The Red Ribbon Pairs national bridge championship is held annually at the Summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). Prior to the 2015 Summer NABC, the Red Ribbon Pairs event was held at the Spring NABC.
The Red Ribbon Pairs is a four-session matchpoint (MP) pairs event with two qualifying and two final sessions. The event typically starts on the second Thursday of the NABC. The event is restricted to those with fewer than 3,000 masterpoints and have earned a red ribbon qualification.
History
The Red Ribbon Pairs is an ACBL event with national rating open to players with fewer than 2500 masterpoints. Players earn qualification by placing first or second overall in regionally rated events of at least Flight B status. Neither member of a qualifying pair may hold more than 2500 masterpoints at the time of qualification.
The four-session event began in 1986. The first repeat winner occurred in 2007 when Paul Spear duplicated his win from 1998. The first repeat winning partnership occurred in 2016 when Paul Hattis and James Orleans won their second consecutive Red Ribbon Pairs Championship.
Bean Trophy
The Bean Trophy was designated by the ACBL Board of Directors in 1996 to honor Percy Bean, ACBL president in 1972 and chairman of the board in 1973.
Bean (1916–1992) represented District 19 on the Board from 1964 until 1988 and served as president of the ACBL Charity Foundation from 1974 until 1981. He was a member of the National Goodwill Committee and the National Board of Governors and general chairman of arrangements for the World Team Olympiad in Seattle in 1984. Bean was the editor of Mad, Mad World of Bridge, a publication that strongly championed players of less than expert class.
Winners
| Year | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Wayne Perrin, Martin Newland | Hugh Ogle, Charlie Cargile |
| 1987 | Jim Gaarder, Jimmy Ritzenberg | Charles Moser, Paul Bratton |
| 1988 | Leni Holtz, Guy Green | Anthony Trafecanty, Michael Trafecanty |
| 1989 | Lu Kohutiak, Yvonne Hernandez | 2/3. Charlie Cargile, Warren Haynie 2/3. Bill Goldberg, Bill McKenna |
| 1990 | Phil Gordon, Mike Grodsky | Rajendra Agarwal, Don Chilrud |
| 1991 | Dan Marthaler, Robert Johnstone | Steven Gaynor, Art Ardy Bakshian |
| 1992 | Duncan McCallum, Peter Peng | Andy Goodman, Steve Zolotow |
| 1993 | Ron Weinstock, John Gillette | Hank Meyer, Marty Graf |
| 1994 | T.C. Petty, Steve Altus | Grant Robinson, Joe Walden |
| 1995 | Marc Umeno, Hank Youngerman | Bernie Greenspan, Keith Sechler |
| Percy Bean Trophy inaugurated | ||
| 1996 | Vinay Sarin, Ringo Chung | Burton Lipsky, Arnold Goldstein |
| 1997 | Tony Miller, Diane Miller | Mark Bumgardner, Nagy Kamel |
| 1998 | Paul Spear, Jim Johnsen | David Halasi, Mike Nadler |
| 1999 | Jenni Hartsman, Andrew Rosenthal | Martin Hunter, Andy Stark |
| 2000 | Nie Wei Ping, Christopher Leung | David Yang, Xiaodong Shi |
| 2001 | Brandon Carpenter, LaToss Carpenter | Mike Nadler, Gurhun Baykal |
| 2002 | Rich Atwater, Chris Pesce | Bob Sievers, Georgia Heth |
| 2003 | Chi-Yen Lai, Bin Dai | Edward Leach, Bruce Schwaidelson |
| 2004 | Martin Harris, Jacob Morgan | Mark Brighouse, Harvinder Sidhu |
| 2005 | Yeong-Long Shiue, David Margolin | Jim Lyle, Robert Todd |
| 2006 | Chris Buchanan, B.J. Trelford | Everett Boyer, Mansoor Gowani |
| 2007 | Jack Hawthorne, Paul Spear | Jim Kehoe, Chuck Michalski |
| 2008 | Mike Develin, Li-Chung Chen | Sidney Kanter, Ron Nelken |
| 2009 | Daniel Jackson, Bill Gervais | Steven Towner, Mitch Towner |
| 2010 | Robert Levey, Jimmy Ritzenberg | George Dragich, Rosemary Dragich |
| 2011 | David Amsterdam, Brad Barry | Neil Cohen, Eric Goff |
| 2012 | Daniel Neill, Jason Rotenberg | Steve Hirsch, Gregory Thorpe |
| 2013 | Brian Cummins, Blake Sanders | Rich Brandenburg, Jeff Dater |
| 2014 | Mike Miedema, Ted Bain | Erli Zhou, Zhuo Wang |
| 2015 | Paul Hattis, James Orleans | Jesse Chao, Richard Wimberly |
| 2016 | Paul Hattis, James Orleans | Renee Shunta, Cameron Shunta |
| 2017 | Sudhir Patwardhan, Steve Overholt | Daniel Lev, Samuel Amer |
| 2018 | Michael Kelley, Martina Kelley | Richard Franklin, David Venetianer |
| 2019 | Roy Martin, Denny Cahan | Paul Hattis, James Orleans |
| 2022 | Jennifer Kuhn, Philip Kuhn | Paul Hattis, James Orleans |
| 2023 | Brandon Ge, Xin Ge | Sudhir Patwardhan, Steve Overholt |
| 2024 | Ryan Clark, Richard Piette | Nic Hristea, Mark Pinkowsky |
Sources
"ACBL - NABC Winners". acbl.com. ACBL. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
List of previous winners, Page 20 "Daily Bulletin" (PDF), Vol. 52-7, no. 7, March 19, 2009
2009 winners, Page 1 "Daily Bulletin" (PDF), Vol. 52-9, no. 9, March 21, 2009, archived from the original on November 17, 2010