John Samsel

I started, like a lot of players, playing in college. Living on the East Coast and working in New York City , I was able to play in sectionals and regionals on the weekends but few club games-couldn't get home fast enough from the city. I accumulated about 100 points.

When I moved to St. Louis in the early 1980's, I stopped playing entirely. This was a result of taking on substantially more responsibility in a new oil industry job, the raising of two children and the lack of a good bridge partner.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I decided to get back into it. I bought (and read) Hardy's 2/1 book to update my bidding and then took off for Beth's Tuesday night game. There I met and later started playing with Susan Perez. I was lucky to be able to relearn the game from an expert teacher and great partner. Her inspired coaching enabled us to capture the prestigious Shymanski-Moore trophy in our first year of competition!

As the Unit 143 Board President, I represent the Unit at District 8 meetings.  My personal goal as a Board member is to work to increase attendance at our unit's four yearly tournaments by getting the unit's novice and intermediate players more involved.  We have taken a step in that direction by successfully upgrading the Unit Championship to a MONTHLY game, "8 Is Enough," where intermediate/novice players combine with Flight A or B players in a team competition.  The game is running at 20+ tables per month.