District 16's flagship tournament, Houston’s Lone Star Regional, returns to its annual late January-early February slot: year 2025 is February 3-9. Game times are 10:00 & 2:30 except Sunday 9:00 & 1:30. See the flyer for full game and event schedules.
2025 Grand National Teams
By Scott Nason​
The GNT 2025 is coming. There is no unit qualifying required, so you can proceed straight to district finals. Get your team together and meet us in Houston or Dallas in the Spring. There are four levels that will compete in the GNT District Finals. The four winners of that event (and possibly more – see below) go on to compete at the GNT finals in Philadelphia in July 2025. The top flight – the Championship Flight – is open to anyone who is an ACBL member in good standing and who resided in District 16 as of September 1, 2024. In order to play in Flight A, each member of the team must also have had fewer than 6000 masterpoints as of the August 6, 2024 posting. For Flight B the cutoff is 3000 points, and Flight C is limited to Non-Life Masters with fewer than 750 points. Each team may consist of four, five or six players, but each player must be eligible for the flight in which the team is competing.
San Miguel Regional
February 25-March 2, 2025
Dallas NABC 2027
By Tomi Storey, 2027 NABC Chair
The ACBL Board has approved Dallas as the location for the Spring 2027 North American Bridge Championships (NABC). Let me repeat – Dallas will host an NABC again for the first time since 2014! To say that we are excited would be a monumental understatement.
There is an incredible amount of research and planning that goes into selecting potential sites for tournaments: size of meeting areas, lighting, restaurants, ADA access, affordable rates, even the number of restrooms that don’t require hiking boots to get there and back. The Hyatt Regency in downtown Dallas matched the criteria needed. I think everyone will be very pleased with the hotel and it will be going through additional renovations before our dates in preparation for the World Cup coming to DFW in 2026.
More on those plans as we hear about them, so mark your calendars for March 11-21, 2027. As the chair of the 2014 Dallas NABC, I am delighted to say that I will be back in that role for 2027, but cochairing this time with Scott Nason. Scott is known to District 16 as our GNT Coordinator, NABC correspondent, and the Unit 176 representative to the District 16 Board of Directors. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in this endeavor, both as cochair and at the table.
Watch future Scorecard issues and this website for updates and plans as they develop. I hope you will be there because it is going to be one Texas-sized Bridge Party!
ACBL Membership Dues & Renewals
Membership – 1 year $ 59
Membership – 3 years $147
Life Members (service fee) – 1 year $ 56
Life Members (service fee) – 3 years $138
Patron Member – 1 year $325
Patron Member – 3 years $900
Junior Member- 1 year $ 5.
Household (2) – 1 year $ 99
Household (2) – 3 years $276
Household (2) Patron – 1 year $445
Household (2) Patron – 3 years $1260
District 16 Logo Unveiled
By Evvie Gilbert
D16 Scorecard Editor/Contact Administrator
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It's official. District 16 now has its Logo.
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We asked our District 16 artists to submit their concept regarding what a logo for this district might be. As you know, D16 encompasses most of Texas plus all of Mexico and this new logo is to represent our total membership. For this work, presented as a contest, the person submitting the winning entry to receive one free play day at a D16 tournament of their choice.
The artists' works were submitted to the D16 Contact Administrator who then forwarded each one, identified by number only, to the D16 Executive Committee. This committee is comprised of the current district president, first vice president, second vice president, executive treasurer, executive secretary and immediate past president.
After the committee reviewed all the entries, the one selected was submitted by Susanne (Sue) Cauflield of Hutto in Unit 207. This logo will be used on D16 publications including Scorecard and here on our new district website.
Thank you, Sue, for your winning work! We also thank each of the other D16 artists and friends who submitted their ideas.
New Recruitment Games from ACBL
By Lauri Laufman, Membership Chair
ACBL has designed three new programs to entice your community to become bridge players: Bridge Ambassador Program, Come Play Cards with Us and PickleBridge. Click on the program’s name to learn more about each of these – they’ve been designed to help you with your recruitment efforts.
If you initiate any of the new programs or hold some cool event for your members and/or to boost membership, please share the details and feedback received.
Region Directors
of the ACBL
By Ken Monzingo
Not so long ago, when I was a board member, each of the 25 ACBL districts had a representative on the league’s Board of Directors, all elected for 3-year terms by vote of their district units. They were referred to as District Directors or National Board Representatives. Each year the members elected a different board president from their ranks called the ACBL President. There were no term limits and some stayed on the board for decades.
In year 2021 the board reduced itself from 25 to 13 and renamed themselves Region Directors, each representing 1, 2, or three districts, depending on district membership sizes. Although our District 16 – most of Texas and all of Mexico – is the largest district in geographical size, it is not in membership: 16th of the 25. We were assigned to a two district region, Region 9, together with District 15 which encompasses Oklahoma, and Kansas plus SW Missouri, Amarillo, Texas and West Arkansas.
Region 9 Numbers, as of September 30, 2024
District 16 District 15
Members: 6707 Members: 2423
Units: 18 Units: 7
FYI: In the past 36 months every district in ACBL has decreased by at least 3.3% and some by more than 8.5%. District 16 has lost 5.61%, District 15, 3.31% – the smallest loss in the league.
Stardust Week, where players can earn 25% gold points and 75% black points, has been a mainstay at ACBL Virtual Clubs for years. But this year ACBL has expanded the event to face-to-face clubs. Stardust Week 2024 is Monday, December 16-Sunday, December 22 and any/all sanctioned games on those days are eligible to be a Stardust Week game. However participation is decided by each club manager so check with your local club.
By Larry Davis
D16 NAP Coordinator
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The 2024-2025 North American Pairs (NAP) held club qualifying games during June, July and August. All who qualified at the club level may now play in the District 16 NAP final held January 11-12 in Austin. This prestigious grass roots event is staged in qualifying rounds at the club and district levels culminating in a National Final held in conjunction with the 2025 Spring NABC in Memphis, Tennessee.
The NAP games are flighted. Flight eligibility is based on the June 2024 masterpoint cycle which is run May 6, 2024.
• Flight A open to all D16 players
• Flight B 0-2500 masterpoints
• Flight C 0-500 Non-Life Master
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