Bridge Haven

Director/Player Profile

Directors:

Chuck Starovasnik has run Bridge Haven for over 14 years.  He has a number of directors that help him so the games run smoothly.  He learned to play bridge over 35 years ago and has been hook on bridge ever since. He is an ACBL Silver Life Master and has taught bridge at numerous locations, including the bridge table.  He has currently enjoyed running bridge games on different Cruise Ships.  This has taken him to Europe, South America, Hawaii, Alaska, etc.  "Bridge has been very good to me.  I am lucky to have bridge in my life."
 

Jim Hammond has been a  bridge director for many years.  He is an ACBL Diamond Life Master.  He claims to be a bridge-aholic and it started back in 1945 when he was in the navy.  In 1990 he became a bridge director and started running duplicate bridge games in North County  He runs the Monday morning game at Bridge Haven with the help of Jeannine Owen.  Jim has been the backbone that helped to keep Bridge Haven alive over these past years and Chuck is grateful for his expertise and guidance.  Thanks Jim.

George Hawley has been an ACBL bridge director for many years.  He is a certified ACBL Bridge Educator and has taught many classes for the Junior College System.  When giving lessons in North County he met his wife, Mary.  They have been playing bridge together ever since.  When George started directing his games, his son Matt and daughters, Becky and Sara  helped him.  At that time Matt was 6, Becky 12 and Sara was 16.  Thus, his children learn to play bridge at a young age.  Now, when he runs the  Swiss Teams on Sunday night at Bridge Haven, Becky and Sara help him.  It is truly a family affair with everyone participating in the game.  George's Swiss Team is the forth Sunday of the month.  Reservations are requested as the game will be limited to 18 tables.  Call Barbara to make your reservation at home=314-822-9454 or cell 314-374-6027.  Come one and all and have a good time.

Hatchie Greene is a certified director for ACBL and a certified director and educator for  American Bridge Association, Inc., (ABA).  Hatchie and Cheryl Ward, the President of the local chapter of ABA has been working with Bridge Haven, to promote bridge among the two groups.  Hatchie started playing bridge l5 years ago when her co-workers introduced her to the game.  She has also been an ACBL member for 15 years, too.  Hatchie teaches beginning bridge at Bridge Haven.  If you know anyone who wants to learn the game, give Hatchie a call and find out when her next lesson starts.  

Brad Stevens started playing bridge in 1983-1984.  As an engineer, he had coworkers
who were playing and they introduced him to the game.  As bridge can consume us,
Brad started playing more and more.  He is now a Silver Life Master.  He became an ACBL Director in 1991 and started running different games in the greater St. Louis area.  He was actually helping George Hawley in the early days of Bridge Haven.  He directs the Wednesday night game at 6:30 pm at Bridge Haven.  He is also a very dependable and helpful director for Chuck when Chuck is out of town.  It is directors like Brad, that make Bridge Haven the success that it is.  Thanks for all your help, Brad.

Janet Vontz and her husband, Mike, learned to play Bridge in 1988.  This was a weekend when they were snowed in on the mountains in California and Mike's parents taught them the basic's of bridge.  Janet immediately went to the Library and check out a number of bridge books, thus, their bridge career began.  Janet has been running the Bit of Bridge, game on Wednesday night in Lake St. Louis since, 1996. Janet will be running the "Novice Friendly" game on Saturday, at 12:30 pm. and Friday morning at 10:30 am at Bridge Haven.  There will be no limits on the number of master points a player can have.  Thus, "Novice Friendly", will mean, tolerance and patience for new players who are learning the game.  The text books always talk about playing with stronger partners and playing against stronger opponents, help to make you a stronger player.  This is the intent of this game, to help new players become better players.  Janet will analysis several boards after the game for people who would like to stay and see what should have or could have, been done to get a better score.  If you have questions about her game, give Janet a call at 636-561-8808.

Krzysztof Jarosz is our newest director.  He  graduated from  High School in the early seventies in Poland. During the communist time, before he was allowed to continue his studies at the university level, it was mandatory to learn to appreciate "real work". He had to spend the summer after HS as a laborer in a factory or a government run farm. He was lucky to get an assignment to a large modern factory in the suburb of Warsaw. He and several other future university students  reported to work in the early morning hours of June 1, 1972. They were met by the factory manager and instructed to stay in the large lobby and under no circumstances enter the factory floor to avoid damage to the machines or getting hurt. Kris believes this was a smart decision on their part, since they knew nothing about the machines, but they could not be fired nor even dismissed.

The first day, they were quite bored, the second day, someone brought cards and they started playing bridge. After a few days the manager came again and instructed them to move to an adjacent conference room so they could not be seen by the "real workers" playing cards all day. After that summer Kris was hooked on bridge and he has been playing ever since. 

Since 1988 he has lived in Edwardsville, Illinois, and for the last decade he has been directing games at the Edwardsville Bridge Club and running Bridge games on Cruise Ships around the world.  What a wonderful way to see the world and enjoy the fun and fellowship of fellow bridge players.  We are really glad to have Kris with us at Bridge Haven. 

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