New Diamond Lifemaster
Don Brooker is Well-Traveled
Don Brooker recently attained the rank of Diamond Lifemaster and continues to quickly rack up
masterpoints with his partners. Don took up bridge after he graduated from college and began
working for Western Electric in Chicago. Having no bridge experience, he watched others play and
when someone started up duplicate bridge play at the plant, his colleagues set him up with a part-
ner. He has natural talent because without taking lessons, his partner and he won the end of year
tournament.
His success with the corporate club continued. In 1957 their club held play offs to determine who
would represent the club in the Corporate National Tournament. Don’s team won, beating a team that
consisted of four life masters. HIs team went on to win the Corporate National Championship.
He married at age 20 during his senior year of college. He has three sons in Kansas City, all of whom are
successful. After he and his wife divorced, he remarried and his second wife’s ambition was to move to
France after they retired. They did just that – sold the house and flew with their dog to Paris to drive
around the coast, searching for a place to settle. They discovered Saint-Jean-de-Luz which, as a popular
vacation spot, allowed them to stay for 9 months out of the year but they had to move during the sum-
mer when much higher rent could be charged. They became part of the bridge community and be-
cause they played well, they were popular and made many friends. This came in handy when they
found a place they wanted to rent. The landlord said, “not so fast,” since they were an unknown risk.
Good friends of theirs, a doctor and his wife, vouched for them, and he happened to be the landlord’s
doctor. They rented for six years, “the best six years of my life,” said Don. They returned to the US when
his wife’s son had triplets and needed help with them.
While in France, they traveled around and played bridge. The French games awarded not only points
but money, and Don was a frequent winner, often having his picture in the local paper. He once won
$4,000, and on other occasions won trips to Club Med. Most important were the friendships they made
through bridge, and they visited with those friends throughout the years.
Don met frequent partner Don Stack at “Murial Bridge,” a club that held games several times a week
with huge turnouts. Brooker says his claim to fame was when he partnered with Stack as he earned his
300th point to become Lifemaster. They have been partners for 55 years. In the past two local region-
als, the Holiday Regional in Kansas City and the Topeka Regional, as well as the recent Summer Section-
al, they were the top masterpoint winners. They also played in the Nationals in Reno, and in one of the
National events, they were leading the field by the maximum amount after the qualifying round. Unfor-
tunately, they arrived at the final event a half hour late due to a misunderstanding of the start time.
Their penalty took away their lead and they ended up coming in 6th overall.
They keep their agreements simple, without too many conventions. “Weak no trump has been the big-
gest change,” Don said. When asked about Brooker’s play of the hand, Stack said, “C’est formidable!”
No comments:
Post a Comment