Looking for the ultimate in a bridge tournament? Try the American Contract Bridge League’s Summer North American Championships in Las Vegas July 17-27. Playing site is the Hilton, right off the northern end of The Strip and adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center.
There are three categories of bridge tournaments. Sectionals tournaments are the smallest, and usually just draw local players and a few more from around the state. There are four sectional tournaments in Denver each year, and about a dozen more scattered throughout the state.
Regional tournaments are bigger and draw players from a larger area. Denver has one regional tournament a year, the upcoming Rocky Mountain Regional May 20-26 at the Renaissance Denver Hotel at 3801 Quebec St. The tournament will draw players from throughout the western United States, including some of the country’s top experts.
There are also annual regional tournaments in other District 17 cities such as Albuquerque, Phoenix and Las Vegas, with the occasional regional tournament in places like Tucson and (coming up in October) Colorado Springs.
Then there are the North American Bridge Championships, also known as nationals. These tournaments attract the top players from all over the country and even around the world — because American bridge is the toughest competition there is.
Vegas has already been host to the first-, third- and fourth-largest bridge tournaments in history, and the one coming up this summer is a contender for somewhere in the all time top five, likely over 20,000 tables over the course of the tournament.
For some people, the NABC is too big and hectic, but that’s part of the fun. And fear not. You need not be an expert to play. There are literally hundreds of different events during the 11-day tournament, including games for every class of player, novice, intermediate and expert, mornings, afternoons and evenings.
There are single-session events, double-session events and multi-session events. There are national championships, regionally-rated championships and sectionally or locally-rated games.
Las Vegas is one of the most popular spots in the country for bridge tournaments for obvious reasons. If you and your partner (surely it was mostly your partner) have a couple of bad sessions, you are still in Vegas, and you can walk right out the door of the playing site (and a couple more blocks) to the never-ending razzle-dazzle of The Strip.
At some other tournament sites, if you have a bad day at the bridge table, there isn’t much else to do.
For instance, at the risk of sounding critical, the recent Spring NABC’s in Detroit drew far fewer than 10,000 tables. The tournament was at the Renaissance Center, which is almost a self-contained city, with plenty of places to eat and shop without going outside. But again, suppose you have just had two miserable sessions at the bridge table, and it’s 10:30 p.m. Where are you? You are still in downtown Detroit.
In Vegas, you can forget your troubles and all those bad bids your partner made by walking out into that exhilarating blaze of neon. And for anyone who feels like venturing out into the scorching daytime heat, nearby scenic attractions include Hoover Dam and Lake Mead (see it now before it dries up completely) and the Valley of Fire.
