Pam Wittes, a resident of Venice, Calif., won her eighth national bridge title at the 2018 Fall North American Bridge Championships, which concluded in Honolulu, Hawaii on Dec. 2. The tournament was organized by the American Contract Bridge League, the sanctioning body for the game of bridge in North America.
Wittes was a member of the team that successfully defended its title in the Marsha May Sternberg Women’s Board-a-Match event, which is contested annually during the fall tournament and consists of two qualifying and two final sessions and is restricted to female players. The 2018 event marks the final time the team competition will be held.
“When we discovered we had won we were floating on air,” Wittes said. “There were a couple of really good hands against our top competition; getting those right was the reason for our win.”
The ACBL has 14 masterpoint rank titles from Rookie to Grand Life Master, which requires 10,000 masterpoints and a NABC victory. Wittes is a Grand Life Master with more than 13,000 masterpoints.
Bridge is played with a standard deck of playing cards and four players comprised of two partnerships. Duplicate – or contract – bridge differs from other forms of bridge because the same deal (i.e., the specific arrangement of the cards into the four hands) is played at each table, and scoring is based on relative performance. This way, the element of skill is heightened while that of chance is reduced.
About the ACBL
Founded in 1937, the ACBL is the largest bridge organization in the world, serving 167,000 members and 3,000 bridge clubs and sanctioning 1,100 sectional and regional tournaments annually. The ACBL’s three North American Bridge Championships each attract up to 6,500 players from all around the world. A challenging and rewarding card game, bridge draws players of all ages and walks of life – from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to astronaut Greg “Box” Johnson. For more information about the ACBL, visit acbl.org.
Submitted by Lori Pope American Contract Bridge League
