KO stage and lost a close match in the Quarterfinal.

Rob Barrington posted a YouTube memorial to Sam you may enjoy watching.

He will be missed by all who knew him. Donations in his honor may be made to the USBF Junior Fund.

Sam Amer

We go this from Sam's Facebook page, so he must have liked it.

Sam Amer

Amer Family2

Here he is with his family, mom Jill, Sam, sister Libby, sister Sarah, and dad Paul.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE DONORS IN HONOR OF SAM

Nancy Alvarado

Stanley Barg

Alan Bresky

Amy Casanova

Csaba Daday

Linda Einhorn-Ihde

Bonnie Gellas

Adam Gorin

Erez Handelman

Julian Jimenez

Amber Lin

Justin Martinez

Hee Jung Moon

Radu Nistor

Ida Pittman

Maureen Rives

Iulian Rotaru

Larry Sealy

Yoko Sobel

Marian Sussman

Beatrice Tusiani

Amer Family

Rob Barrington

Rosalie Brinton

Barbara Chamberlain

Alan Davidson

Nick Esoff

Eric Gettleman

Adam Grossack

Yehudit Hasan

Christian Jolly

Pei Lin

Ewan McNay

Brad Moss

Cynthia Ogden

Victor Poon

Nancy Robbins

Roger Scales

Clark Shaw

James Southern

Kristen Swenson

Jessica
Udomsrirungruang

Eric Anderson

Susan Bende-Scheer

Geri Burke

Brooke Cohen

Helene & Dan
Demmer

Marilyn Fedak

Joann Glasson

Zach Grossack

John Hurd

Adam Kaplan

Harrison Luba

Myrtis Meyer

David Moss

Fred Pasquale

John Ramos

Linda Robinson

Susan Schnelwar

Avery Silverstein

Scott Spitze

Lynne Tarnopol

Lucy Yang

Sydney Applebaum

Dana Berkowitz

Dori Byrnes

Jackie Cole

David Divine

Daisy Friedman

Judith Goodman

Joe Grue

Lisa Hutter

Dan Lev

David Marker

Gillian Miniter

Melissa Mugan

Alex Perlin

Amy Rhodes

Tanya Rodich

Barbara & Michael
Schwartz

Adam Sinclair

Christoper Steele

Anne Taylor

Asaf Yekutieli

Tim Archdeacon

Shawn Brenning

Nancy Calomiris

Danielle Cusson

Blenda Dupree

Fabian Geisberger

Lauren Goodstein

David Gurvich

Jill Jacobs

Joan Lieberman

Nancy Marshall

Rachel Moller

Sue Murphy

Robin Pikett

Barbara Rhodes

Andrew Rosenthal

Bill Seagraves

David Sizemore

Joe Stokes

Katherine Todd

Lucy Zhang

Details: Created: 07 April 2023; Last Updated: 12 October 2023

JLall8 Scheduled for June 22-25

We have scheduled JLall8 for June 22-25 this summer. The format will depend on the number of teams entered, but will probably be 2 days of Round Robin play to qualify either 4 or 8 teams for KO. The Round Robin will be Thursday and Friday, June 22 & 23. If there are 4 KO teams, the Semifinal will be Saturday and the Final Sunday. If there are 8 KO teams, the Quarterfinal will be Saturday, the Semifinal will be Sunday, and the Final will be scheduled at the convenience of the 2 teams playing in it.

Entry Information

Entry fee is $400 for the first 2 days and an additional $200 for subsequent days.

Entries are now open and will close on June 1st, subject to accepting one additional team if it would improve the format.

To enter, log in to this website and then go to the entry page.

This is an open book event, but as for all USBF events, you must complete and file a System Summary Form and ACBL convention card 2 weeks before play begins (June 8). To complete the SSF, log in and go to Create or Edit SSF under the User Menu. To file your ACBL convention card, email a link to a BridgeWinners card or a PDF of any other card to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Schedule & Other information about play

Each day's play will start at noon EDT and finish at about 8:00 pm. The exact schedule for each day will be posted after entries close.

Play will be on RealBridge, with screens and self-alerts.

Time allowed will be about 7 minutes per board, with 15-20 minute breaks between Round Robin matches and KO segments.

Details: Created: 26 February 2023; Last Updated: 26 February 2023

USA Juniors Star in 2022 World Youth Transnational Team Championship

A large contingent of US juniors participated in the 7th World Youth Transnational Championships, which was held Aug 7-14 in Salsomaggiore, Italy, taking home many medals and awards. We congratulate all of them:

U26 teams, "USA U26" Bo Han Zhu (CAN*), Zach Grossack, Finn Kolesnik, Harrison Anders Luba, Kevin Rosenberg, Michael Xu (USA) won gold.

Here they are on the Victory Stand in Italy, from the Tournament Bulletin:

Harrison Luba, Michael Xu, Kevin Rosenberg, Finn Kolesnik, Zach Grossack, Bo Han "Bruce" Zhu

In U26 pairs, Sibrand van Oosten (NED) - Jacob Freeman (CAN*) won gold.

In U21 pairs, Finn Kolesnik and Michael Xu won gold.

Finn Kolesnik (1) Michael Xu

Finn Kolesnik Michael Xu

In the U31/U26/U21 individual, Finn Kolesnik was 2nd overall and Kevin Rosenberg was 4th overall and 1st in U26.

Kevin Rosenberg

In the U16 teams, "USS Unsinkable" Andrew Chen, Charlie Chen, Kayden Ge, Eric & Jeff Xiao, Brian Zhang (USA) won silver.

2022 WYTBC U16 USS Unsinkables

In the USA U16 individual Brian Zhang won gold

2022 WYTBC U16 Brian Zhang & Andrew Chen

Brian Zhang with teammate Andrew Chen

Finn Kolesnik was the only triple medalist at the championship.

Finally, Olivia Schireson won a Joan Gerard Youth Award, the first US winner since Adam Kaplan in 2013. The Joan Gerard Youth Award rewards "aptitude, fair play, good sportsmanship and a friendly international spirit, rejecting any discrimination."

*Bo Han (Bruce) and Jacob represented Canada in Salsomaggiore, but played in the 2023 Michael Seamon Junior USBC and earned spots on US teams for the 2023 World Junior teams championship, so we honor them along with the players who were playing for the US in Salsomaggiore.

Details: Created: 19 January 2023; Last Updated: 19 January 2023

CONGRATULATIONS TO JUNIOR TEAMS

At the Michael Seamon Junior USBC, which ended on December 31, the USBF selected teams for the 2023 World Youth Bridge Team Championship: 2 teams for the Under 26 event, 2 teams for the Under 21 event, and one team for the Rona (young women under 26) event. The tournament would also have selected one team for the U16 event, but only one team entered in that division, so the Junior Committee has recommended to the USBF Board that they be approved. Several of the teams have fewer than 6 players and will augment to 6 and also choose non-playing captains before the USBF Board approves all of them.