Jeff Hand

Professional Bridge Player and Teacher

Meet Jeff


Jeff is a professional bridge teacher and partner who lives in NYC. Here you can find information about Jeff, including his biography, classes, presentations, and how to hire Jeff. You can also find hands of the month and a bridge calendar with Jeff's schedule and major bridge events.

Please feel free to call or text Jeff's cell at 914-960-3055!

Here is Jeff's Extensive Bridge Bio:

An avid professional player who, back in the 1970s, "knew" he would win a few world championships during his lifetime. But, he married in 1980, raised a family, and entered into various business ventures, ending up in the electronic components and accessories business. Between 1980 and 2000 he only competed in a few US nationals, a few Central American and Caribbean Championships, one Olympiad, and numerous lesser tournaments.
Now he is widowed, his kids have moved out, and his love for the game has reemerged. He now makes his living as a professional bridge partner and teacher. Here is a timeline of some of his accomplishments:

Favorite statement: You are only as good a player as how well you played your last session.

Born in Washington DC in 1948, and grew up in suburban Maryland.
Began playing bridge around 11 years old.
Began playing duplicate bridge in 1962.
Played on BCC high school bridge team in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.
President of the high school bridge club in 12th grade, and led the team to the Montgomery County high school championship.
Became a life master days after 21st birthday.
Represented the University of Maryland and won the US National intercollegiate bridge championship in 1968.  He came in 3rd and 4th in the national championships in 1969 and 1970.
Became a certified director at a summer national in Cincinnati in the late 1960s.
Had a staff position at the Team Olympiad in Miami in 1972. There he met Alberto Calvo of Panama, who became his bridge partner for the next 5 years.
Moved to Panama in 1972 to work in the bridge club, teach bridge classes, and to publish the bridge bulletin for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Bridge Federation. In the following years he traveled extensively throughout the world playing bridge.
Calvo and Hand came in 33rd in the World Pair Olympiad in the Canary Islands in 1974.
Competed annually representing Panama in the Central American and Caribbean championships beginning in 1973. Won the 1974 Zonal pair championship and won the Central American and Caribbean national team championship in 1976 and 1977.  In 1975 he won a special prize (a gold coin) for the best play at the annual CAC championship that was held in Caracas Venezuela that year.
Represented the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) bridge federation at the World Championship Bermuda Bowl, and was a member of the committee that dealt with the Facchini-Zucchelli's foot-tapping cheating scandal 
Featured in Alan Truscott's NY Times bridge column: May 25th 1968 , February 17th 1975 [NY Times, CAC Bridge PDF] and December 4th 1976
Represented Panama in the World Team Olympiad in 1976, 1980, and 1988.
While completing his bachelor degree at the University of Maryland in the fall of 1976, he worked as manager of the Bridge Centre of Washington, and taught bridge classes. Amongst his students was his future wife, Debbie Uber.
In 1978 he co-developed (with Drew Cannell) "Panama Relay", a strong club system.
Represented the Central American and Caribbean Bridge Federation in the Bermuda Bowl in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1979. The team ended up in 5th place.
Awarded title of World Master of the World Bridge Federation on April 10th 1984.
Took 3 weeks of training in "Imperative Self Analysis" with top NLP developer Leslie Cameron Bandler and other top trainers in Marin County, California in the summer of 1990.
Played seven days with Drew Cannell in Toronto summer national in 1992 and won the team of two, an exciting matchpoint game. Teammates were Boris Baran and Mark Molson. Played with Drew Cannell for four days in Orlando fall 1992 national and came in second in National Mitchell BAM teams. Teammates were Claudio Caponi and Steve Hamaoui, of Venezuela.
Lost his wife suddenly in 1998 and moved to Florida in 1999.  
Most of his old trophys from the 1900s appear in the photo section of this website.
Began playing in sectional and regional tournaments with Linda Perlman (bridge pro in Palm Beach County) in 2000. 
Learned a lot about being a good parent when his daughter went through a tough time and attended an emotional growth boarding school. Between this and his "Imperative Self Analysis" training in 1990, he learned a lot about people. Nowadays, at least one client calls him "A Bridge Pro Therapist".
