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So what is the largest tournament in the land?
ACBL's Spring or Summer North American Bridge Championships? Gatlinberg? Las Vegas? Great Western STAC?
None of the above?
Depends on how you interpret “largest.” Is that the largest number of
tables in play? Largest number of days played? Largest number of players
entered?
More then 20,000 different players will participate in our three Western
Conference annual Great Western Spring STACs. More than twice the number in
the Gatlinburg Regional and more than any recent NABC. During
our December Holiday STAC 10,500 players earned MPs. This total does not
include those players not earning points. By this measure it is easily the
biggest tournament in the entire ACBL. Hawaii's Fall NABC last November
had 2960 players earning masterpoints, The December east coast
Mid-Atlantic Conference STAC drew a total of 4231 tables in play. We draw
more than 7000 tables in each of our Spring and Winter STACs.
The Great Western STACs are the clear attendance winners in all
categories.
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The Great Western STACs
By Jerry Fleming
Western Conference
President
The Great Western Sectional Tournaments At Clubs take place throughout the
western regions of ACBL-land three times a year. Clubs in Western
Conference districts 17, 21 and 22 (California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas,
New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) are joined by players from Washington,
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa,
Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, and from the Canadian provinces of British
Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan to make these the largest STACs
held anywhere. Table count for these STACs in 20,000 total. Each is
bigger than any regional except Gatlinburg!
These are sectional tournaments, so all masterpoint awards are silver.
Each session, morning, afternoon and evening, is a separate event. Players
can win section awards in their local games, but with a big score could
place in the overall standings and win lots of points. As an example, the
2006 Monday afternoon game attracted 642 tables, and the winners earned
over 22 masterpoints!
Betty Bratcher is the director in charge. Thanks to her and to the
efforts of Contract Bridge Forum web guru Sergio Mendivil, results are posted promptly on
the Western Conference (WC) website and updated daily throughout the
competitions as results come in.
You can view these here at www. TheWesternConference.com
Registration is easy, as all the club manager has to do is complete the
registration form on the above Western Conference web site. Hand records
are used, and game managers will be notified by Betty when they are
available and how to download them.
A Great Western STAC is a lot of fun. Urge your club owner or club manager to
sign up so you can be part of the action!
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