Reynolds Heath and his grandfather, Jeffrey Rees
Reynolds Heath has just turned 12 and has the highest number of master points of any junior ACBL member in Iowa. Reynolds attends a dual language school (English and Spanish), and is interested in computers. He plays the euphonium in the school band, has been in school plays, and plays soccer and basketball. Reynolds has lived for 4 months in Costa Rica and Guatemala, and right now is canoeing in Minnesota with his boy scout troop. He is also active in his church and its activities.
With all of that, he finds time to play duplicate bridge with his grandfather, Jeffrey Rees. He became interested in bridge a few years ago as he watched his grandfather play bridge on Bridge Base Online. He began asking questions and before you know it he was playing in a duplicate club in Iowa City, where Bob Otto, director, and others were very encouraging to him and his play. He now is far enough along that he generally plays North and keeps score either on travelling score slips or on hand-held machines. Recently he played in an ACBL Regional Tournament where he helped his grandfather win some gold points in a Gold Rush Pairs event.
He actually is learning a somewhat different bidding system than the common SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card), using weak NT and some other gadgets, including alerts, and handles it all in stride.
Although a relatively new player to duplicate bridge, Reynolds is very poised at the table. At one point an opponent correctly called the director after Reynolds had made an incorrect claim. He did not let that upset him or his game, but proceeded quite unruffled. He was recently asked if he minded playing with “all of these older people.” He replied quite unabashedly that he enjoyed playing bridge.
He is very kind to his grandfather and his grandfather hopes that they will together win the gold points the old gentleman needs to become an ACBL Life Master. But no matter what, his grandfather finds the pleasure of being able to have as partner a grandchild is worth all the gold (points) in the world.