Began distributing "bridge pro" business cards, teaching, and playing professionally in December of 2002.
Played extensively with a client, Joanne Yeager, in the summer of 2003. They played in the transnational teams with the Pakistani national team in the world championship in Monte Carlo in November 2003. Additionally, they played in club games, sectional tournaments, 5 regional tournaments, and 2 national tournaments. Together they won over 55 master points in 2 regionals, and 96 master points in a third regional. Within the span of 1 year Joanne went from 100 to over 500 master points.
Accumulated 568 master points in 2004 placing 273rd overall in the Barry Crane top 500, and was leading the 3-day LM pairs after the first day at the summer nationals. Most play during the year was with clients, except some play with David Kent (a dual USA-Canadian national who lives in the Orlando area).
Began playing regularly in New York City in 2004, competing in Honors and Hartes bridge clubs, and playing in nearby regionals -- almost exclusively with clients. Also co-taught many bridge classes and played bridge with Gail Greenberg.
Featured again in Alan Truscott's NY Times bridge column on January 24th 2005.
Featured in Phillip Alder's NY Times bridge column on February 24th 2005.
Gave a special presentation at the Ridgewood NJ bridge club on May 16, 2005. There was an hour talk on how everything is relative in bridge, and then he played in the duplicate game with a club member and followed that with a discussion of the hands from the duplicate game. He really enjoyed the day and it was a good success for the bridge club. They plan on having him return.
Was honored at the Boca Raton regional for winning his bracket of the mini-McKenney on June 4, 2005.
Won 3 KO team events in June 2005 Palm Beach Gardens FL regional tournament.
Came in 4th overall in 2005 Summer Nationals Fast Pairs, having 4 section tops en route, playing with Joe Godefrin.
Began this website in August 2005.
Was the leading masterpoint winner between September 6 and September 11 at the Boca Raton regional tournament, winning 100 master points. He played in 5 team games, with two firsts, two seconds, and one third overall. He played with 4 different partners in the tournament, in 3 events with Mike Kassay. Teammates in 4 events were Bob Denard and Bruce Ohmann.
Was in the September 15, 2005 New York Times bridge column.
Began teaching beginner bridge at Hartes Bridge Club in White Plains NY weekly beginning on Tuesday September 13 at 1PM.
Began teaching slam bidding at Hartes Bridge Club in White Plains NY weekly beginning on Wednesday September 14 at 9:30AM.
Came in third overall in nationally rated 2-day Life Master pairs in Fall Nationals in Denver during November 2005, playing with Florida pro Ed Schulte.
Accumulated over 871 master points in 2005, placed 78th in the Barry Crane 500, and won the district 9 masterpoint race for my division for the second straight year.
At the Orlando regional in January 2006 he won the right to represent district 9 in the North American Pairs in the spring Nationals in Dallas, getting a free round-trip plane ticket in the process.
Played 3 days in the Ft. Lauderdale regional May 25-27, 2006. On the first day I played with Evelyn Piesner and we won enough master points to make her a life master. The next two days I played with Gail Greenberg, and we won and came in second in two Open Pair events.
On May 22, 2006 I gave another presentation at the Bridge Center of Ridgewood, New Jersey. I spoke for an hour on "Evaluating Offensive and Defensive Potential", and then played with local player Linda Dudas in the charity game (we won 1st overall). Finally I discussed the hands that we played with club members. Some photos from the game appear in the photo gallery of "About Jeff".
On June 6 a bridge column appeared in over 200 newspapers featuring a "famous hand" from 1980 starring Jeff Hand and Drew Cannell.
That same bridge column appeared again in the syndicated newspapers on June 19, 2017. See a copy of that bridge hand by clicking here.
In June 2006 Jeff played with Gail Greenberg in the World Championship Mixed Pairs, and came in 41st out of 589 pairs. They also came in 15th in the Senior Teams (7 victory points out of the 8th+ place playoffs), out of 42 teams. And they finished 20th out of 103 pairs in the Senior Pairs.
In July 2006 Jeff came in 3rd overall in the Senior Teams National event at the Chicago Summer Nationals. He played with Ed Schulte and teammates were Steve Becker and Larry Bausher. He also came in 5th overall in the Mixed National Team event playing with Gail Greenberg with Danny and Joanne Sprung as teammates. Between those events and masterpoints won placing high overall in three regional events plus incidental points amounted to his winning 139.82 master points at the tournament.
