North American Pairs ♠

By Larry Davis D16 NAP Coordinator

North American Pairs (NAP) is an ACBL wide event held annually. Players must qualify to advance to the next level of competition. The event starts each summer with club level qualification. Players may qualify at any club NAP game in the ACBL with any partner. The club does not have to be in your district or unit. One may play in any number of club level NAP games, even after qualifying.

There are three NAP flights: A, B & C. Flight A is 2500+ masterpoints. Flight B is 500-2500 masterpoints. Flight C is less than 500 masterpoints and not having Life Master status. You don’t have to play with someone in your flight, although the flight status of the pair is determined by the player with the higher number of masterpoints. If you earn a Flight A (B) qualification, you automatically earn a Flight B or C (C) qualification, provided that you are eligible for the lower level flight.

Some districts require unit level qualification (District 16 does not). The district level qualification event in District 16 is currently held in January in Austin (odd-numbered years) and San Antonio (even-numbered years), usually in conjunction with an open sectional tournament. It is a two day event (usually, see exceptions below) with two sessions per day. After the first day, about half of the field is eliminated.

At the district level, both players of a pair must play in a flight for which they qualified. The pair may choose to play in a higher level flight if both play-

Theers earned a qualification for that higher level flight. (For example, two Flight C players who have earned a Flight B and a Flight C qualification may elect to play in Flight B even though they could play in Flight C.) You may enter only one flight. You do not have to play with a partner with whom you qualified at a lower level competition. Both players must be residents of the district in which they resided on June 1 of the preceding year.

Pairs qualifying at the district level advance to the national level. There are three (occasionally four) qualifiers at the district level. The national level event is held at March Spring NABC. Stipends are paid by the ACBL to help defray player expenses. If some of the district-level qualifying pairs are not able to attend the nationals, the ACBL contacts other district level pairs in order of place and offers such pairs the opportunity to represent their district at the nationals. No stipend is paid by the ACBL to such pairs. Districts and units might still pay stipends to such pairs. Some districts provide additional stipends as District 16 currently does. Some units provide additional stipends. Check with your unit board. District 16 level stipends are paid after the national event is held and might be withheld if the pair had Zero Tolerance violations at the district and/or national levels.

Exception: If 16 or fewer pairs enter the District 16 NAP finals for a given flight, such flight will have a one day, two session play through final to determine the national level qualifiers for that flight.