We are Tom Hunt and Julie Arbit, the proprietors of the Charlotte Bridge Association’s three evening bridge games, which are played at the Charlotte Bridge Association, 510 East Park Avenue, Charlotte, at 6:30 pm. Game times and profiles are as follows:
Mondays, 6:30-9 pm (0-299 MP). We typically split the game into two sections: 0 to 50 MP and 0-299 MP. We typically run 18 boards in both sections, and finish around 9-9:15pm.
Tuesdays, 6:30-9:30 pm (Open). Tuesday is typically a 24-board game. Sandwich-style snacks are provided upon request (see below for details). We never have a sit-out, since we use robots to fill in for any missing players.
Thursdays, 6:30-9 pm (Open, 18-board express). This 18-board game almost always finishes by 9 p.m. Sandwich-style snacks are provided upon request (see below for details). We never have a sit-out, since we use robots to fill in for any missing players. Along with our always-welcome open players, we invite all limited players who are transitioning into an open field to try this game. To make the game more comfortable for any limited players, psychic bids are not permitted for our Thursday game. Scroll down below for further details on our psychic bid policy. Also primarily for the benefit of limited players, we have our monthly play-with-a-pro raffle (scroll down for details).
Monthly & Weekly Newsletter
If you have played in either of our games in the last 90 days, you will receive our weekly newsletter. (You may view the most recently issued monthly newsletter and all past newsletters by clicking on the Newsletter menu above. )
If you want to find out more about Tom and Julie, click here.
If you need a partner for the either game, click here.
Click on the Game Results link to go to our common game results page for the Thursday game.
Our games offer the following:
Snacks
Since many of you may be coming directly from work hungry, we offer more than the usual bridge club snacks for our Tuesday and Thursday open games. The snacks range from deviled eggs and cheese with crackers to roast beef on a croissant with lettuce, tomatoes and cheese with a light aioli sauce. These snacks are offered at our cost (typically between $2.00 to $3.00) so to be guaranteed a snack you must sign up for one in advance the evening before your game (Monday midnight for Tuesday players; Wednesday midnight for Thursday players), either using the sign-up form in our newsletter or by e-mailing us at CharlotteEveningBridge@gmail.com. Don’t worry that you won’t be able to make it — someone else will be happy to eat what you missed.
Loyalty Teams
Our frequent players may benefit from our loyalty teams program. We automatically assign frequent players to one of four teams — spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Each month, the teams earn points: 1 point for each game attended plus the number of masterpoints earned by that player during the month. The points earned by each member of the team are added together, and the team memebers earning the most points who played at least 3 times during the prior month all receive 1 free play.
Play-with-a-Pro Raffle (Thursday evening only)
Our game offers our players a play-with-a-pro free raffle ticket every time they play which entitles the winner to one free club game play with a local bridge professional. (Extra tickets can be purchased for $1.00 each). Drawings are made during the last game of the month. We will raffle off the right to play with our pro the last Thursday game of this month. Click on Our Pros to see a biographical sketch of each of our pros and the conditions of contest.
No Sit-Outs – Guaranteed
For our Tuesday and Thursday open games, we never have sit-outs because any otherwise half-table pairs play via computer against BBO robots the same hands that everyone else is playing.
Thursday Evening Psychic Bid Policy
To make the Thursday evening game more comfortable for our players, psychic bids bids are not permitted. A psychic bid is a call that deliberately and grossly misstates either honor strength or suit length. Note that accidental misbids are NOT psychic bids. In the event that a player makes a purposeful psychic bid during our Thursday game, the board will be adjusted against the offending pair and in favor of the non-offending pair to the extent necessary to restore equity. A player who violates the policy after being twice warned is subject to ejection from the game.
Bridge Education Opportunities
For our Thursday players, since our game ends quite early (between 8:45 and 9:00 pm), Tom and Julie enjoy staying afterwards going over any hands that our players care to discuss. You will find our popular weekly bridge problem or quiz (and all past problems) by clicking on the Bridge Articles link. Feel free to leave a comment, or subscribe to the blog by entering your e-mail address in the “Follow ….” box in the far lower right hand corner of the Bridge Articles page.
Julie and Tom are also active in bridge education in the Charlotte community. Julie is now offering a so-called barometer game on Saturday mornings, and hopes to expand her barometer offering soon. Julie’s barometer game is a huge success, and requires players to sign up well in advance of the game. To sign up, or for more information, click here.
Game Statistics
Since the Tuesday game is a full 24 board game where as the Thursday game is an “express” game of only 18 boards, we would have expected the field strength of the Tuesday game to be materially stronger than the field strength of the Thursday game. But our statistics show that the two games having a very similar profile: the middle 50% of our players in the Thursday gave range from the middle 50% from 107 to 629 master points (median: 346 masterpoints); while the same middle 50% for the Tuesday game range from 131 to 629 masterpoints (median: 400 masterpoints). Nonetheless, the Thursday game may be particularly appealing to a player that typically plays on the “limited” side and is reluctant to play in the open game, but is willing to give it try since the game is shorter. Both games, however, have an entirely different “feel” than the open afternoon games at the Charlotte Bridge Association. Both are far more relaxed and, and if we may brag a little, convivial.
Thursday Game Profile
Below are our Thursday night game statistics as of February 4, 2018:
| Total number of games held to date | 18 |
| Number of tables in most recent game | 9 |
| Average number of tables over the past 90 days | 6.1 |
| Number of unique players over past 90 days | 107 |
| 1/4 of our returning players have less than this number of master points | 107 |
| 1/2 of our returning players have less than this number of master points | 346 |
| 3/4 of our returning players have less than this number of master points | 629 |
Tuesday Game Profile
We only have been collecting statistics for the Tuesday game since when we assumed responsibility for that game at the beginning of the year. This is what we have so far.
| Total number of games held since Jan. 1, 2018 | 5 |
| Number of tables in most recent game | 7 |
| Average number of tables since Jan. 1, 2018 | 8.2 |
| Number of unique players since Jan. 1, 2018 | 66 |
| 1/4 of our returning players have less than this number of master points | 131 |
| 1/2 of our returning players have less than this number of master points | 400 |
| 3/4 of our returning players have less than this number of master points | 629 |
* * *
We hope to see you at one of our game soon.
*This average is the so-called “geometric average”, which tends to give less weight to very large numbers. This is a fairer measure of a typical player’s master points, since using the arithmetic average gives unfair weight to, say, a single player with a very large number of master points. Master point figures are from the Charlotte Bridge Association September 2017 directory.
Charlotte Evening Bridge 