In July 2006 Jeff received received a medallion from the Florida unit for winning the Gold Life Master division in the Mini- McKenney race in 2005.
In August 2006 Jeff played on a 6-person team in the USBF team trials to determine which team would represent the USA in the 2007 Bermuda Bowl. Jeff played with Gail Greenberg, and teammates were Danny and JoAnn Sprung, and Alex Ornstein with JoAnna Stansby. A total of 32 teams entered the tournament, and only 16 teams survived the round robin and got to play in the knockouts (4 teams had byes in the round robin, and only 12 teams out of 28 made it to the knockouts). Our team made it to the knockouts, but then lost to the current world champion Meltzer team.
In September 2006 Jeff began his fall teaching schedule at the Hartes Club in White Plains, NY. His class schedule is posted on this website. He also has been teaching in Honors on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. With this increased teaching schedule, he has been playing in fewer tournaments.
He took a course at the ACBL November 2006 Fall national about teaching on a cruise ship.
He won won 751 master points in 2006. He has been teaching more and playing less than he did in 2005, and still has won nearly as many masterpoints as he did in 2005. 
He won the Ace of Clubs award for the most masterpoints won in 2006 in unit 240 for the 5000-7500 masterpoint category.
He and Gail Greenberg have agreed to offer their teaching services in August 2007 aboard the Crystal Serenity cruise ship. They promise to make the trip bridge heaven for the participants.
Again featured in Phillip Alder's NY Times bridge column, "West Considers the Evidence And a Contract Is Defeated", on February 20, 2007
May 2007 - Co-produced with Gail Greenberg the "Cheat Sheet", which is the best, simplest, most comprehensive and easiest-to-use flip folder which summarizes bridge basics and bidding for students.  A photo of the cheat sheet appears in the photo section at this website.
July 2007 - Came in second overall in the summer nationals "Truscott USPC Senior Swiss Teams". Jeff played with David Butler, and teammates were Steve Becker with Larry Bauscher, and Joe Godefrin with Ed Schulte.
August 2007 - Gail Greenberg and Jeff Hand conducted their first bridge cruise, on the Crystal Serenity. It was a 12 day cruise, that originated in Rome and ended in Venice, and visited ports around and in Italy. The cruise was so successful that around 25% of the participants signed up immediately afterwards for the Baltic cruise in August 2008.
November 2007 - Was leading the Blue Ribbon Pairs at the fall nationals after the first day, playing with Gail Greenberg. 
March 2008 - Won National Mixed Pairs Championship at Spring Nationals in Detroit. Partnered by Gail Greenberg, we led throughout the event, having scored 67% and 76% the first two sessions. Those first day sessions were most likely an all-time record. Several bridge hands from that event were featured in the following publications: 1) the daily at the tournament, 2) the May ACBL, 3) the May 15 Goren Bridge Column, 4) the June 11 and 12 Tribune Media Services column that appeared nationwide in hundreds of newspapers including the NY Post, the Washington Post, the Greenwich Times, etc.
August 2008 - Conducting his second bridge cruise with Gail Greenberg on the Crystal Symphony in the Baltic.
September 2008 - Beginning teaching classes at the Union Club in New York City.
 Between 2007 and January 2019 Jeff and Gail had 28 "Bridge Sprees" that you can read about at www.bridgesprees.com. In that time frame Jeff has concentrated more on teaching and writing his own lessons, organizing and teaching on the bridge travels, and less on winning tournaments and improving his own game. Still he has attended all three national tournaments every year, and has placed high overall in many national events. Gail and Jeff were also declared winners of a second national mixed pairs title but had the title taken from them due to a minor scoring adjustment the next day. He teaches at the Honors club in Manhattan and and at the Hartes club in White Plains. He also teaches privately.
 In January 2016 Jeff achieved the ACBL rank of Emerald Life Master.
Since 2015 Jeff has been on the bridge problem discussion panel for the Turkish bridge magazine, coordinating data with Erdal Sidal.
March 2018 Spring Nationals in Philadelphia - Gail Greenberg and Jeff came in 2nd overall in the Leventritt Silver Ribbon pairs, winning 75 masterpoints each.  Their score was high enough to be a couple of boards above third place.
January 2019 - Gail Greenberg and Jeff Hand were honored as the leading masterpoint winners of the championship events at the Bermuda regional, winning two open pair events and coming in second in a team event with Christa and Horst Breitenstein.
Share by: