Treffinger earns Bridge Life Master rank at Jasper Duplicate Bridge

Dave Treffinger, a member of the Jasper Duplicate Bridge Club, shared how he came to love bridge and recently earned his Life Master rank.

How I, Dave Treffinger, started playing bridge and earned Life Master status.

I started playing cards from Old Maid to Pinochle but no Bridge when I was a kid with my grandma, parents and sisters.

During my second year at Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now known as Missouri S & T) I had a break between classes with not enough time to go somewhere to study. So I went to the student union which had a cafeteria, ping pong and pool tables. I played both.

Every day that I came to the student union, there were four guys sitting at the same table in the cafeteria. One day I went by their table and found out they were playing cards, which turned out to be bridge. The game of bridge obviously was interesting to me because I loved to play cards. After several days of watching, I stopped to watch, but one of the normal foursome was not there. The guy without his partner asked me to sit down. Obviously, he was desperate for a partner. After each hand, I received constructive criticism very bluntly or to the point. Then I joined the college MSM Duplicate Bridge Club where I won my first master points.

After I graduated, I accepted a job in Toledo, Ohio. Somehow, I found out about a duplicate bridge game in Toledo. I arrived to play at the game one night with no partner and knowing no one there. The director fixed me up with a partner for the game. At this game, I found out there were other games every day of the week. Somehow I connected with a different person at the game to be my partner going forward. We became a consistent partnership playing around three nights a week.

The clubs where we played had advertisements on the Spring Nationals Bridge Tournament to be held in Cleveland, Ohio. I convinced my partner we should go. Two other people, my partner and I drove to Cleveland. On our arrival we went into the hotel where the tournament was being held. They had tables set up everywhere with people playing bridge.

After getting settled in, I said to my partner “Are you ready to sign up to play?” My partner said I am not playing! That was a shock and a real downer. I asked the other two if one of them would play. The lady said she would play. We signed up to play and were assigned to a 19 table Mitchell movement section located on the mezzanine overlooking a huge playing area of hundreds of tables.

Before we started, I could see she was nervous. Little did I know how nervous. As I remember, we were a long way from placing.

With none of the three people that came with me from Toledo willing to play now, I went to the partnership desk where I was assigned a partner. My new partner and I signed up to play in a pairs event where we played, and I received my first red points.

We decided to sign up to play in another pairs event scheduled for the next day. In the meantime, I walked around the playing area looking for an expert to kibitz when I spotted Charles Goren and his partner John Gerber playing in a pairs event. Charles Goren introduced the point count bidding system and introduced his methods into what became known as Standard American. John Gerber invented the four club bid asking for aces. I went to their table when they were between hands and asked if I could kibitz. Charles said no problem that I could watch them. So I pulled up a chair close to Charles. I watched them for a long time and Charles and I talked a lot between hands and rounds. He said he would send me his latest bridge book.

The next day my new partner and I played in the pairs event. When we sat down on the fourth-round move, thought I recognized one of the men. They were not friendly, and we did not do very well against them. After playing against them I found out he was who I thought he was – Barry Crane who they named the Top 500 Master Point Race in the bulletin after. However we did receive red points for the event. There were over 8,000 tables of bridge played at this tournament.

We returned to Toledo, and I continued to play bridge until the company transferred me to one of their plants located in Vincennes, Indiana. Bridge stopped for a number of reasons.

I was registered with the Missouri Selective Service Board that required me to notify them of any change in status. When I notified them that I was now married, I was in the Army in less than 4 months. No bridge.

After being honorably separated from the Army, I accepted a job with the Navy at Crane, Indiana. I started playing bridge again at the Washington Duplicate Bridge Club, Indiana and other places with different partners including Carl Armstrong. The long-time director of the Washington Duplicate Bridge Club had health issues. I was asked by the club manager if I would learn to be a certified director. I agreed to try. Matt Slatts, member and director of the Jasper Duplicate Bridge Club at the time, gave me the director test, which I accidentally passed. In the meantime, all of my different partners quit playing or left the area including Carl who took a job in California and I changed to a different job area. Carl and I lost track of each other. During the same time period, Judge Niblack decided to close the Washington Duplicate Bridge Club. I quit playing bridge then for several reasons.

35 years later, while I was going through my billfold, I found Carl Armstrong’s Bloomington, Indiana, phone number. I called the number many times with the telephone company telling me the number was out of service and no good. Three days after I gave up calling, Carl called me from his Evansville phone number. He had no way of knowing that I had tried to call him. We talked and decided to meet at the Jasper Duplicate Bridge Club to play. Big thanks should go to Carl for calling me and getting me playing bridge again. Since Carl passed away almost three years ago, I have been lucky to be able to play with many different members of the Jasper Duplicate Bridge Club as my partner. I want to thank and express my appreciation for the hospitality shown to Carl and me by the Jasper Duplicate Bridge Club and to all the members who helped me to get the Master Points I needed to achieve the Life Master status. No one can become a Life Master without others (partners) helping to earn the status.

According to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), on September 5, 2024, Mary Ann Seng was my partner when I received the last red points I needed and on January 16, 2025, Betty Verkamp was my partner when I received the last silver points I needed, and these were the last points of any kind that I needed to become a Life Master.

On February 6, 2025, the District 11 Director sent me an email congratulating me on earning the Life Master status. On March 4, I received my Life Master Certificate and Gold Card from the ACBL.